Venom, also known as the Lethal Protector, is one of the two main protagonists (alongside Eddie Brock) of the Venom trilogy of the Sony's Marvel Universe and a cameo character of Spider-Man: No Way Home from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He was an alien symbiote who bonded with investigative journalist, Eddie Brock, whom he forms a co-inhabiting partnership with, eventually becoming his best friend and sidekick. By using Venom's superhuman strength and durability as well as Eddie's intellect and moral conscience, they elect to help those in need by fighting against criminals and supervillains while also satisfying Venom's hunger for human flesh.
Background[]
Personality[]
The Venom symbiote was initially bloodthirsty and cruel; frequently mocking Eddie, openly considering him nothing but a vehicle for it to use to accomplish its mission, and consuming him from the inside-out, but over time it starts to genuinely care about him and even loving him. Despite being cruel and sadistic, it is childish, cheerful and boisterous as it cheers on at the fact that it defeated Treece and his men, which it suggested to Eddie that they should bite all their heads off and pile them in a corner. It is honest to the point of being brutal, when it was questioned by Eddie if it's going to eat anyone else, and it says most likely to him. It also can be reasonable at times as it makes a deal with Eddie to help it to get to Drake's rocket, and even says it to him. Tired of being looked down upon by the other members of its kind, who had considered it a runt - Venom came to empathize with Eddie's status as a "loser", eventually deciding to turn on its own kind and save the Earth from being invaded. The symbiote ultimately agreed to work alongside Eddie as a vigilante, to only hurt bad people despite its own confusion of how it can tell the difference of who is good or bad. In contrast to Eddie, who wanted to return to his normal life and resented Venom disrupting his attempts to do so, Venom began resenting Eddie for keeping it hidden and not letting it act as a "lethal protector" by hunting down and devouring criminals. The growing tension and resentment between Eddie and Venom ultimately led to a falling-out between the two of them, though Venom secretly lamented having left Eddie. When sought out by Anne, Venom refused to help her save Eddie until she appealed to its ego, and refused to rebond to Eddie until he apologized. Observing Cletus and Carnage's disharmony, Eddie and Venom set aside their differences to save Anne. Venom was willing to leave Eddie so that he could return to his normal life, and was touched when Eddie opted to become a fugitive and travel the world as a lethal protector.
Impressed by Anne Weying - another compatible host, the symbiote attempted to help Eddie repair his relationship with her and - while bonded to Anne - influenced her into kissing him. When Eddie neglected to do so, resulting in Anne getting engaged to Dr. Lewis, Venom was infuriated but tried to assuage Eddie's heartbreak. When bonded to Mrs. Chen, the Venom symbiote berated Anne for breaking Eddie's heart, but begrudgingly accepted her relationship with Dr. Lewis after they helped it and Eddie fight Carnage.
Venom also dislikes being addressed as a parasite, due to it being a vulgar insult on its homeworld.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Symbiotic Physiology: Venom is an amorphous, extraterrestrial being of black biomass, that affords its host several superhuman attributes once symbiosis is achieved. As a result of its symbiosis with Eddie Brock, his physical attributes (such as strength, durability, speed, agility and healing) are enhanced to superhuman levels. Venom can cover the host’s body in its own biomass; affording the host a number of superhuman abilities, however, the symbiote can be used as a weapon while its host is in human form.
- Superhuman Strength: Venom can give the host tremendous superhuman strength; enabling the host easily to overpower, lift, toss and kill others (as Eddie easily took out multiple Life Foundation guards by himself). The symbiote is able to exert immense physical force; their strikes can easily break various metals, and send objects and people flying at high speed and force. Venom can easily bend, rip and tear metal frames, and send doors flying off of their hinges with a single strike.
- Superhuman Reflexes: While possessing a host, Venom demonstrates exceptional awareness of its surrounding, notably being able to sense nearby threats before its host could. This was seen when Venom uses its tentacles to attack opponents from any direction, despite the fact that Eddie was not aware of the threat. Venom is also fast enough to enable its host to dodge bullets, as well as catch a tear gas grenade that was fired at them.
- Superhuman Agility: Venom is extremely agile, it possesses exceptional speed and athleticism, that enables its host to preform acrobatic and gymnastic stunts. Venom is able to quickly scale vertical surfaces, leap tremendous heights and distances, and can dodge projectiles from multiple assailants; Venom displayed tremendous speed and reflexes when it avoided projectiles Carnage hurled at bullet speed.
- Superhuman Durability: The Venom symbiote is superhumanly strong and durable, it is able to withstand multiple gunfire from SWAT officers, high velocity impacts, as well as lethal attacks from other symbiotes (such as Riot and Carnage) without sustaining injury or discomfort of any kind.
- Superhuman Speed: Venom is able to move at extremely high-speeds this enables its host to run and move incredibly fast; as Eddie was able to easily outpace several security officers, and escape pursuers from the Life Foundation by quickly scaling a tree. Venom is able to quickly run across rooftops and scale up the sides of buildings, and is fast enough to swiftly catch up to and dispatch enemies, even when they are in vehicles.
- Superhuman Senses: Venom possesses superhuman sensory awareness, as demonstrated when Drake's mercenaries arrived to retrieve the symbiote from Eddie, and Venom told him seconds before not to open the door. The Venom symbiote is also hyper-aware of its surroundings, as it could detect assailants from multiple directions, despite facing the opposite way.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Venom is able to rapidly repair its host body from even the most severe of injuries in mere seconds (from ruptured organs to broken bones). This allowed its host Eddie Brock to almost instantly recover from being hit by a van at high-speed and having much of his body broken, as well as bring him back from the brink of death after he had been impaled by Riot. Even without a host, Venom can regenerate himself from the smallest piece of mass, provided that he has sufficient nourishment to do so (as seen when the symbiote recovered some time after sacrificing most of itself to protect Eddie). Venom was able to regenerate his teeth after Eddie broke them. However, Venom itself was fatigued and injured when it was repeatedly impaled by Carnage (these injuries almost proved fatal and greatly reduced its mobility).
- Possession: As a symbiote, Venom has been shown to be able to transfer itself from host to host upon physical contact with them, bonding to their flesh as if intangible and taking full control of their bodies. While in their bodies, Venom is able to enhance their physical abilities to inhuman levels, allowing them to overpower other humans with ease and heal from severe injuries such as broken bones and damaged tissue in seconds. While it is capable of seemingly suppressing a host's mind and use their bodies as if it were its own, it is able to psychically link with the host and work collectively with them while sharing the same body. The abilities it can use whilst bonded to its host, including its ability to manifest constructs out of its own mass and enveloping its host to form a body for itself, is fueled by how compatible it is with its host.
- Shapeshifting: Venom can generate portions of itself out of Brock's body to form various constructs, including tendrils, shields, parachutes and various other appendages. It can also fully emerge from Brock while remaining attached to him, enveloping its host's body to form its own, complete with eyes, claws and a mouth with powerful jaws and sharp teeth, allowing it to tear flesh and eat off entire body parts from its victims. Its ability to manifest these constructs is fueled by how compatible it is with its host. The Symbiote notably uses tendrils for attack and defense, from grappling with Drake's guards, to pull Eddie back onto his motorcycle when he was flung through the air.
- Symbiotic Suit Manifestation: Venom can fully emerge from Brock while remaining attached to him, enveloping the host's body to form its own that akin to a malleable yet resilient sort of combat full-body suit, complete with eyes, claws and extendable, fanged mouth with a long, prehensile tongue. The "suit" uses its razor-sharp teeth and powerful jaws to tear through flesh and bone, allowing it to eat off entire body parts from its victims. Venom's full body-like suit emulates that of its human host's humanoid appearance, resulting in it having a humanoid shape despite it's more monstrous traits. In this form, Venom's physical superhuman attributes are at their peak, amplifying his strength, durability, speed, agility and reflexes far beyond that of normal humans' capacity, which its host can use at full effect. Venom can use his large, fanged maw to tear flesh and bone and absorb the symbiote that was spawned.
- Genetic Memory: Venom is able to remember all the memories of all his hosts and can memorize anything just by looking, as demonstrated when Eddie enters the room where he had drawings to take to the place of bodies where Cletus Kasady had hidden it though Venom only had to stay a short time to memorize the drawings and was able to recreate the drawings from Cletus' prison cell just from some glimpses. He even says that his memory is very good.
- Telepathy: Venom can communicate telepathically with its host.
- Fangs: When he manifests his "head" or when he creates the suit, Venom also creates a series of sharp and apparently dirty teeth, which are capable of shredding and tearing flesh and bones, but Eddie Brock managed to shatter them by hitting them with his motorcycle helmet (although he can seem strange such a low hardness), but Venom regenerated them soon after. It also allowed Venom to consume Carnage who tried to rejoin Kasady moments before its end.
- Claws: When Venom creates the Symbiotic Suit, it also creates ten claws, each one placed on the fingertips of the hands, which allows it to cling to vertical surfaces and attack in close quarters.
- Genius-Level Intellect: It is likely that Venom has an above average level of intelligence, as he knew exactly where Cletus Kasady had hidden the bodies right after seeing the drawings in his room. As a symbiote, Venom possesses greater intelligence than most species on earth. He also withholds 80-billion-light-years of hive-knowledge that expands across the Multiverse, which is also shared with all other members of his species.
- Master Tactician: Venom may have good tactical skills. It was able to provoke Shriek by simply swatting her off the platform, so that her sonic scream would destabilize it and Carnage that were removed from their hosts and saves Eddie Brock by travelling from Anne Weying and Dan Lewis to the falling Brock, then use its own suit to break his fall.
- Skilled Combatant: Venom demonstrated advanced fighting levels mainly with his battles of Riot and Carnage fight despite being bested the latter two.
Weaknesses[]
- Sonic Vibrations: As powerful as Venom is, he is vulnerable to extremely loud noise and even that of intense sonic vibrations as it drives the symbiote crazy.
- Intense Heat: Aside from the intense noise that causes Venom to go crazy, he can also be injured through exposure to intense heat, such as from lasers, fire, etc.
- Hunger: Because of his uncontrollable hunger, Venom must feed on living flesh to sustain himself, namely humans, or he'll eat the organs of his own host, namely humans. Small creatures, such as birds, chickens, dogs, cats, snakes and reptiles are not enough to sustain him.
- Imperfect host: Venom is limited to its bond with hosts other than Eddie Brock. As such, they are unable to accept the symbiote's toxicity, which fatally takes them out no matter the amount of time used before death.
Appearences[]
Sony's Spider-Man Universe[]
Venom[]
Venom is part of a taskforce led by Riot to conquer other worlds. The symbiotes originally resided in a comet before being discovered by the Life Foundation. Venom, Riot, and two other symbiotes are captured by astronaut John Jameson before it crash-lands in Malaysia. While Riot escapes and bonds to a local paramedic, the Life Foundation captures the remaining symbiotes, including Venom. The Life Foundation's CEO, Carlton Drake, uses the symbiotes to perform illegal experiments on homeless civilians.
During those experiments, Venom is bonded to a homeless woman named Maria. They are quickly discovered by Eddie Brock, a disgraced investigative journalist who had tried to call out Drake for his experiments six months prior and had broken into the Life Foundation to expose Drake's crimes alongside a disgruntled scientist. When he tries to free her, she attacks him, and her symbiote bonds to Brock while the scientist ends up being killed by Drake. Because of this event, Brock is hunted down by mercenaries sent in by Drake, and finds himself in conflict with the symbiote, who explains that the other symbiotes are searching for new world in order to devour lifeforms to survive, and offers to help out Brock in return for his cooperation. Though Brock seems to enjoy his new powers, he is upset to hear that Venom was eating his heart because Eddie wasn't eating much in awhile, so Anne Weying is forced to use an MRI machine to separate himself from the symbiote, although he is captured by Drake's mercenaries minutes later.
Meanwhile, Riot makes his way to America and bonds with Drake, who agrees to help Riot seek out the other symbiotes in space. Fortunately, Anne reluctantly bonds with the Venom symbiote, allowing it to free Brock before being convinced by him to stop Drake and Riot from achieving their goal. To that end, Venom manages to damage the ship's probe, causing the fuel to spill out which contacts the burning but still hot engines of the ship's probe that explodes the fuel tanks of the probe which kills both Drake and Riot. As Eddie receives his job back, he allowed Venom to stay in his body under the condition that Venom only eats "bad people." Venom agrees and begins by devouring a thug robbing a grocery store.
Eddie is last seen visiting a state prison as he is about to do an interview with a dangerous convict named Cletus Kasady.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage[]
A year later, after Eddie visits Kasady to interview him, Venom can figure out where Kasady has hidden the bodies of his victims, which gives Eddie a huge career boost. After Kasady subsequently invites Eddie to attend his execution by lethal injection, Venom is provoked to aggressively attack Kasady via insults towards Eddie. After briefly witnessing Venom's true form, Kasady bites Eddie's hand, unknowingly ingesting a small part of Venom as they reproduce. Eddie is then contacted by Anne, who tells him that she is now engaged to Lewis, much to Venom's displeasure.
Wanting more freedom to eat humans instead of chickens, Venom gets into a heated argument with Eddie, causing the two to end up fighting until the symbiote detaches from his body. Venom and Eddie then go their different ways in disgrace. Venom makes his way through San Francisco by jumping from body to body and happily attending a rave until Anne finds him at Mrs. Chen's store and convinces him to reconcile with Eddie. She bonds with Venom herself to break Eddie out of a police station after he is arrested on suspicion of aiding in Kasady's escape from prison, as the symbiote piece he had swallowed became Venom's son "Carnage."
Making amends, Venom and Eddie bond again and arrive at a cathedral with Dan, where Kasady and his lover Frances Barrison plan to get married, after Barrison and Kasady take Anne and Officer Mulligan hostage, respectively. Venom is shocked to see Carnage ("a red one") envelop Kasady and address them as "father", seeking to eat them, refusing to fight until Eddie promises to let him eat "everybody." Venom begins to fight his son, but is quickly overpowered, and Carnage decides to kill Anne atop the cathedral.
Venom manages to rescue Anne in time and provokes Barrison into using her sonic blast powers, causing both symbiotes to separate from their hosts as the cathedral collapses and the falling bell crushes Barrison. Venom saves Eddie by bonding with him before the impact. Carnage tries to bond with Kasady again, but Venom devours his son before killing Kasady by biting off his head and escaping with Eddie from the police, bidding farewell to Anne and Dan.
While pondering their next steps, Venom and Eddie decide to take a tropical vacation together, with Venom finally feeling the ocean between his toes as he sits on the beach with Eddie, talking about their lives. After Eddie agrees to change their crimefighting name, both declaring that "We are the Lethal Protector", Venom is happy by his approval before the two happily watch the sunset.
Sometime later, Venom and Eddie binge-watch local telenovelas in their tropical vacation cabana. As Venom tells Eddie about the symbiotes' hive mind knowledge of other universes, they are suddenly warped into a Mexican resort in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where the pair watch as J. Jonah Jameson discusses Spider-Man's identity as Peter Parker and a "murderer" (thanks to Mysterio framing Spider-Man for his actions) on television. Venom, recognizing Peter as a criminal, licks the television screen.
Unbeknownst to Venom and Eddie, others from their own respective universes are also transported into the MCU, including the Lizard, Electro, Sandman, Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin and two variants of Peter Parker, due to Doctor Strange's attempt to restore Peter Parker's secret identity initially going completely wrong and breaking open the multiverse while trying to cast a spell so everyone can forget that Spider-Man is Peter Parker.
Marvel Cinematic Universe[]
Spider-Man: No Way Home[]
At a bar, in an attempt to make sense of their new surroundings, Eddie and Venom have a conversation with the bartender, where they learn that the MCU is full of superheroes while they are told the whole story of all of the events that have occurred in this universe, learning about the Avengers like Iron Man and Hulk and how Thanos' quest to collect the Infinity Stones lead to him making everyone disappear. Both Eddie and Venom dismiss the story as Eddie believes that all aliens, like Venom, have a desire to eat brains instead. The bartender somehow takes offense at this, explaining to Eddie that Thanos caused his family to disappear for five years.
When Eddie plots to travel directly to New York City so he and Venom can meet Spider-Man while planning to stay in the MCU with Venom so they can become the new "Lethal Protector" of this universe, Venom suggests that they go skinny dipping instead, although Eddie refuses. Before they can do anything else, Doctor Strange casts a new spell to send all the multiversal visitors back to their own universes and make the world forget Peter Parker's identity, sending Eddie and Venom back to the SSU.
Unbeknownst to Eddie, for unknown reasons, it is revealed that Venom managed to leave a detached piece of himself behind in the MCU prior to being sent back to his own universe along with Eddie, whereupon it began to move on its own after the bartender complained how Eddie didn't pay or even leave a tip for him, unaware of the piece of the Venom symbiote moving near him. It is unknown what happened with the piece of Venom afterwards as it either possessed and/or killed the bartender or if it ignored him, but it's determination to find Spider-Man heavily implies that it will be hunting him down.
Printed Media[]
Venom (Comic)[]
In September 14, 2018 Venom appears in the comic of the same name for the film.
Video games[]
Venom Unleashed[]
In Venom Unleashed, Venom is the titular playable character.
Feed the Beast[]
In Feed the Beast, Venom is walking and hiding in Eddie Brock's apartment, while trying to a catch food products.
Fortnite[]
Venom appears in Fortnite, in the Venom pack/Symbiotes Set with Eddie in the Selectable Styles, that can be purchased in the Item Shop for 2,000 V-Bucks or with the Venom Bundle for 2,800 V-Bucks. Eddie Brock was first released in Chapter 2: Season 8 and is part of the Set.
Relationships[]
Eddie Brock[]
Eddie Brock is Venom's host and best friend, he protected him from the Life Foundation guards and starts to mock him as loser, at Dan Lewis' clinic he started to "kill" Eddie at Dan Lewis' clinic, later he is bonded with Anne to rescue Eddie, later they separted after Cletus bit Eddie's hand with the symbiote's part and after that he gets apologized by Eddie and fought agaisnt Carnage/Cletus Kasady and Shriek.
Carnage[]
Carnage is a red symbiote and Venom's son/offspring and another of his enemies, however they do not get along because both can have different alignments, according to the Carnage Unleashed movie, Carnage was a part of Venom bitten by the serial killer Cletus Kasady, even he shows his hatred towards him and later they fight in the church for the marriage of Shriek and Cletus when Anne and Officer Murphy were kidnapped. Venom is afraid of Carnage, but Eddie motivates him to fight against him.
Riot[]
| “Riot: ¡VENOM! Get in the Rocket Venom: No, we don't want destroy this world |
| —Riot and Venom |
Riot is Venom's leader and arch-nemesis, he wanted Venom to enter in the Life Foundation's rocket with more symbiotes, later when Eddie was killed by him, Venom ressurects him destroyed Carlton Drake/Riot in that ship, Riot called him Traitor and Venom said to him this: "Have a nice life"
Anne Weying[]
TBA...
Trivia[]
- A running gag in the movie is Venom does not like being called a "parasite", even if it is by Eddie (as they are arguing with this at the end of the film). He likely considers it a racist term.
- However, a parasite is a mindless creature that swaps any host in order to survive, while a Symbiote's bond benefits both the host and the symbiote. It is most likely Venom felt Eddie was ungrateful for his possession and the benefits endowed to him because of it.
- In the comic, the symbiote's best way of attaining nourishment is in phenethylamine, a chemical that stimulates the brain in humans. This is required by symbiotes of Venom's species, however it can also find in chocolate, thus the idea once again use in the scene, where Eddie ask Venom.
- It was also shown that Venom did like Anne and care about her; this could be one of the reasons why Venom didn't kill her while re-swapping into Eddie (which is weird as a symbiote would have to kill its host if he/she wasn't suitable to their nature or when swapping to another host).
- It is implied that Venom may want a romantic relationship with Anne. After fighting with the SWAT team, when Anne asked Eddie to go to the hospital while the latter didn't want to do so, Venom suggested to Eddie to get in the car because he "likes" her. Another piece of evidence was after the battle with Riot, a surviving Venom tells Eddie that Anne doesn't know they are going to steal her back.
- The kiss actually is a nod of The Venom Kiss, which is memorable as Thanos kissing a Venom-ized Death.
- It is implied that Venom may want a romantic relationship with Anne. After fighting with the SWAT team, when Anne asked Eddie to go to the hospital while the latter didn't want to do so, Venom suggested to Eddie to get in the car because he "likes" her. Another piece of evidence was after the battle with Riot, a surviving Venom tells Eddie that Anne doesn't know they are going to steal her back.
- This is the second live-action cinematic incarnation of Venom, the first being Topher Grace's portrayal.
- Ironically, while Topher Grace's portrayal was disliked by the fans, Hardy's portrayal had received more critical acclaim. Also, Topher's Eddie Brock was shown to like being evil, which doesn't fit the original comic's counterpart; Hardy's Brock was more fit to Venom's anti-hero/anti-villain side, and the appearance and personality are more fit to the comic's counterpart.
- For the same reasons, Topher Grace himself greatly approved Hardy's portrayal of the character.
- Ironically, while Topher Grace's portrayal was disliked by the fans, Hardy's portrayal had received more critical acclaim. Also, Topher's Eddie Brock was shown to like being evil, which doesn't fit the original comic's counterpart; Hardy's Brock was more fit to Venom's anti-hero/anti-villain side, and the appearance and personality are more fit to the comic's counterpart.
- The notable difference between Tom Hardy's Venom and his comic's counterpart are that both Eddie and the symbiote never met Spider-Man, which explained why Venom lacks the symbol on his chest. Also, Hardy's Venom is not biologically related with Riot, the symbiote antagonist in the movie.
- Although, when Venom healed Eddie after Riot stab the latter's chest, their wound looked like the iconic Spider-symbol in the comic.
- Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comic once again appears in the film as a cameo. Venom replies by asking Eddie who the old man, credited as Dapper Dog Walker, even is, which is an extra joke for comic fans, since Lee had nothing to do with the creation of Venom.
- According to Venom, on his planet he was a loser just like Eddie, which is one of the reasons for his attachment particularly to him.
- This is partly a nod to his comic book counterpart that considered as an outcast among its kind because it wanted to form a bond with its hosts that benefited both parties when their species is usually purely parasitic.
- The line "Eyes, lungs, pancreas. So many snacks, so little time." is directly taken from The Amazing Spider-Man #374.
- Venom was the only person not to be sent in New York, Queens, after being transported in the MCU, and the only one MCU Spider-Man has not interacted or encountered.
- However, since a splinter of the Venom symbiote was left behind when Venom and Eddie are sent back to their universe, it may be possible that Peter will cross paths with it in the future.
- Venom's role in Spider-Man: No Way Home was intended to be much larger as he was originally considered to face off the three Spider-Men alongside the other five villains in the final battle. Had this been the final draft of the film, this would have been the first live action iteration of the Sinister Six.
- While it is currently unknown if there is a Peter Parker native to the SSU, Venom still recognizes the MCU Peter at the end of Let There Be Carnage. According to the writers of No Way Home, this is because its link to the symbiote hivemind means Venom already knew Peter Parker from another reality. Fans believe that Venom's knowledge of Peter comes from his Raimiverse counterpart of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy.