You saved my life. You have my gratitude. And you deserve answers. I was a deep cover agent, deployed under the fleet of the third spiral arm at the very outset of the war between Kree and Skrull. The Skrulls could not match us culturally nor technologically, but they had one great biological advantage... they could change shape. Blend in, hide in plain sight. We couldn't match that... until we discovered the Symbiotes. Beings who could bond with a Kree, give us strength, speed and at least a cosmetic ability to emulate the Skrull shape-shifting. I was selected from a pool of hundreds of recruits. The symbiote was harvested from its homeworld, both of us put through... grueling training. Months. And our mission was successful. We'd found a way to end the war. But my people had fallen under the sway of a zealot, and were betrayed. I was betrayed. I saved the symbiote, tried to sacrifice myself, but I was captured. Brought in chains before my people, treated as a traitor. Traded to our sworn enemies like a bargaining chip. Finally -- after years -- I escaped. Fled through the galaxy, hunted aimless... until I'd heard tell of a hero from Earth and his symbiote... and here we are, reunited at last. 
- —Tel-Kar[src]
History
Kree-Skrull War[]
Tel-Kar was a Kree soldier selected as part of a super-soldier program,[3] wherein he underwent intense training along with genetic modification and cybernetic implants before being bonded to an amorphous symbiotic creature discovered on a strange planet in the Andromeda Galaxy.[4][3] Fighting in the Kree-Skrull War, he used the symbiote's shapeshifting abilities to infiltrate the Skrull - turning their own tactics against them - spying on them and carrying out other undercover and black-ops missions.
Tel-Kar with no symbiote
After years of carrying out sabotage and assassinations, Tel-Kar discovered that the Skrull had created a cure-less plague that could be tailored to exterminate entire species - a bioweapon that could be used to end the war via genocide.[3] When the squadron he had infiltrated attacked a Kree refugee ship, Tel-Kar broke cover and helped the refugees escape. Rather than risk his symbiote being captured, Tel-Kar separated from it - transferring his memories of the bioweapon's coordinates into it in case he was captured - and left it in the hands of the Kree officer in charge of the refugees with instructions to turn it over to the military on Hala. While attempting to self-destruct the Kree refugee ship, Tel-Kar was captured by the Skrull War Sisters. Unbeknownst to him, the symbiote escaped and was marooned on an icy planet; eventually making its way to Earth, where it became known as Venom.[4]
Finding Venom[]
Tel-Kar escaped captivity and returned to Hala, but was betrayed by the Kree Empire after it was usurped by Ronan the Accuser, branded a traitor and turned back over to the Skrull, who tortured him for information.[5] After several years, Tel-Kar escaped, killed his captors,[3] and aimlessly wandered the galaxy until he heard stories of a human hero that had bonded to a symbiote.[6] On the off chance that the symbiote was his, Tel-Kar traveled to Earth to find it, saving Eddie Brock - the symbiote's current host - from M'lanz.[4] Wounded in battle, Tel-Kar was taken to Alchemax and treated by astrobiologist Dr. Steven. Upon regaining consciousness, he restored the Venom symbiote's memories of him and requested that it return to him. When the symbiote refused, Tel-Kar pretended to graciously accept this decision before throwing Liz Allan out the window and blackmailing the Venom symbiote into returning to him by threatening to bond to its latest offspring and corrupt it into a monster. Reclaiming the Venom symbiote, Tel-Kar tossed its offspring to the distraught Brock and set out to restore his vision of peace to the galaxy.[6]
Tel-Kar bonded to the Venom symbiote
When the symbiote tried to leave him, Tel-Kar used his augmentations to seize control of it and suppress its mind. Departing Earth in a stolen Skrull shuttle, he traveled to a top-secret Skrull military installation in the D'karr nebula where the bioweapon was being kept, and slaughtered the soldiers stationed there to retrieve and unleash it.[3] When Brock - who had bonded to the symbiote's spawn, Sleeper - and M'lanz arrived to stop him, Tel-Kar initially overwhelmed Brock, but before he could kill him the Sleeper symbiote urged its parent to break free from his control. Taking M'lanz's halberd, Tel-Kar seared the symbiote from his body and punctured her hazmat suit to expose her to the bioweapon. Despite Brock re-bonding to the Venom symbiote and the Sleeper symbiote bonding to M'lanz, Tel-Kar refused to accept defeat and revealed he had sent the facility's coordinates to the Kree Empire.[7]
Lobotomized by Sleeper
To Tel-Kar's shock, the Kree warships opened fire on the facility, and when he hailed them he was told that he had been designated a war-criminal when the Kree had turned him over to the Skrull, and that had not changed. When Tel-Kar protested that he had a means of wiping out the Skrull, the fleet admiral told him that the Kree had no interest in renewing the war with the Skrull. Tel-Kar managed to escape the facility before its destruction and stowed away on M'lanz's ship, sneaking off when it landed on Earth. Using a sample of Eddie's blood, Tel-Kar programmed the last sample of the bioweapon to exterminate humanity, intending to kill the Sleeper symbiote in front of him and then detonate the virus. However, the Sleeper symbiote caught the vial when Tel-Kar tried to smash it, and Eddie tackled Tel-Kar out the window. Despite Eddie getting some decent blows in, Tel-Kar gained the upper hand but was stopped from killing Eddie by the Sleeper symbiote, which bonded to and lobotomized him - reducing him to little more than a puppet for it to explore the cosmos with.[1]
Death[]
After Sleeper saved an alien kingdom from a creature called the Lamarche Demon, it was requested to show the face of its host, who the aliens' king assumed was in control. Upon Sleeper revealing Tel-Kar's desiccated face, the disgusted king ordered his guards to open fire and Tel-Kar was mortally wounded, roused from the coma that Sleeper had induced. Rapidly succumbing to his wounds, Tel-Kar died;[8] leaving the symbiote puppeteering his corpse until it was separated from him by the Maker.[9]Personality
Initially noble and loyal to his people and the Kree Empire, Tel-Kar was willing to sacrifice his reputation to spy on the Skrull. Vowing never to take a Kree life, he broke cover to protect defenseless refugees, and used himself as a diversion to buy them time to escape. He treated his symbiote as a comrade, telling it to stay with the Kree and reunite with him on Hala, and attacking an armed Skrull warrior despite being unarmed in order to protect it.[4]
However, being betrayed by his own people and years of torture by the Skrull left Tel-Kar angry, bitter, cruel, and manipulative; obsessed with obtaining vengeance by wiping them out with their own bioweapon. In contrast to his treatment of the symbiote when first bonded to it, upon discovering it has matured psychologically he suppressed its consciousness to enslave it to his will, and dismissed it as a tool.[6][3]Attributes
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Powers
Those of a standard Kree, including enhanced strength, durability, and stamina. He also had various genetic and technological modifications to increase his control over symbiotes.
Abilities
Notes
- It is unknown if Tel-Kar is supposed to be the alien who used the symbiote to commit genocide in Venom: Space Knight #12. Venom (Vol. 5) #3 seems to suggest that it is the case.
Trivia
- When Tel-Kar was in control of the Venom symbiote, the symbiote took a similar design to the Kree Militia Uniforms.
See Also
- 7 appearance(s) of Tel-Kar (Earth-616)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Tel-Kar (Earth-616)
- 3 minor appearance(s) of Tel-Kar (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) of Tel-Kar (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Tel-Kar (Earth-616)
- 23 image(s) of Tel-Kar (Earth-616)
- 4 quotation(s) by or about Tel-Kar (Earth-616)
Links and References
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix9/telkar1sthost.html
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Venom: First Host #5
- ↑ Venom: First Host #3
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Venom: First Host #3
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Venom: First Host #1
- ↑ King in Black Handbook #1
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Venom: First Host #2
- ↑ Venom: First Host #4
- ↑ Web of Venom: The Good Son #1
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 4) #18
- ↑ King in Black Handbook #1
- ↑ King in Black Handbook Vol 1 1