Venom

Note that this page deals with the Venom symbiote itself. For more information on its various hosts go to their respective pages.

Origin

Venom is of a race of alien symbiotes known as the Klyntar that are formed from a thick, liquid, organic material. They, as their symbiotic nature suggests, depend on other beings to help them sustain their life force. In exchange for this relationship, the symbiote offers great powers to its host. Unfortunately for the host, the symbiotes are not keen on the idea of separating and eventually start to fully consume both mind and body of their hosts. Removal of the symbiote is often only possible through the usage of strong sound waves produced from intensely loud and sustained noises.

Creation

The idea for Venom came from Randy Schueller, a reader, and was bought by Marvel for $220 under the direction of then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. The designs for the costume and character came from Mike Zeck and Todd McFarlane.

The Black Costume first appeared chronologically in Secret Wars issue 8 (12/1984), but was first published in Amazing Spider-Man issue 252 (5/1984). Its appearance as Venom had cameos in issues #298 and #299 of Amazing Spider-Man before appearing fully in issue 300 (1988).

In Marvel Age #12 (3/1984) there were sketches of Spider-Man’s suit in black.

Character Evolution

The symbiote itself is sentient and has chosen different hosts throughout the years; among them were Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Eddie Brock. Later on, there were others such as Angelo Fortunato and Mac Gargan; and even Ms. Marvel and Red Hulk have acted as hosts for the alien symbiote, as well as Ann Weying (Eddie Brock’s ex). The current host is Flash Thompson.

Major Story Arcs

Battleworld

When the Beyonder created Battleworld in the events of the comic “Secret Wars “, Deadpool released the Symbiote from a machine that he had thought created new costumes. The creature bonded with him, but Deadpool quickly abandoned it, reasoning that it would be cruel to force a sentient being to bond with a twisted creature like him. It is implied that bonding with Deadpool’s severely fractured psyche may be part of the reason for the symbiote’s violent and possessive behavior. The symbiote capsule was then found by Spider-Man, whose red and blue tights had been ripped to tatters during a previous battle. When Spider-Man grabbed the little black ball, it instantly slithered over his body, covering him from head to toe. But it did not pattern itself after his red-and-blue costume. Rather, it took on the appearance of the garment worn by Julia Carpenter, the new Spider-Woman, whom Spider-Man had been admiring. The web-slinger was amazed at the properties of his new suit, but never questioned the mechanisms behind them. For instance, it could mimic any type of clothing whatsoever, making Spider-Man’s need for spare clothing obsolete. It also contained a “dimensional aperture” where he could place his camera, spare change, and other items without adding bulk to the costume. The costume was also capable of generating its own organic webbing. When the other super heroes that were with him used the machine, their clothes did not give/add any new powers to them.

Once Spider-Man returned to Earth, the alien costume could not tolerate being separated from its host for long periods of time. At night, when Spider-Man’s alter ego, Peter Parker slept, the Symbiote would take control of him and battle evil. Peter realized that when he always woke up from bed, he is still exhausted. Later, Spider-Man battled the Puma, who perceived that the wall-crawler’s webs were organic. Startled by this revelation, Spider-Man accepted Reed Richards‘ offer to study the costume. Richards learned that the costume was actually a living alien Symbiote, a parasite trying to graft itself permanently to Spider-Man both mentally and physically. Richards succeeded in separating the alien costume from its host by shooting it with a “sonic blaster.” He then contained the being in a special environmental cell. But the alien was much more intelligent than anyone perceived. It tried to hypnotize Franklin Richards, but failed. Unfortunately not stopping it, it escaped from its cell and made its way to Peter Parker’s closet where it waited, disguised as a spare red-and-blue costume. Spider-Man unwittingly donned the costume, which immediately made itself apparent. He brought it to the tower at Our Lady of Saints Church gambling the intense sound of its bells would destroy it. Spider-Man lost the gamble, and he succumbed to the bells before the costume did. However, the empathic parasite had preyed upon the emotions of Spider-Man long enough to learn how to feel, and in feeling, to act. Sacrificing itself, the alien costume saved Spider-Man then crawled away to die. In actuality the Symbiote, weak and dying, slithered down into the church where Eddie Brock knelt in prayer at the altar. Raised a Catholic, he begged forgiveness for the suicide he was contemplating.

Eddie Brock

Eddie Brock had been a successful columnist for the newly revived Daily Globe until he began writing a series of articles about the ” Sin-Eater murders”. A bogus offender had confessed to Brock about committing the murders. While protecting the murderer’s identity under the First Amendment, Brock wrote a series of stories in the Globe detailing his dialogue with the supposed killer, until mounting pressure from the authorities forced him to write an exclusive revealing the murderer’s name. Although that edition of the paper sold out immediately, Spider-Man soon revealed the true identity of the Sin-Eater to be Detective Stan Carter, making Brock a laughingstock among his fellow journalists. Fired from the Daily Globe, he was forced to write venomous drivel for scandal newspapers. Brock’s wife left him, and his future appeared to be over. Brock blamed his predicament on Spider-Man.

Soon after, Brock began an intense physical workout program hoping to reduce the stress his life had become. However, such physical exertions only increased his violent obsession with Spider-Man. Although his body had been honed to near-perfection, Brock’s mind was reduced to an all-consuming vessel of hatred. It was this fierce emotion that attracted the empathic parasite. In order to survive, the alien costume had to feed off the nearest and greatest source of emotion. The Symbiote joined mentally and physically with Brock, whose emotions overwhelmed the already confused alien. The dominant thought on both their minds was that of Spider-Man. But Brock’s sheer hatred for the crime fighter twisted the Symbiote’s feelings to a similar extent. In effect, Brock’s emotions drove the Symbiote insane, just as their bonding may have driven Brock over the edge. Brock soon discovered that the costume gave him all the powers of Spider-Man, and more. It also added bulk to his already large frame and increased his strength to superhuman levels. Calling himself “Venom”, Brock directed the costume to sprout a hideous grin and plotted his revenge. Through the costume, Venom learned a great deal about Spider-Man, including his secret identity.

Brock taunted Peter Parker with minor assaults, such as pushing him in front of a moving subway train. The alien costume could cancel out the wall-crawler’s spider-sense presumably by projecting conflicting frequencies upon Spider-Man’s brain waves. Venom finally made a bold move when he confronted Parker’s wife, Mary Jane, at their old Chelsea apartment. Although Venom’s twisted sense of morality did not allow him to physically harm Mary Jane, Spider-Man immediately realized the nature of this threat. Taking the time to retrieve the sonic blaster from the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man challenged Venom at Our Lady of Saints Church. Although he fired the blaster at Venom, Spider-Man soon discovered that the Symbiote could not be separated from Brock because it had completely bonded with him. Trying to escape and rethink his options, Spider-Man was caught unaware by Venom. He captured Spider-Man and secured him to the inside of the church bell with a considerable amount of webbing. Spider-Man narrowly escaped the bell’s crushing clapper before defeating Venom by forcing him to deplete his webbing supply, of which the alien Symbiote was actually comprised. Before the alien could regenerate enough of its mass to become a renewed threat, Spider-Man brought Venom to the Fantastic Four who imprisoned him in a sonic containment cell.

Sometime later, the Fantastic Four shipped Venom to The Vault, a government prison for super-powered criminals located in the Colorado Rockies. A young guard named Hugh Taylor, who had just been assigned to the Vault, was fooled into thinking that Venom was a fallen colleague and released the gate mechanism which imprisoned the criminal. With a bit of remorse, Venom then killed the naive guard and promptly made his escape to New York City where he once again confronted Spider-Man. This time Spider-Man used psychological warfare upon Venom, by taunting the alien symbiote to return to him. The alien, torn by its love-hate relationship for Spider-Man, tried to leave Brock and re-establish its link with its original owner. Brock, greatly distressed by what was happening, pleaded with the symbiote to remain with him but it ignored his pleas. The symbiote begins its slithery flow onto Parker’s body, when the trauma of trying to detach itself from Brock’s nervous system was too much to bear. The alien costume and Eddie Brock were both knocked unconscious and were subsequently returned to the Vault, where they were incarcerated. Since then, Venom has gone through many changes.

The next fight, Venom went after Spider-Man around the same time Jonathon Caesar, an insane and obsessed fan of Mary Jane Watson-Parker, sent two mercenaries Styx and Stone after the wall-crawler. Venom unintentionally became involved in the plot when the two attempted to follow him through the sewers in the hope of finding Spider-Man. Unfortunately for them, Venom escaped the sewers in his human guise. After yet another fight with Spider-Man, Styx and Stone found the two and attempted to kill Spider-Man. Fortunately for Spidey, albeit in a bad way, Venom would not allow anyone else to kill Spider-Man, save himself. Attacking the two, the fight ensued. Styx, the living cancer, touched the Symbiote, killing it in the process. With the Symbiote seemingly dead, Eddie Brock was sent to a normal prison. However, later, it was revealed the Symbiote was merely sent into a comatose state, seemingly immune to Earthly diseases. Returning to Eddie Brock, the two easily escaped. In the breakout, however, the suit left a small spawn behind it, which would bond with Eddie’s cell mate, Cletus Kasady. No one would know about this for months. Eddie brought Spider-Man to an island in the Caribbean, away from people and innocents, in the hope of killing him alone. However, Spider-Man later realized that Venom would only be happy if he knew that Spider-Man was dead. Faking his death, Spider-Man made Venom believe that he had died. Happy at last, Venom thought there was no reason to return to civilization, having all he needed on the island, and stayed there.

A few months later, however, the psychotic serial killer known only as Carnage emerged, beginning a slaughter spree throughout Manhattan, in which hundreds died. Spider-Man attempted to stop him, but learned the hard way that he was outmatched physically, despite his superior experience. Realizing that Carnage possessed a Symbiote, Peter reluctantly turned to Venom for assistance in order to stop this menace. Contacting the Human Torch, they traveled to the island where Spider-Man had left Venom. When Venom saw that Spider-Man was in fact still alive, he attacked the two. A brief spat ensued, after which Venom listened to Spider-Man’s reasoning. Venom agreed to help Spider-Man stop Carnage in exchange for his freedom. Spider-Man reluctantly obliged, starting the first of many uneasy alliances between the two.

Once they returned to New York, the combined efforts of Venom and Spider-Man to stop Carnage’s rampage on two separate occasions were met with equal failure. Finally, however, during a rock concert at Madison Square Garden, they stopped Carnage after he was trying to kill J. Jonah Jameson. After Spider-Man destroyed Kasady’s Carnage symbiote through the use of the stage’s sound system, Venom attacked him. He still possessed enough hatred to attempt to choke him. Luckily, Venom was stopped by the Fantastic Four. After years of animosity, Venom reached an agreement with Spider-Man and called a truce.

Lethal Protector

After forming a truce with Spider-Man, Venom would relocate to the West Coast, San Francisco. Starting out as a “Lethal Protector“, Venom would come across a hidden underground city. A man known as Roland Treece was sending hired guns to exterminate these people so he could claim the hidden gold reserve below the underground city. Venom decided to protect these people from Treece and infiltrated Treece’s company. Venom’s actions had gotten Spider-Man’s attention, however, and Spider-Man would travel to San Francisco to bring Venom down once and for all. While Spidey searched for a lead on his former enemy, Venom was being pursued by a team of of highly trained soldiers known as the Jury. The Jury was brought together by Orwell Taylor, the father of the young Vault officer Venom killed during a Vault breakout. The Jury relentlessly attacked Venom, nearly killing him until the Life Foundation rescued, then captured, him. Carlton Drake, head of the foundation had plans for creating super guardsman similar to Venom’s first offspring, Carnage, and violently ripped from Venom five spawn, creating the Five Life Foundation Symbiotes and joining them with their best personnel. Spider-Man encountered one of the new symbiotes, a female human joined with a symbiote, and followed her back to the Life Foundation. Realizing that Spider-Man’s intrusion was in order to track down Venom, and since Venom was no longer useful for the foundation, Drake had the symbiote violently separated from Eddie, nearing killing Eddie.

Eddie would later free himself and team-up with Spider-Man, reuniting with his own Venom symbiote. The five new symbiote tested out their powers against the combined efforts of Spider-Man and Venom, but their symbiotes where seemingly destroyed by a machine triggered by Venom, and the human host where thought dead after the Life Foundation complex self-destructed. Having escaped the exploding building, the two spider-powered foes would join forces against Roland Treece and prevent him from killing all of the inhabitants of the underground city. Spider-Man then returned to New York while Venom would remain with the underground city.

Maximum Carnage

Carnage would later escape again and be joined up with other super villains and start the Maximum Carnage. Once again, Spider-Man and Venom would fight him again after Carnage called out Venom on TV. Venom would later assemble his own team including Cloak, Dagger, and Morbius. They fight Carnage. At one point, Venom gets captured and tortured by Carnage and later escapes. He and Carnage later fight near a small plant and Venom defeats Carnage in a big explosion.

Separation Anxiety

However, some time later (in Separation Anxiety), the Life Foundation Symbiotes would return. After being separated from his own symbiote by the Scarlet Spider, Eddie Brock was sent to a research facility. The five Life Foundation Symbiotes broke into the facility to escape with Eddie. They kept Eddie captive until he would agree to help the human hosts control their own symbiotes. But one of the five symbiotes, Donna (Scream) would kill off the human hosts of her fellow offspring one-by-one. When the Venom symbiote escaped from it’s imprisonment and rejoined with Eddie, the two would defeat Scream and leave her and her four dead comrades (with their symbiotes still alive) for the authorities (the remaining four symbiotes would merge into one and bond with Scott Washington to become Hybrid.

The CIA

Venom was recruited via an ultimatum by the government to be a special operations counter-terrorist agent. Venom agreed, but one stipulation of the deal did not sit too well with him. A bomb was planted in his chest to assure complete and utter obedience. After a few missions, Venom became tired of the situation and had the Symbiote perform surgery on him and extracted the bomb. A brouhaha ensued wherein the end result was Eddie Brock lying unconscious and the Symbiote dead, only to return later on and re-join with Eddie. Thus Venom was whole again and looking to square things with Spider-Man once again. He had lost his memory and no longer knew the secret identity of Spider-Man, but knew that a Venom blames Spider-Man for his wife’s death deep seeded hatred resided within him for the webhead.

Shortly after the reunion, Venom joined the Sinister Six for a brief period in order to get at Spider-Man. After being scorned by the group, he hunted down certain members of the team for revenge (including Electro, the Sandman, and Alyosha Kravinoff). Later Eddie Brock approached his ex-wife Ann Weying, and at the thought of having the Symbiote back in her life, she jumped out of her apartment window and killed herself.

Venom blamed Spider-Man, whom he had a skirmish with right before Ann died. Thus the hatred for the old web-head was fueled anew.

Angelo Fortunato

After an extended period of inactivity, Venom resurfaced with cancer, and the only thing keeping him alive was the Symbiote, who did not want him anymore. After seeing a spiritual movie, Eddie decided to sell his Symbiote off in an auction, swearing off his life of vigilantism. The winner of the auction was the the gang lord Don Fortunato. He gave the Symbiote to his son, Angelo Fortunato, in hopes that Angelo would finally make a name for himself. But after a fight against Spider-Man that resulted in Angelo cowering away, the Symbiote eventually left Angelo to die in mid-air.

Mac Gargan

The Symbiote passed on to Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, and offered him additional powers. He agreed and Mac became the next host of the Venom Symbiote which he thought will give him the advantage he needs in defeating Spider-Man as well as being apart of the Sinister Twelve. But he was still defeated by Spider-Man with the help of other heroes. Even though he was incarcerated, it didn’t hinder him as with his new powers he would be respected more as a powerful villain. He was later abducted by the Beyonder to participate yet again in another Secret War, but it was really the Stranger in disguise. During this events he thought he had killed Spider-Man but it was really the Space Phantom. All the participants were able to escape from the crumbling planet thanks to Gravity‘s sacrifice, he is seen mourning for his death.

Gargan later becomes a member of a sub-group of the Thunderbolts, which has been drafted by the Avengers to hunt down the members of the fugitive Secret Avengers and is currently run by the Commission for Superhuman Activities. It is then revealed that he has been outfitted with electrical implants by the government to keep the Symbiote in check. As a Thunderbolt, he is seen as a hero by the general public and has his own action figures. Gargan displays his new raw power as Venom in a battle with Jack Flag, after pummeling Flag for a bit, the hero manages to stab Gargan, who is protected by his Symbiote.

Gargan becomes enraged and ferociously manhandles Flag, and is about to feast upon his flesh, when his electrical implants kick in and temporarily subdue him, allowing Flag to live. Gargan expresses fear of the control the Symbiote possesses over him, yet he has become addicted to the raw unearthly power it brings to him, and cannot begin to imagine life without it, similarly to a drug addict. Later, during an attack from Steel Spider, American Eagle and Sepulchre, Gargan loses control again, briefly becoming a huge monster once more, while Moonstone is incapacitated and thus cannot co-ordinate control of his electrical implants. Afterward, however, he returns to a normal form with no ill effects. Then, he bites off, and devours, Steel Spider’s arm during a fight. Later, the Thunderbolts goes after Spider-Man for being an unregistered hero and like everyone else, he has no memory of Spider-Man’s true identity, because of One More Day. When Venom and Spider-Man fought, Eddie Brock got into the skirmish and the Symbiote suddenly left Gargan to bond again to Brock, but his skin acted like a corrosive when the Symbiote tried to attached itself. White substance began to appear from Brock’s pores and became Anti-Venom. Anti-Venom battled Venom and seemingly “cleansed” Gargan of the Symbiote but also inadvertently cleansing Spider-Man remaining Symbiote within his body along with his spider powers. Venom appeared again to battle Anti-Venom, but this time he is wearing a scorpion armor to protect the recovering Symbiote. When Gargan was able to stabbed his stinger to Anti-Venom, the wound seemingly killed the Anti-Venom Symbiote and just as he was about to kill him, the Venom Symbiote stopped Gargan and said that it still had feelings for Brock and that he should live. Gargan vowed to kill Brock when he gets a chance, and Brock says the same.

Secret Invasion

After returning from another mission (it ended abruptly when Venom ate the target) the Thunderbolts were attacked by Captain Marvel during Secret Invasion. When Venom tried to stop him he was sent flying through a window and below Thunderbolts Mountain. It was later on discovered that Captain Marvel was a Skrull. Nobody knew what was happening except for Norman Osborn. Earth was at war. The Thunderbolts had been sent to protect Washington. When they arrived, Venom thrived in battle, eating as many Skrulls as he could. Later on he was attacked by a super Skrull, and they were both sent flying off they ship that they were on. They both landed among a crowd, and the Skrull quickly changed its shape. Venom, knowing it was hiding then began suffocating people in the crowd with tendrils, trying to find it. When Osborn saw this he reminded the Symbiote that while he was all for letting it fulfill its urges, there did have to be guidelines. Venom then continued to do what he was doing before. The Skrull saw all of this and, while changing back into its battle form, called Venom a monster saying that humans would liberate the Skrulls after seeing this. Venom then revealed that it was an act, and that the people had been able to breath the entire time. He said he did this to make the Skrull come out of hiding. Venom then proceeded to attack the Skrull. He badly wounded it with his claws and then started eating it. After Washington, the Thunderbolts continued on to New York, where Iron Man had summoned all the heroes for a final battle against the Skrulls in Central Park. When they arrived, Osborn reminded the Thunderbolts that Skrulls were the target. Venom began to complain, saying that Spider-Man was nearby. He was quickly made quiet. Throughout the battle , Venom continued to kill and eat Skrulls, and was only seen harmed once when he was punched by a Skrull taking on the persona of Giant Man. Venom and the rest of the Thunderbolts made it through the Secret Invasion unharmed, excluding the death of Swordsman‘s sister.

Dark Reign: The Sinister Spider-Man

When Norman Osborn became head of the superhero community, he formed a new team of Avengers called the Dark Avengers, where he recruits Venom to be on the team. He first fed Venom with a Skrull impersonating Spider-Man and fed him a medication that turns his monstrous form in to more humane look and named him the Spider-Man of the group. As a member of the Dark Avengers, their first mission is to come to the rescue of Doctor Doom who was being defeated by Morgan Le Fey. When Sentry decapitated her, he suddenly disappeared and Morgan seemingly came back from the dead. In her return, Morgan took control of Venom and started attacking his own teammates. After Morgan is defeated, Sinister Spider-Man is returned to normal. Since this incident, Venom also played a part in Osborn’s mutant plan.

During the “Sinister Spider-Man” arc Venom starts a local drug war between two local gang members. Asides from that he tries to frame J.J. Jameson, putting a dead hooker on his head, this brings J.J.J. to ask Osborn for a protector wanting Ms. Marvel, instead Osborn sends Venom (disguised as Spider-man). Later Venom defeats a lowly group of villains led by the Redeemer (who were all beaten badly by Sinister Spider-Man) with ease. But only three survived the brutal beating, and send some incriminating pictures of “Spider-Man ” to J.J.J. , but Osborn covers this. At the end in an event dedicated to Spider-Man (Venom), the group of lowly villains led by the Redeemer (with no arms nor legs because Venom ate them), a local gang members and Bullseye with Daken (sent by Osborn with their old costumes to bring Mac back) start a major fight with Spidey, at the end Venom beats them all badly, and J.J.J. stops the brawl in time. Osborn at the end states that next time he crosses the line and doesn’t listen, he himself will stop him, with Venom responding with a simple smile.

Utopia

During the Utopia crossover Venom is seen with the rest of the Dark Avengers, and is sent by Norman Osborn to a location where the mutant riot is still out of control, eventually ” Spider-Man” is faced with Colossus, Venom states that Colossus must stop in the name of the law and attacks him, but Colossus hit’s Venom with a rock and quickly escapes with Ice Man.

After Norman assembles his ” Dark X-Men” the Dark Avengers are left to watch the action in the background, later after Emma Frost and Namor betray the Dark X-Men, Osborn gets pissed and sends his Dark Avengers along with the remaining Dark X-Men to the Utopia island to battle the X-Men and make them pay. During the battle Venom swings across the venue only to get attacked from behind, this makes ” Spider-Man” real mad and starts loosing his Spider-Man shape, Colossus goes at him stating to finish their business, with a immense and raged Venom saying Bring it. The rest of the battle goes unseen, but another image shows them really going at it, at the end Osborn retreats his forces because the only way to win was to kill, which was not a good option because the battle was live on TV.

American Son

Venom also appeared in the American Son arc., he gets ambushed by the real Spider-Man (with a sonic generator) and captured with the help of Sue Richards, and is sent to the negative zone, but he later escapes. Aside from that, like most of the Dark Avengers he makes numerous appearance during Dark Reign posing as Spider-Man. During their recent events in the Dark Avengers, it has been shown that Venom (Mac Gargan) have been heavily affected by their medication, making him Venom soft and Mac more unsure of himself.

Siege

After the incident in the football game in Chicago, Osborn uses this as a chance to invade Asgard. Osborn assembles his Avengers and tells them of his plan, some of them don’t like the idea like Hawkeye. Venom asks Hawkeye if he is scared, to which he replies with a yes, and that all of them have to be scared. Osborn says that if they succeed during this mission they can continue to be Avengers or be free, to which they agree. After Ares gives a speech, the Dark Avengers invade Asgard leading the front line. Ares and Venom are seen facing a front line of Asguardians while Moonstone and Iron Patriot are confronted by Thor. Osborn calls on the Sentry to ambush Thor, and he continues to attack Thor from behind.

Later the real Avengers interfere in the battle and attack Osborn and his troops. Venom is still seen battling and eating Asgardians; Mac knows that Osborn has taken it too far this time and that they will eventually lose but he plans to enjoy it to the very end. As he is consuming Asgardians and stating that they are the Kobe Beef of People, he is interrupted by Spider-man. They fight and Spider-Man almost loses the battle, but Ms. Marvel suddenly arrives on the battlefield and pulls Mac Gargan out of the symbiote. Venom decides to re-assemble with Ms. Marvel; it manages to fully suppress Ms. Marvel and took the full control of her body, but not her mind. Even so, Venom was able to read her brain like an opened book and discovered that Carol has an affection to Peter Parker. Spider-Man tried to use a bell from the church tower but suddenly found out that the bell was removed. Ms. Marvel tried to separate herself from the black suit and told Spider-Man that she needs a powerful energy charge to overcome the symbiote. Spider-Man knocked Venom onto wires and the electricity disconnected Carol from the black suit. Then it came back to it’s previous host – Mac Gargan – and tried to attack heroes once more, but Spider-Man webbed Venom’s legs and threw him in the air so Ms. Marvel could beat him with car bumper. That’s how Venom was sent to a long flight and then crushed into the flying aircraft (probably the A.I.M. one). That was enough to stop him for now. Carol and Spidey decided to come back to the battlefield set up on the ruins of Asgard. Later before the Sentry destroyed Asgard’s Venom is seen battling opponents switching from his monstrous size to his Spider-Man size. After the destruction of Asgard by the Void it is unknown what happens to Venom. After the Void is defeated, Mac/Venom are seen captured along with the rest of the Dark Avengers (except Daken). As Siege ends it is speculated that Venom/Mac is sent to jail to pay for his crimes.

Heroic Age

Mac Gargan and Venom are taken into The Raft after they are captured during Siege. Scientists at The Raft speculate about why the symbiote is always left attached to the host when it is taken into custody, and they proceed to separate Gargan from Venom. With Flash Thompson as the new Venom, he has began to work for his country once again. Most know that Flash lost his legs in war years ago and that he left the Military. Now, Flash has chose to serve his country again and become Venom. Trying to remove all of the tension between Venom and him being the greatest enemy of Spider-Man, Flash has been given drugs to control the evil Symbiote and the demon within himself.

However, the Symbiote is smarter than most seem to realize and has been able to break free of Flash’s control without dispatch’s knowledge. If dispatch did realize that Flash had lost control they would terminate both Flash and Venom. Flash is still trying maintain control and be a hero like that of his idol Spider-man.

When Blackheart attacked Las Vegas, Flash worked with X-23, the new Ghost Rider, and the Red Hulk to stop him. Briefly, Red Hulk was host to both the Ghost Rider and the Venom Symbiote.

Thompson would later go on to join the Guardians of the Galaxy and visit the planet of the Symbiotes.

Superior Venom

During the period where Otto Octavius had successfully replaced Peter Parker and taken over his body to become the Superior Spider-Man, he came into conflict with Agent Venom. Believing that Thompson posed a threat to his ruse, Octavius set out to kill him. Thompson survived their first battle and was able to escape, but the Symbiote was injured by Octavius’ advanced weaponry.

Octavius later used his disguise as Peter to lure Flash into a trap, promising that he could give him the ability to walk again. While his machine did indeed give Flash advanced cybernetic legs, it also forcibly separated him from the Symbiote, which quickly grew scared and violent in the absence of its host. Lashing out, it bonded with Octavius, creating a new entity dubbed Superior Venom.

The Symbiote’s influence heightened Octavius’ already grandiose sense of self-worth, causing him to arrogantly believe that he could control the Symbiote despite Peter’s failure to do so years earlier. While stopping a bank robbery, Superior Venom came into conflict with the Avengers, resulting in a massive battle. In the end, Iron Man was able to help Thompson separate the Symbiote from Octavius, allowing the two to become Agent Venom once again. Octavius was also able to cover up some of his villainous behavior by claiming that he’d been infected by Venom spores several months prior.

Lee Price

After being purified and rendered benevolent on it its home planet, the Symbiote and Thompson returned to New York when the Guardians of the Galaxy visited Earth during the second superhuman Civil War. The Symbiote was somehow separated from Thompson, and wandered the streets of New York in search of a new host. It eventually stumbled upon Lee Price, a troubled young man, who like Thompson, was a disabled military veteran.

Sensing Price’s similarities to Thompson, the Symbiote bonded with him, not realizing that unlike Flash, Lee was a violent and amoral criminal. The resulting merger created a Venom similar to the original Eddie Brock version.

Agent of the Cosmos

Eventually, Captain America asked Flash to take Tony Stark’s place as a liaison for the Guardians of the Galaxy. Once in space, the symbiote changed its appearance to lose all semblance of body armor while maintaining an exoskeletal appearance and manifesting a jagged mouth. Sensing the symbiote’s return to space, the Klyntar hive-mind reached out to it across the cosmos and tried to reconnect to it, causing Flash to lose control of it as it lashed out in rage and confusion, taking on an insectoid appearance when berserk.Seeking to return to Earth, Flash and the symbiote attacked the Guardians but were separated by Peter Quill and Rocket Raccoon. However, the symbiote escaped containment and took over the nearby Groot.

After being separated from Groot by Drax, the symbiote took over Rocket, transforming his arms into bio-mechanical multi-barreled guns and demanding the Guardians turn over their ship to it. When Drax grabbed hold of Rocket, the symbiote immediately transferred over to him, using him to defeat the other Guardians and pilot their ship to its destination: the symbiote homeworld. The symbiote separated from Drax of its own accord, whereupon it was cleansed of its hatred and bloodlust, reintegrated into the Klyntar hivemind, and rebonded to Flash.

After being purged of its bloodlust, the symbiote took on the appearance of bulky body armor with a face markedly resembling that of the Destroyer, though it could still manifest its signature fangs and tongue. After being cleansed, the symbiote developed the ability to hear the “voice” of the Cosmos, guiding it to those in need of protection; and the ability to take on humanoid form independently of its host for short periods of time. Together with Flash, the symbiote acted as an Agent of the Cosmos, seeking to restore order across the universe. After being separated from Flash by Gramosian space pirates, the symbiote bonded to their leader, Mercurio, as part of a ploy on Flash’s and the symbiote’s part in order to buy time for their allies to arrive and to obtain intel on Mercurio’s armada. However, the brief period of time the symbiote spent bonded to the warlord undid its cleansing, and the symbiote eventually went berserk, rampaging across the planets it had helped alongside Flash. Seeking to corrupt Flash, it lured him to its first host’s homeworld, where it took him over and it attempted to drive him insane with his darkest memories.

With the help of Flash’s new allies, the symbiote was subdued and contained, and was taken back to Klyntar to be re-cleansed. Instead, it was placed on trial by the Agents of the Cosmos and nearly executed, but with Flash’s help it managed to overcome its bloodlust and learned that its cleansing had failed due to Mania having been corrupted and taken over by the Hell-Mark.

Return to Earth

Flash and the Venom symbiote returned to Earth partly to aid Carol Danvers against Tony Stark in the second Civil War, but also to seek out Mania. A spider-bot detected the presence of Flash and the symbiote, tracking them to Philadelphia. Believing the symbiote to be evil and that it had taken over his friend, Peter — as Spider-Man — ambushed Venom using anti-symbiote technology developed at Parker Industries. Despite both Flash and the symbiote protesting that they didn’t want to fight, Spider-Man separated the symbiote from Flash, preparing to imprison it in his lab. Enraged, the Venom symbiote used its ability to take on humanoid form without a host to catch Peter by surprise and easily overwhelmed him. Trying to lead it away from civilians, Spider-Man quipped that they were old friends due to him being a former host, which to his surprise the symbiote didn’t remember. The symbiote prevented Spider-Man from fleeing and bonded to him, but instead of taking over him it showed him memories of its birth and first host, explaining its origins and that the cleanse had purged it of all its memories except those of its original host — who had corrupted it and left it with an addiction to rage — and Flash Thompson. The symbiote noted that Peter was teeming with rage towards it, and sincerely apologized for everything it had done to him, stating that it was no longer the Venom he knew and hated. The symbiote released Spider-Man and returned to Flash, who explained that he and the symbiote had returned to Earth to find Mania, Venom’s corrupted clone and its protégé. Accepting that the symbiote had changed for the better, Spider-Man volunteered to help Venom find Mania, and assisted in capturing her before returning to New York.

Andi, corrupted by the Hell-Mark, tried to take both the Mania and Venom symbiotes from Flash, but Venom’s allies arrived in time to stop her and suppress the demonic corruption. Some time later the FBI, seeking to return possession of the symbiote to the US Government, hunted Flash down and attacked him with a suit of powered armor equipped with anti-symbiote weaponry, separating him from the symbiote and sending into a feral state. While it regained control of itself, the symbiote did not return to Flash out of shame at enjoying being bloodthirsty and angry.

In search of a new host after being separated from Flash Thompson, the symbiote came across former Army Ranger Lee Price when he was about to be gunned down in a shootout between Tombstone’s gang and Black Cat’s gang. It bonded to him to protect him and was initially excited to discover he was a soldier, but was quickly horrified when he dominated it with his will and proceeded to massacre both groups of gangs, forcing the memories of his traumatic childhood on it to shut it up when it protested. The symbiote subsequently engaged in a mental argument with Lee, berating him over his actions and callous attitude while accidentally revealing its own sanguine past. Unable to directly control Lee due to his Army Rangers training, the symbiote resigned itself to being bonded to him, but attempted to sabotage his application to Black Cat’s gang by causing him to vomit, and tried to refuse to aid him in fighting off the assassin sent by Tombstone to kill him – though when injured by flames it lashed out and killed the assassin.

Two FBI agents soon learned of Venom’s new host and tried to force him into becoming an informant by threatening to reveal his identity to the public if he didn’t comply, thus risking turning him into a target for law enforcement agencies and vigilantes. When the plan of the FBI agents fell through, Eddie Brock and his anti-symbiotic task force set out to capture him. Spider-Man helped the FBI separate the symbiote from Lee, tricking Venom into thinking he wanted to become its host again. Lee was arrested by the NYPD subsequently while the symbiote was taken to the FBI

Return of the Lethal Protector

Before the suit could be handed over to Alpha Flight, Brock broke it free and became Venom once again. However, he was determined to ensure that his relationship to it was different from what it had been when they first bonded. The symbiote’s relapse into corruption made this difficult, as it was violently possessive towards him, viciously attacking a priest who it perceived as undermining Eddie’s desire to be bonded to it. Knowing that the symbiote had recently been heroic and wanting to understand why it was relapsing into its predatory corrupted state, Eddie sought the help of Alchemax, and learned that his body had been rendered nearly inhospitable to symbiotes a result of being saturated with symbiote suppressant drugs during his time with the FBI. Alchemax decided to help Eddie if he brought Stegron to them along with the equipment he stole. Doing so, they gave him a medicine that would rebalance Eddie’s metabolism so his body wouldn’t reject the Klyntar.

Together, they arrested criminals and the symbiote felt good to be a hero again. However, it took too much out of its host’s body sometimes making Eddie sleep longer so it can think while watching TV, and subconsciously influencing Eddie in order to fight criminals. The symbiote was concerned at feeling emotions contradictory to those of its host, such as feeling joy in contrast to Eddie’s anger when he was unable to sell the television. With the effects of its cleansing ending, the symbiote was able to remember its previous hosts and the influences they’d had on it while lamenting at having been separated from Flash. In its quest for redemption for everything it had done through the years, it payed a visit to the priest it have previously attacked, asking for forgiveness. After a brief conversation, the symbiote realized why Eddie had talked to the priest and it was happy he hadn’t died, promising him its protection.

A little after, they were summoned to an alternate universe by Venomized versions of Captain America and Doctor Strange to help in a multiversal war against the Poisons, an extra-dimensional alien race that permanently bond with symbiotes, consuming their hosts’ bodies to complete the bonding process and also assimilate their powers. At the last moments, the Venomized Doctor Strange sent the remaining Venoms back home before the Poisons’ ship exploded.

After returning home, the symbiote’s growing corruption renewed its bloodlust, causing it to frequently relapse into its feral, villainous state despite Eddie’s efforts to satiate its hunger without resorting to murder or cannibalism. After it attempted to devour a corrupt cop, Kraven the Hunter, and the Ringer, Eddie finally became fed up and returned to Alchemax to demand an explanation as to the diminishing effectiveness of the cure. Flash Thompson intervened and demanded Eddie return the symbiote to him, and the symbiote tried to bond to both of its favorite hosts at once. Spider-Man intervened in an attempt to kill it and overturned a vat of serum derived from the Anti-Venom symbiote (which caused the symbiote to be cured from its re-corruption and made Eddie’s metabolism return to normal), thus the symbiote biomass bonded to Flash was converted into an artificial replica of the Anti-Venom symbiote, which he used to forcibly extract the Venom symbiote from Eddie. Despite being unable to rebond to Flash due to the Anti-Venom, the symbiote was nevertheless happy to reunite with its old host, and was left in Bobbi Morse’s bathroom for safekeeping while Spider-Man and Anti-Venom went looking for Lee Price, who had attacked Mania and stolen her symbiote. The symbiote eventually decided to escape and destroyed the bathroom before noticing a shard of glass fall down the drain. Escaping into the sewers in search of Eddie, it scared a couple of city workers before finally finding and rebonding with Eddie, who had met up with Black Cat.

Venom and Black Cat searched for Dr. Steve so they could weaponize the Anti-Venom serum, using it to free Spider-Man – who had been infected by the Maniac symbiote. Venom reluctantly teamed up with Spider-Man, Agent Anti-Venom, and Andi Benton – who had come to New York to help Flash and reclaim her symbiote, still going by the alias as Mania using her hellish powers. The six decided to face Maniac, who had infected the Five Families with his symbiote. Using the Anti-Venom serum and the replica of the Anti-Venom used by Flash Thompson, they defeated the Inklings. However, the small pieces infecting everyone returned to Maniac, who absorbed them to assume a massive form and attempted to forcibly assimilate the Venom symbiote by eating Eddie. However, Spider-Man and Black Cat figured out that they were immune to the Maniac symbiote since they were previously possessed by it. Spider-Man made the Anti-Venom symbiote absorb his blood with the “Anti-Maniac” properties, thus allowing its immunity to take down Maniac and revert the symbiote to its original mass and size, though it would still be bounded with Lee Price. After Price was arrested, Flash finally came to the conclusion that the Venom symbiote was safe with Eddie Brock and brokered an uneasy truce between Spider-Man and Venom.

With Eddie’s altered metabolism having been cured by being doused in the Anti-Venom serum, the symbiote was able to recover from its physical and psychological instability, returning to the benevolent state it had been in as an Agent of the Cosmos. When Spider-Woman attacked Eddie, the symbiote temporarily bonded to her to convince her they were turning over a new leaf and revealed that it was about to give birth again – though it chose to keep this a secret from Eddie.

The Poisons Strike Back

When the time-displaced X-Men approached Venom and asked for his assistance, their allies the Starjammers having been captured by symbiote-clad bounty hunters, the Venom symbiote tried to persuade an unwilling Eddie to help them. When Eddie obstinately refused to listen to it, the symbiote knocked him out and allowed the Young X-Men to capture them and take them into space. When Eddie regained consciousness, the symbiote persuaded him to help them after hearing that the bounty-hunters had been using their symbiotes as weapons – having been traumatized by the events of the war against the Poisons. The symbiote was confused when Haze Mancer – who had sold symbiotes to the bounty hunters – recognized it, not remembering him. It recognized Killer Thrill and informed the Young X-Men of her powers through Eddie, and was horrified to discover the Poisons had infiltrated Earth-616, lamenting the loss of several of its brethren and that it was only a matter of time before the Poisons pursued it to Earth. The symbiote subsequently aided Eddie in defeating the Poisons, destroying the Hive, and returning its captured brethren to Klyntar.

The Seventh Spawn of Venom

As the time for it to give birth drew closer, the Venom symbiote began to go out of its way to protect its unborn spawn, even if it meant endangering Eddie in the process. Not telling him out of fear that its soon-to-be-born spawn would turn out to be a monster like its others had, the symbiote was almost captured by the FBI’s Symbiote Task Force, which wanted to claim the spawn and bond it to Mac Gargan. While the symbiote keeping secrets had formed a rift of distrust between it and Eddie, he took it to Alchemax so Dr. Steve could assist in it giving birth – the labor being longer and more difficult than its previous spawns’. The symbiote agreed to leave its offspring in Dr. Steve’s custody until it and Eddie decided the offspring was ready to take a host.

When Norman Osborn bonded to the Carnage symbiote to become the Red Goblin, Eddie was blackmailed by J. Jonah Jameson into protecting Mary Jane. Despite teaming up with Spider-Man, Venom was outmatched and only barely managed to fend the Red Goblin off. Exhausted, Eddie decided to lend the symbiote to Spider-Man – giving him a much-needed power boost. Peter reluctantly agreed and the symbiote bonded to him, making him powerful enough to fight toe-to-toe with the Red Goblin. When Flash Thompson was mortally wounded, Symbiote Spider-Man went berserk and Venomized, though Flash managed to calm him down so as to keep the symbiote from being re-corrupted by Peter’s rage. As part of a gambit to separate Osborn from the Carnage symbiote, Spider-Man separated from the Venom symbiote and sent it back to Eddie, assuring it that he would be fine when it expressed concern for his safety. After reuniting with Eddie, the symbiote attended Flash’s funeral in the shape of a tuxedo.

Shortly afterward, Tel-Kar came to Earth looking for the symbiote, which prompted Eddie to rescue him from the Skrull Warbride M’lanz. The symbiote subsequently regained its memories of Tel-Kar, who asked it to leave Eddie and re-bond with him; but when it refused he blackmailed it into bonding to him by threatening to corrupt its spawn, the Sleeper symbiote. Tel-Kar dominated the Venom symbiote, suppressing its consciousness and using it to attack a Skrull military installation containing a species-annihilating bio-weapon, but it broke free of his control when he attempted to kill Eddie and its offspring. Tel-Kar forced the symbiote off himself and it rebonded to Eddie, while Sleeper latched on to M’lanz to protect her from the bio-weapon. Venom returned to Earth, severing ties with Alchemax, and when Tel-Kar attacked, the symbiote was disabled protecting its offspring, upon recovering it learned that the Sleeper symbiote had bonded to and lobotomized Tel-Kar before setting off to explore the cosmos.

Battle with the Symbiote God and Abandoning Eddie

Some time later, the symbiote began to suffer nightmares of an ancient and powerful evil deity that had been worshiped by the symbiotes in the ancient past. As the symbiote god’s influence over it intensified, the Venom symbiote was inflicted with increasingly frequent and intense bouts of insanity and bloodlust. This prompted Eddie to suppress it with anti-psychosis medication and refrain from combat out of fear it would attack innocents, spending several months attempting to figure out what was wrong with it. In the thrall of the symbiote god, the Venom symbiote went berserk and attempted to kill a Jack O’Lantern impersonator and a pair of policemen, but was subdued by Rex Strickland – a former member of a team of symbiote-enhanced super-soldiers. Returned to lucidity, the symbiote helped Eddie attempt to rescue Strickland’s former comrades, but was controlled by the symbiote god and forced to separate from him. When Eddie was mortally wounded by one of the controlled super-soldiers, the symbiote snapped out of its stupor and healed him, attempting to explain what was going on as a symbiote-dragon devoured the super-soldier’s symbiotes and went on a rampage.

When Eddie confronted Rex over what had happened, the symbiote succumbed to the dark god’s control and attacked, though Eddie was able to subdue it with the flames from Rex’s blast furnace. When the new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, attacked, having mistaken Eddie for the Venom that had killed his mother, the symbiote went berserk and nearly killed him before being subdued by a Venom Blast. After the symbiote dragon was defeated by Morales’ Venom Blast and Knull – the dark god of the symbiotes – manifested, the symbiote initially submitted itself to him before Eddie’s rage over Knull casually killing innocents sent it into a berserk rage. Knull subsequently stripped it from Eddie and attempted to connect it to his hive mind, turning its eyespots red; but it returned to Eddie after Knull was attacked by Morales. Restored to lucidity and with new powers as a result of its brief connection to Knull, the Venom symbiote informed him that Rex was actually the last piece of the symbiote-dragon, merging with him so as to become powerful enough to fight Knull. Despite being armed with an arsenal of high-power weapons, the Venom and Tyrannosaurus symbiotes were stripped from Eddie and absorbed into the Grendel symbiote, though Eddie detonated said arsenal. Shielded from the blast by the Tyrannosaurus symbiote, the Venom symbiote returned to Eddie. When the Tyrannosaurus symbiote sacrificed itself to drag Knull’s avatar into the blast furnace, Eddie sustaining severe burns while holding the door shut. The Venom symbiote was overwhelmed by the intense heat and strain of keeping him alive, and seemingly perished while telling Eddie it loved him.

The Venom symbiote survived, seizing control of an unconscious Eddie when he was discovered by Project Oversight and rampaging for three weeks. Recognizing Dylan Brock as Eddie’s son and fearing that learning this would cause him to abandon it, the symbiote pretended to be brain dead and began suppressing various memories it sensed would be harmful to him; leading to Eddie not remembering the Maker’s repeated attempts to interrogate him over a period of two weeks and forgetting Flash Thompson’s death.

When the Maker revealed that he had extracted a codex – trace remnants of symbiote biomass left in former hosts – from a sample of Flash’s blood, and that he intended to exhume and vivisect Flash’s corpse in order to extract more; the Venom symbiote went berserk and attacked him. Separating from Eddie in order to restrain the Maker, the symbiote stuffed him in a morgue locker and stole Flash’s codex. When they were attacked by guards wielding sonic weapons, the symbiote absorbed the codex and channeled Flash’s personality imprint within it, filling the void of its lost awareness; transforming Eddie into Agent Venom. However, the codex eventually burnt out and the symbiote returned to its mindless state.

When Eddie traveled to San Francisco to try to reconcile with his father, the symbiote took on the form of a dog. Eddie’s reunion with his father ended disastrously, with Carl saying they never were a family and punching Eddie in the face. This enraged the symbiote, which tried to devour him; but Eddie managed to restrain it and ran away. When a pair of homeless men attempted to break into Eddie’s motel room, symbiote discovered that Carnage had returned more powerful than ever, and had taken over the Underground City that Venom had once protected. Believing himself to be Eddie’s younger half-brother, Dylan tried to get Eddie’s help to kill their physically-abusive father.^[163] Eddie agreed to make sure the abuse stopped, but he passed out after a vision of Knull, vomiting blood. After Eddie was taken to the hospital, the Venom symbiote put him into a comatose state, cocooning his body.^[164] Engaging in a mental confrontation with Eddie, the symbiote posed as Mary Brock, Eddie’s uncle, and his father in an attempt to get Eddie to fully embrace it. However, Eddie was able to see through its deceptions and was outraged that it would trick and lie him after everything they had been through following their reunion. Rejected by Eddie and separated from him by the Maker, the symbiote incapacitated the evil Reed Richards and used its power to take on an humanoid form without a host to rescue Dylan. Impersonating Eddie to berate Carl Brock in a mental confrontation, the symbiote left him in the desert before taking Dylan to Eddie. Apologizing for what it had done, the symbiote said that both Eddie and Dylan would be better off without it before departing from their lives.

Alerted to the suffering of another member of its species at the hands of Kulan Gath- who had captured, imprisoned, and tortured it in order to serve as bait, the Venom symbiote arrived to help Logan, the Punisher, Elektra, and Doctor Voodoo fight the eldritch god JhoatunLau. Exposure to the Jhoatun Lau’s cosmic radiation caused the Venom symbiote to take on the form of a massive dragon similar to the Grendel, letting it hold its own against Jhoatun Lau in combat. Angered after noticing that Conan had bonded to the enslaved symbiote, Venom demanded that he relinquish its dying brethren and got even more angry when he refused. Before they could come to blows, Elektra intervened and proposed they work together until they could vanquish the Marrow God. After Jhoatun’s death, it reverted to it’s original form and both it and Conan helped Wolverine to damage the god’s skull in order to permanently kill it. The assembled team gone to stop Kulan Gath plans, eventually leading to it’s brethren’s death and forced the cult to retreat.

Still without a host, the Venom symbiote was recruited by Captain Marvel into her War Avengers strike force alongside Deadpool, Weapon H, Sif, Winter Soldier, and Captain Britain. Sent into battle against Malekith himself in London, Venom immediately attempted to eat the dark elf warlord but was subdued using the Ebony Blade. Captured and taken to Stonehenge, the Venom symbiote was tortured by Malekith in an attempt to bend it to his will despite its efforts to resist. After Malekith realized the Black Bifrost had been captured, he bent the symbiote to his will and used it to badly wound All-Mother Freyja; wielding it as a Necrosword in emulation of All-Black. Bonding to the symbiote and dubbing himself the “Butcher of Thors” in emulation of Knull and Gorr the God Butcher, Malekith attempted to use the magic-enhanced “Venom Blade/Symbio Sword” to kill Thor Odinson, All-Father Thor, Young Thor, and Thor (Jane Foster). The symbiote was ultimately separated from Malekith by Thor, and left to begin preparing for Carnage’s imminent attack.

Absolute Carnage

Locating Eddie and Dylan in Manhattan, the Venom symbiote rebonded to Eddie to protect him when Cletus pushed them in front of an oncoming subway train. While Eddie was initially reluctant to reunite with it, Cletus transformed into Dark Carnage – a towering skeletal monster – and easily overpowered them. After Eddie escaped by electrocuting Kasady with the subway’s third rail, the symbiote put him in a coma so that it could heal him while taking over his body, then walked with Dylan to Peter Parker’s apartment before returning control to Eddie.

The symbiote urged Eddie to set aside his jealousy and anger, and to work together with Spider-Man in order to stop Dark Carnage. When Spider-Man and Venom entered Ravencroft to prevent Dark Carnage from getting Norman Osborn’s Carnage codex, John Jameson – who had been infected by the Grendel symbiote – fell under Carnage’s control and set off the alarm, incapacitating the Venom symbiote until Eddie shot out the PA system. Before it could fully recover from the sonic attack, the Venom symbiote sensed Dark Carnage infecting the inmates with the Grendel symbiote and began screaming in terror inside Eddie’s head. When Dark Carnage threw Spider-Man through Norman Osborn’s cell door, Venom incapacitated Osborn – who believed himself to be Cletus Kasady – and barricaded the door using the symbiote. However, Dark Carnage easily kicked him out of the way and bonded Osborn to part of the Grendel symbiote to turn him into Carnage again.

After escaping by using the Venom symbiote’s ability to create wings, Venom set out to warn the super villains and antiheroes who had bonded to symbiotes in the past, coming across Mac Gargan and Miles Morales fighting against a horde of Carnage Doppelgangers. When Norman Osborn attacked, crippling Gargan and bonding Miles to a portion of the Grendel symbiote, the Venom symbiote speared Osborn through the chest and demanded that Eddie kill him and Miles, while threatening to abandon him for a stronger host if he didn’t find the resolve to do what was needed to end the war. After rescuing Gargan and returning to Rex’s warehouse, the symbiote asked Eddie to tell Spider-Man the full story regarding the symbiotes’ presence on Earth in order to end his persecution complex, and was annoyed when he refused to do so. When Dark Carnage attacked, the symbiote angrily abandoned Eddie when he tried to retreat to protect Dylan and bonded to Bruce Banner, who transformed into the Devil Hulk after being killed by Dark Carnage.

The Venomized Hulk put up an even fight against Dark Carnage, who sensed the power of the One Below All and wanted to merge its power with Knull’s. When the Venomized Hulk refused to join him, Dark Carnage stabbed tendrils into his brain to force him to revert into Bruce Banner, then ripped the Venom symbiote off of him and assimilated it – causing Dark Carnage to transform itself into an even more powerful form sporting draconic wings, horns, pauldrons, and arm wraps resembling those of Knull.

After Eddie – who had bonded to the codices extracted by the Maker’s machine – killed Dark Carnage with a Necrosword manifested from his gestalt symbiote, the Venom symbiote returned to him and assimilated the Grendel symbiote. Sensing Knull’s awakening through its connection to the hive mind, the Venom symbiote berated him for having doomed the universe, but remained bonded to him.

Venom Island and Beyond

A few weeks later, Eddie received an invitation to join the Avengers, with the Venom symbiote trying to calm him down and assuage his lack of self-worth. It was interrupted by the Grendel symbiote – which had been imprinted with the personality of the original Carnage symbiote, and soon threatened to take over Eddie and force him to kill the Avengers. Silencing both symbiotes with antipsychotic medication, Eddie chartered a Quinjet to the Isla de Huesos, but the Carnage symbiote awakened and crashed the plane. Stripping the Venom symbiote off Eddie, the Carnage symbiote assimilated it – leaving it unable to do anything except watch as it hunted Eddie across the island in an attempt to take him over. When Dylan tapped into the symbiote hive-mind in order to commune with Knull, the Venom symbiote sensed him and tried to ask him to get help. The Venom symbiote was separated from Carnage when it was struck by lightning while bonding to Eddie, and attempted to rebond to him before the Carnage symbiote could do so. The Carnage symbiote bonded to Eddie first, forcing the Venom symbiote to flee into the jungle. Contacted by Dylan, who had immersed himself into the Symbiote Hive-Mind, the Venom symbiote allowed him to remote-pilot it and took on the form of a Tyrannosaurus rex to oppose Carnage.

This didn’t prove to be enough, as Carnage still got the upper hand, physically and mentally, as Dylan tried to contact his father through the symbiote Hive-Mind. Eddie was imprisoned in a mental Klyntar, so Dylan tried to free him but was imprisoned himself since Carnage was able to control the piece Dylan kept of it. With Eddie’s encouragement, both he and his son overcame Carnage’s will, with Eddie separating from it and destroying the piece it was controlling. Venom rebonded to Eddie and escaped the isle just in time to warn the Avengers about Knull. After this, they were suddenly attacked by Virus, which left them to question who he might be.

Eddie and Dylan met the Maker at his warehouse to question him about Dylan’s powers. The Maker simply revealed his plans to study the symbiotes in order to upgrade his world’s Venom symbiote to return to his home dimension. The Venom Symbiote was frightened by this revelation and how it and Dylan couldn’t feel it because of it’s synthetic origin, but their conversation was interrupted by an alarm that revealed something was invading the warehouse. As the Maker bid them farewell and good luck in their fight against Knull, Virus appeared and unintentionally destroyed the Maker’s portal while attacking. They were all sucked in, and while the Maker returned to his home world, the rest of them were transported to Earth-1051 – a reality where Earth had been conquered by symbiotes. Virus viciously attacked Venom, but has the symbiote connected itself to that world’s Hive-Mind, it gained new abilities, and was able to redirect one of Virus’ energy blasts. When Eddie returned to Dylan, Eddie was surprised to see that world’s Avengers.

He tried to convince them he wasn’t an enemy, but Captain America insisted for him to separate from the Venom symbiote. As it was about to start a fight, Virus attacked Eddie, only to be arrested by the Avengers because of his anti-symbiote tech. Eddie and Dylan got away and followed their way into the sewers, were they meet five versions of the Agent Venom. Believing one of them to be Flash Thompson, Eddie revealed his identity and that Agent Venom revealed to be that world’s Anne Weying. Anne revealed that her son Dylan, now dubbing himself Codex, was the leader of the Hive and that her Eddie Brock had killed himself in that world, thus she became Venom instead of him. After Virus attacked their base, now empowered by the Scorpion symbiote, Dylan used his powers to kill it, revealing his identity as Mac Gargan. Eddie decided to use him to get to Codex and fuse both Dylan’s memories, hoping it would revert Codex back to normal. Their plan worked, putting that world’s Dylan in a coma state. After that, that world has returned to normality and Virus was arrested. The Venom symbiote spent over a year on Earth-1051 with Eddie and his family, and arrived back to Earth-616 just in time to Knull’s arrival.

Second Symbiote Invasion

In case the Avengers’ initial plan to defeat Knull failed, Eddie and the Venom symbiote came up with a two-part follow-up plan that involved using Thor, Storm, and the Sentry to sever as many symbiote-dragons from Knull’s hive-mind as possible, and Venom would use Dark Carnage’s throne of living abyss to seize control of them. However, this plan immediately went awry due to Thor being MIA and Knull easily overpowering and killing the Sentry. Deciding to buy Earth some time by giving Knull what he wanted, Venom surrendered and offered to serve Knull in exchange for the Earth being spared. Knull rejected this proposal, instead ripping the Venom symbiote from Eddie and declaring his intent to go after Dylan next. Venom begged Knull to let it save Eddie, but Knull absorbed it into his symbiote-armor and all-but extinguished its indivduality. After Eddie’s death, his consciousness was preserved within the Hive-Mind as a codex, and with help from the codices of Rex Strickland and Flash Thompson he infiltrated the core of the Hive-Mind. When Flash was reborn as a symbiote-dragon, Knull confronted Eddie’s codex within the core of the Hive-Mind and attempted to destroy him, but the Venom symbiote broke free from Knull’s control and reunited with Eddie.

Piloted by Eddie’s codex, the Venom symbiote was reborn through the living abyss of the symbiote dragons and assumed the form of a giant, attempting to attack Knull directly. However, the God of Light ripped Eddie’s consciousness out of the Venom symbiote and resurrected his body – the Venom symbiote dissipating but promising Eddie it would find him. After Knull’s defeat, the God of Light left Eddie and the Venom symbiote rebonded to him, explaining that as the one who vanquished Knull he was now the new God of the Symbiotes.

Father-Son Bonding Time

The Venom symbiote moved into a house purchased by Tony Stark alongside Eddie, Dylan, and Sleeper. However, over the next few months Eddie began to rapidly age due to the strain being the King in Black placed on his still-mortal body. Upon discovering Dylan had been getting into fights at school, Eddie tasked the Venom symbiote with keeping an eye on him, and it seperated from him and once again took on the form of a dog to do so. En route to Midtown High School, Dylan asked the Venom symbiote what its true name was, the symbiote explaining that its kind didn’t have names as humans understood them so much as unique emotional wavelengths.

While walking back to the Brock residence – Dylan once again having wound up in detention, they noticed Jack O’Lantern mugging an old woman and intervened. The Venom symbiote attempted to frighten Jack O’Lantern away in order to protect Dylan, but this resulted in Dylan being shot in the chest. Out of desperation, the Venom symbiote bonded to Dylan and they beat up Jack O’Lantern together. Shortly afterwards, Eddie revealed he had anticipated something like this occurring. While skeptical of the changes Dylan had made to Venom’s appearance, Eddie gave Dylan his blessing to act as Venom and asked his old friend to watch over his son, before informing Dylan of a Goblin sighting.

Powers & Abilities

Symbiotes empower the natural abilities of a host to the point where they far exceed that of normal members of the hosts’ species. These abilities include the following: superhuman strength (retains the strength from previous host), speed and agility, Super enhanced durability, resistance to damage and healing ability, genetic memory, recalling information from previous hosts. Can expand to any size as long as they have something to grow on such as a host or an object. Symbiotes can get inside of small areas such as electric wires and the insides of cars and completely disable them. The Symbiote also reacts to the thoughts and will of the host. When Spider-Man was originally selected, he had been thinking about Arachne’s costume. The Symbiote acted on this and formed a similar costume, the one seen on him and Venom. The Symbiote can sense the presence of other Symbiote within a certain distance. The symbiote also has the ability to shapeshift such as mimicking clothing, and the complete and utter change of appearance and stature of its host.

The Venom Symbiote has also adapted the spider-powers of Spider-Man, and those same powers have also been inherited by its offspring such as the ability to cling onto walls and produce an infinite amount of webbing from its own mass along with the ability to bypass Spider-Man’s spider-sense. At his peak, before coming into contact with the symbiote, Brock can lift (press) 700 lbs. As Venom, Brock’s strength allows him to lift (press) 25 tons which is stronger than Spider-Man himself (before having the Anti-Venom Symbiote which allowed him to lift 100 tons). Gargan can lift twice than Spider-Man, he originally could lift (press) 25 tons. The natural super-strength of Gargan, combined with the strength of the symbiote, allows him to lift (press) over 100 tons.

The Symbiote also allows the user shape-shifting abilities. Norman provided Gargan a certain-type of medicine that allows the symbiote to return to its original form to mimic Spider-Man’s appearance. The medicine must be taken in between periods of times, or else the symbiote would take over Gargan. Gargan has the ability to switch between the Venom appearance and the smaller Spider-Man appearance. Additionally, the symbiote is capable of healing injuries in the host at a faster rate than normal human healing allows. The symbiote is also capable of healing injuries and illnesses that current human medical care cannot such as cancer. The symbiote can also steal the powers and abilities of other beings, and it has been recently discovered that the symbiote can recall and mimic the powers and abilities of previous hosts.

Weaknesses

The Venom symbiote, like almost all symbiotes, is highly vulnerable to sonics and intense heat. While the Venom symbiote has been able to endure fire and heat-based attacks and weaponry, sonics have always proven very effective against Venom. Extreme sound can cause the symbiote great pain.

List of hosts

• Peter Paker
• Eddie Brock
• Angelo Fortunato
• Mac Gargan
• Ann Weying
• Patricia Robertson
• Flash Thompson
• Lee Price
• Deadpool
• Carol Danvers
• Groot
• Rocket Raccoon
• Drax The Destroyer
• Thunderbolt Ross
• Reed Richards
• Mercurio
• Doc Samson
• Kulan Gath
• Mayday Parker
• Normie Osborn
• Kron Stone
• Hulk
• Punisher
• Wolverine
• Thor
• Galactus
• Black Bolt
• Captain America
• Otto Octavius
• Tel-Kar
• Malekith
• Ben Reily
• Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers)
• Mysterio

Alternate Versions

Ultimate Universe

In this universe, the Symbiote is not an alien life form but a suit created to cure cancer by Eddie Brock’s father and Peter Parker’s father. After he is told of the suit by Eddie, Peter tried taking some so that he could experiment with it, and finish his father’s work.

Unfortunately, the suit travels up Peter’s arm and turns his suit black. Peter swings around in the new suit for a few hours, but soon he becomes delusional and develops psychosis. Peter is forced to destroy the suit. He then apologizes to Eddie for taking the suit, and warns him how dangerous it is. Angry at Peter, Eddie takes a second sample of the suit. When Eddie took the suit, it took control of and he became a monster attacking anyone that stands in his way. His form is a big purple-black brute that produce tendrils and spikes throughout his body, but when he absorbed the remaining Symbiote with Peter, the suit adapted the with spider insignia just like the mainstream universe. (Only within the universe of the video game “Ultimate Spider-Man”)

In the story arc “War of the Symbiotes”, Eddie absorbed the Carnage Symbiote from The Gwen Stacy Clone, he was finally able to control the Symbiote and also obtained a new form (as seen in the picture above). The symbiote (and Eddie) were later captured by the Beetle, who turned them over to Doctor Doom. Neither have been seen since.

In the story arc “Venom Wars”, a new Venom symbiote was given a host in Dr. Conrad Marcus, an ex-Osborn Employee turned Roxxon Employee. In his first appearance as Venom, he had an anorexic design, but in later appearances was more monstrous and more alien looking. He murdered Betty Brant while the reporter was trying to find information on the new Spider-Man, and later attacked Jefferson Davis after mistaking him for Spider-Man. He was eventually killed by a barrage of police gunfire during a battle with Miles Morales.

Characteristics

• Height: 5’11” (as Brock), 7’8″ (Variable, as Venom)
• Weight: 175 lbs (as Brock), 2751 lbs (Variable, as Venom).
• Eyes: Blue (as Brock), Brown (as Marcus), White (as Venom), Red (as Complete Venom)
• Hair: Blond (as Brock), Black (as Marcus), None (as Venom)

Marvel Zombieverse

In this reality, a virus spread throughout the world, turning all super humans into flesh-eating zombies. Eddie Brock who was possessed by the Venom Symbiote has become infected and the Symbiote is slowly dying because it needed a live host in order to survive. He was eventually defeated by a cosmically powered Spider-Man after eating that reality’s Silver Surfer and Galactus.

Earth X

In this universe, May Parker, the daughter of Spider-Man, is seen controlling the Venom Symbiote. Much to the dismay of her father.

MC2

In this alternate future, the Venom Symbiote is very much alive and has bonded with Normie Osborn, the son of Harry Osborn and grandson of the original Green Goblin, Norman Osborn. The Symbiote bonded with him and manage to control it, becoming a hero. The Symbiote died to protecting Spider-Girl and her father from Hobgoblin.

Marvel 2099

In the far away future, Kron Stone was a rich, spoiled brat that tried to kill Miguel O’Hara or at least, harm him really bad. When Punisher 2099 almost killed him, he fell into the sewer and came in contact with an alien mutation that wanted to have a host, thus creating Venom 2099. This Venom also has acidic saliva.

House of M

In this reality created by Scarlet Witch where earth is ruled by mutants and humans are the minority. Venom is an villain being played by an actor on the movie about Spider-Man, with Mary Jane playing Peter’s wife, Gwen Stacy.

Unknown reality

The Venom symbiote of an unknown alternate reality where superheroes are at a massive territorial war was used to regrow U.S.Agent‘s limbs which he lost during Siege.

Larval Universe

In this universe, Venom is an alien pig named Pork Grind.

Marvel Mangaverse

In this reality, Venom is a human ninja employed by Kingpin and responsible for the death of the reality’s Spider-Man’s father, who happens to be the reality’s Uncle Ben. When Venom and Spider-Man fought and Spider-Man won, he spared Venom’s life. When an amulet of the Symbiote surface, it was worn by Spider-Man which made him very powerful, but when he tried to removed it, it almost killed him. Venom got hold of the amulet and wore it to sacrifice himself to return his debt to Spider-Man. Venom returned from the dead is now looking more like the Venom in the mainstream universe. He agreed to teach Spider-Man the ways of being the most powerful ninja. But when Peter found out the true origins of the Spider-Clan ninjas, he declined being the leader and pass the title to Venom.

What If…? – Alternate Realities

Venom, along with Eddie Brock and other hosts, appear in the What If…? series.

What If… The Alien Costume Possessed Spider-Man?

In this alternate reality, Spider-man seeks the help of Reed Richards to understand his new black suit. After performing a cat-scan on Peter, Reed determines that the suit is alive. In an attempt to remove the suit, Reed blasts Peter with a sonic blaster but the symbiote is already bonded with Peter and does not leave his body. With the help of Dr. Strange, the Fantastic Four try to remove the symbiote but are unsuccessful, and with the symbiote in complete control the two escape. Days later, the Avengers are subduing the Hulk while he is being possessed by Nightmare. The alien-possessed Spider-Man appears seemingly out of nowhere, and the symbiote leaves Peter and bonds with the Hulk. Much to the dismay of the onlooking Avengers, Peter has been drained by the alien and passes away. Thor later appears to defeat the alien-possessed Hulk. The symbiote is remorseful for what it did to Peter, and attacks Thor. Thor’s hammer is no match for the symbiote, and it leaves Bruce Banner’s body. Thor finds Banner, who seems to be cured of the Hulk, but the symbiote bonds with Thor and escapes, leaving Reed Richards, with a sonic blaster, and the Avengers watching. The symbiote flees to Mt. Rushmore, and in a last ditch effort, Reed sends Black Bolt to confront the alien. Black Bolt screams and Mt. Rushmore is destroyed. Thor survives the symbiote’s bond and the symbiote is severely weakened. Black Cat appears and shoots the symbiote with a sonic blaster, killing it. Felicia walks away, mourning the death of her lover, Spider-Man.

Earth-92164

In this alternate reality, the weakened symbiote separates from Peter Parker during the events depicted in “Web of Spider-Man #1”. With Eddie Brock nowhere in sight and in need of a new host, the symbiote finds its next closest victim: Frank Castle (AKA Punisher). Catching him unaware, the symbiote attaches itself to Castle. The next few days sees Castle continuing his crusade against crime as usual, with a little “help” from the symbiote. After wasting the Kingpin and other rival crime-lords, the Punisher’s fellow crime-fighters become concerned. They stage an intervention and confront Castle. An internal struggle ensues between Castle and the symbiote within the Punisher’s mind. Eventually, by sheer force of will, Castle wins and regains control. He then escapes, while his fellow crime-fighters allow him to go free. With a city-wide gang war fast approaching, they feel that there are worse things to worry about besides a powerfully-Venomized Punisher.

Battleworld – The Warzone

In this domain on the Battleworld created by Doctor Doom, the event known as Civil War never ended. Mac Gargan, the current host, was killed by an explosion during the battle of 42 along with fifteen million other people. The United States later broke into two factions: The Blue, controlled by Steve Rogers, and The Iron, controlled by Iron. Somewhere along the line, the Venom symbiote was obtained by the Blue and attached itself to Clint Barton. This new Venom is shown killing King Ock (Doctor Octopus’ Arms attached to the corpse of Kingpin) by shooting it through the head with Daredevil’s Billy Club

Gwenom (Earth-65)

On Earth-65, the Venom symbiote was created by a scientist named Dr. Elsa Brock, who had been working with the spider isotopes developed by Cindy-65. While trying to find a cure for the Lizard formula developed by Curt Conners, Brock created an oozing black parasite that can grant spider-like powers to its host. Dr. Brock and Matt Murdock initially offered the symbiote to Gwen Stacy to help her both regain her powers and cure Harry Osborn (who had injected himself with the Lizard formula), but she refused. However, when Harry’s transformation into the Lizard became too advanced, Gwen was forced to expose Harry to the isotopes, which cured him of the Lizard serum by causing it to transform into the Venom symbiote.

Gwen bonded with the symbiote and initially was able to tame it, but gave in to its increased bloodlust and aggression after her father, George Stacy, was badly injured and nearly killed by the Rhino. Over time, Gwen learned to control the symbiote and keep its aggression in check, eventually having it turn into a replica of her original costume.

Other Media

Animated

Spider-Man: The Animated Series

Eddie Brock made a few appearances in the series, and was voiced by Hank Azaria, he eventually joins with the Symbiote and attempts to torment Spider-Man, and later learns his identity. After Venom was separated from Brock, Spider-Man attached it to a rocket and it was sent to space. It eventually came back and gave birth to Carnage. It then went looking for Eddie Brock to bond with him again. After possessing a female bystander he then makes his host go to the institute to break Brock out of there. Venom eventually helps Spider-Man and Iron Man defeat Dormammu, but ends up being sucked into a portal, as he saves his girlfriend from Carnage.

Spider-Man Unlimited

Eddie Brock made very few appearances in this series due to Venom being in control of him. But eventually he breaks free of him only to be bonded back with Venom.

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Eddie Brock appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man, voiced by Ben Diskin. He is a close friend and former classmate of Peter Parker, who is greatly interested in science. He begins to develop a hatred for Peter and for Spider-Man over time and, after bonding with the captured symbiote, he becomes Venom. He then attempts to make Peter’s life intolerable.

Ultimate Spider-Man

Venom appeared as a symbiote that has been part of Spider-Man’s blood.It was let free by Dr. Octopus and it got a lot of hosts until it got to Spider-Man.Spider-Man fought with it and thought that it was destroyed but later he found out that the symbiote is alive and it’s host is Harry Osborn.Firstly he was able to control it and was the new Spider-Man but later he lost control and Spider-Man had to put him down.The battle showed that the symbiote is faster and stronger but Spider-Man attacked him with electricity and it was revealed that the symbiote is vulnerable to electricity.The symbiote was fried and Harry was freed from it.

Venom returns in several subsequent episodes, usually with Harry as its host once again. In the third season, Flash Thompson bonds with the symbiote and becomes the heroic Agent Venom.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

The Guardians of the Galaxy crossover episode “Drive My Carnage” reveals that many years ago, the symbiote was one of many Klyntar beings that were weaponized by Thanos. In Marvel’s Spider-Man, the Venom symbiote is found by the Space Administration and sent to Horizon High so that Max Modell can study it. The sample bonds to Peter Parker and forms his black suit, but he gets rid of it after realizing it’s making him more aggressive. It later takes Flash Thompson as its host before being defeated again.

In season 2, the symbiote finally bonds with bitter reporter Eddie Brock (who is jealous of Peter), transforming him into Venom. The symbiote returns again in Season 3, subtitled “Maximum Venom,” which also sees the creation of synthetic copies of the creature. The season loosely adapts the Venomverse storyline from the comics, which sees various heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel and Groot becoming Venom hosts after an army of symbiotes invade Earth.

Films

Spider-Man 3

Eddie Brock in the Spider-Man 3 film is played by Topher Grace. Eddie is a photographer for the Daily Bugle who is currently dating Gwen Stacy. Eddie makes his presence known when a crane accident took place. He was there taking pictures of the scene and saw Spider-Man come to the rescue then began to take pictures of him and told Spider-Man that he was “the new guy” at the Bugle. Peter was surprised under the mask and told Eddie that they all ready had a guy, Eddie replied with some insults to peter saying that his pictures make Spider-Man look chunky and that he was an armature.

And then Eddie went to the Daily Bugle to sell some Spidey pictures to J. Jonah Jameson. Eddie got held up at the front desk laying some pick-up lines on Jonahs secretary till he got the chance to slide into Jonah’s office. Jonah didn’t even know who Eddie was and until another member of his staff had reminded Jonah that he hired Eddie . Eddie introduced himself and tried to sell his pictures till peter bust on the scene and tried to sell his pictures of Spidey. once again Eddie insulted Peter’s pictures saying that photography isn’t all about “flag poles”. So Eddie and Pete each tried to convince Jonah to buy there pictures but Jonah decided to go with Eddie’s picture since they were cheaper and Eddie complimented on Jonah’s shirt. Then Eddie said some sob things to get a staff job. Peter immediately struck back saying he deserved the staff spot more. Jonah couldn’t decide so set peter and Eddie on a mission, who ever got the picture of Spider-Man with “his hand in the cookie jar” would get the staff job. The two headed out to get the picture.

Peter had gotten sucked into the symbiote and had on his black suit when he went to go fight the Sandman. Eddie showed up and took pictures of black suit Spidey to complete the mission Jonah sent him and Pete off to do. Eddie got the pictures but in the black suit Spider-Man was more cocky and “evil” so to speak and threw eddies camera into a wall destroying the pictures he took of black suit Spidey. Eddie complained but then took out a digital camera and took pictures of some things and then cheated to get the staff job by taking a picture of Spider-Man and turning it black putting a money bag in spider-mans hand and had him slinging away from a bank. Peter knew that the pictures were fake and edited by Eddie so then went to the Daily Bugle and interrupted eddies celebration on getting the staff job and put Eddie up against a wall telling him he knew they were fake pictures. Eddie begged peter not to tell anyone but peter didn’t listen and told the staff and proved that the picture was edited, Eddie was immediately fired by Jonah.

Later in the film, Eddie was so mad about Peter taking away his reputation that he went to the church to beg god to kill Peter Parker. While Eddie was at the church he heard someone screaming so went to check it out. it was Peter ripping off the symbiote suit, some of the symbiote got on Eddie and took over his body turning him into the dreaded Venom.

He later roams the streets of New York and gets attacked by Sandman who thinks he is Spider-Man. At that point Venom gets Sandman to team-up with him to defeat Spider-Man. Eddie disguised as a cab driver kidnaps Mary Jane and traps her in the cab suspended in a big web hanging on a building at a construction site. He and Sandman are then seen on the news by Spider-Man. As Spider-Man arrives to get Mary Jane, Venom attacks Spider-Man. Venom gets the upper hand by tying Spider-Man down while Sandman crushes him. This is stopped by Harry Osborn. Later on, Venom almost kills Spider-Man with Harry’s glider but Harry jumps in front of Spider-Man getting stabbed instead. All of a sudden after some pipes falls Venom’s symbiote starts weakening from the high pitch sound which Spider-Man uses as a weapon. Trapping a weak Venom, Spider-Man manages to pull Eddie away from the symbiote. Spider-Man then throws a bomb at it after it tries to attack, but Eddie jumps into the symbiote trying to save it before the bomb goes off. The bomb explodes and both Eddie and the symbiote are gone. Only a small piece of the symbiote remains, left in Curt Connor‘s lab.

Venom (2018)

A standalone Venom film, unconnected to Topher Grace’s portrayal of the character in Spider-Man 3, was released in 2018. In a departure from the comics, Spider-Man does not appear (due to the character being tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe). Consequently, this results in Venom not having a white spider symbol across his chest.

The film is an origin story, exploring how Eddie Brock first comes into contact with the Venom symbiote after it is brought to Earth by the Sinister Life Foundation. After Eddie and the symbiote bond, they must work together to prevent Carlton Drake from bringing the rest of the symbiotes to Earth, culminating in a climactic battle between Venom and Riot.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, the film starred Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake and Jenny Slate as Dr. Dora Skirth. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a massive hit at the box office.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

A sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is currently in the works, with Andy Serkis directing. Tom Hardy and and Michelle Williams will return, with Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson playing Cletus Kasaday/Carnage, the film’s villain. Oscar nominee Naomie Harris will portray Shriek.

Originally slated for an October 2020 release date, the movie was delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before eventually settling on October 1, 2021.

Novels

Spider-Man Super Thriller (1): Midnight Justice

Spider-Man faces the fight of his life when the nightmare creature known as Venom targets both the web-slinger and his alter-ego Peter Parker for destruction! The deadly alien symbiote and its human host, Eddie Brock, collectively known as Venom, harbor a growing hatred for Spider-Man that violently explodes when Parker and Spider-Man are credited with helping clean up crime in the subways. But these tunnels are the domain of Venom, and the clean-up is his doing. The credit should rightly go to him! Venom challenges Spider-Man to a deadly midnight showdown at Manhattan’s criminal court building in the middle of the worst snowstorm of the century. It’s a brutal, no-holds-barred contest, in which all the advantages seem to lie with Venom. Spider-Man and guest star the Human Torch must bag the crazed villain, or go down in the attempt! Written By: Martin Delrio Publisher: Pocket (April, 1996) ISBN-10: 0671568515 ISBN-13: 978-0671568511

Spider-Man: The Lizard Sanction

The deadly Lizard is on a rampage through the Florida Everglades, as he seeks a cure for his hideous condition– the result of an experiment gone horribly wrong. A heartbeat away is the alien symbiote known as Venom, targeting the Lizard for death, and he won’t let anyone stand in his way. Peter Parker, the amazing Spider-Man, is also in Florida to cover the next space shuttle launch for the Daily Bugle. Disaster strikes when he discovers that his two lethal foes are running wild through the Everglades, just as the launch is sabotaged by a group of sinister mercenaries! Why is Venom hunting the Lizard? And who are the mercenaries about to wreak havoc in southern Florida? What is their connection to the Lizard’s search for a cure? This triple threat presents Spider-Man with the challenge of his life as he desperately battles against time, the heat, and the savage trail of the Lizard and Venom! Written By: Diane Duane Publisher: Putnam Adult (October, 1995) ISBN-10: 0399141057 ISBN-13: 978-0399141058

Spider-Man: The Octopus Agenda

Spider-Man and his arch-enemy, Venom, must put aside their differences and join forces to stop the ruthless Dr. Octopus, the mastermind of an insidious plot to take over the world. Written By: Diane Duane Publisher: Berkley (August, 1997) ISBN-10: 1572972793 ISBN-13: 978-1572972797

Spider-Man: The Venom Factor

In a Manhattan warehouse, an innocent man has been murdered during a mysterious crime. Evidence points to the involvement of Venom– the alien symbiote who is obsessed with Spider-Man’s destruction. Yet Venom has always safeguarded innocent lives— has he gone completely around the bend, or is there another suspect? Spider-Man thinks there is more to the crime than meets the eye. The spectre of the Hobgoblin, one of Spider-Man’s nastiest villains, falls on a series of thefts, and leads the web-slinger to a deadly secret that may cause New York’s destruction. Spider-Man must outsmart two of his most lethal foes to save the city– but even more danger awaits him! Written By: Diane Duane Publisher: Berkley (November, 1995) ISBN-10: 1572970383 ISBN-13: 978-1572970380

Spider-Man: Venom’s Wrath

Ann Weying, ex-wife to Eddie Brock–aka the super-villain Venom–has been kidnapped, along with Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson and a police captain. Spider-Man must work with the NYPD to find the kidnappers before Venom carves a bloody swath through New York City to find his beloved! Written By: Keith R.A. DeCandido & Jose R. Nieto Publisher: Berkley (October, 1998) ISBN-10: 0425165744 ISBN-13: 978-0425165744

Video Games

Marvel vs. Capcom series

Venom appears in this Japanese fighting game series, starting with Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of the Super Heroes from 1998. He returns in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: Match of Millennium, and while not present in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, the Venom Symbiote does appear as an alternate costume for Spider-Man.

Ultimate Spider-Man

The game starts with a short recount of Venom’s first appearance in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books series. Eddie is next seen on a bench wondering how he managed to stay alive. The suit quickly takes control and begins eating a bunch of people in Central Park. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack try to capture Venom but fail. Eddie is voiced by Daniel Capallaro, while Venom is voiced by Arthur Burghardt.

The next day, Venom attacks an art museum and confronts Spider-Man. Before they do any serious fighting, Silver Sable shows up and shoots Venom with with some kind of neutralizing agent which knocks Eddie unconscious, allowing them to successfully capture him. Eddie is next seen in a containment facility owned by Trask Industries. The owner, Bolivar Trask, states that since they own the suit they wish to test it. When Eddie says that it is to much to control, Trask says that hey will find someone else to test it if he dies. If he is left to long in there without food, then the suit will consume Eddie until there is nothing left. Eddie gives in and agrees to help them test the suit.

His first mission is to break a prisoner out of Ryker’s Island, namely Electro. He completes this task with ease. His next mission is to fight him, since the suit shows a weakness to electricity. However, as Venom and Electro start fighting, Spider-Man shows up and starts taunting Electro. However he was then knocked unconscious by a bolt of lightning. Venom didn’t want Spider-Man to be killed though he wanted to kill Spider-Man himself. So as he fought Electro, he also had to protect Spider-Man. After he him up, he turned towards Spider-Man and was about to kill him to when S.H.I.E.L.D. agents surrounded him. Realizing that killing Spider-Man would have to wait, Venom fled. Even thought the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents followed him, he managed to get away.

Back at Trask Industries, Eddie explains that whenever he is around Spider-Man, the suit feels more control, and that that makes him feel good. Eddie then exposes Peter Parker as Spider-Man. Trask decides to kidnap Peter, so he can help Eddie get more control over the suit. While captive, a scientist injected Peter with part of the suit. This gave Peter his own suit, which in the game has been called Carnage (not the same Carnage as in the comics though, this was its own entity). Carnage escaped, and quickly found Eddie. Venom and Carnage brawled for a while, until Venom grabbed the tired Carnage and ate the suit. A now scared Peter asked Eddie what was going on. Venom answered, “I have absolute, total, control!” Venom decided to settle the score with Trask when Venom was about to go after Trask at his office Spider-Man kicks him out of the window then Trask tries to escape by helicopter, problem is he doesn’t know how to fly the helicopter! and sitting inside it while at the mercy of a vengeful Eddie Brock. He tries to push the helicopter off the Trask building with Trask inside intending to let him fall to his death but Spider-Man was able to stop him and take Eddie down for the count, unfortunately he managed to escape without peter noticing before S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives at the scene. Shortly after his battle with Spidey, Trask was taken to a state prison off the coast of the city and was sentenced to spend his time there for 3 years Eddie appears before him and presumably kills him when he was alone, He remains at large and whether he and Peter will encounter each is unknown.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects

Venom appears as one of the playable characters in the game, with Jason Bryden providing his voice.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Venom is a DLC character in the villains pack along with Doctor Doom, Magneto and Sabretooth. This DLC was only for Xbox 360. He was voiced by Steve Blum.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (Video Game)

The game starts with Venom attacking Spider-Man and Mary Jane. Venom had Spider-Man in his claws and was about to eat him, when part of the Symbiote came off of Eddie and bonded with Spider-Man. Spider-Man engages Venom in a fight Venom half way through says, “You dare to take the other from me, I will take the girl from you”. Spider-Man beats Venom. He then goes to make sure that Mary Jane is okay, but when he looks around, Venom is gone. Over the next few days, citizens begin to take on a more primal nature and show some of the same abilities as Venom.

Spider-Man eventually finds Venom in the process of turning people into Symbiotes. He says that whatever happened during their last fight, it made him stronger and more powerful. He also says that Brock is no longer in control. After a long fight, Venom runs off. Venom’s Symbiotes keep spreading until S.H.I.E.L.D. has to quarantine Manhattan, and blow up the bridge. After days of fighting, the Tinkerer creates a sonic transmitter which Spider-man pushes off the Trask tower at the last second when Tinkerer was about to start it up. Spider-man then said, “No more games, this time Venom dies.” He then realized that Venom was on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. After setting up all the bombs, Venom confronts Spider-Man. Venom is now however a huge monstrous beast with five heads. He has no lower body and is like a giant slug. (Red Side) Venom later dies when Brock sacrifices himself to destroy the ship. (Black Side) Venom later dies when Brock reaches out for help from Spider-Man, but Spider-Man tricks him and webs Eddie up and gets the web stuck in the turbine and Venom plunges to his death.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

In this game the Mac Gargan Venom is controlled by The Fold by nanites in his bloodstream. After he and Green Goblin are defeated the heroes take a sample of the Nano-Tech from Prison 42 to cure him and Goblin. He is unlocked after the heroes defeat him and the Green Goblin.

Marvel Super Hero Squad Online (Massively Multiplayer Online Game)

Venom appears as a mission boss in this family friendly free-to-play MMO, Black-Suit Spider-Man is a playable character for subscribers.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

In this game, the Ultimate version of Spider-Man (voiced by Josh Keaton) wears his symbiote costume. This differentiates him from the other Spider-Men by allowing him to use the symbiote’s spikes and tendrils to attack his opponents. He also has access to a Rage mechanic.

Disney Infinity 2.0

Venom is a playable character in the game. Additionally, duplicates of the Venom symbiote appear as enemy characters. Matt Lanter reprises his role.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes

Venom appears as a playable character in the game in both his classic Eddie Brock and Ultimate forms.

Spider-Man Unlimited

Multiple versions of Venom appear in the game, including the classic Eddie Brock Venom, Superior Venom, Agent Venom, She-Venom and Venom 2099.

Marvel Heroes

The Eddie Brock version of Venom is a playable character, voiced by Neil Kaplan. Agent Venom was later released as a Team-Up character, voiced by Crispin Freeman.

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite

Venom returns as a DLC character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, with Anti-Venom available as an alternate costume. He was voiced by Andrew Morgado.

Spider-Man (2018)

In the post-credits scene of the 2018 Spider-Man game from Insomniac, it is revealed that Norman Osborn has been using the Venom symbiote as part of an experimental treatment for his son Harry, who is dying of an incurable disease. It is unclear if the symbiote is still of extraterrestrial origin in this continuity, or was created by Osborn.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Venom appears as a playable character in the game, voiced again by Steve Blum. He is initially faced as a boss character during the prison break at the Raft, but becomes playable after his defeat.

Spider-Man 2

Venom will appear as one of the main antagonists of the sequel to Insomniac’s Spider-Man game, battling both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. He is voiced by Candyman star Tony Todd.

Other Video Game appearances:

• Spider-Man (Sega Genesis, Sega CD)
• Spider-Man (Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo)
• Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis)
• Venom & Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety (Super Nintendo)
• Spider-Man (Nintendo 64, Playstation, Playstation 2)
• Spider-Man 3 (Playstation 2, Playstation 3, X-Box 360, Nintendo Wii, PSP, PC)
• Spider-Man Friend or Foe (X-Box 360, Playstion 3, PC, PSP)
• Spider-Man Web of Shadows (X-Box 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PC)

Merchandise

Due to the character’s immense popularity both in and out of comics, Venom has received numerous toys, statues, and other merchandise, and has even appeared in kits by Lego. A small sampling of merchandise featuring the character includes:

Peter Parker

• A symbiote costume Spider-Man figure was released in Mattel’s Secret Wars line back in the 1980s.
• A 10-inch black costume Spider-Man figure was released for ToyBiz’s Marvel Universe line.
• Black costume Spider-Man was featured in ToyBiz’s toy line for Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
• Symbiote costume Spider-Man appeared in ToyBiz’s Spider-Man Classics line. The figure came complete with a symbiote display base. A 12-inch symbiote costume Spider-Man was also released by ToyBiz.
• Symbiote costume Spider-Man was also featured in the Marvel Legends Showdown series by ToyBiz.
• Symbiote costume Spider-Man was featured in Hasbro’s toyline for Spider-Man 3.
• Hot Toys created a figure of the movie version of the symbiote suit Spider-Man.
• Bandai created a figure of the movie version of symbiote suit Spider-Man for the Movie Realization line.
• Black suit Spider-Man appeared in Hasbro’s Super Hero Squad line.
• Hasbro produced a black suit Spider-Man figure for its Spectacular Spider-Man line.
• Symbiote costume Spider-Man was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line several time.
• Black suit Spider-Man was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line.
• Studios like Bowen, Sideshow Collectibles and Diamond Select produced statues and busts of the character.
• The first figure was a movie version of the suit that was included in the movie Sandman Build-a-Figure wave, the second was a comic version featured in the Red Hulk Build-a-Figure wave, and the third was featured in the 2017 comic Sandman Build-a-Figure wave.
• Black suit Spider-Man was featured in Hasbro’s 12-inch Marvel Legends line.
• Black Suit Spider-Man was featured in Funko’s Pop! line of bobbleheads.

Eddie Brock

• Eddie Brock received figures from Toy Biz for both the comics and the 90s animated Spider-Man series.
• Eddie Brock was featured in the Spider-Man Classics line from both Toy Biz and Hasbro in several forms, including one that came with an “Alien Ooze” display base, and the popular “Symbiote Blast Venom” figure, which is widely cited as one of the best Venom figures ever made.
• Eddie Brock has been featured three times in the Marvel Legends line. In the original Toy Biz line, he appeared in the Sinister Six box set as a retool of the companie’s previous Sabretooth figure. When Hasbro took over the Marvel Legends brand, they released a new comic figure as part of the Absorbing Man Build-a-Figure wave.
• Eddie Brock was featured in Diamond’s Marvel Select line.
• Venom was featured in various kid-oriented lines from Hasbro, such as those for the Spectacular and Ultimate Spider-Man cartoons and their Super Hero Squad line.
• Various statues of Venom have been released by companies like Gentle Giant, Bowen Studios, and Kotobukia, among others.
• Japanese toy companies like Square Enix and Kaiyodo have released figures of Eddie Brock as Venom.

Ultimate Venom

• Diamond released an Ultimate Venom figure for the Marvel Select line.
• Kaiyodo released an Ultimate Venom figure for the Ultimate Spider-Man Action Vignette Figure line.
• Ultimate Venom was featured in Hasbro’s toy line for the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series.
• Ultimate Venom was featured in the “Spider-Man Spider-Cycle Chase” Lego kit.

Flash Thompson

• Hasbro released an Agent Venom figure as a Walgreens exclusive.
• Agent Venom was featured as part of Hasbro’s line for the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series.
• Hasbro released an Agent Venom figure for the Titan Heroes line.
• Diamond released an Agent Venom figure as part of the Marvel Select line.
• Kotobukiya released an Agent Venom statue as part of the ARTFX line.

Movie figures

• Venom was featured heavily in Hasbro’s toyline for Spider-Man 3.
• Hasbro also produced a deluxe 10″ Venom figure.
• Venom was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends series as part of the Spider-Man Trilogy wave.
• Diamond Select released a bust of Venom from the film.
• A movie version of Venom was released as part of Hasbro’s Unleashed 360 line.
• Diamond Select also released a statue of Venom fighting Spider-Man during the movie’s climactic battle.
• Master Replicas produced a Venom bust.
• Gentle Giant also released a Venom bust.
• Medicom released a deluxe Venom figure.
• The 2018 movie version of Venom was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Venompool Build-a-Figure wave.

Mac Gargan and other hosts

• A figure of Mac Gargan was released for Hasbro’s Spider-Man Classics line. It was actually a repaint of the earlier “Symbiote Blast Venom” figure from Toy Biz’s Spider-Man Classics line.
• Gargan later received a second figure from Hasbro’s Spider-Man Classics line in the form of the “Scorpion Stinger Venom” toy.
• In 2018, a large version of Mac Gargan Venom dubbed “Monster Venom” was the subject of a Marvel Legends Build-a-Figure wave from Hasbro.
• Hasbro released a Superior Venom figure as part of the Marvel Legends Rhino Build-a-Figure wave.
• Funko produced a “Venomverse” series of pops that featured various characters wearing the Venom symbiote, including Captain America, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, Black Panther, Hulk and Spider-Gwen.
• Likewise, Hasbro produced Marvel Legends figures based on the Venomverse concept, including Miles Morales, Captain America and Spider-Gwen.