Eddie Brock Becomes Venom Again Venom Separation Anxiety

"Nosotros'll call ourself... Venom! Feels right! I was unsure earlier, but now I understand. With great ability comes cracking responsibility! Ah, and one other thing: REVENGE! Heh!"

— Venom, Spider web of Spider-Human being Almanac #8

Venom is a Marvel Comics character, and i of the nigh famous of Spider-Man'due south Rogues Gallery, though over time his character and motivation accept evolved. To date there have been numerous men and women who take assumed the mantle of Venom.

Venom's origin began with an alien symbiote that was used to build a new conform for Spider-Man, inspired design-wise by the second Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) during their team-up in Secret Wars. The costume alter was initially unpopular with fans (although the blackness costume would later become one of Spider-Man's most pop costumes) then information technology quickly went through a Retcon and was revealed to be an alien symbiote that wanted to bond with Peter Parker. Horrified, Spidey managed to repel the symbiote by taking advantage of its weakness to sonic noises via church bells. Some writers and editors did not similar Peter's motivation at the time so there was a second Retcon that the conform was more powerful than his ordinary suit, simply was slowly corrupting him with rage, making him more aggressive and vehement.

The brute ultimately survived, going on to bond to a serial of hosts (many that diameter grudges against Spider-Man), developing from a lonely alien animate being to an '90s Anti-Hero to bloodthirsty monstrosity, and then back to an anti-hero after being apple-pie. Its popularity amidst creators and fans has made it among the near memorable of Spider-Human being's Rogues Gallery and of Curiosity's anti-heroes. Its showtime villainous host, Eddie Brock, became a popular anti-hero in the 1990's and received a series of solo runs starting with Venom: Lethal Protector. Its third host, Mac Gargan, was the longtime Spider-Man villain known as the Scorpion; and was its host from 2003 to 2010 as a member of Norman Osborn'due south Thunderbolts and the Dark Avengers, where he impersonated Spider-Man and even got his own solo comic, Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Homo. Its fourth host was long-time Spider-Homo supporting grapheme Wink Thompson, who starred in Venom (Remender & Bunn) Book two, the Secret Avengers, and Thunderbolts Volume two. Afterwards Venom Vol. two was cancelled, Flash appeared in the "Darkest Hours" Superior Spider-Man story arc, and worked with Cherry-red Spider to save the Microverse from Carnage. Agent Venom then went on to bring together the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Following Secret Wars (2015), Venom got a new ongoing, Venom: Space Knight, as role of the All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch. Post-obit Civil War Ii, in which Venom returns to Globe, the symbiote was separated from Wink and acquired a new, villainous host: Lee Price, a former Ground forces Ranger able to boss the symbiote with his will... at to the lowest degree until information technology bankrupt free and reunited with Eddie Brock. The serial was given legacy numbering and eventually concluded. Venom (Donny Cates) was launched as part of the Marvel: A Fresh Start relaunch in 2018, and was succeeded past a new Venom (Ewing & Ram V) by Al Ewing, Ram V, and Bryan Hitch in 2021.

The symbiote remaining bonded to Spider-Homo or bonding to a character other than Eddie Brock has been the focus of numerous What Ifs, and alternating versions of the character are present in alternate universes, most prominently in Ultimate Marvel and Curiosity 2099.

For tropes related to the symbiote itself, private hosts, and characters from the series, there is a Character Sail here.

---

Tropes pertaining to the Venom comics:

• Aborted Arc:
  • The Venom symbiote beingness influenced to destroy humanity past assimilating its clone was discarded.
  • Cullen Bunn had several plans for the subplots cryptically alluded to throughout Vol. 2 of the Venom serial that were kyboshed past Curiosity cancelling it, including wrapping up the Descent arc involving Mania and the Hell-Mark; and bringing dorsum Carnage and resurrecting Anti-Venom for the Spawning's War of the Symbiotes. ^note A second Anti-Venom cameos in Centrality: Hobgoblim, and the Descent arc was picked up past Robbie Thompson's Venom: Infinite Knight, merely the balance of his plans remain unfulfilled.
  • With Mike Costa taking over for Remender and Bunn in Vol. 3, the Descent arc once again has been dropped, with Mania being completely absent from the books again. Fourth dimension will tell if her story is picked up in the book or another, though given the symbiote's change of hosts from Wink to Lee then dorsum to Eddie for Marvel Legacy, it seems unlikely.
• Adaptational Villainy: Before bonding with Eddie, the Venom symbiote didn't start as a villain, but was merely clingy to Spider-Man at the worst of times and was mainly acting out in a misguided try to operate in the best interests of its host. In multiple adaptations, it'south treated as a Superpowered Evil Side for Spider-Man that drives him to human activity upon his worst impulses. Not even the Venom motion-picture show is exempt from this treatment, as the symbiote is portrayed in that location every bit inherently amoral, albeit with a lawmaking developing over time thanks to Eddie'south influence. The very worst offender would have to be Spider-Man: Reign, which depicts Venom as a true monster of a fascistic despot who plots to devastate New York Metropolis for incredibly selfish reasons.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: Some see him as this to Blight; They are both bigger, nastier Shadow Archetype counterparts of the heroes they fight, both wore down their opponent mentally before chirapsia them in their first appearance, and both have had lengthy stints as anti-heroes and evolving motives. (However unlike Bane, Venom stayed equally a anti-hero.)
  • Amusingly, Tom Hardy, who played Blight in The Dark Knight Rises, has now been cast equally Venom.
• Alternating Cocky: Every incarnation of Venom has had several, due to the character's popularity. Here are only a small handful:
  • 100th Anniversary Special - Spider-Man: Eddie is murdered past The Kingpin, who becomes a giant technopathic Venom.
  • Marvel Versus DC: Venom is seen twice in single panel cameos throughout the Marvel vs. DC series. The first time he is seen facing off against Batman as characters from the Curiosity and DC universes brainstorm finding themselves displaced from their home universes. Later, during the final fight for the ii universes, he attacks The Wink and Quicksilver in order to preclude them from aiding their allies in the battle against Darkseid and Thanos. When the DC and Marvel Universes beginning to drain together again in the backwash of the Amalgam Universe in All-Access, Venom appears in Metropolis and beats up Superman and Spider-Man before beingness subdued by Admission.

    Spider-Man: Believe me, fifty-fifty without the costume, the guy was no picnic. He was a newspaper reporter, and you lot know what they can... be... similar. What's that await for?
    Superman: No reason.

  • All-New Barbarous She-Hulk: The symbiote is still alive thousands of years into the future, where information technology has grown to gigantic size, and is known as "the Black Flower".
  • An Age of Apocalypse: Apocalypse has an regular army of clones based on the symbiote-infected Peter.
  • Backfire/Spider-Man: Venom and Freeway are the main villains in this crossover with WildStorm.
  • Contest of Champions (2015): A Venom from a universe where he killed Spider-Human being is part of the Grandmaster's team. He now wears the remnants of Spidey's costume equally a greatcoat, and has a hallucinatory Peter Parker that he sees as his best friend.
  • Deadpool Kills the Curiosity Universe Once more: Deadpool kills Eddie Brock and takes the symbiote in guild to impale Spider-Man. After doing so, he lets it escape for the sake of their former friendship — a reference to Deadpool'southward Secret Secret Wars and Deadpool: Back in Blackness.
  • Earth-13584: The symbiote was captured by Tony Stark and experimented on by Hank Pym, leaving information technology braindead. It was eventually liberated past June Covington, who fashioned it into a new set of limbs for the the John Walker of Earth-616.
  • Earth Ten: The symbiote is a metaphysical entity whose appearance and abilities are derived from the belief that it is a super-powered alien costume, and it is bonded to Peter's girl May Parker.
  • Exiles: Cameo'd as a member of a dissimilar Exiles group that also included Mojo, G.O.D.O.K., Deadpool, Selene, and the Lizard.

    Black Panther: Whoa! Now nosotros are definitely a improve looking team of Exiles than them.

  • House of M: Venom is seemingly just an entirely fictional villain in a pic based on Spider-Homo.
  • Marvel Adventures: The symbiote is a defective invention of the Tinkerer which bonds to infiltrator Eddie Brock.
  • Marvel Comics 2: Eddie had died at an unspecified point, and the symbiote was captured by Southward.H.I.E.Fifty.D.. After escaping custody, the symbiote tracks down and possesses the retired Peter, creating "Spider-Venom ◊". Peter is freed by the combined efforts of Spider-Daughter (his girl, Mayday) and Phil Ulrich, and the symbiote falls into the hands of the Goblin Queen, who sics it on Normie Osborn in a plot to catechumen him to her side. After an intense struggle, Normie overpowers and gradually rehabilitates the symbiote, which goes on to sacrifice itself in an effort to terminate the Hobgoblin.
  • Curiosity Fairy Tales:
    • In Spider-Human: Fairy Tales #3 Venom is a Tsuchigumo responsible for the deaths of Izumi's parents and uncle. In an attempt to corrupt Izumi, it bit him, giving him an arachnid-based appearance, and the customary spider powers.
    • A knight version of Venom cameos in the Spider-Human being Fairy Tales #4, and Peter dons an armor version of the symbiote.
  • Marvel Mangaverse: Venom is Peter'due south cousin, an exiled member of the Spider Association, and the one who killed Peter'southward Uncle Ben, wearing a uniform similar in appearance to Symbiote Spider-Man. The symbiote itself appears as a cursed amulet that takes over Peter, turning his costume blackness and making him more aggressive, simply Venom sacrifices himself to free Peter from its influence and redeem himself. He later reappears in a more monstrous grade and becomes Peter's sensei.
  • Marvel Zombies: Eddie is a zombie, and the symbiote (one of the few entities immune to the plague) is dying due to a lack of viable hosts.
  • Mini Marvels: The symbiote is living newspaper ink that, afterwards being forced off of Spidey, bonded to fellow paperboy Eddie Brock, often manifesting every bit an annoying second caput that wants to eat everyone's brains. A fierce rivalry ensues.
  • Old Man Logan: The symbiote is stalking Wolverine and Hawkeye, and eventually attacks them after possessing a T. rex.
  • Spider-Geddon: Border of Spider-Geddon #two introduced the Venom of SP//dr'due south universe, VEN#grand. VEN#m is a sentient mech adjust powered by a unsafe, assimilating device called the Sym Engine, with a girl named Addy Brock as the pilot.
  • Spider-Ham: Pork Grind, a boar who is The Ahnold.
  • Spider Man Bharat: Nalin Oberoi's attempt to corrupt Pavitr Prabhakar with an evil amulet causes Prabhakar to briefly look like Venom. Pavitr seemingly destroys the amulet, but it later resurfaces in Web Warriors when an evil cult fully unleashes an asura-like version of Venom that starts spreading and infecting anybody it encounters before being destroyed for good.
  • Reign: Posing as "Edward Saks", Venom takes over New York City following Spider-Human'due south retirement and sets up a number of provisions in training for his eventual render: re-enlisting the "Sinner Six", replicating his symbiote thousands of times, and edifice a security system called "WEBB" that prevents New York citizens from escaping from the city.
  • Ultimate Marvel: The "Venom Accommodate" is a bio-engineered protoplasmic entity created as a cancer cure. Unfortunately, this "symbiote" is unfinished and genetically tailored to the Parker family unit'south DNA, and so it starts devouring whatever other host that tries to wear it (similar Ultimate Eddie Brock) forcing them to consume the biomass of other beings to survive.
  • Concept fine art for Spider-Verse shows Lady Spider'south universe has a Venom reminiscent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ◊, with Eddie Brock being working-class man and Venom dressed in dapper suit, top lid, and cape. He doesn't appear in the related Spider-Poesy comic, though.
  • Venomverse:
    • A version of X-23 who obtained the symbiote while escaping the Facility.
    • A version of Gwenpool who obtained the symbiote at some point.
    • A version of All-New Ghost Rider who obtained the symbiote later on Spider-Human's expiry and was overtaken by it and the ghost of Eli Morrow.
    • A version of Old Human Logan where Wolverine takes the symbiote from the Venomized T. rex.
  • What If?: Besides many to list, but some prominent ones are:
    • What If... Venom Had Possessed the Punisher: Frank Castle reaches the church shortly before Eddie Brock does and bonds with the symbiote, eventually subjugating it and going on to become more lethal than e'er.
    • What If the Alien Costume Had Possessed Spider-Homo?: The symbiote remains bonded to Peter Parker, aging him at an accelerated rate until he dies. The symbiote bonds to the Hulk, explaining that it didn't want to kill Peter and is curing Bruce Banner to redeem itself, simply Thor attacks Venom-Hulk and winds upwardly bonded to it himself. Black Bolt removes the symbiote, simply before information technology can be imprisoned Black Cat kills it to avenge Peter Parker's death.
    • What If? Dauntless New World: When the Secret War participants are trapped on Battleworld, the symbiote bonds mind and trunk to Peter Parker, leaving him a skeleton with the symbiote'south biomass forming their torso.
    • What If? Spider-Man: The Other: Following his "death" at the easily of Morlun, Peter rejects embracing the Other and severs his connection to the Slap-up Weaver, leaving his metamorphosis incomplete. The Venom symbiote senses this and abandons Mac Gargan to rejoin with its first host and finish his transformation, creating a new existence called Poison.
    • What if the Venom Symbiote Possessed Deadpool?: Deadpool bonds with the Venom symbiote afterwards killing Spider-Man, becoming Venompool. After numerous shenanigans, Venompool destroyed his abode universe with the Recton Expungifier, but was afterward shown equally a member of Dreadpool's Evil Deadpool Corps, being killed in Deadpool Kills Deadpool Vol. 1 #4.
• E'er Chaotic Evil: The symbiotes, Depending on the Writer, are always evil and brand their hosts become crazy or feed off negative emotions, merely in either case, they are not overnice. The 1990's Planet of the Symbiotes went as far equally to portray them as a Horde of Alien Locusts. The Venom symbiote and its progeny are apparently the only ones who care for their hosts. Of grade, even and so, the Venom symbiote is oftentimes depicted every bit the insanely jealous type. Guardians of the Galaxy #23, retcons things so that in their natural land the symbiotes are Lawful Good, and it is only by bonding to unworthy hosts that they become corrupted into bloodthirsty monsters.
• Creature Wrongs Group: The reason Eddie and Mac got to proceed the symbiote while in jail? PETA threw a fit nigh it existence an endangered species.
• Angel Face, Demon Face: The way Venom looks ties closely with the relative morality of the symbiote's host. On the heroic side, Peter'south adjust looks more or less similar his usual costume but in black; Eddie Brock's costume usually looks the same as Peter'southward but has More Teeth than the Osmond Family, claws, and a lolling natural language thank you to being a anti-hero; heroic soldier Flash Thompson wears what looks like trunk armor (unless he loses his temper); in the Spider-Girl series, Normie Osborn had what looked like the usual adjust merely with his face visible underneath and no fangs; and in Globe X it looks just like a regular suit that May is wearing (simply can't take off). On the evil side of things, when Mac Gargan and Lee Price wear the symbiote it looks even more monstrous than Brock'southward usual version.
• Anti-Hero: Or Anti-Villain, depending on the host: Peter Parker is a straight-up hero; Eddie Brock was a villain before mellowing out into a Pragmatic Hero; Angelo Fortunato was a Dirty Coward, Mac Gargan was an Ax-Crazy Villain with Good Publicity; Flash is a straight-up hero, or at least he tries to exist; and the Superior Spider-Man is an Unscrupulous Hero turned Nominal Hero.
  • The symbiote at first only wants to assistance Spider-Man but afterwards existence rejected by him it bonds with Eddie Brock and becomes corrupted by Eddie'southward hatred. Over fourth dimension, it becomes bloodthirsty and arrogant, but fifty-fifty then information technology still cares about Eddie Brock forth with Spider-Human; and while bonded to Wink Thompson it slowly starts to care nigh him over fourth dimension and even before being cleansed it admits that its time with Flash has been a honor, and although it was re-corrupted it made an effort to remain heroic and sane — fifty-fifty keeping itself from hurting people and caring about its hosts like Eddie and Flash. Despite hating Lee Price for his callous cruelty and abusive handling of information technology, it saves his life after he's shot; and after returning to Eddie it apologises to a priest it injured in a fit of jealous rage. After existence cured of its corruption, the symbiote and Eddie are now straight-upwards heroes being considered for membership of the Avengers.
• Curvation-Enemy: Formerly one of the three big ones for Spidey, alongside Doctor Octopus and the Light-green Goblin. Venom mainly filled the role from the late eighties to the mid-nineties, afterwards which his career as an anti-hero and afterwards his status equally a Legacy Grapheme caused him to drib out of the office in favor of the other two, afterwards Medico Ock would turn over a new leaf as well leaving the Green Goblin every bit the winner of the title.
  • After becoming an anti-hero, Carnage became this to Eddie, while Jack O'Lantern served as Flash's archenemy.
• Armed with Catechism: The natural alignment of symbiotes, likewise equally Venom, take flip-flopped over the years. At commencement Venom itself was neutral — if oblivious to Peter's needs — and only became evil after being corrupted by Eddie's vengeful feelings towards Spider-Homo. The animated series made it Ret-Canon that the symbiote was always corrupting Spider-Homo, with after stories establishing all of symbiote civilization as like that. Later however it was said that symbiotes are naturally noble and can be corrupted past evil hosts, which happened to Venom, and the evil ones were deliberately tarnishing their reputation. Finally it came out that symbiotes were created past a God of Evil in a campaign to decadent and destroy all light, life and divinity in the universe; and separation from his influence allows hosts to inspire dignity in them.
• Bad Future: Flash has a vision of what would happen if he was called in the Descent or the demon took over him. The vision shows Philadelphia in the same state Vegas was in during the Circumvolve of Four with Devil-Venom perched on a decapitated statue.
• Large, Screwed-Up Family:
  • During a jailbreak, the Venom symbiote left behind a spawn which bonded to Eddie's cellmate, Cletus Kasady, the result existence Carnage.
  • After separating the Venom symbiote from Eddie, the Life Foundation ripped a quintet of dormant "seeds" out of information technology, prematurely aged them upwards, and gave them to five of their employees, who became Scream, Riot, Lasher, Phage, and Desperation. When Scream killed her teammates, their symbiotes merged together and bonded to Scott Washington, who acted as the vigilante Hybrid. Scott's murder by Eddie immune the war machine to dissever the Hybrid symbiote into its four component pieces, which were equipped to the Mercury Team... which was wiped out by Carnage, the four symbiotes concluding being seen in the possession of the team's unnamed dog.
  • Using a piece of the Venom symbiote's tongue, an alien chosen Bob grew a wholly malevolent clone of it, which the original absorbed while it was possessing Patricia Robertson. Some time afterward, the symbiote passed its Hell Mark to the clone and regurgitated information technology onto Andrea Benton, creating Mania.
  • The Carnage symbiote became pregnant with its own spawn, which information technology to stuck to policeman Patrick Mulligan after unsuccessfully trying to suppress information technology. Patrick fought crime as Toxin until his death, afterward which his symbiote was sicced on Eddie past the Crime Principal. Eddie eventually gave it to Jubulile van Scotter to help her fight Chthon, afterward which it seemingly perished.
  • The combination of Eddie'south leukocytes, Martin Li'due south Lightforce powers, and remnants of the Venom symbiote resulted in the creation of a new not-sentient symbiote, which Eddie combated injustice with every bit Anti-Venom, upward until he had to sacrifice it to cure a mutagenic plague released by the Jackal and Spider-Queen.
  • Hall Industries separated the Carnage symbiote and Cletus, and used pieces of the former to manufacture biotechnology. 1 of these pieces turned out to contain another biomechanical spawn, which merged with Tanis Nieves to form Contemptuousness.
  • A new Anti-Venom was seen among the morally inverted Hobgoblin'south recruits, though it might just be an elaborate costume.
• Bio-Armor: Symbiotes office as this for their hosts, encasing them in their biomass. Flash Thompson as Venom and Eddie Brock as Toxin take this more than literally than almost by having their symbiotes take the course of biomechanical torso armor.
• Bioweapon Beast: Venom (Donny Cates) reveals that the symbiotes are this, having been created billions of years agone by the nighttime god Knull to facilitate his conquest and corruption of the cosmos.
• Black Comedy Cannibalism: The Venom symbiote and many of its ilk possess an ofttimes-ravenous appetite for flesh — peculiarly brains — and aren't particularly picky well-nigh where or who it comes from.
  • In his supervillain and antihero days, Eddie Brock was prone to making cannibalism-related threats and sadistic jokes, peculiarly towards Spider-Man. Some comics depict him as seriously intending and/or attempting to acquit these threats out, while others — like The Hunger, where he actually succumbed to the symbiote'due south bloodlust and ate someone'southward brains — have him be horrified and disgusted that the symbiote actually wants him to eat man flesh, and going out of his fashion to find alternative means of satiating its appetite.
  • During his stint as Venom, especially after he embraced the symbiote'southward bloodlust, Mac Gargan became decumbent to eating people willy-nilly — something that was played for laughs just as much equally, if not more, it was for horror. This is peculiarly prevalent in the Sinister Spider-Man tie-in for Dark Reign, where Gargan is the gleefully sadistic Villain Protagonist.
• Breakout Villain: Venom was introduced as a Spider-Man villain in the late 1980s, and due to the character'due south runaway popularity in the 1990's he became a anti-hero and was given his own series.
• Canon Discontinuity:
  • Nighttime Origin, which retconned Eddie's backstory to bring him more than in line with his portrayal in Spider-Man 3, has been disregarded past later and concurrently-released stories featuring him. However, while Venom (Donny Cates) did firmly reestablish the Lethal Protector version of the backstory, it also includes a nod to Dark Origin past revealing that the planet shown in the Venom symbiote's flashback was Gorr the God Butcher'southward homeworld.
  • Up until the Mania symbiote was revealed to exist the clone from it, Venom Vol. i by Daniel Fashion was assumed to be this by the vast majority due to the consummate and utter lack of any references to information technology exterior of a minor (bordering on Easter Egg) i in the Continuity Cavalcade featured in an issue of New Avengers.
  • Deadpool'due south Secret Secret Wars and Deadpool: Back in Black are an unusual case, as some writers and editors consider them to be catechism to the mainstream Curiosity Universe while others don't, which has led to some disagreements on social media.
• Cloning Dejection:
  • In the 2003 Shiver arc a clone of the symbiote is created in a remote Arctic base, breaks loose, and starts killing the soldiers and scientists i by ane. Information technology bonds to the last surviving soldier, Patricia Robertson, but is afterward eaten past the original Venom and much later on regurgitated and bonded to Andi, turning her into Mania.
  • In the Minimum Carnage arc, Marquis Radu creates clones of the Venom and Carnage symbiotes in the body banks and fuses them together. Carnage cheerfully dubs the union incestuous and seizes control of the clones to kill Venom.
  • In the leadup to the Venom Bomb storyline, Kristoff Vernard fabricated a constructed virus using a sample of the Venom symbiote, stuck it in a bomb, and dropped it on New York, and framed Doctor Doom in order to showtime a war between the The states and Latveria.
  • Fe Human'southward Endo-Sym Armor was made with "building blocks" taken from a symbiote, presumably Venom.

    Pepper Potts: Great. Symbiote-infused armor. That couldn't perhaps end badly.

  • During his tenure as the Punisher's sidekick, Binge used a sample of the Venom symbiote to create a "Venomech Arrangement" that "engulfs its wearer in a total-body, loftier-impact synthiote of liquid smart armor". The "synthiote" was brusque-lived, its inability to regenerate similar a real symbiote evidently causing it to burn down out after a battle with Mung the Inconceivable.
• Clothes Make the Maniac: It eventually became catechism that the symbiote will bulldoze its host into becoming a monster driven past their ain rage and detest.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Bonded with the symbiote, Eddie Brock tin can be a very weird guy, especially when he goes full Venom, and this trait is typically Played for Laughs though the degree of which is Depending on the Author. Some writers and adaptations, such as the Donny Cates run, significantly downplayed or fifty-fifty outright omitted it, some like Mike Costa would take a more balanced approach, while others like Larry Hama from Venom's original "run", the 90's Spider-Human being: The Animated Serial and the alive-action films cranked up the silliness.
• Deliberately Bad Example: Venom started out as an antagonist for Spider-Man, hoping to impale Spidey for losing him his chore, but when he became more of an Anti-Hero he was given his ain "worse version" in the course of Carnage, who possesses the aforementioned powers every bit Venom, just bonded to the mind of a sociopathic Serial Killer.
• Deliberately Monochrome: In virtually incarnations, Venom is portrayed to exist black and white, minus his teeth and natural language. Other artists show him to accept blue highlights, while Ultimate Venom has purple.
• Denser and Wackier: Most all of the stories written by Larry Hama, which featured things similar a cyberspace showdown between Venom and Carnage, Venom being assigned to have out the nefarious Doctor Yes, and Venom and Scream teaming up with a group of Totally Radical skateboarders to kill a dapper symbiote-eating alien.
• Deus ex Machina: Subverted. In Guardians of the Milky way #23, thirty years of character development are seemingly undone in less than iii pages when the symbiote hive mind purges the Venom symbiote of its hatred and bloodlust, instantly removing the Enemy Inside/Superpowered Evil Side dynamic between Flash and the symbiote, any futurity conflicts with Toxin over Flash's potential loss of control over the Venom symbiote, equally well as the symbiote's vendetta against Spider-Man. The intent behind this was to appeal to new fans who have no knowledge whatsoever of Venom's thirty-year history as a villain, only know of the Wink Thompson incarnation of the character, and perceive him as but existence a "good guy with a super cool costume that can do amazing things". Information technology quickly turns out nonetheless, things aren't gonna exist that simple, with the Symbiote gradually lapsing back and becoming drastic to stay bonded to a heroic host.
• Disney Dog Fight: At the beginning of 2017's Venom Inc., Flash Thompson and Eddie Brock get into a heated statement over which of them is the better host of the Venom symbiote. Flash tries to coax information technology into leaving Eddie and bonding to him over again, while Eddie insists it stay bonded to him. The symbiote, unable to cull between its two favorite hosts, tries to bond to both of them at the same time.
• Divergent Character Evolution: When Venom first appeared, he was more or less an evil, bulkier version of Black Suit Spider-Human being. Later in the 1990'due south and into the 2000'south, Venom became increasingly monstrous and bestial, and more than accent was placed on the symbiote's Lovecraftian Superpower potential. Even when Mac Gargan was impersonating Spider-Human being, he could still "Vulk out" at will, and Flash Thompson took the grapheme in a completely different direction as Agent Venom. Once the Symbiote bonded to Eddie, withal, he speedily returned to his roots.
• The Dreaded: Symbiotes in general appear to be one of the Marvel Universe'south alpha predators, conquering unabridged worlds. On Earth, Venom inspires at the very least anxiety amongst other villains due to its monstrous advent and reputation for eating people, and Carnage is powerful plenty to take on the Avengers and win.
• Eerie Arctic Research Station: The 2003 Venom series kicks off with an evil clone of the Venom symbiote massacring and escaping from the Northern Canadian inquiry station that was studying information technology. Information technology makes its way to a nearby radar base, jumping from host to host as information technology looks for one that will concluding long enough to bring information technology to civilization.
• Eldritch Anathema: Venom Vol. 4 #four reveals that the symbiotes are manifestations of a fount of eldritch darkness called the "living abyss", created past the primordial dark god Knull equally living weapons and armor to kill the Celestials and corrupt their creations.
• Evil Counterpart: Eddie as Venom, in the comics and nearly every other form of media, is worldly considered the one for Spider-Man. Both Peter and Eddie had worked under news agencies and both gain the same spider-esque abilities, although while Peter is honest with his journalism and is a humble hero who acknowledges that ability must be used responsibly, Eddie was a corrupt liar who got fired as a issue, merging with the symbiote out of a mutual hatred for Spider-Homo, and using his new power to impale him, or at least destroy his life. Nowadays however, things inverse, and so had Eddie and Venom.
• Fangs Are Evil: Most incarnations of Venom manifest a huge oral cavity full of pointy teeth, especially when the symbiote takes over its host. It didn't have fangs when information technology first bonded to Peter because Peter wasn't evil (neither was the symbiote before the retcon). Mac Gargan as the Sinister Spider-Human being and Wink as Amanuensis Venom besides had polish masks equally long as they keep the symbiote under control, although they could form toothy jaws at will to either scare or eat opponents. SpOck as Superior Venom had a few fangs protruding from his mask, but the mouth itself remained airtight until he started losing control of the symbiote.
• Good Lips, Evil Jaws: Venom is constantly shown with a lipless mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. While he tows the line between villain and Anti-Hero, he's consistently shown as ane of Spider-Man's most dangerous enemies.
• The Expert, the Bad, and the Evil: Most crossover storylines had Spider-Homo as the Good, Venom every bit the Bad, and Carnage as the Evil.
• He's Back!: After parting ways with the Venom symbiote in 2003 and dedicating himself to killing it for over a decade, Eddie Brock willingly rebonded to it in April 2017.
• Healing Factor: Various stories take shown that the symbiotes can heal harm inflicted to their host.
  • The first instance of a symbiote healing its host beyond curing cancer was when Mac Gargan was impaled by the Swordsman, who used his Makluan Sword to incinerate Gargan's belly to the bone. Mac afterward made a total recovery thank you to the symbiote.
  • During his stint every bit Anti-Venom, Eddie Brock had his head blown apart with a shotgun by The Punisher. He promptly reconstituted his head and attacked Frank Castle in a rage, simply further fuelled by Castle's willingness to shoot through Jenna Cole to kill a drug dealer.
  • Wink Thompson has had his head cutting in half past Jack O'Lantern and been almost disemboweled by Toxin, and been no worse for wear the following day.
  • Cletus Kasady recovered from a lobotomy that left him in a comatose land, apparently regrew the lower half of his trunk over several months afterwards being torn in half by the Picket thank you to his symbiote, and regrew his entire head in seconds after having information technology diddled off by a shotgun.
  • As Toxin, Eddie Brock recovered from 3rd and 4th-degree burns later being set on burn by Wink, and afterwards being mauled by the Symbiote Slayers had no visible injuries a few minutes afterwards.
• Hulking Out: When the symbiote's host loses control, they tend to majority up significantly.
• I Am Legion: Eddie always considered himself and the Venom symbiote as separate entities, then with the symbiote on he would always refer to himself in the plural. Other Venoms, even Flash Thompson who was by far the most heroic of them, did non have this trait.
• I Can't Sense Their Presence: One of the things that makes Venom such a threat is that he doesn't trigger Spider-Man's Spider-Sense.
• Iconic Outfit: The symbiote's near famous look is the 1 information technology sported when it was bonded to Eddie Brock, especially when drawn by Mark Bagley, who was the main Spider-Man artist during the 1990's. Even Mac Gargan and Wink Thompson, who have their own unique designs as Venom, have been fatigued with Eddie's "classic" Venom look Depending on the Artist.
• Killed Offscreen:
  • Toxin's original host, Patrick Mulligan, was killed off-page by Blackheart — who ate his family and took his symbiote.
  • The final issue of Toxicant-X reveals that the Agents of the Cosmos from Venom: Space Knight were attacked and wiped out by the Poisons.
• Laughably Evil: Eddie Brock inherited a dark, cruel version of Spider-Man's wisecracking tendencies, which would border on existence goofy if he weren't likewise a gigantic sludge monster.
• Legacy Character: Of a sort, as the symbiote has had four main hosts all challenge the title of "Venom".
• Let'due south You and Him Fight: Most of the Venom comics in the 1990's had Eddie Brock fighting another antihero earlier having to team upward with them.
• Lost in Simulated: The idea that the symbiote was turning Peter evil every bit part of its efforts to merge with him stems from the 1994 Spider-Man: The Animated Series cartoon, and was promptly adopted into the comics due to the fact that the initial depiction of the separation kind of made Peter wait like the bad guy.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: More visceral depictions of the symbiotes may also be parasitic shoggoths; writhing, amorphous masses of teeth and tentacles devouring everything they come across.
• Bedlamite Natural language: The deadly, ofttimes unstable, Venom is well known for his Overly Long Natural language whiping about or lapping over his latest victim.
• Meaningful Proper noun: In the original comic story, Eddie names their fusion Venom because he felt similar he was "spewing venom" back when he wrote for tabloids. In other continuities, they took the name because they wanted to be "poison" to Spider-Man's life.
• Monstrous Humanoid: The symbiotes both embrace and transform their hosts' bodies, usually giving them huge mouths lined with fangs, claws on their fingers (and occasionally toes), and the ability to project pseudopods and transform their limbs into simple weaponry.
• Moral Sociopathy: During his Anti-Hero days in the 1990s, Venom (Eddie Brock) — influenced by his symbiote's bloodlust — went out of his manner to protect people he deemed innocent just would happily murder anyone he deemed guilty in gruesome fashions, oftentimes groovy sadistic jokes while doing and then. In that location were too a few lines he was — usually — unwilling to cross, such as satiating the symbiote'southward growing appetite for flesh by committing cannibalism.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: A hallmark of Venom is his enormous rima oris lined with oodles of (commonly pointy) teeth, though he didn't commencement out this fashion - in his initial two Todd McFarlane-drawn appearances, it was just Brock's own teeth, immune to show through the symbiote's biomass. It was Erik Larsen who added the long, sharp teeth, specifically showing them to be from the symbiote.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: The symbiote significantly bulks its host upward, although Wink'south default form equally Amanuensis Venom was more Heroic Build. In an early appearance Brock mentions that the suit amplifies his own strength, so if the host gets stronger, Venom becomes exponentially stronger. This is more than evident with Mac Gargan, whose force was amplified from 15 tons to threescore tons by the symbiote.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The bewildered, self-examinatory pose Spider-Homo is hit on the embrace of Curiosity Super Heroes Clandestine Wars Vol 1 #8, ^annotation Which shows how he got the symbiote. has been used at least three other times: once past Mac Gargan later on becoming the Sinister Spider-Homo, once equally a parody on a cover of Marvel Zombies, and once by Ai Apaec when Norman Osborn turned him into a six-armed Blackness Accommodate Spider-Man lookalike.
  • In Spider-Man/Red Sonja #2, Venom uses his "Venom Predate" attack from Curiosity vs. Capcom — turning his head and arms into a massive fix of jaws — in an attempt to eat Spider-Man.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy incorporated ane from the Spider-Man Unlimited cartoon, with the benevolent symbiotes being governed by an ancient hive mind. However, said hive mind is not called the Synoptic, and is not trying to conquer Counter-Earth.
  • When reflected in the Black Vortex, Agent Venom is shown with markings on his arms resembling those of Captain Universe. In Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, a Captain Universe costume was available as DLC for Ultimate Spider-Human, who was bonded to his universe'due south version of the Venom symbiote.
• '90s Anti-Hero: After making a truce with Spider-Man, Venom/Eddie Brock had his phases in this time, notably pulling a few Enemy Mines with Spidey.
• Noodle Incident: Johnny Storm mentions an unseen hazard involving himself, Ben Reilly, and "the Power Skrull and the multi-colored symbiotes" in Spider-Human being/Human Torch #five.
• 1-Winged Angel: Since Venom's showtime solo mini, most incarnations have been known to pull one of these off at times when they actually lose control.
• Pet the Dog: He once abandoned a fight with Spider-Man to save a baby.
• Phlegmings: Venom has this occasionally, especially in his more manic phases. According to Ultimate Reed, this is waste from dissolving droppings such every bit bullets that lodged in their body, something that surprises Eddie.
• Planet of Copyhats: All of the symbiotes on the comprehend of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 #21 are black with white spider-emblems.
• Planet of Hats: In their natural uncorrupted class, symbiotes are substantially Greenish Lantern rings, their master purpose in life being to create champions past seeking out and empowering the virtuous.
• Portal Door: The symbiotes have spaceships, simply their primary means of invading other worlds is with Stargate-like portals. The first wave in Planet of the Symbiotes built one, and the possessed Rune synthetic some other in Rune vs. Venom.
• Psychic Link: The uncorrupted symbiotes possess a cantankerous between a Hive Listen and a Mind Hive, being capable of sharing thoughts and information across the depths of space. The closest thing the corrupted ones accept to this is their genetic retentivity.
• Psychotic Love Triangle: Eddie, Peter, and the Venom symbiote.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Subverted: in Globe X, May every bit Venom has this color scheme every bit opposed to the usual black-and-white. She has it well under control, just Peter believes that one day the symbiote might snap, which leads to him and his daughter being estranged from one another.
• Retcon:
  • The symbiote was changed from being a snazzy new costume to an alien parasite due to its unpopularity, and when Spider-Man'due south rejection of it because information technology was alive made him seem like too much of an asshole that was retconned into the suit slowly turning him evil. In the mid-1990's it was given an addiction to phenethylamine, which in the 2000s was changed to an addiction to adrenaline, but was forgotten most subsequently Eddie separated from the symbiote. Nowadays the symbiotes — almost all of them — seem to have a hankering for flesh in general.
  • Eddie himself was given terminal adrenal cancer, irresolute both the explanation for why he wanted to impale himself and why the symbiote bonded to him. In Lethal Protector Eddie was given a fairly sympathetic backstory, simply Dark Origin turned him into a pathological liar who deserved his humiliation and comeuppance. The only details kept the aforementioned were Eddie's father blaming him for his mother's death, him existence a journalist and Ann Weying a lawyer, and the symbiote bonding to him in a church, to the point where a disquisitional reviewer wondered if the author and artist had washed nix more than consult Venom's Wikipedia page for research due to the sheer number of Series Continuity Errors present in information technology. Later both Eddie having cancer earlier coming together the symbiote and Dark Origin were revealed to be fake memories the Venom symbiote implanted in Eddie's mind, with the orginal sympathetic backstory existence the truthful events.
  • Emil Gregg, the human being who told Eddie he was the Sin-Eater, was clearly shot to death in Sinner Takes All, merely revealed to have survived (simply to later on dice in a shantytown) in Axis: Carnage #2. It's also implied that he actually was the original Sin-Eater, or that at least some of what occurred in The Decease of Jean DeWolff was wrongly attributed to Stan Carter.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy introduced a retcon that, at first glance, appears to throw out nigh all the previously established lore regarding symbiotes: nigh symbiotes are chivalrous and transform their hosts into noble warriors and paragons of justice intended to protect their the cosmos. Unworthy hosts like Eddie Brock, Mac Gargan, and Cletus Kasady tin can corrupt them into the predatory monsters about are familiar with, which led to the institution of the intergalactic empire of predatory parasites established in the original Planet of the Symbiotes arc. The reason given for this retcon is particularly grating, nevertheless, since it insinuates that Viewers Are Goldfish at all-time and Viewers Are Morons at worst. Donny Cates would after retcon this to being mostly a lie (a symbiote's host does result them) that the Agent of the Creation tell to hide their dark by.
  • Played for Laughs in Deadpool'southward Secret Undercover Wars #3, where it's revealed that the symbiote briefly bonded to Deadpool earlier information technology was found by Spider-Human being. This sets upwards Deadpool: Back in Black , which showcases Deadpool's previously unseen adventures with the symbiote.

    Deadpool: Gee... I hope communicating with my brain doesn't mess this thing upwards! Any it is... I'd hate to retrieve my twisted psyche might have driven it basics or something!

• Rogues Gallery: Venom in his spin-off series Venom has his own villains to bargain with his Arch-Enemy is Carnage, Pyre, Sin-Eaters, Crime-Chief, Jack O'Lantern, Symbiote Slayers, The Jury, and many others.
• Rogues Gallery Transplant: Thaddeus Paine was introduced as a Morbius villain, but is maybe more than well-known for his appearance in Venom: The Hunger, probably considering it was his last. Afterwards losing the Venom symbiote and Eddie regaining it, Scorpion would join Venom's rogues gallery.
• Royal "Nosotros": Eddie Brock tended to refer to himself in first person plural pronouns while bonded with the symbiote, and on those occasions where he referred to himself in the singular, he would call the symbiote "My Other". However, subsequent hosts have tended to avert this, just using "We" when the symbiote takes control.
• Schrödinger'due south Canon: Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars and Deadpool: Back in Black were intended to exist "untold tales" past Cullen Bunn, who went on to reference them in Deadpool: Assassin and Poisonous substance-X. Donny Cates, the writer of Venom Vol. 4, dismissed them as not-catechism, with Accented Carnage: Deadpool poking fun at their cryptic status; but Cullen Bunn maintained on Twitter he will always see them every bit catechism.
• "Shaggy Domestic dog" Story: Subverted, while information technology seemed that the symbiote's redemption arc in Guardians of the Galaxy and Venom: Infinite Knight ended in failure as information technology is quickly re-corrupted, Wink succedes in fixing the Venom symbiote at the end of Venom: Space Knight.
• Shout-Out: When Flash starts losing his temper with a drunk Kree, the symbiote manifests ridges and dorsal tubes that make it expect a scrap similar a Xenomorph. His Mk. Iii pattern is explicitly inspired by H. R. Geiger's artwork.
• Shrouded in Myth: Prior to Venom Vol. 4 little was known about the origins of the symbiotes, which the corrupted ones take total reward of by spreading lies and disinformation about their kind, to both brand themselves The Dreaded, and to brand it harder for the benevolent members of their race to fulfill their truthful purpose of creating paragons of equality and justice. Niggling is known nearly the personal history of the Venom symbiote in item, prior to its encounter with Spider-Homo.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: The benevolent symbiotes are the soldiers, who bail with worthy hosts to create paragons of justice chosen Guardians of the Cosmos. The corrupted symbiotes are the warriors, spreading throughout the creation similar a affliction and conquering whatever they come beyond.
• Condition Quo Is God:
  • Zig-zagged, in Guardians of the Galaxy's "Planet Venom" arc, the Venom symbiote is returned to its homeworld and purged of its abuse, becoming a force for skillful. The subsequent serial, Venom: Space Knight and Venom Vol. 3, seemingly undid this development but thank you to the efforts of Flash and Eddie the Venom symbiote was able to be cured of its corruption and stay a force for skilful.
  • The Venom symbiote and Eddie Brock went their split ways in 2003, to the chagrin of many fans. In 2017, the two of them reunited.
  • Eddie Brock let get of his grudge against Spider-Man later on becoming Anti-Venom in 2008 and was undergoing Character Evolution, while developing a fearfulness and hatred of the Venom symbiote, while the symbiote as well made peace with Spider-Man in 2016. In 2017, Eddie's graphic symbol development has slightly reversed as he not merely reclaims the symbiote but tricks Spider-Man into rekindling its hatred towards him until the Venom symbiote re-bonded to him and learned the truth of Eddie'south trickery. Venom is at present similar to how he acted as the Lethal Protector in the 1990's, though he however keeps some of Eddie's Character Development — trying to avert killing people; and while he and Spider-Man don't get along he doesn't hold a grudge confronting Peter.
• Stiff equally They Need to Exist: Depending on who he's going up against, Venom can be portrayed every bit existence either a little scrap stronger than Spider-Human, or existence powerful enough that he tin go head-to-head with the Juggernaut for a period of time. And in one 90s crossover with DC Comics, he was fifty-fifty able to overpower and manhandle Superman.
• Synchronization: Even if physically separated from their corresponding symbiotes, Eddie and Cletus maintain a mental connexion to them, feeling their emotions and injuries, seeing what they do, etc. This no longer appears to be the instance with Eddie and the Venom symbiote.
• Taken for Granite: Going past Undercover Wars: Marvel Zombies, symbiotes (Carnage, in that instance) that go style too long without a viable host begin to dry out, becoming rigid and crumbly scabs barely capable of moving, or otherwise wither and die.
• Too Impaired to Live: Some Skrulls take the symbiote away from Flash and try keeping information technology for themselves. The symbiote, which has an appetite for Skrull flesh, immediately ditches them for Flash and presumably noms on them.
• Trapped Underground: Reporter Greyness Russell goes undercover to infiltrate the Jadoo street gang and winds up in over his caput. Gray finds that he'll exist expected to impale someone equally role of his total initiation into the gang or be killed himself, unless Venom and The Punisher can rescue him first.
• Walking Wasteland: The Minimum Carnage arc establishes that the symbiotes once tried to invade the Microverse. Like a truthful eldritch abomination, their presence rotted everything they touched, like a cancer on spacetime, and was fifty-fifty a threat to the Uni-Power. The species is known as "The Corrupter" because of this.
• What Mensurate Is a Non-Human?: After becoming Venom once again in 2017, Eddie tried to become a more heroic individual and eschewed killing or even serious maiming unless he accounted information technology a necessity, despite the symbiote'due south growing bloodlust until it was cured. All the same, while humans and fellow Symbiotes however get some leniency, Eddie's newfound "no killing unless necessary" rules exercise not necessarily utilise to aliens, as an informant who nearly got the Young X-Men killed constitute out.
• Whole Plot Reference:
  • License to Kill was an homage to the James Bond franchise, the first 1/three of the Daniel Fashion series is clearly based on The Thing, and the Seed of Darkness prequel was a throwback to the "Marvel Monsters" epics of the 1950s, with Eddie as The Everyman protagonist.
  • The Shiver arc of Venom Vol. 1 is a pastiche of John Carpenter'due south The Matter, only being ready in the Chill instead of the Antarctic.
• Wolverine Publicity: It reached the point that the cover of one issue of Thunderstrike infamously announced, "From the pages of Venom—the Amazing Spider-Man".
  • To give an idea of only how pop he is, Eddie Brock as Venom (or Anti-Venom) was at i point recognized as the THIRD most popular Marvel Comics character, backside the Trope Namer and Deadpool.
• Villain Squad-Up:
  • This at offset seemed to be the case with Rune and his symbiote in Rune vs. Venom, simply when the symbiote is weakened by a sonic assail, Rune rips off and eats information technology ◊, and reveals that their partnership was far from equal, and that he is happy to finally be rid of the creature.
  • Eddie Brock joined the Sinister Six for a while after his wife's suicide drove him back to villainy. He had a... falling out with the residuum of the team after they made fun of the symbiote's disfavor to fire, and almost killed Sandman.
  • Mac Gargan was a member of Norman Osborn's short-lived Sinister Twelve, Thunderbolts, and Nighttime Avengers during his time as Venom.
  • The fifth outcome of Spider-Man and the X-Men has a group of symbiote-bonded Brood overtake the Southward.W.O.R.D. satellite, and possess Deathbird and Abigail Make.

---

rowefropeon.blogspot.com

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/Venom