This page covers the Marvel comicbook hero Venom also known as Eddie Brock , Angelo Fortunato , Anne Weying , Wolverine , Patricia Robertson , Normie Osborn , May Parker , Mac Gargan . If this is not the page you were looking for check here.

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Origin

The creature that goes by the name Venom is not a single being like most comic characters. Instead, “Venom” is the fusion of two of Spider-Man's foes: one alien, and one man.

The Symbiote

The alien part of Venom is a life form called a Symbiote. The one called Venom is not the first or only symbiote (it’s actually the 998th in its line), but part of a race of extra-terrestrial parasites. Their home planet is unknown but they have existed for millions of years. The symbiote species lives by attaching itself to hosts and feeding off their adrenaline. They often drive hosts to extreme acts resulting in death in order to consume the large amounts of adrenaline produced immediately before they die. As a result of this, symbiote hosts don’t live long and symbiotes therefore have many hosts in their lifetimes. The one exception to this was Venom. The Venom symbiote desired to bond with a single host and to live with it instead of dominating and killing it. Because of this, Venom was looked down on by others of his species and was eventually imprisoned so his insane notions wouldn’t spread. Captive and without a host, Venom was sent to Battleworld, the setting of the very first Secret Wars and first appeared in Secret Wars Vol. 1 #8.

During Secret Wars, many of Marvel’s greatest heroes and villains were set against each other by the being known as Beyonder. Among the combatants was Spider-Man, who was to be the first host of Venom. After one particular clash, Spider-Man’s costume was damaged and he needed a replacement. He found out that there was supposedly a machine that repaired costumes so he went to find it. Instead, he found the device that had been holding Venom captive. When Spider-Man activated the machine, Venom came out in the shape of a black ball . The orb set off Peter’s spider-sense but he picked it up anyway. The ball oozed over Spider-Man and covered him like his old costume had. Strangely though, it copied the look of Spider-Woman’s (Arachne) costume. Spider-Man soon discovered that the symbiote increased his physical abilities, made its own (seemingly unlimited) webbing, could change its appearance, had a “dimensional aperture” where he could store small objects, and could respond to his thoughts. With all these benefits, Spider-Man decided to keep the suit and continued to wear it even after the end of Secret Wars.

For a while things were ok, but that didn’t last for long. When wearing the costume during the day, Peter found himself acting unlike himself and more aggressive than usual, and at night, the symbiote was fighting crime while he slept! After finding out this and other things (like that the costume’s webbing was organic) Peter went to Mr. Fantastic, the smartest guy he knew, to help him figure out what was going on. What Mr. Fantastic figured out stunned Peter. The suit was alive, and not only that, it was trying to permanently bond with him. With the help of Mr. Fantastic and a “Sonic Blaster” he’d created, the suit was removed from Peter and was kept contained…for a while.

Unfortunately for Peter, the symbiote somehow escaped and found its way back to him. In the first issue of Web of Spider-Man, it reattached itself to him by making itself look like one of his normal, red and blue, suits so Peter would put it on. As soon as it was on, he knew what was going on and he frantically tried to get it off. Remembering that Reed has used sound to hurt it before, he made his way to a church’s bell tower and let the sound of the bell force the symbiote off of him. He watched as it melted away and assumed it would die and never return.

He was wrong. The symbiote was weak, but it wasn’t dead. It went after the closest person it could find, and that just happened to be Eddie Brock.

Eddie Brock

Eddie Brock is the other part of (the original) Venom. The symbiote was the alien, and Eddie was the man. Brock’s past isn’t as long (or important) as the symbiote’s. Before Venom, he was just a journalist, a very good one to be sure, but nothing really special. He was best known for a piece he wrote which revealed the identity of a very high-profile killer, and that is where his connection to Spider-Man (and Venom) starts. Soon after his amazing article was published, Spider-Man revealed the true identity of the Sin-Eater, and it didn’t match what Eddie Brock had written. As a result, Eddie’s career was ruined and he lost his job. Things only got worse from there. His father disowned him, his wife left him and the rest of his life went down the drain, leaving him in a deep depression and causing him to blame Spider-Man for all of it. Eventually he decided to commit suicide and the night that Venom was forced from Spider-Man above the church, Eddie was inside that same church, praying one last time before he ended his life.

It may have been just chance, or it may have been Eddie’s supreme hate for Spider-Man, but whatever the reason, the symbiote made its way to Eddie Brock and the two bonded perfectly and permanently. Both had strong feelings towards Spider-Man and their thoughts mixed. The symbiote’s thoughts were positive (even though Spider-Man had abandoned him) but it was still confused as a result of the pain caused by the bell. Eddie Brock’s strong negative feelings for Spider-Man overpowered the symbiote and drove it crazy, and soon after that, evil. Together they called themselves Venom and killing Spider-Man was the only thing on their mind.

Venom

There have been others to bond with the symbiote and call themselves Venom, but the first, the most well known, and the one with the longest history, was Eddie Brock. For this reason, the Eddie/Venom is the one who gets the main Venom section.

Venom & Spider-Man

When Eddie and the symbiote became Venom, each part shared their hatred for Peter Parker/Spider-Man. They became one of (if not) the greatest enemies Spider-Man ever had. With the symbiote’s knowledge, Venom knew everything about Spider-Man. Not only that, Venom had all of Spider-Man’s powers, and was capable of preventing his spider-sense from being set off, giving him an undeniable edge.

Venom’s first attack on Spider-Man came in Web of Spider-Man #18. It wasn’t a major attack, but it was important. He pushed Peter Parker in front of a moving train and disappeared before he could do anything about it. Peter survived of course, but that attack showed that Venom was potentially undetectable, and he knew who Peter really was. A scary thought for someone who depended on his spider-sense being able to warn him, and whose secret identity was integral in keeping everyone he loved safe.

The first real battle between Venom and Spider-Man took place in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #300. After surprising Mary Jane in her apartment earlier, Venom was spotted by Spider-Man and they fought in an abandoned building. Venom revealed his identity as Eddie Brock merged with the now-evil symbiote. He told his whole story about how Spider-Man ruined his life, and they continued to fight. At one point, Spider-Man thinking he had won, tried to leave but was knocked out by Venom. Venom took Spider-Man to the church where it all started and webbed him up inside the bell. Spider-Man managed to break free and the two fought again. This time Spidey got the upper hand and knocked Venom off a building, leaving him unconscious. Venom was then taken to the Fantastic Four where he was kept until a cell in The Vault (a prison for superhuman criminals) could be made for him.

Venom didn’t stay in the Vault for long though. Using its shape shifting powers, the symbiote part of Venom turned into a guard’s uniform and when another guard found Eddie (acting like a fallen guard), he opened the door, letting him out. As thanks, Venom killed the young guard and escaped the Vault, heading to New York and after Parker.

He made a stop before he reached New York though. For no reason at all, he prevented the holdup of a truck stop on his way to the city. Once he reached New York he went to an old fallout shelter he knew of spent some time working out. Before fighting Spider-Man, Venom came across Black Cat and roughed her up a bit in an effort to locate Peter. She didn’t know where he was so Venom left her and went to look for himself.

Eventually Peter found out that Venom was after him and turned the chase around. What he didn’t know was that Venom knew that he knew and was now chasing him again. When Peter gave up looking for Venom, Eddie finally revealed himself and they fought again. Venom was in control for most of the fight but Spider-Man got the drop on him and somehow managed to get Venom under some heavy machinery. Spider-Man was able to escape but didn’t realize that Venom was alive. He also didn’t realize he’d left some clothes at the scene of the fight and Venom now had his new home address at he’d had in his pocket.

The next day, Venom (as Eddie Brock) went to Peter’s house to talk. Venom told Peter that he didn’t like to hurt innocents and they arranged to fight later at another place. When Spider-Man came for the fight, Venom was ready. He started pounding away and for a while it looked like he was going to win. Then Spider-Man offered the symbiote the chance to bond with him. The symbiote tried to bond with Spider-Man but it couldn’t leave Eddie and as a result, all three were knocked out. When Venom woke up he was being taken back to the Vault.

Venom escaped the Vault during a prison break at one point but was captured and returned by the hero, Quasar. He tried again and was successful the second time. Using the symbiote to create a fake skin over him, he pretended he had committed suicide and escaped from the morgue. He didn’t stay out of jail long though, but he did manage to fight Spider-Man once more before he was sent back. His next prison-break was facilitated by the symbiote. It broke into prison and freed Eddie, but also left behind a child that would go on to become the villain known as Carnage.

Once again, Venom’s first thought after getting out of jail is to go after Spider-Man. He did better than previous attempts, managing to first trap Spidey in a cryogenics chamber, and then taking him to a deserted island. Spider-Man only survived by faking his death so Venom would think he’d finally won.

Venom was still alone on the island when Carnage started his killing spree and Spider-Man needed help to stop him. Of course, Venom was who Spider-Man turned to for help since they were both symbiotes, but Venom wasn’t happy to see Spider-Man (and the Human Torch who he’d brought for backup) since he thought he’d already killed the wall-crawler. Venom was so mad that he destroyed the sonic blaster Spider-Man had brought with him, and started giving both heroes a horrible beat-down. The Human Torch eventually got the Fantasti-Car MK II to fire a sonic blast through its speakers and take down Venom. Spider-Man then reasoned with Venom, telling him that innocents were in danger because of his child. Venom decided to help (after getting Spider-Man to agree to let him go free afterwards) and willingly teamed up with his most hated foe. Venom and Spider-Man (Human Torch had to leave to go back to his own team) went after Carnage, but the red symbiote was to powerful for both of them! Carnage escaped by using a baby to distract Venom, but Spider-Man figured out where he was heading so the two of them went after him. Finding Carnage at a metal concert, Venom and Spider-Man fought him for a while, even taking him down into the subway and throwing him on the third rail. Carnage was too tough of an opponent though and was able to get back to the concert. Venom and Spider-Man followed, and while Venom held Carnage down, Spider-Man hit him with sonics from the speakers. After Carnage was beaten, Venom and Spider-Man get into a fight, but Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch had been ready and waiting. Venom got captured and was sent to the Vault yet again.

Before Venom could reach the Vault, two demonic creatures attacked the prison vehicle’s guards, killing them. Although this set Venom free, he vowed to kill them since the guards had been innocent. This led into a cross-over with Ghost Rider and some of his enemies that appeared in two books, Web of Spider-Man and Spirits of Vengeance. Throughout the cross-over there was a lot of meaningless fighting and it all ended up with Venom back in the Vault. That didn’t worry Venom though, and soon enough he had broken out again. Once out, he read in the newspaper that Peter Parker had been reunited with his parents (for the full story on Peter’s “parents”, check out the Spider-Man page), and decided that that just wasn’t right, so he planned to ruin Peter’s happiness.

Venom, as Eddie Brock, went to Peter’s house and started talking to his parents. Fortunately for them, before he could do anything, Spider-Man arrived and starting fighting Venom. In this fight, Venom was in control almost the whole time, and easily took Spider-Man down. While Spider-Man was out cold, Venom kidnapped his parents and took them to an abandoned amusement park where he’d been hiding. He told them he’d protect them from Spider-Man but they denied knowing who he was. Venom questioned revealing the masked hero’s identity but instead said, "No! We won't tell you either! It would only break your hearts! And your Innocence, above all else, is what we've sworn to preserve!"

When Spider-Man came looking for his parents, Venom went out to meet him. He told Peter that he was keeping his parents safe by getting them away from [Peter’s] bad influence. Venom was just about to fight Spider-Man when his ex-wife came out of nowhere and started to talk him out of it, saying they could start over. Venom was considering it when Silver Sable and the Wild Pack (hired by J. Jonah Jameson) attacked him. Venom, convinced that Spider-Man had set the whole thing up, lashed out. First he struck Spider-Man (several times), then, when the Wild Pack started shooting at him, he turned on them. He ignored their sonic cannons and tore through the team. Spider-Man even helped out, fighting the Wild Pack while asking them why they’d come. Venom looked around and saw Peter’s parents in a ring of fire (started by a member of the Wild Pack) and wondered if he should save them. Since they were innocent he decided that it was the right thing to do and he saved the, taking them to his ex-wife and telling them to get to safety. By this time Spider-Man had finished off the Wild Pack and was looking for Venom. He found him and for a while they fought, destroying everything in sight. Venom knocked out Spider-Man but a member of the Wild Pack shot him with a sonic blaster before he could get the finishing blow. Peter’s mother took down the Pack member and Venom went back to Spider-Man after thanking her. She was disgusted, angry that he was going to kill someone right after she saved him. Just then, a Ferris wheel began to fall on her and Venom tried to stop it. The sonic blast had weakened him and Spider-Man had to help him. After that, the two made a truce; neither would go after the other. Venom got away on a nearby helicopter and was on his own for a while.

Lethal Protector

Venom next showed up in San Francisco, the town of his (Eddie Brock’s) birth. There, he took up the role of a protector, a lethal protector. The job was hard though. Venom was constantly bothered by cops who wanted to arrest him, and though he didn’t want to, he was almost always forced to fight them. It didn’t take long for Spider-Man to renege on his part of the agreement and within days he was already trying to fight Venom when all he was doing was protecting some homeless people. Venom escaped though and went underground with the homeless people he had saved. Trouble, being attracted to Venom as it was, came in the form of “diggers”. Huge machines that were digging in the sewers the hobo’s called home. Venom fought the machines to protect the hobos and the battle destroyed the sewer and dropped them all into a secret, underground cave system where the homeless people had created their own society in an underground city. To keep the city safe, Venom broke into the building of Roland Treece, the man who ran the company that owned the diggers and threatened the underground people’s way of life.

After vandalizing Treece’s company office, Venom was attacked by a group called [[The Jury:char:11209]]. He defeated them and escaped only to be spotted by one of Treece’s helicopters. The aircraft wasn’t there to attack Venom though. When Venom jumped inside it he saw a message on a computer left by Treece. Seeing Venom’s abilities had gotten him interested and Treece wanted to hire Venom as head of security. Venom, knowing it was probably a trap, let the helicopter take him to Treece’s base. Though Venom was suspicious, he was prepared when walls of flame surrounded him. Treece’s boss, Carlton Drake, had trapped Venom so he cold get a sample of his symbiote so he could make his own.

Drake was successful, and while he sent the (female) symbiote out to fight Spider-Man, Venom broke free of his cage. He wasn’t free for long though. Sonic blasters carried by Drake’s men were able to get Venom to stop fighting. Spider-Man came to Venom’s rescue, but before he could reach him, Drake had his men shoot Venom so much that Eddie Brock and the symbiote were separated. While Venom was taken to a back room where he was to be killed, Spider-Man fought more of Venom’s “children” (Scream, Phage, Riot, Lasher, and Agony). Spider-Man was having a hard time with them and a symbiote-less Eddie Brock went to help. Eddie and Spider-Man used spare sonic blasters to stun the symbiotes while Eddie could go find Venom. With Eddie and the symbiote back together and a bigger, better sonic blaster, they were able to kill the symbiotes without hurting the humans inside. Thinking that all was lost, Drake blew up the building and escaped. Venom (and Spider-Man) also got out safe and Venom wasn’t done with Drake and Treece.

Venom didn’t go after Drake, but when he found out that Treece was still planning on destroying the land above the underground city, he went after him. Spider-Man, not knowing that Treece was a bad guy, fought Venom and tried to stop him. Venom was able to subdue Spider-Man and explain to him what was going on and the wall crawler decided to help. A huge fight broke out between Treece’s digger robots and the two heroes but Venom and Spider-Man were able to handle themselves. During the fight, the building Treece was hiding in was covered in flames. Spider-Man was still fighting digger so Venom had to deal with the situation on his own. Would he let Treece die in the fire? Or would he brave the flames to kill him himself. Venom did the unexpected and suffered the heat of the fire to save Treece! Afterwards, Spider-Man asked him why and he replied, “Would you have done any less?” When Spider-Man looked around, Venom disappeared and went back to live with the people underground.

Maximum Carnage

Carnage, the child spawned by the Venom symbiote when it came to rescue Eddie Brock from prison, escaped from whatever prison or asylum he had been kept in, and teamed up with another symbiote, Shriek. Together they decided to go after Spider-Man and Venom. Spider-Man was easy to find, but Venom was still in San Francisco. Venom saw the chaos being caused by his offspring on T.V. though, and made his way to New York. When he arrived he tracked Carnage to a park but was easily beaten. Bruised and bloody, he made his way to the Parker residence. Once healed, Venom and Spider-Man (along with the Black Cat) went after the symbiotes. Carnage and his gang beat the good guys by dropping a building on them.

Spider-Man saved his allies but Carnage was able to escape. Venom and Black Cat yelled at Spider-Man for letting it happen and left to find Carnage on their own. They ran into Cloak (he and Dagger had fought the symbiotes earlier) and they teamed up. They also accepted Morbius onto their team and the four of them took on Carnage and his cronies. Venom saved Mary Jane (she happened to be nearby) and Spider-Man arrived to help. Together, the team drove off Carnage’s team.

The next time the two sides clashed, Venom got the better of Carnage and was about to kill him when Spider-Man stopped him. The fight started again and the “good guys” decide that they really should kill Carnage if they get the chance. When they did get the chance though, they choose to spare him, all except Venom. Venom turned on his allies for not killing Carnage, and while he was complaining, Carnage and Shriek recovered and attacked and took Venom away to torture him.

While Venom was being tortured, the other heroes got help from other heroes and were able to defeat Carnage’s team. Carnage faked his death but Spider-Man and Venom weren’t fooled. They followed Carnage until he could run no more, and they fought. Spider-Man was weak (he’d been fighting for days) and had to be saved by the Black Cat. Venom took the opportunity to push Carnage into an electrical generator and escape. Carnage was taken to jail and Venom was gone.

Funeral Pyre

Back in San Francisco (under it actually) Venom was tasked with saving a reporter who had infiltrated the Jadoo, a local gang. For his initiation, the reporter had to murder someone, but he didn’t want to do it. Venom needed to save him before the initiation took place and the reporter could be found out. When Venom arrived in the gang’s area, he found Frank Castle, the Punisher, killing gang members left and right. He tried to stop Frank, telling him that he was trying to save someone, but the Punisher wouldn’t listen. The two fought and Venom won, but he had to leave because a gang war had begun.

Meanwhile, the reporter that Venom had come to save, found the drug lab he had been looking for. Before he could do anything about it, he got dragged into the gang war. Punisher arrived in his van after recovering from his fight. Venom saw him and tried to attack him again, but was blasted by sonics from his van. While Venom was trapped by the constant barrage of sound, Punisher went to kill the gang members.

In a display of enormous willpower, Venom got tentacle out of the range of the sonics and into the van to shut them off. Venom then went after gang members, questioning them and trying to find the reporter, a man named Gray. Venom didn’t find him in time, and Gray was forced to be part of a drive-by shooting. Venom did find the Punisher though, and he used his suit to protect him from bullets, placing Frank in his debt. Gary got back to the lab and used some Hydra technology to give himself energy powers. Angry at being forced to kill, Gray (now calling himself Pyre) struck out against everyone, Punisher, Venom and some Jadoo gang members nearby.

Venom and Punisher escaped (separately) so they could come up with a way to beat Pyre. Punisher came crashing through the building in his van and shooting some kind of beam. The weapon didn’t stop Pyre, it just set everything on fire. Venom’s solution involved crashing something down on Pyre’s legs, but it was the only way. After stopping Pyre he tried to save him, but he couldn’t. Cops came and Venom had to leave. The last he saw, Pyre appeared to have died in the fire.

The Madness

While Venom was suffering from some kind of insanity involving multiple voices (some from the symbiote, some not) in is head, Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut came into town. They had been hired to kidnap someone and it looked like they were going to cross paths with Venom. One night, Eddie was talking with a woman he (and the symbiote) liked when they were confronted by a large man. The man was none other than The Juggeraut!

The person he and Black Tom were after was apparently Eddie’s girlfriend. Venom wouldn’t stand for that and he attacked Juggernaut. They fought, and at first Venom got tossed around like nothing. Before long though, it became obvious that Juggernaut wasn’t even phasing him. Venom was laughing and cracking jokes (a lot like his old enemy Spider-Man). This only made Juggernaut angrier, and he pounded Venom through the ground and all the way down to the sewers. When they stopped falling, Venom started hearing the voices again but Juggernaut heard nothing. Juggernaut tossed an unconscious Venom into a pool of red liquid and left him for dead. There was something strange about the liquid, and it started to talk to Venom. On the last page of the issue, they began to bond…

When Venom awoke he discovered that the weird substance that he had landed in was trying to become one with him. He welcomed it, saying, “Venom has room in his head for more than one creep!” He learned that the creature had its own will, and he mentally forced it to think like he did, making his mission (to protect the innocent) and his mind the dominant one. Venom emerged from the pool drastically changed. He was much bigger, had two more pairs of arms and had several small Venom-like heads on his shoulders.

Somewhere else, three beings, Paranoia, Necromancer and Dusk, discussed some sort of secret plan they had for Venom. Paranoia’s job soon became obvious. Her face appeared in Eddie Brock’s dream and the next day, he started acted crazy. A friend of his joked that the president of a certain corporation was evil, and Eddie, believing that the man was actually evil, turned into Venom and went after him. Venom found the corporation offices and watched as a janitor cleaned the president’s room. She sat in his chair and pretended she was him and Venom, seeing thins, decided she was the president and killed her!

That night he had more crazy dreams about Spider-Man, aliens and insanity. He went over to his girlfriend’s house to talk but things got out of hand. While they were talking, the suit (controlled by the virus he had picked up) forced him to try to have sex with her, and it even started to cover him while he did so. Eddie controlled the suit, but only for a moment. It came back stronger than ever, telling Eddie to bond with her like another symbiote. While he was trying to “bond” with her, Juggernaut attacked. Venom transformed back into the six-armed, multi-headed version he had recently acquired. He knocked Juggernaut around but Juggernaut was able to push him back and Venom fell into an opening in reality that had just appeared behind him.

Venom arrived in some sort of strange dimension after being pushed by Juggernaut. Upon his entrance to the place, he was attacked by Necromancer and Paranoia. He fought them while, in the real world, Juggernaut talked to his girlfriend. After Venom beat Paranoia and Necromancer, Dusk appeared and sent copies of Wolverine and Spider-Man at him. When Spider-Man and Wolverine were dead, Dusk vanished after saying that Venom was getting more crazy, even though he was acting more sane than he had thus far. When Dusk was gone, Venom returned to the real world and noticed the virus was dying. He then went to his girlfriend’s apartment and fought Juggernaut, telling both of them that he was sane again. Juggernaut ran away saying that he wasn’t getting paid enough to keep fighting. Venom talked with his girlfriend about what had been going on. She said they were just going to be friends and Venom was heartbroken. He was able to hold it together though, and they kissed one last time.

After he left her apartment Venom returned to the sewers. He put the virus (which he’d named Creep) back in the water he’d found it in, but said that they made a good team and that anytime he needed more strength, or Creep wanted to team up, they would.

Venom Vs Hulk

In a one-shot special, Venom had a run-in with the incredible Hulk. Professor Hulk was in San Francisco to stop a madman who had a machine that he said would cause an earthquake that could level the city. Venom didn’t know Hulk was there to help, or even that he was the Professor, and not Savage Hulk. The two fought and after some really hard hits on both sides, they stopped and talked. When Venom found out that Hulk was trying to help and Hulk found out that Venom wasn’t evil, they teamed up. All the muscle was for nothing though, the guy with the earthquake machine was crazy. The only thing he had when Hulk and Venom arrived was a cardboard box with a red button painted on the side.

Enemy Within

On Halloween night, Venom interrupted two kidnappers trying to steal a trick-or-treater. He tied up one while he beat up the other. The one that had been tied up pulled out a knife and cut himself loose. Venom saw him and threw him across town. Later that night, Venom saw an early edition of the paper and read that the man he had thrown had been killed by goblins. Venom didn’t believe it, but while he was on the subway the lights went out and he was attacked by an army of goblins. Venom took on the whole group and was winning until the goblins unleashed a sonic scream all at once. Venom was thrown from the train and went to his place under San Francisco.

All over (and under) the city, goblins were attacking people. Venom helped when he could, but they were everywhere. The villain Morbius tried to kill some men at the city dock but the scream of the goblins made him disappear. Demogoblin was also terrorizing the people of San Francisco. Venom went to the subway system to try to find the source of the goblins but he was ambushed. He did well for a while, but their numbers and sonic screams eventually overpowered him. While unconscious, the carried him below ground and to the throne of Morbius!

Venom awoke and started fighting Morbius and accusing him of bringing the goblin to San Francisco. Morbius denied it and they kept fighting until Venom broke a wall and sunlight came in, hurting Morbius and scattering the goblins. Venom decided to hear Morbius out and after they told each other what they’d been through, they teamed up. They fought more goblins underground and Venom saved Morbius’ life. The team made their way to Alcatraz where the mystery of the goblins was to be uncovered by a book they found. The goblins had been summoned by a man who once stayed in Alcatraz and had found a magic necklace that called forth the goblins and bent them to his will. Just as Venom and Morbius discovered this, they were attacked by Demogoblin, who had been summoned by the goblins to be their new leader.

The last issue of “Enemy Within” started with Venom and Morbius taking on Demogoblin and countless tiny goblins in Alcatraz. Morbius was almost beaten by the goblins but Venom was able to use sunlight to beat Demogoblin and his minions.

Back in the city, Charlie Palene (the man controlling the goblins) was using the magic necklace to make everyone in the city crazy. Venom and Morbius confronted him but couldn’t get the necklace off of him. When they were getting ready to give up, Demogoblin came back and sent the goblins after Charlie. Demogoblin then took the necklace and used its power to grow to enormous size. With the necklace now in his possession the goblins had to obey his every command, even if it endangered them. Demogoblin sent them all over a bridge to drown and then tossed the necklace in after them since water would destroy it. Venom found out that killing the goblins had been Demogoblin’s plan all along.

The Mace

While Venom was doing his normal “lethal protector” routine, a man with no memory of his past, but with some cool technology, was hired to kill Venom. He found Beck (the girlfriend mentioned in the previous section) first. She was driving in the rain and accidentally ran into him while he was invisible. Feeling guilty and afraid (he revealed that he had a gun pointed at her) she took him into her car and he told her to take him to a certain place. Neither knew the other’s connection with Venom, but they soon ran into him.

Venom thought the man was going to hurt Beck so he immediately attacked him. Beck tried to get him to stop but he wouldn’t listen. She eventually got through to him and Venom stopped attacking. While Beck was talking to him, the man shot lasers at the unsuspecting Venom.

Venom dodged Mace’s fire and was able to fight him even while the man was invisible. Eventually though, Mace got in a good hit with a weapon that did some damage. Venom still fought back, showing so me amazing abilities of his symbiote, including invisibility, shield creation, and enough speed to dodge lasers from only a few feet away. Even with all this, Mace got Venom on his knees and was about to kill him when everything exploded. A man in strange, robotic armor appeared and Venom and Mace quickly decided to fight together against the new guy.

The armored guy wasn’t alone. He had come with others like him and they called themselves the Sunrise Society. Apparently they had come to take Mace somewhere. A big fight broke out (as usual) and Venom and Mace almost died. They managed to kill the enemies but by the end, all of them, even Beck were close to death. After the battle, Mace left and Venom went back to killing evil-doers.

Nights of Vengeance

Patrolling the city one day, Venom came across an armed man trying to rob or kill an old man. Venom stopped him and knocked him out even after the man claimed to be a government agent. To prove to his once-girlfriend Beck that he wasn’t a killer, Venom brought the two men back to the city under San Francisco.

When the two men came to, the story was explained. The old man had been part of a team called the Stalkers. One day their plane crashed and all his teammates were bonded with alien technology. He escaped but his teammates were hunting him down. The other man was a government agent and he believed the old man and he was trying to help him.

After the explanation, the old man (called Knight) went outside only to find the Stalkers waiting for him. Venom tried to protect him but he was overpowered. Just as the Stalkers were going to finish Venom, the other man stepped into battle. He transformed into the demonic warrior Vengeance. Together, Venom and Vengeance took down the Stalkers. Right after they were defeated they were developed in a bright green light and were transformed. When they stopped glowing they were more robotic and less human. They said they were a race that loved to hunt worthy prey, and the prey they wanted to hunt was Venom and Vengeance. They took hostages so the duo would participate, and disappeared while they planned. With the old man to help them, Venom and Vengeance turned the tables on their enemies and went to hunt them.

While Knight, Venom and Vengeance follow leads and hunted them down, the Stalkers were getting more upgrades and their hostages were worrying. The good guys made their way to where the Stalkers were hiding and the two sides fought. The Stalkers were getting their butts handed to them until their leader strapped bombs to Beck and her friend and forced Venom and Vengeance to go into a teleporter so the real hunt could begin. If they didn’t go through, the Stalkers would kill Venom’s friends. When they went through the teleporter they were sent to a random spot on the planet.

Venom and Vengeance both landed in jungles but not together. Venom killed one of the Stalkers after him and Vengeance killed one too. They soon bumped into each other and found (and killed) a third. Meanwhile back at the Stalkers’ base (a space ship underground), Knight tried to free the girls being held captive but was attacked by the ships defenses. The walls of the vessel tried to turn them all into more Stalker robots.

Back in the jungle, Venom and Vengeance were fighting the lead Stalker. He was the last one but he had the strength of all his fallen brothers. Things were made worse because the area was on fire, which weakened Venom. Vengeance was able to blow up the Stalker and he and Venom escaped, but after they left, the robot came out of the debris and said, “The hunt continues.”

Venom and Vengeance got back to their friends right as the techno-organic virus was about to fully take over their bodies. To free them, the two “heroes” destroyed the ship severing the control of the machines. The group returned to the city beneath San Francisco where they were attacked by a further upgraded version of the last remaining Stalker. Calling himself The Stalker, he attacked. They were all teleported back to the jungle where they fought furiously. Right before Venom killed The Stalker, the machine mentioned knowing about a race of symbiotes. After the enemy was dead, Venom wondered if he had been telling the truth.

Scarlet Spider

Venom found himself in New York where he was just as unwelcome as he had been the last time he was there. He tried to help innocents but was shot at by the police. Ben Reilly was also in town and heard that Venom was around, so he put on his suit and went looking for a fight. They found each other and started to go at it when Venom said that Ben couldn’t be the real Spider-Man since they had an agreement. He injured Ben and left to go fight one of his “children” that was running around.

Scarlet Spider went to the hospital for his injuries but came back later to fight Venom. This time he won and was able to force Eddie and the symbiote to separate.

Separation Anxiety

Now separated, both parts of Venom were taken a “research” facility in New Mexico. In his containment unit, Eddie remembered his path to becoming Venom while the symbiote did the same. Unbeknownst to Eddie, someone was coming for him. The five children he thought he’d killed so long ago were back, and they had broken into the facility. Instead of killing him while he was weak though, they said they had come to save him.

Back in the children’s hideout they explained that they were no longer his enemies. The hosts were trying to learn to live peacefully with their symbiotes like Venom had. He refused to help them and fought to escape. Even without his symbiote he was giving them a hard time, but they were able to subdue him and lock him up. In the other facility, the symbiote had escaped and was hitching rides to get to Eddie.

On the way back to Brock the symbiote partnered with some humans, but only for a short time. None were Eddie so he had to keep moving to find his other half. In the symbiotes’ base, one of Venom’s children was killed and Eddie escaped. The other symbiotes found their sister’s dead body and blamed Eddie. They went after him and found him hiding in a shed. Carl, the most dangerous of the children attacked Eddie, ready to kill. Before he could though, a strange sword appeared in his back and he fell on Eddie. Brock reached for the weapon to see how it could hurt a symbiote when the others arrived. They, once again, blamed him and said they’d kill him.

However, they really wanted to learn to control their symbiotes so instead of killing him they tied him up. There were three symbiotes left and they convinced Brock to help them. Right when he was about to start talking to them, the leader picked up the special knife and killed the other two symbiotes before trying to gut Eddie. Right as she was about to do it, the Venom symbiote crashed through the ceiling and bonded with Eddie. Venom beat the other symbiote and escaped right as the people who had captured him before arrived. The men capture the female symbiote and the others (though hers was the only with a living host).

Carnage Unleashed

Fully back together, Venom was doing his part as a hero again when he saw a poster for a video game. He was furious when he read that it was a game about Carnage. Soon after Venom saw this poster, Carnage escaped from where he was being held. Venom was nearby when it happened and went to stop his spawn. He caught up with the red menace while he was joyriding in an armored vehicle. Before Venom could take Carnage down, Carnage threw Venom into the path of an oncoming truck and got away.

Venom needed somewhere to rest and heal so he wandered around until he found a place. In his search he ran into a woman he’d met on a train earlier. He thought she was being attacked by a junkie so he scared him into falling down a staircase. The woman told Venom that the man wasn’t a junkie, but a friend. Venom was disgusted with himself for killing an innocent.

Meanwhile, Carnage continued his killing spree, murdering people in real life and over the internet. Venom heard of Carnage’s exploits and left to go after him. The woman yelled after him as he left, saying she’d make him pay for what he did to her friend.

Venom never found Carnage in person but he saw him on a computer screen and used his own powers to fight him online. While they were fighting in the virtual world, a person near the real Carnage set him on fire and he fell off a building. Venom sent a tendril out of the computer on that side and caught Carnage before he hit the ground, saving his life. Venom was captured by cops and taken to jail while Venom got away.

Sinner Takes All

While he was sleeping on the subway, a couple of delinquents set fire to Eddie Brock. Eddie immediately turned into Venom and took the teens into the shadows to kill them. After he was done with his work, Venom went to the house of his ex-wife Ann only to find her missing. He switched on the TV and saw a news report saying that she (along with several other lawyers) had been shot in front of the courthouse by a man calling himself Sin-Eater. Ann was the only one to survive the attack so she was in the hospital under the guard of several cops. Venom went to the hospital to see her, and so did Sin-Eater!

Venom and Sin-Eater arrived in Ann’s room at the same time and Venom fought to protect her. One of the cops though Venom was a bad guy and shot him, giving Sin-Eater a chance to pull out some more weapons. With a gun to Ann’s head and a bomb strapped to his chest, Sin-Eater shot at the lawyer while threatening to blow himself up if anyone stopped him. Venom caught the bullets and told Sin-Eater he didn’t have the guts to blow himself up. He was right and Sin-Eater ran away. Venom, doubting the safety of the hospital, took Ann and swung away. In a secret hideout Venom used his symbiote to heal Ann. Her wounds plus the chaos of the battle just moments before had made her really weak and Eddie told the symbiote to bond with Ann since it was the only way to save her. The symbiote eventually complied, turning white and covering Ann like a sheet.

Meanwhile the man who had been the very first Sin-Eater was arrested because the cops though he was the one going around shooting people. On his way to the police department an angry old woman took out gun and shot him. Right after the suspect bled out on the tile, a lab tech came with forensic results that said he wasn’t the killer. The cops were surprised but got even more worried when the tech said that the real Sin-Eater was another man, one who’d been trained by the military in multiple all kinds of warfare.

Back at the hideout, some thugs attacked Eddie. He was beating them for a while but without his suit, they got the upper hand. Just as they were about to finish him off, Ann sprung from the ground wearing the symbiote. She was Venom!

She killed the thugs even as Eddie tried to stop her. After she was done, Eddie made the symbiote return to him. Ann, seeing what she had done, said she hated Eddie and herself.

At the same time, Michael (the Sin-Eater) was killing more people and blowing up warehouses.

Ann ran from Eddie and somehow wound up in the arms of a woman working with Sin-Eater and trying to kill Venom. The woman held her hostage as bait to get Venom. Venom wasn’t chasing Ann though, he was busy tailing the Sin-Eater. Venom found him trying to blow up the New York Stock Exchange and they fought while Ann and the woman watched on TV. Sin-Eater almost escaped but Venom used one of his own rocket launchers to blow up the truck he tried to get away in. His next task? Find Ann.

He went to her apartment unaware that the mysterious woman was laying in wait for him. He walked up as Eddie and she shot him through the door. Without his costume on she didn’t know he was Venom so she threw a blanket over him and left him on the ground. Under the sheet, the symbiote started to heal his wounds. The woman was revealed to be the mother of the girl whose boyfriend Venom scared to death days before. Venom tried to attack the woman but was still weak so he was beaten easily. He was about to die when he decided to put his hope in Ann. Eddie sent the symbiote to Ann and she became Venom again. While they threw each other around the apartment, Sin-Eater returned, now dressed as a cop. He shot Venom then the woman shot him. She tried to kill Eddie but the symbiote came back to him. Just then, the woman’s daughter returned and tried to make them all stop. Sin-Eater was somehow still alive and got up. He had another bomb strapped to him but this time he was ready to blow. The daughter grabbed him and jumped out a window so no one else would die, but Venom wouldn’t let her be killed. He jumped out the window and used his tentacles to grab her right before the bomb went off. Inside the apartment, Ann knocked the woman out and waited for the police. Venom didn’t go back to her, he was tired of bring trouble to everyone he loved.

Planet of the Symbiotes

Because of the horrible way that even Venom’s most heroic (in his mind) of acts ended up backfiring, Eddie became depressed for while and left the symbiote. This caused the symbiote to be depressed and its sadness was somehow picked up by members of his race that were nearby and they decided to come to Earth. First only a few symbiotes came, but they were just the beginning. They took hosts and made them build a portal to where the other symbiotes were. Soon all of New York was overrun and almost everyone (even superheroes) was made into a host. The disastrous situation resulted in Eddie and the symbiote getting back together and teaming up with Spider-Man and Ben Reilly to fight the aliens. Nothing was working until Venom came up with an idea. Since the aliens had found them by the symbiotes emotions, maybe they could use it as a weapon. Venom planned to make a “psychic scream” that would knock out all the symbiotes but it didn’t go as planned. Every symbiote that had come to Earth died when they “heard” the scream. With genocide on his conscience, Venom took to the sewers and went into hiding.

Along Came A Spider

Some time after Planet of the Symbiotes, Venom stopped hiding in the sewers. The first person he tried to contact was his ex-wife Ann. She was in police custody and wouldn’t talk to him so he sent Venom through the phone line and it bonded with her while maintaining a bond with Eddie, creating a bizarre three-way. When Eddie broke the connection Ann was left lying on her bed with a smile on her face. Eddie soon realized that he had all of her memories and that meant she probably had all of his. Venom made it his mission to save Ann from the police, but he didn’t know that Ben Reilly was after him too. Venom broke into the police department, killed several cops, and got out with Ann. When they got to the roof Ann said she wasn’t going anywhere with him. She wasn’t going to help the police find him, but she didn’t want to go with him. While Venom was trying to talk to her, Ben arrived and they started to fight.

They battle on the rooftop for some time and Venom was winning until Ann found a speaker system and turned it on full blast. The sound hurt Venom and forced him to leave. He went somewhere to be alone and all his hatred for Spider-Man came rushing back to the surface. While he was plotting, Ann called him again and made him promise not to come save her. He promised, saying that Eddie wouldn’t come, but he immediately sent his symbiote through the line and turned her into Venom from over the phone.

The symbiote had been sent to bring Ann to Eddie so as soon as she became Venom she left the police department and started heading towards a meeting place. On the way she battled Ben Reilly and a group of drug dealers and even some police. When she made it to where Eddie was to meet her, she found him on fire in the snow. He had been attacked a gang of weapons dealers testing out their new toys. Eddie was still alive so he told Ann to give him the suit. Eddie became Venom again and took on the gang. Ben arrived right as the gang kidnapped Ann and he said he’d help Venom find her if he stopped killing them. They found Ann and the gang at an amusement park and got her to safety before the whole place was engulfed in flames caused by a gas spill and loose match. Venom pledged to once again to protect the innocent and disappeared in the flames.

The Hunted

One night the police received video of a creature looking a lot like Venom killing a woman and eating her brain. Eddie was acting normal the next day and didn’t even mention the night before as he goes to get coffee. Things like that happened a few more times (Venom kills and Eddie has no idea) before Eddie found out that a special squad had been put together to hunt him down. Eddie didn’t know why the cops were after him but he didn’t stick around to find out. He turned into Venom and ran from the helicopters that were after.

Elsewhere, the red and yellow female symbiote (Scream) that had already given Venom so much trouble was fighting a solid black symbiote. While they tumbled around in the apartment of a murder victim (both had been trying to find out if Venom had really been killing people in the city) they found a strange piece of furniture that suddenly came to life and ate the black symbiote. It was a Xenophage, a creature that ate symbiotes. It kept the female symbiote for later and looked forward to eating Venom sometime in the future.

Venom had been pretending to be a skateboarder so the cops wouldn’t find him but eventually he was caught when some bells went off and made him change back into Venom. The cops chained him up and as they were taking him to the police department they ran into the xenophage, and he was hungry.

The xenophage (still carrying the female symbiote in his tentacles) dragged Venom into the subway after drugging him. The drug paralyzed the symbiote but Eddie kept fighting. Eventually the symbiote was able to move again and Venom grabbed a grenade off of a nearby cop and threw it into the mouth of the monster. The following explosion killed it and Venom escaped from the cops in the confusion.

Trouble With The Law

Much later, Venom was found in his underground hideout and was arrested and put on trial. His defense attorney was Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and one of the witnesses called against him was Carnage. Of course, Carnage was able to escape his bonds and attack. In response, Venom, Spider-Man and Daredevil battle side by side to put him down. After the fight Venom was offered a deal by a covert government agency: work for them as an operative and all criminal charges against him would be dropped. Agreeing to the deal, Venom was sent to Florida to make a payment drop to Dr. Yesenofsky, who held the world for ransom with a plague toxin he developed for Russia. To insure his loyalty, and to retain some control over him, Venom's government masters implanted a thermite bomb in Eddie's chest. A remote communications speaker was also part of the package. As Venom mixed it up with Dr. Yes's cyber-enhanced son, Kostya, and the rest of Yes's forces, Darryl Smith (Eddie's government handler) prepared to fire a nuke at Yes's underwater base.

Deep in the base, Venom fought not just Kostya, but a myriad of android bodyguards. While Venom dealt with the killer robots, Kostya went into the water and grabbed the nuke. To stop it from being used by Yesenofsky, Smith detonated the nuke and set his own team’s underwater base to self destruct. Smith and his men made it out in time and so did Venom, but everything else was destroyed and Venom was left to swim back to shore.

Following his successful mission against Dr. Yesenofsky, Venom returned to New York for his next assignment. Venom was ordered to protect President Franco Santera while the visiting South American leader made a public appearance. Ghost Rider Danny Ketch had come to hear the president's speech but when he saw Venom using excessive force to protect the president from a terrorist group, he had to stop him. Danny became Ghost Rider and stopped Venom. Ghost Rider was about to do his Penance Stare when Venom told him that he was a good guy. Together now, Venom and Ghost Rider took out all the terrorists and protected the President.

The next mission had Venom on his way to “scare” J. Jonah Jameson. However, Venom got it into his head to do more than scare him. Luckily Spider-Man showed up and save JJJ from the symbiote. They had a long fight and after Venom almost killed MJ, Spider-Man let loose on him but stops short of killing him. Venom was just threatening to tell the world that Spider-Man was Peter Parker when Spidey set off an explosion that knocked him out. When Venom awoke, Spider-Man was gone and Venom had amnesia.

After his latest mission, the agency was done with Venom. Agent Smith drugged Venom and threw him in a super-secure cell. His superiors planned to blow Venom up via the bomb in his chest, but before they could, he had the symbiote cut it out of him. By the time it went off, Venom had already escaped. Once he got to the outsider world he found a news reporter and tried to tell the world what the government was doing: hiring criminals to fight their battles for them. Right then, a new hero arrived, one with powers over sound. Venom easily beat him and then Spider-Man appeared to save hero before fighting Venom. Smith allowed Spider-Man to beat Venom down and weaken him so he could kill the symbiote. With a special drug that he had with him, Smith overloaded the symbiote and killed it.

Venom Returns

Eddie, now without a symbiote, was taken to prison but like always, found a way out. The symbiote, also a survivor, wasn’t to be written off yet either. While Eddie stayed in a hideout, the symbiote searched the city looking for him. The symbiote secretly followed Spider-Man who was also looking for Eddie (MJ had been getting weird phone calls) in the hopes that he could find his partner. Spider-Man and the symbiote found Eddie but though he still hated Spider-Man, he still had amnesia and didn’t know who was so he couldn’t have be the one making the calls. The symbiote tried to bond with Eddie but Eddie was afraid of it and jumped out of his window and into a river. The symbiote chased after him and further downstream, Venom emerged.

Soon after Venom’s rebirth, the monster made its way to the prison where Cletus Kasady was being kept. He killed the guards and absorbed the Carnage symbiote into himself. His next stop was the Daily Bugle, where he kidnapped J. Jonah Jameson and took him to the church where he first became Venom. There he found Spider-Man and the two fought. Spider-Man tried to use the bell on the church but Venom had dismantled it so it wouldn’t work. Venom was about to kill Spider-Man when red tentacles started coming from his mouth. Instead of finishing off his enemy (or even lifting his mask since he’d forgotten who Spider-Man was) he fled.

Sinister Six

Venom’s next appearance was as a short-lived member of the Sinister Six. Sandman had brought the group back together (except for Doctor Octopus) so they could destroy Otto Octavius and kidnap a Senator that was working with him. As the group attacked Oc and the Senator, Spider-Man arrived and so did Venom to join the team. He wasn’t there for long though. Sandman quickly kicked him off the team.

Venom was understandably mad about being kicked off the team and started taking out his rage on the Daily Bugle and then when Spider-Man showed up, on him too. Venom soon found a better target for his emotions when Sandman showed up. Venom, using his ridiculously oversize mouth, took a bite out of Sandman. Too weak to continue the fight, he ran and left Venom to Spider-Man. Spider-Man was able to scare Venom away with some fire and the fight was over.

He may have been done with Spider-Man, but Venom’s taste of Sandman had gotten him hungry for more. He decided to go after the rest of the Sinister 5 (Oc wasn’t on his list). The next down was Electro, who had actually been trying to get Venom before Venom could get him. Kraven The Hunter, figuring he was next, used a drugged Spider-Man as bait to trap Venom. Venom knew about the trap though, and was able to get to Kraven without being harmed. They fought, but before Venom could finish the hunter, Spider-Man woke up and turned the fight into a three-way. Spider-Man ended up catching Kraven while Venom escaped.

Death in the Family

Some time later, Eddie went to see his wife (Anne Weying) so they could talk things out. As they talked, she saw Spider-Man swinging around in a black suit (he had lost his red and blue one) and she freaked out. Eddie turned into Venom and went outside to deal with Spider-Man. They fought for a while but (for once) decided to talk. When Eddie got back to the house, he was horrified to find that Anne had committed suicide at the though of Venom ruining her life yet again. This reignited Venom’s feelings toward Spider-Man and he once again swore he’d get revenge.

The End of Eddie?

Venom’s plans for vengeance weren’t forgotten, they just didn’t get a chance to be played out. One night, Venom was jumped by some men in a graveyard and the next time he and Spider-Man crossed paths, he was without his symbiote. Apparently, Senator Ward, the man who had been working with Doc Ock during Venom’s short time with the Sinister Six, had been the one behind the ambush. He’d ordered it so he could acquire the alien symbiote in an effort to use it to learn to control the symbiotic virus within his own body. The Senator quickly learned what he wanted from the symbiote and released it, but it didn’t go back to Eddie for some time.

When it eventually did find its way back to its companion, it is only for a moment. At the time, people around the city were being attacked and the bodies were found with puncture marks on their backs. The wounds led to the adrenal glands on the victims which had been sucked dry. While a detective looked at the latest victim, a young girl, Eddie was at a church repenting of his sins and Venom was around him grinning like a mad man. Later that night, Spider-Man came across Venom in the subway system, but he wasn’t the same. He was deformed and no longer seemed human. They fought and Venom started to overpower Spider-Man. Trying to reach his human side, Spider-Man called out to Eddie, but the response he got came from the symbiote. According to the alien, Eddie Brock was no longer part of the equation. Despite his shock, Spider-Man was able to escape by positioning Venom into the path of a train.

Venom, of course, wasn’t dead. It made its way back to Eddie Brock’s house. Covering him (but not bonding with him), the symbiote made Eddie jump off a building. The fall made Eddie pump adrenaline which the alien fed on. After feeding, the symbiote bonded with Eddie again. The bond wouldn’t be permanent though. The symbiote was actually looking for a new host, and only using Eddie to keep it alive until it did.

The following night, Venom (now the one in control) tricked Spider-Man into a building and, after abandoning Eddie, tried to bond with his first host. Spider-Man and the symbiote battled violently across the city as the alien tried to bond with him. They were interrupted by the Human Torch but instead of letting him help, Spider-Man told him he’d handle it himself and electrocuted himself to knock both him and the symbiote unconscious. Both woke up (still connected to each other) in the Baxter Building where Sue Storm (Invisible Woman) kept them trapped in an invisible bubble. Mr. Fantastic explained that the symbiote was evolving and needed to feed off adrenaline, hence the attacks across the city. Reed, using a chemical to block Spider-Man’s adrenaline, separated Peter and the alien. Venom was weak but he was still strong enough to escape.

Peter tried to track the symbiote through a psychic connection (either formed or strengthened through the attempt to bond) but ended up finding Eddie Brock who told the wall crawler that he had cancer. The news was shocking to Peter but it wasn’t anything new. Eddie had been dying of cancer for a long time, even before Spider-Man had ruined his life. In fact, at that time, he had been told by a doctor that he’d die in a few months. The reason he was still alive was because of the symbiote. Apparently, Eddie’s cancer forced his body to produce a lot of adrenaline, which had made him a perfect choice for the alien who fed on the substance.

As Eddie filled Spider-Man in on all of this, he started showing signs that he was near death. After he passed out, Spider-Man carried his body around the city trying to find the symbiote so it could save Eddie. Unfortunately, Spider-Man found Venom right as Eddie died. Spider-Man told the symbiote to bond with Eddie before his brain died but the alien refused. It didn’t want to be part of such a weak creature, especially since it will soon be having another baby! Venom tried to bond with Spider-Man but the quick-thinking web slinger pulled Eddie into the symbiote’s way. Eddie became Venom again but the symbiote was still in control. He swore to make Spider-Man pay (as usually) and disappeared into the night.

Transfer of Power

After their last conflict it was an unspecified time before Venom fought Spider-Man again. When he did, he beat the wall-crawler senseless and bragged about how he loved being able to drop in and do that anytime he wanted. While he was talking, the Fantastic Four came from nowhere and captured him, cutting off his tongue in the process. After a series of events, the tongue got into the possession of the Ararat Company, a mysterious organization run by a man named Bob and multiple clones of two women called Frankie and Rick. At a base in New Mexico, one set of clones worked with another man (a clone?) named Bob. They used the tongue to clone a new Venom but it kept killing all the hosts they tried to give it. Eventually they got it to bond with a mental patient and they decided it was ready to be released. When Bob reached that conclusion, he went to a computer and talked to the other Bob. During their conversation he revealed that he was some sort of being created from tiny little spider-like robots, not a real person.

Simultaneously, Reed Richards was using similar robots (he'd found them on a trip off-world) to help him build things. He also found that they had a particular interest in Venom. When Nick Fury came to escort the symbiote first to a lab and then to a prison, he took one of the robots with him because (according to him) it called him on his phone. He used the robot to create more robots. Eventually a humanoid robot was created. It was called Suit.

Back at the clone base, Bob had the symbiote clone sent to a man who could take it to Alaska. A few hours after it reached its destination (a research lab), this Venom started mutilating, killing and eating people in the lab. An army woman named Patricia Robertson found the remains of the victims and one survivor. Robertson took the survivor to a radio station where her unit was waiting, not knowing that she was followed.

While Robertson dealt with the survivor, Venom got closer. Later that day, Robertson and her military buddies found one of the dogs they had outside passed out. They took the dog inside but they couldn’t do anything for it. Robertson’s commander started acting strange but no one really notices. Robertson went to check on the dog and found it choking on something. Upon inspection, Robertson discovered the dog had a human finger in its mouth. Before she could react, the survivor she had rescued started to scream. Venom was in the base. As soon as Venom was revealed, it tried to bond to Robertson but she was saved by Suit. Venom (with Robertson’s commander as a host) escaped and Suit told Robertson and her teammates that he was there to destroy Venom before it could do any more harm. Suit told the military team to do what he said but they refused and knocked him unconscious. The team split up to go after Venom (and their leader) but Robertson and another stayed back unarm Suit (he had a phone that doubled as an energy weapon). When they tried to take his weapon from him, Suit told them it was a conductor, not a weapons itself (revealing he was made of energy, probably why Venom couldn’t hurt him), and he knocked them out and went after Venom.

Venom came to the base to get to Suit and they had a strange conversation (about humans and who is eviler between Suit and Venom) before Venom dropped his host (who had been long dead) and tried to bond with Suit. When he couldn’t, he ripped him apart and killed everyone else on Robertson’s team. Somehow, Robertson and Perry (the survivor) escaped, becoming the only people who could stop Venom from reaching the rest of civilization.

Suit displayed its regenerative abilities by coming back to life after Venom pretended to leave to head for the city. It met up with Robertson and Perry and told them they needed to stop Venom. Perry tried to get Robertson to kill Suit but Suit revealed that Perry was really Venom. Venom attacked, killing Suit again and chasing Robertson. Going after Robertson was just a trick though, he really was just looking for another host that could move fast. Venom chose a sled dog and left. At that point Suit came back to life and said it would go after Venom.

Meanwhile, Venom used various animals to make his way to town, unaware that not only was Suit after him, but two mysterious women (Frankie and Vic) and Wolverine were too. He figured it out quickly though, because the day after Venom made it to town, they all got in a fight. The girls were taken out of the fight first and Venom tried to bond with Wolverine. While that went on, Frankie found Robertson and said she recognized her. Suit took the opportunity while Venom was distracted with Wolverine, to attack. Instead of zapping Venom though, he zapped Wolverine so Venom couldn’t bond with him. With Wolverine down, Vic was the only host, but Suit told Venom that she’d had cybernetic augmentations to be able to control him if he bonded so he chose to go to an old man who had just appeared. Vic took the chance to shoot Suit and meet up with Frankie (they had a flying ship) who had captured Robertson and was hovering above them. Before Wolverine (now healed), Suit (still down from bullet wounds) and Venom could leave the area, Vic and Frankie shot a mini-nuke at them. Venom was driven away but Wolverine and Suit were caught in the blast. After Suit repaired himself he came up with a plan to get Venom, but he needed Wolverine.

Vic and Frankie came back after everyone was (they thought) dead. Venom killed Frankie and when Vic ran away, Suit found her and took her down with an axe. He took some of her protective gear back to her ship and gave it to Robertson so if Venom came after her she could trap it. Before they could prepare though, Venom, now using Wolverine as a host, attacked. It “killed” Suit and right as it was about to kill Robertson, another ship blew a hole in the one they were in and clones of Vic and Frankie came out of it and attacked. Venom killed Frankie and when Vic saw another copy of herself, she committed suicide. Venom then went to kill Robertson but fell right into the trap Suit had sent. He had Robertson set off the bomb he’d implanted inside Wolverine, driving the symbiote off of him. The symbiote went to Robertson, the only host left, but the implants Suit had put into her let her control it. Robertson left Wolverine in the ship and took Suit and left him outside. Patricia Robertson was the new Venom.

Patricia/Venom made her way to New York and was surprised to find Suit already there. Vic and Frankie were also there (spying on them for Bob, who had two other clones building something in space), but they went undetected. Patricia/Venom, presumably under the direction of Suit, infiltrated a SHIELD strike team by posing as one of the soldiers (who she’d tied up in his own room). The team had been brought together as backup for another team that had been tasked with catching Venom, who had escaped from the Vault. The first team successfully captured Venom but Patricia/Venom, who was still in the chopper, started firing on the first team and Venom. Patricia/Venom left the vehicle and went to go after the now free Venom but Spider-Man arrived and got in the way. He wasn’t much of a threat though, and Patricia/Venom grabbed and held him in her tentacles. Neither Venom wanted Spider-Man there so he was tossed away so the two could fight, and fight they did. Bob and his female agents watched from a nearby building and revealed that the collar Patricia wore (that let her control Venom) had been deactivated. Nick Fury appeared then and shot a bazooka at the two Venom’s, scaring them off, but not before Venom stuck Fury to the roof. Bob found him, freed him, and told him not to continue hunting Venom. Fury had to listen and obey because Bob was his superior officer (he provided the right secret codes to prove it).

Meanwhile, the Venom’s had found each other in the sewers and started fighting. The original symbiote was winning the fight so he started trying to merge with Patricia’s symbiote. The Suit arrived just in time to drop his phone between the two aliens and set off a blast that sent the original running. Above ground, a Frankie clone killed a Vic and another Frankie and started hunting Venom. Back in the sewers, Suit explained to Patricia that her device had been turned off and she was the only thing stopping her symbiote. He also explained what was going on with the robots. They were a race of beings originally sent to destroy humans, but they realized humans weren’t evil so they didn’t do their job and left the planet instead. However, some of their kind didn’t get the message and stayed behind, trying to complete the task of destroying all life. To that end, they (Bob and the Ararat Corporation) created the Venom clone, planning on it killing everything it met. Suit couldn’t let the two Venom’s bond because they’d be able to reproduce. After this explanation, the Frankie clone arrived and teamed up with Suit and Patricia. She even gave them a device that would turn Robertson’s collar back on so she could control the symbiote. It worked, but Robertson fell asleep. Suit had a plan to stop the original Venom, but he didn’t tell Patricia about it.

When she woke up, the power to the entire city was down, she was in the custody of the Fantastic Four (in a separate facility), and Venom was attacking the Baxter Building. A few things went differently than anyone could have expected at that point. First, the Fantastic Four ran away. They were caught by Bob and trapped so they couldn’t interfere with his plans. Bob also released Patricia and told her how to escape. He didn’t tell her that he had sent her on a collision course with Venom and that he was going to shut off her collar again when they met. At the same time, Spider-Man appeared. He was easily defeated and served only to slow the original Venom on his way to his clone. Lastly, Suit appeared out of nowhere and tried to kill Venom. He was about to explode and kill the alien when The Invisible Woman (who hadn’t been with Reed and Johnny when Bob caught them) put a field around Suit and contained the explosion. Venom was thankful but chose to show it by attacking Spider-Man. Before he could though, his clone attacked. Of course, her collar was off so she was no longer in control. The two symbiotes bonded and Venom emerged, back and full power and fully in control of its host, Eddie.

Family Matters

Some time later, Venom found out that Carnage, its child, was about to give birth. Venom would not have cared, but the child would be the 1000th generation, and over a thousand generations it was common for a symbiote child’s mind to deteriorate, leading to a psychotic breakdown. For that reason, it’s “grandfather” is needed to train it in the ways of a symbiote. Venom also thought the child could become his ally in the future. Unlike his father though, Carnage had no desire to help its child. In fact, he planned to stop the child from being born, but if he couldn’t, he said he’d kill it before it was a day old. Symbiotes always have a violent relationship with direct relations like a father or son (that’s why a grandparent is need, since it is not directly connected to the child, it doesn’t want to kill it). Like Venom told him, Carnage couldn’t suppress the child growing in him and he exploded. The tiny symbiote, still mostly dormant, found its way to a police officer. Carnage would have killed it then, but he was too weak. Venom found the cop while Carnage was still recovering and tried to protect him. Of course, Venom badgering a cop alerted Spider-Man and, not understanding what Venom was trying to do, he attacked. Venom shrugged off Spider-Man’s attacks and tried to get to the cop, but Carnage got there first.

Carnage threw the cop’s pregnant wife out of the building and while Spider-Man went to save her, Carnage escaped with Pat Mulligan, the man who carried his child. Just as he was about to kill him, the Black Cat swooped down and saved his life. Carnage then turned his rage on Black Cat and Venom came to her rescue, giving her and Pat the chance to get away. Venom fought Carnage all across the city and eventually got rid of him by throwing him in front of a train. Venom then started tailing Pat, watching over him so Carnage couldn’t reach him.

A few nights after the first fight, Venom decided to let Toxin (the name he’d come up with for the child) stand on his own feet and protect himself. He let Carnage find and attack him and was pleased when he saw that Toxin could defend himself. He stopped being happy when he saw Toxin fight Carnage the next day. Toxin had the chance to kill Carnage but he didn’t take it, and Venom did not like that one bit. He feared it was the beginnings of conscience growing in the symbiote. He didn’t want Toxin to grow up to be like Spider-Man or anything, so he teamed up with Carnage to take Toxin down. They chose to attack while Pat (Toxin) was at a funeral. Their two-on-one assault was working until Spider-Man showed up. Venom (and Carnage) was defeated and Toxin chose to use his symbiote to help people, not hurt them like Venom and Carnage. Venom had lost the battle and the war.

Moving On

Eddie Brock must have somehow gotten control over the symbiote because the next time Venom showed up, Eddie was in the driver’s seat. Eddie had come to New York to auction off his symbiote. After seeing a movie (hinted to be Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ) Eddie had decided that he was ready to suffer the consequences of his actions by letting his body die of the cancer that Venom protecting him from. He wanted to sell the symbiote to the highest bidder so he’d also get some money to give to charity before he died. The winner of the auction was one Don Fortunado, a local crime boss. Mr. Fortunado wanted his son to have the costume so he’d finally grow some backbone. To get the costume, he had to pay five hundred million dollars to various charities that Eddie chose. One of the last things Eddie told Fortunado was that he should ask the symbiote who Spider-Man really was. Soon after this transaction, Eddie Brock attempted to commit suicide.

The Last Temptation

Having long since rid himself of the symbiote and after failing to kill himself a second time, Eddie was hospitalized, where both his cancer and atrophy had whithered away his body to that of a frail physique. During this time, Eddie would begin hearing voices in his head, personified as the Venom symbiote, trying to bring out Eddie's dark side and desperate thoughts. Eddie would later learn that Spider-Man's beloved aunt (May Parker) was also being cared for in the exact same hospital as he. With May being extremely vulnerable and Spider-Man unable to watch over her at all times, Eddie's "darker conscious" would convince him to make an attempt on her life, returning him to his true self (Venom).

Wearing a cheap mimic of the black costume, Eddie brutally stabs and kills his nurse, to his disgust but to the delight of his "darker conscious", before moving onto May. Amazing, at the last minute, instead of killing the helpless May, he instead fights off his urges and the voice in his head, even going so far to cut himself multiple times to get the voices out of him. At this time, Peter (sensing something is wrong) arrives to May's room to find her safe, and to find Eddie (with both of his arms covered in deep cuts) purposely falling out of the window. Peter successfully saves Eddie from his 3rd suicide attempt and has him returned to his room, handcuffed to his bed. As Eddie awakes, he discovers that the voice in his head is still with him, but Eddie now believes that he is now in control.

Angelo Fortunado

Angelo Fortunado is the son of Don Fortunado, a Mafia boss in New York. Angelo was weak and was constantly bullied by others. Disgusted at his son's weakness, the Don decides to attend a supervillain auction where he bought the Venom symbiote off of Eddie Brock for $100 million dollars. Eddie warns Angelo of the dangers of the symbiote, but Angelo ignored the warnings. Angelo then bonded with the symbiote and learned Spider-Man's secret identity. With this knowledge, he decided to go kill Spider-Man to earn his father's respect. Angelo tracked Peter down to his high school reunion where the two began to battle. Angelo was able to over power Spider-Man and appeared on the verge of defeating Spider-Man. However, when Angelo killed an innocent person thinking it was Spider-Man, Spider-Man unleashed his full strength and he defeated Angelo. Angelo tried to escape from Spider-Man, but the symbiote, disgusted by Angelo's cowardliness, abandoned him in mid air as Angelo leapt, dropping him to his death. Spider-Man tried to save him but was empty on web fluid, therefore Angelo was killed due to the fall.

Mac Gargan

Mac Gargan, once known as The Scorpion, is the current Venom. After the death of Angelo Fortunado, the symbiote went on a search for a new host, one that shared its hatred of Spider-Man like its original host (Eddie) had, and also possessed a strong will and at least a little of its own skill. It found Mac Gargan and offered him a chance to increase his powers. Gargan accepted the symbiote with open arms and soon became Venom.

With his new power, Mac became a member of the new Sinister 12, a group, like the Sinister 6, made of Spider-Man’s worst enemies. The 12 quickly got a chance to fight Spider-Man (and the Black Cat) and almost succeeded in beating them. Unfortunately, Spider-Man was able to get help from the Fantastic Four and some of the Avengers. With the tables turned and Spider-Man now the one with all the backup, the Sinister 12 went down easily. During the battle though, Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) tried to kill Mary Jane and Spider-Man was, of course, trying to stop him before he could reach her. Venom took the opportunity to pick a fight with Spider-Man but Venom eventually lost, and by the end of all the excitement, was sent to Ryker’s.

Some time after this, Venom was transported to Battleworld by the Stranger, where he and several other characters were chosen to fight to the death in a contest of champions. Venom was the first to make a kill, impaling what he believed to be Spider-Man while everyone was still confused by the whole situation. The supposed Spider-Man was actually the Space Phantom in disguise, but Venom still expected to win the contest. He didn’t, and after the group beat the Space Phantom and went to limbo, Venom destroyed the device they had used to get there, stranding them. He again asked for his reward for winning, but was denied. When the group returned (through teleportation) they defeated Venom and Hank Pym tricked the Stranger into thinking he had killed everyone else. With the contest over, and with some help from the Watcher, the Stranger left and the team prepared to leave via teleporter when the planet started to crumble. Gravity, one of the heroes, gave his life to save the rest of them, and when they got home, all of them (Venom included) attended his funeral.

After the events of Civil War, Venom joined the Thunderbolts team and is still there at this time. When the Thunderbolts were assigned to apprehend American Eagle, Shadowoman and Steel Spider. He has become a cannibal as he has ripped off and ate Steel Spider's arm. He has stated that the symbiote has been giving him hallucinations and begins to eat his handlers in the Thunderbolt Mountain.

Most recently Venom fought Namor and ripped off his feet-wings. Namor then knocked him unconscious and ripped out his tongue.

In the Thunderbolts Mountain, Mac is beginning to hallucinate the symbiote who is trying to communicate with him. Because of a prisoner named Blue Streak's power of mind control, Venom manage to kill and eat a guard. He was later stabbed by Swordsman during a duel. After Swordsman continued on, medics came to Venom's aid saying that he'd live becuse the Symbiote covered the wound and that Gargan was saying the symbiote talked to him.

Other Hosts

Anne Weying Brock

The Venom symbiote joined with Eddie's ex-wife twice. The first bonding had happened when Anne was seriously wounded after being shot by the second Sin-Eater. With her condition rapidly deteriorating, the symbiote bonded with Anne because of Eddie's insistence and his wishes to save her. Under the influence of the symbiote, Anne impulsively murdered a pair of thugs, an act she instantly regretted. The second time she bonded with the symbiote occurred in police custody. Used as bait to lure her ex-husband, Anne was once again joined with the symbiote after Eddie transferred his other through a telephone line, allowing her to escape. These instances proved traumatic for Anne, causing her to later commit suicide.

Patricia Robertson

Patricia Robertson was never a host to the real Venom, but a clone. After running from and fighting a clone of the symbiote, she eventually became its host. She used a special collar to control the symbiote so it followed her commands. When she came into contact with the original Venom in New York, her suit was absorbed into the original. Read this section for more details.

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Powers & Abilities

The Venom symbiote is an alien that possesses various abilities. It requires a host body from which it absorbs adrenaline for fuel, but being symbiotic in nature (as opposed to parasitic like the rest of its race) it grants several abilities to its host. The symbiote increases all physical attributes of its host, such as strength, speed, agility, reflexes, stamina, durability and healing and brings them all to superhuman levels. It also affords special abilities that come solely from itself, including camouflage (and limited invisibility), shape shifting and slight mental abilities that let the symbiote and the host share memories and knowledge, as well as mimic (and block) Spider-Man's Spider Sense. In Planet Of The Symbiotes, the creature, after being rejected by its host, emits a psychic scream which has the effect of driving nearby humans to states of extreme depression. Later, with the assistance of Eddie Brock, it emits an even more powerful variant of that power which results in the mass suicide of an invasive force of symbiotes.

After bonding with Spider-Man, the symbiote adopted some of his powers and can use them even though he no longer uses Peter as a host. The Symbiote grants the wearer Spider-man's abilities because Spider-man was the first person it had bonded with. In theory, if the symbiote bonded with, say Wolverine, it would most likely acquire his abilities and pass them on to it's other hosts. It can mimic Spider-Man's web-shooting abilities using materials created inside its own body. Since the webbing comes from itself it can run out and every so often it needs to generate more. It also developed ed Spider-Man's wall-crawling trick and can adhere to sheer surfaces.

Weaknesses

The symbiote is vulnerable to fire and high-frequency sounds. These weaknesses aren't absolute though. Venom can resist the pain caused by fire or sonics when necessary, but they are a deterrent.

Though the symbiote has rejected its species habit of consuming its hosts, it still requires certain chemicals found in living brain tissue (most likely phenethylamine) in order to survive. When starved of these chemicals, the symbiote develops a mutable exoskeleton, allowing it to form its own solid body which it uses to hunt and kill prey without the assistance of a host.

Characteristics - Eddie Brock

Height: 6'3"

Weight: 260 lbs

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Reddish Blonde

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Personality

Venom (in all of his incarnations) is violent and slightly insane. He’s willing to kill but usually his only focus is Spider-Man. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone else and will often times let Spider-Man go if someone else is in danger. Venoms after Eddie Brock don’t always share this same regard for innocent life, but Venom is a deeply twisted character no matter who is under the costume. Though Venom is largely defined by his relationship with Spider-Man, he’s a unique character on his own.

Over the years, Venom has been both a hero and a villain. Originally (with Eddie) Venom was a villain. He was a little crazy, very powerful, and probably the most dangerous member of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. Fans loved him like this and he successful. He proved so successful in fact, that Marvel decided he’d do well on his own. However, his character wasn’t preserved when he got his own books. Venom became hero (albeit