It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching can help.
Venom
Find out more about Venom from Marvel Comics. Dicover the history of Marvels most popular characters from the comics and MCU.
Venom is an alien Symbiote which survives by bonding with a host. Venom has had many human host bodies including Peter Parker, Eddie Brock, Anne Weying, Mac Gargan, and Flash Thompson.
The character Venom was created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. The first full first appearance as Venom was in May 1988 in The Amazing Spider-Man #300.
The idea for The Symbiote was developed by Randy Schueller, Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco, Mike Zeck and Ron Frenz. The Symbiote first appeared as a living alien costume in May 1984, in The Amazing Spider-Man #252.
Venom makes appearances within Spiderman comics while also appearing in Secret Avengers, Thunderbolts and Guardians of the Galaxy
Venom Biography
The Marvel Comic character Venom has been around for over 30 years. His time as Spider-Man’s Symbiote costume and the alien being’s growing hatred of Peter Parker later led to the development of powers resembling those belonging to the wall-crawler.
These powers include a sense that warns Venom of pending danger, and the Symbiote’s ability to generate organic “webs” that allow him to swing from building to building with ease. The symbiote can also change its outward appearance whenever it wants.
Venom’s unique alien physiology prevents Spider-Man from detecting him with his spider sense. Venom is incredibly agile and strong, as shown in his numerous battles with Spider-Man and other super-powered beings.
Origins of Venom
The being later known as Venom was the 998th generation of the feral Klyntar, an inorganic extraterrestrial race. The Kree received the Symbiote soon after its birth.
Hoping to mimic the shape-shifting abilities of their rival Skrulls, the Kree attempted to bond the Symbiote to their warrior Tel-Kar.
The plan was to have their soldier penetrate the Skrull army. Tel-Kar was later discovered and captured by the Skrull after removing himself from the Symbiote.
The Symbiote later returned to the safety of other Klyntar, only to be imprisoned by them after its dreams to guard its hosts instead of controlling them were revealed. The Symbiote was later discovered by Spider-Man in the Battleworld prison complex.
Major Story Arcs
Secret Wars
Deadpool was the Symbiote’s first human host. The “merc with a mouth” came across the prison during his time on Battleworld.
He donned his new costume for only a few minutes until he realized that the Symbiote was alive and interacting with his thoughts.
Deadpool worried that his own fragile mental state would impact the alien, so he brought the Symbiote back to where he had found it, just minutes before Spider-Man arrived.
Spider-Man’s traditional red and blue costume had been damaged during a recent battle with Doctor Doom’s forces.
After the conflict, he noticed Thor and the Hulk emerging from a room where the God of Thunder’s cape and helmet had been restored. The Hulk informed Spider-Man that the room contained a machine that could create new clothes just by thinking into it.
Spider-Man approached what he assumed was the correct device. The Symbiote soon appeared as a small black blob. After touching it, the entity soon covered the hero from head to toe in a stunning new black costume, which was adorned with white spider emblems on the front and back.
Spider-Man assumed the design appeared because it looked similar to the costume that the new Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) was wearing.
It was later revealed that the white spiders were actually taken from the skull emblem worn by Knull, the evil deity who created the Klyntars.
Spider-Man’s Symbiote Suit
After the heroes and villains brought to Battleword by the Beyonder were returned to Earth, the Symbiote continued to serve as Spider-Man’s costume.
It was originally satisfied serving as Peter Parker’s costume and helping to enhance his abilities. The Symbiote fed off of Parker’s desire to help others by overtaking his body as he slept.
It continued to fight crime while Parker was asleep until the Symbiote’s actions were actually harming his host.
Parker soon started to wonder why he was constantly exhausted in the morning, after getting what he assumed was a good night’s sleep. He also began to grow wary of the costume’s autonomous nature.
He later decided to bring the costume to the Baxter Building to have it evaluated by the Fantastic Four, upon the urging by his girlfriend the Black Cat (Felicia Hardy).
Peter learned that his new costume was sentient and wanted to bond with him permanently. He rejected the costume after this discovery.
Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards) realized that extreme heat and sound were the Symbiote’s primary weaknesses, and was able to lure it into a containment module with the assistance of Spider-Man and the Human Torch (Johnny Storm).
The Symbiote would later break free and attempt to bond with Parker. Peter’s repeated rejection of his alien costume made the Symbiote resent him, a feeling that would later be shared with its future hosts.
Lethal Protector
The Symbiote’s third human host was journalist Eddie Brock. At the time, Brock was a reporter for the Daily Globe. He had written an article that exposed the identify of a man that he believed to be a serial killer.
Spider-Man later captured the real killer, leaving Brock’s reputation in ruins. Depressed, Brock sought refuge in a nearby church where the Symbiote had been residing following another unsucessful attempt in bonding with Parker.
The Symbiote now became known as Venom.
Venom frequently spoke in the third person plural (“we”) when joined with Brock. This seemed to indicate that Brock and the Symbiote were two separate beings in unison.
Brock sometimes referred to the Symbiote as “my other and I.” The duo fought their nemesis Spider-Man multiple times, but never defeated their foe.
During their union, the Symbiote viewed Peter Parker as its ideal host. It tried to bond with the super-hero on multiple occasions in between times when Venom and Brock tried to kill Spider-Man.
The Symbiote even went so far as to manipulate Brock into believing that he had a sister and an uncle who had passed away.
When Brock started to question their association, Venom further duped him into thinking he had contracted cancer in an effort to control their relationship.
Spawn of Venom
The Symbiote seemed to have perished during a confrontation with Styx and Stone and Spider-Man. Styx’s deadly touch apparently killed Venom. It later recuperated and sought out its most recent host, Eddie Brock.
The Symbiote freed Brock from prison, but not before leaving an asexually-produced spawn behind. The spawn later bonded with Brock’s cellmate Cletus Kasady.
The new Symbiote would later be known as Carnage.
Carnage was stronger than its parent. Venom and Spider-Man called a truce in order to fight Carnage together, although Brock would later alternate between helping and fighting his greatest rival.
Descent into Villainy
Elderly crime boss Don Fortunato’s son Angelo would briefly become the second Venom. Angelo was able to successfully control the Symbiote’s powers after being united with it for a short period of time.
The Symbiote disclosed Spider-Man’s secret identity to Angelo, and they fought the hero at one of Parker’s class reunions. At first, Angelo was able to overpower Spider-Man.
After the new Venom murdered a man wearing a Spider-Man costume for cosplay, Parker stopped restraining himself and defeated the inexperienced villain.
The Symbiote’s next host was MacDonald “Mac” Gargan, also known as the Scorpion, one of Spider-Man’s oldest enemies. Venom offered Gargan new powers if he would end Spider-Man’s life.
Gargan agreed to bond with the Symbiote. This pairing gave him a distinct advantage as Gargan joined the Sinister Twelve, led by Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin).
However, Spider-Man was still able to defeat Venom and the Avengers triumphed over the rest of Osborn’s team.
Agent Venom
The Symbiote was later separated from Gargan and claimed by the U.S. miltary.
It was intended to be used as weaponized body armor under Project Rebirth 2.0. The initiative was based on the government’s earlier Sym-Soldier program.
After the first recruit, Cal Henricksen, failed to successfully bond with the Symbiote and was later killed, it was given to Peter Parker’s friend Col. Eugene “Flash” Thompson.
After integrating with Venom, he was able to use the Symbiote to create new prosthetic legs and acquire powers similar to those of his idol Spider-Man.
Agent of the Cosmos
Captain America later asked Thompson to replace Tony Stark as representative for the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Symbiote altered its appearance once in space. It formed an exoskeletal appearance while losing the body armor, and retained a familiar-looking mouth full of jagged teeth.
The Symbiote served as an Agent of the Cosmos with Thompson, and worked to restore order in the galaxy.
Gramosian space pirates separated Venom and Flash, and the Symbiote soon bonded with the pirates’ leader Mercurio. This union was intentionally forged as a ruse so that Flash could gain information about Mercurio’s armies while waiting for their allies to join them in battle against the Gramosians.
Venom’s brief bond with Mercurio soon drove the Symbiote mad. It went on a frenzied rampage across many of the planets that he and Thompson had once protected.
The Symbiote later led Thompson to the homeworld of its first host in an effort to make him lose his mind.
Return to Earth
Venom and Thompson later returned to Earth. They arrived in part to aid Carol Danvers in the second Civil War, but also in part to find Mania, one of the Symbiote’s clones.
Spider-Man later separated Venom from Thompson following a battle that neither of his foes wanted to fight.
Parker had planned on keeping the Symbiote in his laboratory, until Venom surprised him with his ability to take on human form without requiring a host body. The Symbiote quickly overtook and overwhelmed Spider-Man.
Parker’s rage against the Symbiote grew, and Venom profusely apologized to its former host for all of the damage that it had done to him.
Venom claimed to no longer be the Symbiote that Parker once knew. Venom let Spider-Man go and went back to Thompson.
Thompson explained to Spider-Man that they were looking for Venom’s tainted clone and former student Mania.
Return of the Lethal Protector
The Symbiote was scheduled to be returned to Alpha Flight, until Eddie Brock intervened and bonded with it.
Brock was determined to make this collaboration better than before. This proved to be a difficult task, as the Symbiote’s recent corruption made it extremely possessive of Brock.
Venom even went so far as to assault a priest who it assumed had wanted to weaken their reconnection.
Brock went to the Alchemax Corporation in an effort to prevent his formerly heroic Symbiote from further relapsing deeper in its corrupted state.
While there, Eddie learned that his body was almost entirely inhospitable to Symbiotes, due to his exposure to Symbiote-suppressing drugs while he was employed by the FBI.
Alchemax agreed to help Brock, as long as he brought them the equipment he had stolen and the super-villain Stegron.
After Brock achieved this task, the company supplied him with medicine to restore his body’s metabolism so that it could bond effectively with Symbiotes again.
Venom and the X-Men
The time-displaced X-Men later sought out Venom’s help. Their allies the Starjammers had been captured by a group of bounty hunters who had bonded with other Symbiotes.
Venom was sympathetic to their cause, and attempted to persuade Brock to join them on their quest. Brock initially refused, and Venom responded by knocking him unconscious.
When he awoke, Brock found himself in space with the Symbiote and the young X-Men.
He agreed to help them after learning that the bounty hunters’ Symbiotes were being used as weapons as a result of the traumas they experienced during the war against the Poisons.
Battle with the Symbiote God
The Symbiote eventually started having vivid nightmares. Its dreams were filled with terrifying visions of a powerful being that many symbiotes had previously worshipped.
This Symbiote god’s influence over Venom began to intensify, and it started experiencing sudden, savage bouts of blood lust and insanity.
Brock used anti-psychosis medication on the Symbiote in an attempt to prevent these outbursts.
He abstained from combat for several months, fearing the worst until he could discover the reasons behind Venom’s actions.
Savage Avengers
After the sorcerer Kulan Gath had captured and tortured another Klyntar, Venom joined forces with Doctor Voodoo, Elektra, the Punisher and Logan (Wolverine) as they battled Jhoatun Lau.
The Symbiote’s exposure to the villain’s cosmic radiation caused it to expand in size until Venom resembled the dragon Grendel. This sudden transformation helped the Symbiote fight effectively against the evil god.
War of the Realms
Venom was still without a Symbiote host when it was recruited by Captain Marvel to be a part of her War Avengers strike-force.
Venom fought alongside Captain Britain, Deadpool, Sif, Weapon H and the Winter Soldier. Venom was sent into battle against Thor’s nemesis Malekith the Accursed in London.
The Symbiote attempted consuming the villain until it was defeated by its Ebony Blade. Venom was captured and taken to Stonehenge, where Malekith tortured the Symbiote in an effort to make it bend to the elf’s will.
Thor eventually separated the Symbiote from Malekith, and Venom left in search of its spawn Carnage.
Absolute Carnage
Venom found Eddie Brock and his brother Dylan in Manhattan. Eddie and Venom after Kasady pushed them into the approach of an oncoming subway train.
Eddie was initially hesitant to reunite with the Symbiote until Kasady became the massive skeletal monster known as Dark Carnage.
Kasady easily defeated Eddie and Venom, but Eddie managed to free himself by using the subway’s third rail to electrocute Kasady.
Venom put Eddie into a coma in order to help him heal as he bonded with him. The Symbiote went to Peter Parker’s apartment with Dylan before relinquishing control to Eddie.
Venom encouraged Eddie to let go of his anger and jealousy and work with Spider-Man in confronting Dark Carnage again.
Venom Island
Several weeks later, Eddie was invited to join the Avengers. Venom attempted to reassure Eddie and help restore his sense of self-worth before being interrupted by the Grendel Symbiote.
Grendel, who had the same personality as the first Carnage Symbiote, tried to take over Eddie’s body so that he could kill the Avengers.
Venom is one of the top Marvel villains listed in our page of comic readers favourite super villains.
If you like Marvel Venom gifts, collectables and merchandise, then you may also want to check out our related content. Follow the links below to find more geeky Marvel collectables.
Find out more about Marvel Comics. Dicover the history of Marvels most popular characters from the comics and MCU.