Eddie Brock

] The Symbiote rejects Brock, not desiring to be bonded with a diseased body anymore. Ultimately, Spider-Man tricks the symbiote into permanently merging with Brock. [Comic book reference| writer=Paul Jenkins| penciller=Humberto Ramos| inker=Wayne Faucher| story="The Hunger"|title=Spectacular Spider-Man| volume=2| issue=5| date=December 2003 | publisher=Marvel Comics| page=| panel=]

eparation

After bonding once more with the symbiote, Brock has a religious awakening and decides against permanently merging with the symbiote. Brock instead chooses to sell the symbiote to crimelord Don Fortunato, intending to donate the $100 million received to charity before dying. [Comic book reference| writer=Mark Millar| penciller=Terry Dodson| inker=Rachel Dodson| story="Venomous" | title=Marvel Knights: Spider-Man| volume=| issue=7| date=December 2004|publisher=Marvel Comics| page=| panel=] Angelo Fortunato, the Don's son, becomes the second Venom for a brief period of time. However, Angelo begins killing innocent people in his quest for glory and later proves to be a weak host for the Symbiote, being humiliated in a battle with Spider-Man. The symbiote abandons Angelo mid-leap, and the subsequent fall kills him. Upon hearing about this, Brock feels responsible and attempts to commit suicide by slitting his wrists, but survives.

The symbiote then becomes attached to Mac Gargan, better known as the Scorpion at the time. When Peter Parker unmasks himself publicly as Spider-Man, Brock is among the millions of witnesses. He is shown in the hospital, rapidly succumbing physically to his cancer and experiencing hallucinations of the symbiote, representing his dark side. He spots Mary Jane Watson Parker watching over a comatose Aunt May, who has been seriously wounded by a bullet. Brock has no idea what to do, but his dark side then persuades him to kill Aunt May.

Brock orders a dress-up costume of Spider-Man's black costume and sets out to kill her, first murdering a nurse for getting in his way. At the last minute, he has a change of heart, finding he cannot murder someone as innocent as Aunt May. Eddie repeatedly slices his wrists in order to get rid of Venom. He tells Peter Parker that while he's done terrible things, he's not a terrible person, and asks for his forgiveness before jumping out the window. Peter breaks his fall by catching him with two strands of webbing. Awakening chained to his bed, Brock decides to take better control of himself in the short time he has left. He tells his dark side that he accepts its presence, as long as it recognises that from that moment on, he is in control.

Anti-Venom

While praying at a church, Brock is discovered by philanthropist Martin Li who is secretly Mr. Negative. After Matt Murdock proves in a court of law that Brock was not responsible for his actions while bonded to the symbiote and has charges dropped, Li gets Brock a job in his soup kitchen. A touch from Mr. Negative completely cures Eddie's cancer and the remnants of the Venom symbiote within his body bond to his white-blood-cells. Upon being assaulted by Mac Gargan, the Venom symbiote attempts to leave Gargan to re-bond with Brock. However, Brock's skin is caustic to his former symbiote, and as a white substance seeps out of his pores covering his body, Brock becomes Anti-Venom. He engages Venom into a fight and receiving some help from Spider-Man, and cures Gargan from the symbiote, but also feels some remnants of the symbiote inside Peter's blood and begins "curing" him as well, but also ends up sucking the radiation from Spider-Man's blood, something that may depower him. [Comic book reference| writer=Dan Slott| penciller=John Romita Jr.| story="New Ways to Die"|title=The Amazing Spider-Man| volume=| issue=569| date=August 2008|publisher=Marvel Comics| page=| panel=]

Later Thunderbolts guards arrive to take the disabled Gargan to the ship while Songbird and Radioactive Man battles Spider-Man and Anti-Venom. After the fight, Anti-Venom sneaks on the Thunderbolts ship [Comic book reference| writer=Dan Slott| penciller=John Romita Jr.| story="New Ways to Die"|title=The Amazing Spider-Man| volume=| issue=571| date=October 2008|publisher=Marvel Comics| page=| panel=] and steals back Peter Parker's camera, looted by Norman Osborn in a bid to reverse-engineer the tracing system allowing the camera to zero on Spider-Man's chest. He is able to help Peter escape Osborn's tracer, and forewarn him about his next move, in a show of friendship and good-will. [Comic book reference| writer=Dan Slott| penciller=John Romita Jr.| story="New Ways to Die"|title=The Amazing Spider-Man| volume=| issue=572| date=October 2008|publisher=Marvel Comics| page=| panel=]

Character

The Venom symbiote and Eddie Brock bond together up to a certain point. They share many views, but each has their own say as Venom, leading to Venom referring to himself as "We" instead of singular pronouns. The symbiote, having once bonded with Spider-Man, holds a grudge against him. Along with Brock's own personal hatred, Venom is constantly out to kill and torture Spider-Man, though he is often able to put this anger aside and form truces with Spider-Man. Before Brock's religious re-awakening, Brock shows himself to be prone to extremely violent mood swings whenever separated from his other, showing none of the joviality displayed when fighting as Venom. He often broods over his crimes, expressing a great deal of guilt until once again being rejoined and once again becoming the lethal protector. [Venom; Separation Anxiety #1-4]

Venom has little interest in wealth, money, or power. He often fights against crime, though in contrast to Spider-Man, he is fine with murdering the criminals. In several Spider-Man novels he is even shown threatening to eat them, and some, like "The Venom Factor", hint that he actually does carry out some of those threats. He finds this method much more efficient than Spider-Man's method of justice. Venom makes little effort of hiding the obvious glee he experiences in terrifying and butchering those he considers guilty. Though, he sometimes is inconsistent, with the human side of Venom feeling saddened by his actions. Though he likes to stop the perpetrators, he is much more concerned about protecting the victims of crime. This has been used against him, as some of his opponents know he will let them escape in order to rescue an innocent civilian.

Brock's father didn't provide him with the affection he desired, so he is totally devoted to his wife Anne, even after their divorce. He tries to rekindle their relationship up until her suicide, which leaves him devastated. At one point, he tries to start a new relationship, but cuts it off because it is "too dangerous" to romantically commit himself. Upon his entry into hospital life, Brock becomes depressed while trying to fend off his murderous side. After murdering a nurse and almost attacking Peter Parker's aunt, he becomes overwhelmed by remorse and he is able to take control.

The "Anti-Venom" doesn't show the split personality of his predecessor. Instead, as Anti-Venom Brock's personality is in control, albeit with the unnatural compulsion to "protect the innocent" in a way similar to the threatening one of the former Venom, and "cleanse evil", ridding the world of any traces of the Symbiote once bonded with himself. He even addresses Spider-Man as "friend" and tries to help him by destroying the symbiote remnants in his body, where as he had once sworn to kill him, although this also threatens to remove Spider-Man's radioactive spider blood. It is worth noting that Brock refers to himself as "I" rather than "We" when Anti-Venom, making it possible that his new symbiote is not a sentient being. However, when using the symbiote, Brock's dialogue becomes much more sophisticated, using more intelligent words than when not using it, perhaps indicating that the symbiote is sentient up to a certain degree.

Powers and abilities

The symbiote provides Eddie Brock with various abilities similar to Spider-Man, its former host, including superhuman strength, agility, and reflexes, webbing creation, and the ability to adhere to walls. It does not inherit the "Spider-sense", but it does allow him to bypass Spider-Man's own senses. Due to Eddie Brock's muscular physique and natural physical strength from weight-training, his strength as Venom is superior to Spider-Man's by tenfold. Venom's webbing is very similar to that of Spider-Man, albeit from the back of the host's hand instead of the wrist. The webbing is created from the symbiote itself, so it is much stronger. This also creates an upper limit for the webbing, as overuse can significantly weaken the symbiote, as evidenced by the manner of Venom's defeat in "Amazing Spider-Man #300". It can also create tentacles and tendrils to grab enemies in addition to producing the standard webbing.

Venom's body is highly resistant to physical injury, and it can help its host survive in hostile environments by filtering air. It can also heal any injury or illness Brock suffers much more quickly than human medical care, and allowed him to survive indefinitely with terminal cancer. The symbiote is very susceptible to high-pitched sonic frequencies and fire. The Venom symbiote contains a small 'dimensional aperture', allowing Brock to carry items without adding mass to the costume, and it is able to transform to mimic any human or become camouflaged with its surroundings. The symbiote shares all of its knowledge with Brock, and projects its own desires into his mind. It is also capable of psychically detecting its offspring; however, this ability can be blocked.

The symbiote cannot be detected by Spider-Man's spider-senses, due to its former bond with the hero. As a result, Brock proved able to keep up with the more experienced Spider-Man in combat, while also being able to stalk Peter Parker without his realizing it.

After divesting himself of the symbiote, Eddie Brock's lingering symbiote cells are charged with the mystical energies of Mr. Negative. The cells bond with Eddie's leukocytes, forming a new symbiote, the Anti-Venom. As the chalk-white Anti-Venom, Brock has all the abilities and powers of Venom, plus a caustic touch able to break the bonds between other symbiotes and their host, and the supernatural ability to "cleanse" human bodies from foreign influences and mutations, like Mac Gargan's symbiote cells and Spider-Man's irradiated blood.

He also doesn't share the main weaknesses of the symbiote race from which he spawned: namely, extreme heat and sonic waves cannot harm him whatsoever [Comic book reference| writer=Dan Slott| penciller=John Romita Jr.| story="New Ways to Die"|title=The Amazing Spider-Man| volume=| issue=571| date=October 2008|publisher=Marvel Comics| page=| panel=]

Other versions

Marvel Zombies

In the "Marvel Zombies" series, a zombified Brock/Venom are killed by the cosmic powered zombie Spider-Man during the first part of the series. As he "dies" again, he reveals to Spiderman that the symbiote was already dying, Eddie no longer being a suitable host on his undead state.

Ultimate Venom

In the "Ultimate Marvel" series, Eddie Brock Jr. is Peter Parker's closest childhood friend; both his and Peter's deceased parents were working on a genetically-engineered protoplasmic "suit" as a medical tool to help cure cancer; Eddie continues his father's work. After Peter accidentally bonds with a sample and destroys it, Eddie, furious of Peter's actions, bonds with a sample which takes over Eddie, transforming him into the large, strong, power-hungry, symbiotic monster known as Venom. In the "Ultimate Spider-Man" video game, which is semi canon [ [http://www.superherohype.com/news/featuresnews.php?id=3503 Chris Busse on Ultimate Spider-Man - Superhero Hype! ] ] , the suit causes Eddie great pain, and is forced to consume humans to sustain his life. Unlike in "Amazing Spider-Man," Venom does trigger Peter's spider-sense. He also does not think of himself as "Venom," nor does he refer to himself as "we"--him and the symbiote. He spins "webbing" out of his fingers instead of the back of his hands and has large tentacles that come out of any part of his body. Eddie absorbs particles of the suit in Peter's blood, relieving him of his pain and causing the suit to develop the white spider symbol on his chest.

In the storyline "War of the Symbiotes," Venom has been captured by the Wild Pack on Bolivar Trask's orders. During his fight with Spider-Man, one of Venom's symbiotic tentacles was cut off by Beetle and Venom pursued him. After Spider-Man intervenes and Beetle escapes, the symbiote suddenly begins to possess Spider-Man. The Ultimates show up to battle Spider-man, and Brock takes this oppertunity to escape.

In the "Ultimates 3" Ultron creates a nanobot version of Venom, which attempts to kidnap the Scarlet Witch. The robot Venom is defeated by the Ultimates.

What If?

In the "What If...? Spider-Man Had Kept His Cosmic Powers" story, Venom is easily beaten by Spider-Man with his Captain Universe powers, and is forced to surrender to him. Venom later focuses on becoming a hero, his new arch-enemy becoming the Hobgoblin, who had his face accidentally turned into a replica of Peter Parker's face by Spider-Man.

Another popular issue of "What If...?" features the symbiote bonding not with Eddie Brock, but with Frank Castle (Punisher).

In other media

Television

* Eddie Brock appears in "", voiced by Hank Azaria, who blames Spider-Man for getting him fired, joins with the Venom symbiote and attempts to torment Spider-Man's personal life. He eventually helps Spider-Man and Iron Man defeat Dormammu, but ends up being sucked into a portal, while saving Ashley Kafka from Carnage.

* Venom appears in "Spider-Man Unlimited", voiced by Brian Drummond, and attempt to conquer Counter-Earth alongside Carnage with an invasion of symbiotes.

* Eddie Brock appears in "The Spectacular Spider-Man" voiced by Benjamin Diskin. He is greatly interested in science and a close friend of Peter, who begins to develop a hatred for Peter and Spider-Man over time, and after becoming Venom, attempts to make Peter suffer.

Film

*Venom's first appearance in a motion picture was originally planned for a film produced by New Line Cinema and written by David S. Goyer, in which Venom would have been portrayed as an anti-hero and Carnage as the antagonist. Goyer said in an interview that the film rights to Venom ultimately reverted to Sony. [ [http://ugo.com/channels/filmTv/features/davidgoyer/ Ugo.com (no date): "David Goyer Interview"] ]

*Venom appears in the 2007 feature film "Spider-Man 3", played by Topher Grace. Eddie Brock joins with the symbiote after Spider-Man abandons it and attempts to kill Peter Parker as revenge for Brock's humiliation.

*Avi Arad, producer and former Marvel Comics executive, plans to produce a Venom spin-off, although it is currently unknown if Topher Grace will reprise his role. [cite news | url=http://www.darkhorizons.com/news07/aviarad.php | title=Interview: Avi Arad for "Bratz" | publisher=Dark Horizons | date=2007-07-24] Regardless, Marvel is moving forward with the film. [cite news | url=http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4249&Itemid=99 | title=Exclusive: Venom Film Moving Forward | publisher=IESB.net | date=2008-02-02] It has been reported that Sony is going to be developing the film and Jacob Aaron Estes will be the writer. [cite news | url=http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/eo/20080730/121746906000.html | title=Bad Guy Could Get Spin-off | publisher=Yahoo | date=2008-07-30] Todd McFarlane, who defined Venom's look in the comics, hopes Sony makes him creepier than what he was in "Spider-Man 3". [cite news | url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/newsarama/20080804/en_newsarama/toddmcfarlaneweighsinonvenommoviespinoff | title=Todd McFarlane Weighs In On Spin-off | publisher=Yahoo | date=2008-8-4]

Video Games

* Venom is a main character in ' and '.

* Venom is a boss character in the 2000 "Spider-Man" video game; the "Spider-Man 3" video game adaptation; and ".

* Venom is a playable character in '; '; '; "Ultimate Spider-Man"; '; and "".

* Venom is included into downloable expanation "Villains Pack" for Xbox 360 version of "", voiced by Steven Blum, with his Classic, Marvel Knights, Thunderbolts and Ultimate skins.

References