Toxin #1
The Strange Case of Pat Mulligan and Mister Hyde
Following his break-out from the Vault, King Cobra breaks into the middle of the delivery of some illegal diamonds. Grabbing the man purchasing them, he orders the girl who brought them to put the gems back into the bag or he’ll kill him. All the indifferent delivery woman says is that for someone so cute, King Cobra has a filthy mouth.[1]
Officer Pat Mulligan and his partner, Paul Meadows are on the search for King Cobra. Their first stop is Ryker’s Island to interview Mister Hyde, King Cobra’s sometime partner.[2] They meet with Hyde, who is trapped in his human form of Calvin Zabo due to the inhibitor collar he is forced to wear. He doesn’t want to help, but Pat reminds him that King Cobra left him to get recaptured during the breakout. Zabo agrees to tell them how to find King Cobra in exchange for having his inhibitor collar turned off a half and hour a day for recreation time so he can briefly become Mister Hyde. Ending the interivew, Paul isn’t going to make the deal with Mister Hyde because he is a lunatic. He also questions his own sanity by bringing Pat along with him and encourages his former partner to return home to his wife and child as well as return to the police force. When he tries to find out what’s going on with Mulligan, all Pat can say is that it is incredibly complicated.
That evening, at his apartment, Pat Mulligan tries to read. Unfortunately, the Toxin symbiote is bored and wants to go out. Pat refuses until it gets dark because he doesn’t want anyone to get a good look at him while he’s out as Toxin. Toxin doesn’t like this, saying it didn’t ask to be born. Pat can relate, telling it that he didn’t choose to become the host for this symbiote. When it asks why he kept his police uniform when he walked out on the force, Mulligan tells the alien creature that it might come in handy. However, Toxin knows the truth is that Pat has a nostalgic attachment to his old life. Having this truth thrown in his face angers Pat who tells the symbiote to be quiet. Later that day, Pat is in Central Park where he goes every day and watches his wife Gina take Edward, their infant son, for a walk every day. He braces himself, trying to convince himself that it won’t hurt to see them this time. He’s wrong, as usual.
That evening, Pat meets up with Paul Meadows again and asks to be taken back to Ryker’s Island to interview Mister Hyde again. Pay insists that he can get through to the villain this time because he has figured out how he thinks. When Pat insists that he needs to do this to do something right after what happened to him, Paul demands to know what’s going on. Mulligan decides to tell his former partner after swearing him to secrecy. He tells Meadows how during the recent battle between Venom and Carnage, the Carnage symbiote gave birth to a new symbiote named Toxin and he became host to the alien organism.[3]
After this explanation, Paul gets Pat into Ryker’s without further question and he soon meets with Mister Hyde again. Pat explains that he has come to help Calvin Zabo — Hyde’s alter ego — be more at peace with himself. Having just read The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyl and Mister Hyde. He suggests that the book is about how both sides of a symbiotic entity are neither good nor evil but capable of both and one half can learn from the other. Zabo doesn’t buy it, telling Pat to re-read the book, insisting that it says good is bad and evil is good. Ending the interview, Calvin tosses some snake skin at Mulligan, telling him that King Cobra molted it before he broke out.
Returning to his apartment, Pat finishes reading Doctor Jekyl and Mister Hyde, and Toxin is disappointed with the book’s lack of detail explaining Mister Hyde’s “unspeakable” actions and the pointless ending. Suddenly, Toxin can sense King Cobra near by as does Pat. They both agree to go on the hunt and Pat wills the symbiote to emerge, transforming himself into Toxin. He tracks down King Cobra to a nearby luxury hotel where he has bedded down with the female diamond smuggler from the night before. When the Cobra answers the door and sees Toxin, he figures the newcomer is not room service. Toxin strikes him so hard it knocks King Cobra across the room but the blow does little damage. Explaining that his powers make him more durable than a regular human, King Cobra quickly slips behind Toxin and wraps his arm around the intruder’s neck and begins choking him. Fighting the urge to black out, Pat Mulligan curses himself for barging in without first figuring out what he was up against.
Luckily, King Cobra’s lover decides its time to get dressed and leave, creating a distraction that allows Toxin to increase his symbiotic body mass to break free from King Cobra’s gasp. The two begin trading blows powerful enough to break through the floor and down into the suite below. As Cobra is defeated he asks who Pat is, and he tells the villain his name is Toxin and that’s a name he can spread around once he gets back to Ryker’s Island. He then ties King Cobra up in a knot and leaves him on the front doorstep of police headquarters. As he leaves, he and the Toxin symbiote compare notes on the battle unaware that they are being watched by Spider-Man. Toxin points out that Pat could have gotten them both killed and tells him next time to let it take control in battle, however Mulligan doesn’t trust Toxin to not get out of control and refuses to allow that to happen.
When they enter an alley, Spider-Man makes his presence known and asks if they can talk. Pat turns into Toxin so they can both go web-slinging and talk. As Spider-Man is asking Pat if he’s ever heard of a criminal known as Razor-Fist and gives Pat a bloody cloth for him to track down the villain. Pat agrees to go after Razor-Fist, figuring it shouldn’t be too hard to catch someone like him after he took down King Cobra. As he says this, Pat Mulligan is unaware that Razor-Fist has just slaughtered a group of homeless men in order to claimed an abandoned building as his own.[4]
Recurring Characters
Toxin, Mister Hyde, King Cobra, Razor-Fist, Spider-Man, Paul Meadows, Gina Mulligan, Edward Mulligan
Continuity Notes
The opening narration mentions the then-recent breakout at the Raft prison (New Avengers #1) as well as Pat Mulligan becoming Toxin and abandoning his wife and newborn son (Venom vs. Carnage #1-4)
The Cobra and Mister Hyde have been partners as frequently as they have attempted to kill each other since they first teamed up back in Journey into Mystery #105.
Here, Pat states that the Carnage symbiote is the offspring to the Venom symbiote. It’s slightly more complicated than that. While the Venom symbiote birthed the original Carnage symbiote in Amazing Spider-Man #345. However this symbiote was consumed by Venom in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #10. Cletus Kasady later rescued a nearly identical symbiote from the Negative Zone in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #13. For more on this, see my summary for Venom vs. Carnage #1
It’s recounted here that Razor-First’s hands were amputated and he intentionally had his lost limbs replaced with bladed attachments. This was detailed in Master of Kung Fu #105-106.
