Venom
Attributes
| Eyes: | Blue |
| Features: | As Venom, Brock has an elongated jaw, teeth, and tongue which are really part of the alien costume |
| Hair: | Reddish Blond |
| Height: | 6' 3" |
| Weight: | 260 lbs |
Powers
| Abilities: | Venom also possesses the ability to adhere to most surfaces. Venom can animate any part of his costume and can fire a web-like substance from his hands. Because the symbiote was previously attached to Peter, it knows how to shield itself from Spider-Man's spider- sense. |
| Limitations: | The symbiote is extremely sensitive to sonic and thermal attacks. |
| Powers: | Brock's powers stem from his symbiotic relationship with the alien that serves as his costume. The symbiote can mimic any type of clothing whatsoever, as well as blending Venom in his surroundings, rendering him invisible. The symbiote has augmented all of Brock's physical abilities to superhuman levels equal to, and in some cases greater than, Spider-Man's. |
| Strength Level: | 11 tons under optimal conditions |
Summary
| Citizenship: | United States of America |
| Created By: | David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Brett Breeding |
| Current Occupation: | Mad killer bent on revenge |
| Dual Identity: | Known to local authorites |
| Education: | BA in Journalism |
| Former Bases: | New York City, San-Francisco, California |
| Former Occupation: | Journalist for the Daily Globe, short stint as a Vigilante between murdering sprees |
| Known Allies: | Spider-Man, Morbius, Vengeance |
| Known Confidants: | "Beck" |
| Known Relatives: | Carol Brock (father), Anne Weying (ex-wife, deceased in Amazing v.2 #19), Mary Brock (younger sister, mentioned in Nova v.3 #6-7) |
| Legal Status: | Criminal record in U.S. |
| Major Enemies: | Spider-Man, Carnage, Life Foundation, Juggernaut, Scarlet-Spider, Jury |
| Marital Status: | Divorced |
| Place of Birth: | San-Francisco, California |
| Real Name: | Edward "Eddie" Brock |
| Usual Bases: | New York City (again) |
Background
It all started with a simple mistake. While participating in the first Secret Wars, Spider-Man really trashed his costume. He came across two other heroes who earlier had similar problems and told him there was a wondrous machine capable of making any article of clothing you can think of. Unfortunately for poor Spidey, they neglected to tell him where to find it. Spider-Man did find a device that he thought looked like "it wants to make a costume". It produced a small, black ball that initially set off his spider-sense as he picked it up. The ball oozed over the confused hero and became a black costume. Spider-Man wore the costume for a few months, enjoying the fact that it produced its own webbing and could change to mimic his civilian clothes.
This all came to an end when Spider-Man discovered his nifty new threads were actually an alien symbiote trying to bond to him permanently. Mr. Fantastic separated the two with his "sonic blaster" and captured the symbiote for study. It should be noted that during the period that Spider-Man wore the alien costume, there was evidence that the symbiote somehow fed on his adrenaline. The costume escaped and rejoined Spider-Man briefly, but the hero tried to kill the symbiote using the noise from a church's bell tower. The plan worked too well, and the symbiote saved Spidey's life before hiding itself in the church.
The other half of this future combo, Eddie Brock, was the star investigative reporter for the Daily Globe. Eddie was a particularly driven man driven to seek the approval of his stone-hearted father. It stands to reason that when his biggest score--a man confessing to be the then-active Sin-Eater--was exposed as a fraud when the real Sin-Eater was captured by Spider-Man, Brock went a little over the edge. The paper fired him, his father disowned him, and his marriage ended. Brock's mind locked onto Spider-Man as the source of all his woes and thus began Brock's burning hatred of the Wall-Crawler. But life continued to deal harshly with Brock, and soon he decided to commit suicide. Stopping by a church to pray before he did the fateful deed, Brock's intense hatred of Spider-Man was noticed by the symbiote who had been hidden there since its last confrontation with Spider-Man. The two bonded and became Venom.
Venom has battled Spider-Man, and anyone else who gets in his way, numerous times since then. Eddie nearly lost his symbiote that way, after fighting the mercenaries, Styx and Stone, who were on contract to kill Spider-Man. They had been hired by an obsessed fan of Mary Jane's, Jonathan Caesar. Brock sees himself as a hero, protecting innocents from the "evil" Spider-Man. Venom desperately hates his "son", Carnage, who he sees as a perversion of all that he is. They have clashed repeatedly, their rivalry almost as intense as the hatred Brock feels for Spider-Man. Their most famous battle took place during the Maximum Carnage event, where Carnage, Shriek, Demogoblin, Carrion (Malcolm McBride) and Doppelganger tore apart Manhattan in a riot to prove that chaos was the true nature of being. Venom teamed with Spider-Man Cloak and Dagger, Morbius, the Black Cat, Dethlok, Captain America and Nightwatch to stop the mass slaughter.
In truth Venom has acted as a hero on several occasions, but he believes anyone he sees as "evil" should die, and this puts him in the same dubious category as the Punisher. In one instance, he helped Silver Sable, the Wild Pack and Sandman from demons in San Francisco despite the fact that the mercenaries had come to capture him. He still hates Spider- Man, but for a while regarded him as a necessary evil since the Wall-Crawler also protects the "innocent". He came to this conclusion after "saving" Peter's robotic "parents" (a scheme put together by Harry Osborn) from Peter's supposed corrupting influence. Spider-Man consulted Brock's ex-wife, Anne Weying, on how to approach him during his "parents" kidnapping and she helped Eddie realize that Spider-Man should be left alone.
Venom served a homeless community of people living in the buried ruins of old in San Francisco. He acted as their protector for a while but make no mistake: that Venom was insane. Brock was soon captured by the Jury, a high tech band of mercenaries hired by the father of a guard that Brock had killed while escaping from prison. He was also targeted by the Life Foundation, who wanted to harvest his remaining symbiotic offspring. This resulted in the creation of five new symbiotes: Scream, Lasher, Agony, Phage and Riot. (Four of these symbiotes later bonded to Scott Washington, who became Hybrid.) Shortly after that, Venom had an epic struggle with the returned Ben Reilly, who managed to separate Brock and the symbiote.
After being rejoined, Venom's killer instincts surfaced once again, and little by little he became a threat to innocent people as well. He acquired selective amnesia (Brock no longer remembers Peter is Spider-Man, and the symbiote doesn't seem to make any effort to remind him of that). Brock absorbed Cletus Kassady's symbiote (who then found another one) and joined the Sinister Six shortly after the reboot. But he soon regretted it and then tried to kill his former teammates. He left Sandman near death, after biting a great chunk out of him, and attacked Electro, leaving him also for dead. He made some sort of peace with Spidey (again), only to foolishly blame him for something as far fetched as his wife's suicide. When the powerful human/alien hybrid known as Senator Ward, Venom lost his chance for revenge, since Ward split Brock and the symbiote apart (again).
"Twist"
A secret agency created their own symbiote using a piece of Venom's tongue that bonded with a woman named Robertson in an Alaskan lab. Eventually, Venom would absorb this symbiote into himself. Unfortunately, he wasn't unable to remove that entire 18 issues run from existence, since it was a story that never quite found its way.
"The Hunger"
Venom returned later on to reveal that Eddie Brock had cancer, and he could not survive without a permanent merge with the symbiote. In the end, Spider-Man forces the symbiote to go through with this "permanent merge." (Spectacular Spider-Man vol. 2 #3)
"Toxin"
Eddie and the symbiote have one last row with Carnage, when they find out the red maniac is about to spawn. Kassady wants to kill the young symbiote, while Venom wants to protect it. The new creature bonded to Pat Mulligan and became Toxin. He quickly beat "dad" and "grandpa." (Venom/Carnage #5)
"Shush"
Meanwhile, Eddie's cancer has continued to spread and in one last attempt at redemption he sold the symbiote at auction. Eddie had seen a movie that gave him a spiritual awakening and he was inspired to use the money from the auction to donate to charity. Many super criminals were hoping to buy the alien, including
- Sandman
- Hydro-Man
- Looter
- Owl
- Mysterio (Daniel Berkhart)
- Don Fortunato and his son, Angelo
- Shocker
- Speed Demon
- White Rabbit
- Stilt Man
- Tinkerer
- Knockout
- Yith
The creature was eventually sold to Don Fortunato, whom bonded it to Angelo to become Venom II. (Marvel Knights Spider-Man #6)
"Back in Black"
The last we see of Brock, he had slit his wrists in an alleyway. Brock did indeed survive his latest suicide attempt, but was waiting for the end in the terminal ward of a hospital. He stayed there for months, quietly waiting for death, going about his daily exercises without much enthusiasm. He was a broken man without much reason to live, until he realized that Peter's comatose Aunt May was in the same hospital after being shot by the Kingpin's sniper. Eddie was unsure what to do, but his psychosis, taking the form of a mocking symbiote, goaded him into a murder attempt on the catatonic old woman. He wore a black Spider-Man costume that he had bought online and murdered his nurse, to see if he still had it in him to be a killer. The nurse was no problem (she kept missing his veins when she took blood samples, so he rationalized that she deserved to die) so he made his way to May Parker's room. (Sensational Spider-Man #38)
Peter, Mary Jane, Madame Web, Felicia Hardy and Anna Watson were busy taking part in a seance to contact Aunt May psychically, so May was alone and helpless. Alone with Peter's aunt, Eddie couldn't bring himself to kill. He still saw May as an innocent, no matter what his hallucination told him. Sensing that May was in danger, Peter rushed to her room, just in time to see a deranged Eddie Brock standing in the hospital window, his wrists bleeding from multiple cuts. Telling Pete that he finally managed to cut the symbiote out of himself, Eddie jumped. Naturally, Peter saved him. (Sensational Spider-Man #39)
"New Ways to Die"
Eddie healed in the months after he attacked May. Ironically, he became her co-worker at the F.E.A.S.T. Foundation, a charitable organization. (Mephisto had caused everyone who knew Spider-Man's ID to forget, which explained why Eddie didnt want to kill May.) He had gone to pray for forgiveness at the same church where he met the symbiote, where he met Mr Li. He decided to spend his remaining days helping the even less fortunate. The F.E.A.S.T. Foundation had been the scene of several "miracles." Mr Li (aka Mr Negative) seemed to be behind these miracles, and unbeknown to Brock, cured him of his late stage cancer when he touched him.
However, traces of the Venom symbiote remained in Brock's blood. When the energy that cured his cancer met the symbiote traces, a mutation occurred. When Venom III arrived in New York with Norman Osborn and the Thunderbolts to capture Spider-Man, Gargan found Brock instead of Parker. (He was using an ability to track former hosts, but didnt realize he was being led to the wrong one.) When the Venom symbiote tried to return to Brock, it was burned once it touched him. It also brought out the new mutation him: the creature called Anti-Venom, who hates the symbiote and all the pain it brought. (Amazing Spider-Man #570)
"Lee Price"
The Venom symbiote was bonded to several hosts after it was removed from Gargan. One of them was Flash Thompson, who worked for the Federal government and was given a drug that kept the alien subdued. In their time together, the alien learned to respect life and to act selflessly.
After it was separated from Thompson, it was weakened and forced to bond to a former army ranger named Lee Price as a means of survival. Price was a low level thug that was at a meeting between criminals when it got violent but he was saved by the symbiote. (Venom #1)
It sensed that he, like Thompson, had been a soldier and hoped that they could work together. Lee was more interested in dominating the alien and using it to climb the criminal ranks, despite it's protests. (Venom #2)
The new Venom was soon betrayed by his boss, Mac Gargan and the Black Cat and was on the run. This drew the attention of Spider-Man and the FBI, who brought along Eddie Brock as a specialist. (Venom #3)
The alien broke free of Price, after Spider-Man offered to re-bond to it. Before it could reach Spider-Man, it was hit by sonic guns and captured, which enraged the creature. The creature was taken to a government facility, where Brock killed a guard to see it again. He became Venom and was free. (Venom #6)
"The Land Before Crime'
While visiting an injured priest in the hospital, Eddie overheard a teenager claim that his friends had been killed by a monster in the sewer. Eddie demanded that he describe the creature and was soon looking for it in the sewage system. The reptilian creature attacked Venom from behind and bit his tongue before it was soon defeated. Venom soon found an Alchemax logo on the monster's clothing and he made his way to the corporation to talk with it's CEO, Liz Allan. He brought her the tied up body of the sewer creature and she assumed he wanted to blackmail her. Venom assured her he only wanted her help in finding out why the alien had been lashing out unpredictably. After leaving a tissue sample with a shady looking scientist, Liz explained to Eddie that her company had been working with the military to create cell regeneration for soldiers, and that the research was based on the work of Dr. Vincent Stegron. Stegron had escaped with $70 million of research equipment and many volunteers. Venom was tasked with brining back the equipment and Stegron, and would be paid with answers about the symbiote. Venom had soon followed Stegron to his lair but found he had many more mutated dino men than he expected. He was going to retreat when one of the creatures knocked him into the cave, where he was captured and taken to Stegron. (Venom #151)
Eddie was woken up by the symbiote, in the middle of a fight. Stegron intended to make Venom into one of his dino people when they escaped by smashing a hole in a cavern wall, causing a flood. It washed them away and they ended up in a park, found by Devil Dinosaur and Moon Girl. They were out "doing science and crushing bad guys" until Venom told them to go home and finish her homework. Eddie reported back to Liz and told her there was an army of dinosaur men. She took him to her scientist, who said the symbiote was undergoing toxic shock and was losing its physical composition and its mental faculties. They believed the toxin was coming from Brock's own body and was put there by the federal government when Eddie worked for them as Toxin. Those chemicals made Eddie inhospitable to symbiotes. Venom didnt react well to this, but he was stopped from killing the scientist by Liz, who reminded him that he needed his help. They had made a temporary serum for him, one that needed to be reapplied every 36 to 48 hours. Liz would have more for them, after they captured Stegron. Venom returned to the sewer and found Moon Girl observing Stegron from a hole in the cave hole. Devil Dinosaur soon burst into the chamber and was under Stegron's mental control. (Venom #152)
Venom and Moon Girl fled the sewer, with the tyrannosaurus right behind them. They escaped and Moon Girl was soon trying to think of a way to block Stegron's telepathy. The symbiote told Eddie it could block the mental control, and he reluctantly agreed. Stegron was preparing to dump his serum into the water supply when Venom arrived and took control of Devil Dinosaur, bonding the alien to him. Stegron ordered tne army to attack them, but they were interrupted when Moon Girl destroyed the vats of serum. Venom rescued her from Stegron and flushed him out by draining the water works. He was soon webbed up and unconscious, losing control of his subjects. Back at Alchemax, Eddie asked Liz for a job and she refused. They also gave him a month's supply of the chemical to keep the symbiote from deteriorating further. Brock didnt feel especially accomplished after the ordeal was over, but did look forward to investigating claims that the Skrull invasion had been a government hoax. (Venom #153)
"Lethal Protector"
After nearly eating a dirty cop one night, Venom went home to take his medication. The symbiote needed food more than medication and Eddie took a job at a tabloid to earn cash. Venom was soon back at the dinosaur people's underground hideout looking for food, since he didnt want to steal to eat. They welcomed their savior with open arms and he commented that whatever they were roasting smelled good, when he saw that it was a Moloid. (One of a race of underground subspecies of humanoid.) Just then the other Moloids attacked, to avenge the death of their brethren. Venom tried to convince the dinomen to not fight but was eaten by one of their creatures. He burst out of the animal, much to the dinomen's joy. They celebrated the meat he had just supplied. Before the fight continued, Venom told the Moloids to take their dead and go in peace but to leave the dead animal. (Venom #155)
Returning to his apartment one night, Eddie found one of the dino-people injured and waiting for him. She explained that she had been pursued by a man with a knife who enjoyed toying with her. Eddie reluctantly agreed to help and after one of the other creatures agreed to take her back to the others, Venom was happy to leave. He changed his mind when the creature was killed by a gunshot. Turning on the assailant, Venom was attacked by Kraven the Hunter. He was stabbed several times by the Hunter, who was glad to have found better prey than the dinosaurs. Venom chased him through the sewers, leading the impulsive Venom into a bear trap, trapping him by the leg. Venom yanked Kraven toward him with a webline, which Kraven cut through with his knife while in midair. Venom freed himself from the trap and pounced after the Hunter, who managed to shoot him with a rifle as Venom lunged. The bullet penetrated the symbiote and Venom fled. Eddie had thought the alien was bulletproof, but it told him it was tough but not impenetrable. It managed to dig out the bullet and offered to heal him but Brock said there was too much damage and he needed a hospital. Venom made his way to Alchemax, where he asked for help. (Venom #156)
He was sewn up by Liz Allen's scientist, despite his having no medical knowledge. He noticed the TV behind the scientist broadcasting a news conference with the new mayor of New York, Wilson Fisk, and Kraven. Kraven showed himself as a concerned conservationist and held up a head of one of the dead dino people, explaining that these creatures were under the city. He also called Venom a cannibal and was working with the dinosaur creatures. Kraven intended to end this menace with the help of highly armed New York police officers. Venom used this to his advantage, disguising himself as one of the police and learned their tactics and plans. He set about disarming Kraven's traps and soon found the hunter himself. Kraven seemed like easy prey and was soon in Venom's grip, until the Hunter introduced his new ally, Shriek. She hit Venom with a sonic blast, slamming him against a wall. She hit him again, causing a collapse of the ceiling and damaging an apartment building above ground. Eddie and the weakened symbiote tried to hold up the falling ceiling but were buried under the rubble. (Venom #157)
Trapped under the debris, Brock remembered the early days of being Venom. He remembered feeling that his mind was drowning in rage and hunger. That was before he started taking medication to stabilize the alien, a medicine that he was late in taking. If he let himself become blinded by rage in his situation, they would die. At that moment, the dino-woman named Tana arrived, searching for him. He told her to get help, and she returned with the Moloids who had been watching everything nearby. They dug him out of the rubble, while propping up the street with boulders. As soon as he was free, Venom was in a near mindless rage.
Venom found Kraven butchering the dino-men like sheep, and was about to kill him when he was hit by Shriek. Despite the pain, he grabbed her by the throat and threw her into Kraven, knocking both of them out. Venom was about to tear Kraven's head open when he was injected with medicine by Tana. The police SWAT team showed up and took Kraven and Shriek away, despite recognizing Venom as a fugitive. They let him go when Tana announced he was protected by the dinosaurs. (Venom #158)
"Venom, INC"
Venom was soon back on the street and dealing with the Looter, who seemed to be selling illegal guns. The whimpering criminal begged to explain himself, saying they were plastic toys painted black. That way anyone that got arrested with them could say they didnt mean any harm. Venom always admitted that Looter was kind of pathetic and jail was a powerful motivator...but death was better. He stabbed Looter's arms, but Brock stopped the alien from killing him. Looter escaped and Eddie knew he needed to go back to Alchemax for more medicine.
While there, he found that Alchemax had created a new medicine based on Anti-Venom. The alien was a living thing that was constantly changing, so it needed a medicine that would change with it.
"Tangled Webs"
Eddie was given the good news that Alchemax had cured his alien of the poisoning that made it go into violent rages. After leaving, he found the Looter robbing a rug store and simply picked him up to take him to the police. He assured Fester that he wouldn't eat him, especially after he peed himself. This was good news to Spider-Woman (Drew), who planned on taking both of them to the police. Venom assured her that he had his symbiote under control, and she assured him he was still responsible for numerous deaths over the years. Spider-Woman attacked him and he fled, not wanting to fight her. She cut his webline with a venom blast, and sent him crashing into a car. Admitting to having killed in the past, he said he admired her respect for all life. He then threw the Looter through the air, knowing she would go to catch him, letting him escape.
Jessica later tracked him to his apartment, and hit him with a venom blast when he answered the door. She began dragging the unconscious Eddie out the door, when the alien lunged and attached itself to her. It shared it's memories of it and Eddie saving lives over the years. Jessica was disturbed by the experience but agreed to let them go. She warned it to keep Brock under control, or she'd be back. When Eddie woke up, it explained that it made Spider-Woman leave by showing they were heroes. Eddie asked if it was keeping anything from him, and it denied lying. (Venom #161)
”Time and the Conqueror”
After feeling the distant fear and danger of his son, Dylan, Eddie tried to get back to earth and the 21st century. He ended up back near earth but in the 602nd century. He was onboard the flagship Nathaniel on the fleet of Kang the Conqueror. Upon finding Kang, Brock was told that for him, this was their first meeting. For Kang, he and Eddie had known each other for eons and made a good team. To Eddie, Kang was just another weirdo that the Avengers fought. Kang was impressed that Brock stood up to him as well as he did. If being close to Kang meant that he could learn how to get home to Dylan, he’d be willing to stay for a while. (Venom #208)
Quizzes: Quiz on Venom, Another Quiz on Venom, Symbiote Quiz.
Image Gallery
Appearances
Thanks To
The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.
Some of the above information is extracted from the various versions of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and the more recent Marvel Encyclopaedias.