Eddie Brock

Eddie Brock bonded to his Symbiote in Venom v4 #1.

Eddie Brock is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Edward Charles Allan Brock was born to Carl Brock and Jamie Brock, who died in childbirth - leading to his father blaming Eddie for his wife's death and becoming cold and abusive towards him. Constantly seeking his father's approval, Eddie excelled academically but his achievements were met with half-hearted encouragement. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #375)

His mother died due to complications that led to Edward's birth. (Venom: Dark Origin v1 #1) As a child, his uncle was noted to had suffered from cancer and he saw him waste away before dying with this horrifying Eddie at the time. (Venom v4 #10) When he was young, he along with his friends snuck out where he took his car and had a lot of drinks. Eddie then attempted to get back home quickly before his father noticed and in his haste his car hit and killed the next door neighbours son who died from the injuries. Eddie was deeply affected by the death and intended to plead guilty but his father Carl Brock used his connections to prevent any conviction against his son. He beat his son to convince him to plead innocent where he used his money and connections to ensure Eddie was never convicted despite him feeling guilt for his actions. (Venom v4 #10) The death deeply affected Eddie with the resulting court case bankrupting the family who were left with nothing and Eddie’s father hating him. (Venom v4 #9)

After high school, he applied to the journalism program at Empire State University. After gaining entrance to ESU's journalism program by fabricating an internship, and he romanced law student Anne Weying. Brock though had forged his references in order to enter the university where one of the students attempted to help him find his new residence only for the pair to be attacked by thugs with Eddie only saved by Spider-Man. (Venom: Dark Origin v1 #1)

Venom

Several months ago, he came to investigate the Sin-Eater murders where after looking through the articles he came to be contacted by Emil Gregg who claimed to be the serial killer. Contacting the man, Brock promised to protect his identity under the First Amendment in exchange for a front-page exclusive interview. However, pressure mounting from the police and his counsel forced him to reveal the Sin-Eater's identity in order to stop any further murders. The paper sold out but then immediately news came out that Spider-Man had captured the Sin-Eater whose true identity was actually policeman Stan Carter. The revelation resulted in Brock and the Daily Globe being made into laughing stocks who were ridiculed by their fellow journalists. Eddie was then relegated to writing about celebrity exposes and other drivel that he claimed to had rotted his soul where he blamed everything on Spider-Man who he saw as ruining his life. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300)

Relocating to the Bronx, he spent his meagre money on body-building equipment after hearing that exercise reduced stress. However, noting sated his hatred for Spider-Man and contemplated suicide but as a Catholic he began seek forgiveness at the Our Lady of Saints Church. Unknown to him, a Symbiote that was formerly Spider-Man's Suit was lingering there where it ambushed and came to bond to Eddie Brock. The two shared a mutual hatred in Spider-Man with the Symbiote sharing everything it knew about the Wall-Crawler from its time when they were bonded together. As Venom, Brock thus gained both power and knowledge about Spider-Man that he could use to get his revenge. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300) Driven by the symbiote's jealousy towards Peter rejecting it, Venom attacked Mary Jane Watson at her and Peter's apartment, leaving her terrified and traumatized. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #299)

Eddie then faked his own suicide and escaped the Vault again. He attacked Spider-Man in Central Park, but abandoned the battle to save an innocent baby. When Venom returned to his underground lair, he was followed by Styx and Stone in the hope of finding Spider-Man. Unfortunately for them, Venom escaped the sewers in his human guise. Venom lured Spider-Man into a confrontation in his sewer lair, but when Styx and Stone intervened and attempted to kill Spider-Man. Fortunately for Spidey, albeit in a bad way, Venom would not allow anyone else to kill Spider-Man save himself and attacked them. Despite Spider-Man's best efforts to save Venom, Styx touched the symbiote with his carcinogenic touch, seemingly killing it in the process. Returned to human form, Eddie Brock was sent to a normal prison at Ryker's Island. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #333)

He came to tire of sharing a prison cell with a serial killer like Kasady but then the Venom Symbiote broke into the prison. Bonding to him again, he broke free from his cell and escaped to become Venom once again. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #345)

Returning to New York, Venom and Spider-Man attempted to stop Carnage's rampage twice with equal failure. In their final attempt at Madison Square Garden, they stopped Carnage after he began trying to kill J. Jonah Jameson. Turning on the sound system to the maximum frequency, Spider-Man stopped Carnage. He then proceeded to use the sound waves on Venom before he attacked him, still possessing enough hatred and strength to choke him. His attempt to kill the wall-crawler, however, was stopped by the Fantastic Four, who Venom realized were behind this plan all along. Venom's hatred for Spider-Man now grew greater than ever. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #363)

Lethal Protector

Brock was placed at a transfer site pending transport to a federal prison where the guards kept him in a sonic cage. However, they came to torture his Symbiote whilst within containment but Venom managed to extrude a piece of itself that shut down the sonics. Killing the guard he tormented him, Eddie rendered the other one unconscious before he managed to break the site and escaped the scene. He then looked to resume his vendetta against Spider-Man after seeing an article in the newspaper about Peter Parker being reunited with his parents. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #373)

Spider-Man contacted Eddie's ex-wife, Anne Weying, in order to gain info on his whereabouts, which led Spider-Man to Thrill World where he found Venom waiting. Eddie noticed Ann, who had traveled there to try and reach him one last time. As the Wild Pack arrived, a battle ensued. An amusement ride fell next to Anne and Eddie could not hold it on his own. As Eddie started to falter, Spider-Man assisted him in holding the tremendous weight, and together they tossed the ride aside. Afterwards, Venom began to resume the fight with Spider-Man, but Anne stopped him, reminding Eddie that Spider-Man just saved an innocent life. Pondering this fact for a moment, Eddie realized that by not killing Spider-Man, more innocent lives could be saved. Venom then made a deal with Peter: so long as Spider-Man did not go after them, they would not go after him. Agreeing to the terms, Spider-Man watched as Venom attached a web line to a nearby helicopter, departing for a new city where he would not interfere. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #375)

Relocating back to San Francisco, he began to operate as a crime fighter where he ruthlessly began killing criminals whilst protecting the innocent. (Venom: Lethal Protector v1 #1)

Convinced by a sensationalized news report that Tony Stark was an arms-dealer involved in environmental damage, bribery of government officials, kickbacks, chemical and biological weapons, and organized crime. (Iron Man v1 #301) Venom infiltrated Stark's penthouse and tried to eat him, but was tricked by a Life-Model Decoy. Suited up as Iron Man, Stark fended off Venom and used psychological manipulation to persuade Eddie to give him an opportunity to seek redemption -- as Venom himself was doing. Venom begrudgingly agreed, but warned Iron Man that if Stark put one toe out of line he would return. (Iron Man v1 #302)

During his tenure as the Underground City's protector, Eddie began to be tormented by demons from another dimension called the Realm of Madness, who plotted to lure Venom into their world by driving him increasingly insane. He also became romantically involved with Beck Underwood, a lawyer and above-ground contact of the underground society. A company called Scarmore Inc. was behind some illegal experiments in which they fused a virus with liquid mercury; however, all the substance did was sicken anyone who worked with it, both physically and mentally. Scarmore Inc. hired Black Tom and Juggernaut to kidnap Beck, who was prosecuting the company; and while protecting Beck from the Juggernaut, Venom became submerged in the mercury virus. (Venom: The Madness v1 #1) The mercury virus turned out to be sentient and bonded to Venom, augmenting his strength and figure drastically while simultaneously manipulating him, leading to Venom attempting to kill the company president but actually killing a janitor by mistake; and becoming increasingly aggressive during an intimate moment with Beck that went awry. In a rematch with Juggernaut, Venom overpowered him but was thrown into the Realm of Madness. (Venom: The Madness v1 #2) He then battling the demons Necromancer, Paranoia, and Dusk. The demons explained that every time someone went mad they fell into the Realm of Madness for an amount of time, and the degree of Venom's madness meant he could remain there indefinitely. Bickering with the symbiote and the virus, Venom eventually conquered his conflicting personalities and the demons inside the realm, and was sent back to Earth. Venom attempted to rescue Beck from the Juggernaut, who got fed up and left after Scarmore Inc.'s second-in-command exposed incriminating evidence against the corporation. Beck ended her romance with Eddie, only forgiving him for nearly assaulting her because he hadn't been in control of himself; and Venom expelled the Mercury Virus from his system. Despite everything, Venom respected the sentient virus and welcomed a reunion if he ever needed another power boost. (Venom: The Madness v1 #3)

Misinterpreting Smith's vaguely-worded order to intimidate J. Jonah Jameson, Venom attempted to kill the media mogul and came into conflict with Spider-Man. Venom called off their truce and declared his intent to reveal Spider-Man's secret identity to the public, but was knocked unconscious by a dynamite explosion and awoke with partial amnesia - having forgotten Spider-Man's secret identity. (Spider-Man: The Venom Agenda v1 #1) Following this, the Overreach Committee decided that Venom was too much of a loose cannon and attempted to detonate the thermite bomb in Eddie's chest. Tired of their disdainful treatment of him, Eddie had the symbiote perform surgery on him and extracted the bomb, using the blast to escape custody. (Venom Finale v1 #1) Venom subsequently exposed the Overreach Committee to reporter Trish Tilby, but was attacked by up-and-coming superhero Stentor, Agent Smith - who had been ordered to silence Venom by the Overreach Committee - and Spider-Man - who had assumed Venom had returned to being a supervillain following the incident with Jameson. (Venom Finale v1 #2) Retreating to the sewers but followed by Spider-Man, Venom's amnesia enabled Spider-Man to detect him with his spider-sense and bait him into a trap set by Agent Smith. After receiving a blow to the head, Eddie regained his memory of his obsessive hatred towards Spider-Man, but was subdued and injected with an overdose of dopamine inhibitor, forcibly separating Eddie from the symbiote and seemingly killing it. (Venom Finale v1 #3)

Finally free from the symbiote's influence, Eddie escaped prison and took up residence in a low-rent apartment, the landlord blackmailing him by threatening to reveal his location to the police. While praying for an end to his miserable existence, Eddie was tracked down by Spider-Man, who assumed he was responsible for the threatening phone calls that Mary Jane had been receiving. Eddie denied this but was horrified when he saw that the Venom symbiote had survived and followed Spider-Man. As the symbiote attempted to rebond to him, Eddie dove out the window of his apartment and into the river below trying to escape. However, the symbiote rebonded to him mid-fall and reasserted its influence over him. (Peter Parker: Spider-Man v1 #9) Killing his landlord, Venom travelled to Ravencroft and slaughtered the guards stationed around Cletus Kasady's cell, bragging that even anti-symbiote weaponry didn't pose a threat to him anymore. Rejecting Cletus' offer of an alliance, Venom ripped the Carnage symbiote off of him before devouring it. Blaming J. Jonah Jameson for having ruined his career alongside Spider-Man, Venom attacked the Daily Bugle to take him hostage and use him as bait for Spider-Man. Boasting that assimilating the Carnage symbiote had made him more powerful than ever, Venom easily brutalized Spider-Man. However, the Carnage symbiote's attempts to resist being assimilated ruined Venom's enjoyment of the fight and he departed to finish assimilating it. (Peter Parker: Spider-Man v1 #10)

Cancer

Brock dies after the symbiote leaves him for Spider-Man, not wanting a diseased host. Spider-Man tricks the symbiote into again bonding with Brock, reviving him. (Spectacular Spider-Man v2 #5) When Carnage gives birth to a new symbiote, Venom names it Toxin and hopes to turn it into an ally. (Venom Vs. Carnage v1 #2) When Toxin shows compassion, Venom tries to kill him. (Venom Vs. Carnage v1 #3) Toxin is rescued by Spider-Man and Black Cat. (Venom Vs. Carnage v1 #4)

Unknown to Eddie, the Symbiote began to modify his memories and biochemistry to make him believe he had cancer and that it was the only thing keeping him alive. Part of this included falsifying memories of him having a sister named Mary Brock and an uncle named Dan Brock who had died of cancer. (Venom v4 #11)

Brock experiences a crisis of faith and decides to sell the symbiote, knowing he will rapidly die from his cancer without it, intending to donate the $100 million received from the sale to charity on the grounds that the symbiote would find another host once he dies anyway. (Marvel Knights: Spider-Man v1 #6) Ultimately, Brock decided to sell the Symbiote to Don Fortunato for hundred million dollars where he intended to bond Venom to his son Angelo Fortunato. Eddie agreed and planned to donate the money to charity as he spent his last days free from the Venom Symbiote. (Marvel Knights: Spider-Man v2 #7) Angelo briefly becomes the second Venom but proves an unworthy host, and the symbiote abandons him mid-jump allowing him to fall to his death. Upon learning of Angelo's death, Brock feels responsible and attempts suicide by slitting his wrists. (Marvel Knights: Spider-Man v2 #8)

Brock then began to rapidly succumb to his cancer, and experiencing hallucinations of 'Venom'. Finding a comatose Aunt May in the same hospital, dying from a gunshot, the Venom hallucination persuades him to kill her. Brock, dressed in a novelty replica of Spider-Man's black costume at the demand of 'Venom'. (Sensational Spider-Man v2 #38) He proceeded to murder an 'angel of mercy' nurse to test if he can still kill, but ultimately refused to kill May because she was innocent. When Peter visited May, he found Eddie, who had repeatedly cut his own wrists to get rid of 'Venom'. Believing he had done too many terrible things to live on, Eddie asked for Peter's forgiveness before jumping out of a window. Eddie then jumped out of the window, but Peter broke his fall by catching him. Awakening chained to his bed, Brock decided to take control of himself for the remaining days he had left, telling the hallucination of the symbiote that he was in control. (Sensational Spider-Man v2 #39)

Anti-Venom

As Anti-Venom in Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom - New Ways to Live v1 #1.

Matt Murdock would come to convince a court of law that Brock was not responsible for his actions while bonded to the symbiote and has criminal charges against him were dropped. Afterwards, Brock would gets a job at a soup kitchen that was owned by philanthropist Martin Li. Unknown to Eddie, he came to be cured of his cancer by Li, who secretly possessed special abilities. This led to Brock coming to believe that he had been blessed by a miracle. He then returned to the F.E.A.S.T. shelter to thank Martin Li for his help as Eddie was fully cured of the cancer. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #568) Whilst there, the site came under attack from the new Venom Mac Gargan who had accompanied the Thunderbolts in the city to hunt for Spider-Man. However, Gargan had become overwhelmed by the murderous instincts of the Symbiote that caused him to hunt down its former host namely Brock. Under the pretence of hunting Spider-Man, Venom targeted Eddie where parts of the Symbiote attempted to bond with him despite Eddie wanting to free from it. This combined with the unique cure to Brock caused a mutation leading to the formation of a white Symbiote-like substance that encased Eddie that burnt Venom on contact as Eddie became Anti-Venom. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #569) In this new form, he battled Gargan within the shelter but this only lead to even more damage with the fight interrupted by Spider-Man. Eventually, Spider-Man managed to convince Brock to work together to take down Venom whereupon Eddie used his Anti-Venom's abilities to purge the host of the Symbiote. However, Brock came to be obsessed with removing all traces of the Symbiote where he sensed some within Spider-Man and attempted to remove it leading to him turning against the Wall-Crawler. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #570) Anti-Venom helped Peter escape Osborn's plot to assassinate Spider-Man and infiltrate Oscorp, facing Gargan - who had been equipped with a Scorpion battlesuit to protect the recovering Venom symbiote - in a rematch. While the Gargan Venom was able to incapacitate Anti-Venom using a toxin tailor-made to kill Eddie's new symbiote, the Venom symbiote refused to let Gargan kill Eddie and destroyed his Scorpion suit. Eddie's Anti-Venom suit reformed, and he planned to resume his former vigilante antihero career with an increased religious emphasis as the Anti-Venom; curing a young woman named Jenna Cole from her heroin addiction and direct her towards F.E.A.S.T. (Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! v1 #2)

Brock later faced Mister Negative and discovered that he and Li were in fact the same person. Learning that the man he idolized was a supervillain caused Eddie to suffer a mental breakdown where he began questioning his faith and referring to himself as a monster. (Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! v1 #2) After this revelation, he becomes increasingly unstable mentally and decided to begin murdering small-time criminals as he did during his 'lethal protector' days. (Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom - New Ways To Live v1 #1) He began working with Jenna Cole to fight street gangs and drug cartels in the sleazier areas of New York, coming into conflict with the Punisher, who he begrudgingly helped take down the Quintas cartel after they captured Jenna. (Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom - New Ways To Live v1 #3) Cutting ties with Jenna, Brock was unable to expose Negative's true identity, believing no one will trust him. This saw Anti-Venom starting a one-man crusade against Negative where he began attacking his criminal operations. Looking to fight his henchmen, he searched for the Inner Demons who Anti-Found found were running from the mysterious vigilante known as Wraith. When Anti-Venom realizes that May Parker also knews Negative's true identity, he decided to attack Li directly before the crime lord could silence her. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #663) Anti-Venom later teamed up with Spider-Man and the new Wraith to take down Mister Negative, exposing his identity as Martin Li to the public. Spider-Man and Anti-Venom then decided to call a truce to their rivalry. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #664) Despite that, Anti-Venom found himself to be recruited into Wonder Man's Revengers that looked to forcibly disband the Avengers who were seen as a menace to the world that did more harm than good. As such, he participated in the attack on Avengers Mansion and later on Avengers Tower. Brock alongside his team mates were defeated by the combined Avengers, New Avengers and Secret Avengers leading to arrest. Eddie stated that he found his Revenger team mates to have had crazy agendas but he did agree with the overall view that the Avengers were not a solution to problems in the world. (New Avengers Annual v2 #1)

Around this time, New York became afflicted with a disease that gave the people powers similar to Spider-Man. This caused havoc in the city with a quarantine being announced to contain its spread. Anti-Venom began targeting anyone with spider powers and used his abilities to cure them of it thus returning them to normal as he believed the disease was a curse rather than a gift. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #668) In time, the epidemic mutated into a third stage transforming people into spider-monsters with those in these stages looking to Anti-Venom to cure them. Agent Venom was deployed upon hearing of this to capture Anti-Venom and deliver him to Horizon Labs so that a cure could be made from him. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #670) The alien antibodies were harvested from the suit with every cell being used to develop a cure for the entirety of New York with the result being that Brock was to lose all his abilities. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #671)

Toxin

Despite having helped to save New York, Eddie was left homeless and poor. Not being bonded to a symbiote anymore, Eddie obtained an arsenal of anti-symbiote weapons and intended to hunt down Carnage, Venom, Toxin, and the other symbiotes to prevent an event called the Spawning; starting with Hybrid and Scream. (Venom v2 #16) Eddie believed that all Symbiotes were a plague on the world and looked to ending this scourge. Thus, he began hunting down Symbiotes along with their hosts with Hybrid being the first to fall to him. Afterwards, he lured Scream into a trap in the sewers where he killed her as well. (Venom v2 #15) Captured by the Crimemaster, he was forcibly bonded to the Toxin Symbiote against his will and was made a member of the Savage Six. (Venom v2 #17)

After Flash left Philadelphia to join the Thunderbolts and Guardians of the Galaxy, Toxin filled the void and began taking down Philadelphia's drug gangs, coming to accept and enjoy his bond with the Toxin symbiote. He was hunted down and captured by the FBI, but rather than kill him the FBI offered Eddie an opportunity to become an agent of the new Anti-Symbiote Task Force. Eddie accepted, but his handler Claire Dixon saw him as nothing but a monster, had him constantly dosed with symbiote suppressant drugs, and to Eddie's frustration only unleashed the Toxin symbiote as an absolute last resort. Brock later was recruited to be part of the task force that hunted for Carnage and whose field team was headed by John Jameson. (Carnage v2 #1)

For months, he continued working for the FBI and was deployed to assist in the capture of the Venom Symbiote that had been taken over by a new host named Lee Price. Together with Spider-Man, they managed to capture the Symbiote that was taken into containment where it was to be sent off-world. However, Brock broke the Symbiote from containment with it bonding to him turning him into Venom once again. (Venom v3 #6)

However, Eddie was not completely at-ease with being bonded to the Venom symbiote again, as its renewed bloodlust and outbursts of rage interfered with his desire to go straight and not relapse into being the Lethal Protector, at one point hospitalizing a priest Eddie was visiting for guidance. (Venom v1 #150) While visiting an injured priest in the hospital, Eddie overheard a teenager claim that his friends had been killed by a monster in the sewer. Eddie demanded that he describe the creature and was soon looking for it in the sewage system. The reptilian creature attacked Venom from behind and bit his tongue before it was soon defeated. Venom soon found an Alchemax logo on the monster's clothing and he made his way to the corporation to talk with it's CEO, Liz Allan. He brought her the tied up body of the sewer creature and she assumed he wanted to blackmail her. Venom assured her he only wanted her help in finding out why the alien had been lashing out unpredictably. After leaving a tissue sample with a shady looking scientist, Liz explained to Eddie that her company had been working with the military to create cell regeneration for soldiers, and that the research was based on the work of Dr. Vincent Stegron. Stegron had escaped with $70 million of research equipment and many volunteers. Venom was tasked with brining back the equipment and Stegron, and would be paid with answers about the symbiote. Venom had soon followed Stegron to his lair but found he had many more mutated dino men than he expected. He was going to retreat when one of the creatures knocked him into the cave, where he was captured and taken to Stegron. (Venom v1 #151) Eddie was woken up by the symbiote, in the middle of a fight. Stegron intended to make Venom into one of his dino people when they escaped by smashing a hole in a cavern wall, causing a flood. It washed them away and they ended up in a park, found by Devil Dinosaur and Moon Girl. They were out 'doing science and crushing bad guys' until Venom told them to go home and finish her homework. Eddie reported back to Liz and told her there was an army of dinosaur men. She took him to her scientist, who said the symbiote was undergoing toxic shock and was losing its physical composition and its mental faculties. They believed the toxin was coming from Brock's own body and was put there by the federal government when Eddie worked for them as Toxin. Those chemicals made Eddie inhospitable to symbiotes. Venom didnt react well to this, but he was stopped from killing the scientist by Liz, who reminded him that he needed his help. They had made a temporary serum for him, one that needed to be reapplied every 36 to 48 hours. Liz would have more for them, after they captured Stegron. Venom returned to the sewer and found Moon Girl observing Stegron from a hole in the cave hole. Devil Dinosaur soon burst into the chamber and was under Stegron's mental control. (Venom v1 #152)

Venom and Moon Girl fled the sewer, with the tyrannosaurus right behind them. They escaped and Moon Girl was soon trying to think of a way to block Stegron's telepathy. The symbiote told Eddie it could block the mental control, and he reluctantly agreed. Stegron was preparing to dump his serum into the water supply when Venom arrived and took control of Devil Dinosaur, bonding the alien to him. Stegron ordered tne army to attack them, but they were interrupted when Moon Girl destroyed the vats of serum. Venom rescued her from Stegron and flushed him out by draining the water works. He was soon webbed up and unconscious, losing control of his subjects. Back at Alchemax, Eddie asked Liz for a job and she refused. They also gave him a month's supply of the chemical to keep the symbiote from deteriorating further. Brock didnt feel especially accomplished after the ordeal was over, but did look forward to investigating claims that the Skrull invasion had been a government hoax. (Venom v1 #153)

After nearly eating a dirty cop one night, Venom went home to take his medication. The symbiote needed food more than medication and Eddie took a job at a tabloid to earn cash. Venom was soon back at the dinosaur people's underground hideout looking for food, since he did not want to steal to eat. They welcomed their savior with open arms and he commented that whatever they were roasting smelled good, when he saw that it was a Moloid. Just then the other Moloids attacked, to avenge the death of their brethren. Venom tried to convince the dinomen to not fight but was eaten by one of their creatures. He burst out of the animal, much to the dinomen's joy. They celebrated the meat he had just supplied. Before the fight continued, Venom told the Moloids to take their dead and go in peace but to leave the dead animal. (Venom v1 #155) Returning to his apartment one night, Eddie found one of the dino-people injured and waiting for him. She explained that she had been pursued by a man with a knife who enjoyed toying with her. Eddie reluctantly agreed to help and after one of the other creatures agreed to take her back to the others, Venom was happy to leave. He changed his mind when the creature was killed by a gunshot. Turning on the assailant, Venom was attacked by Kraven the Hunter. He was stabbed several times by the Hunter, who was glad to have found better prey than the dinosaurs. Venom chased him through the sewers, leading the impulsive Venom into a bear trap, trapping him by the leg. Venom yanked Kraven toward him with a webline, which Kraven cut through with his knife while in midair. Venom freed himself from the trap and pounced after the Hunter, who managed to shoot him with a rifle as Venom lunged. The bullet penetrated the symbiote and Venom fled. Eddie had thought the alien was bulletproof, but it told him it was tough but not impenetrable. It managed to dig out the bullet and offered to heal him but Brock said there was too much damage and he needed a hospital. Venom made his way to Alchemax, where he asked for help. (Venom v1 #156)

Exposure to the serum severely weakened his bond to the Symbiote allowing Flash to separate Venom from Brock. Eddie attempted to try to get Venom back only for Spider-Man to web him to the ground and leave him there. Dr. Steve's later used a solvent to free Eddie from the webbing with Brock looking to re-bond with the Symbiote. However, he then felt that the Anti-Venom abilities of Flash had stripped Brock of his connection to the Symbiote. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #792)

Following Norman Osborn bonding to the Carnage symbiote and becoming the Red Goblin, Eddie was blackmailed by J. Jonah Jameson into protecting Mary Jane, resulting in her initially attacking him with an anti-symbiote defense system. Venom was able to thwart the Red Goblin's attempt on Mary Jane's life with Spider-Man's help, and Eddie agreed to help even the odds against Osborn by loaning the Venom symbiote to his long-time rival, telling Spider-Man to take care of it. Spider-Man later declared to Flash Thompson that he forgave Venom moments before he passed away, and the symbiote separated from him and made its way back to Eddie. After reuniting with the symbiote, Eddie attended Flash Thompson's funeral. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #800)

King in Black

Later on, Eddie lost his job at the Fact Sheet and became a freelance reporter. He additionally began suffering from recurring nightmares about an ancient draconic symbiote, accompanied by renewed outbursts of bloodlust from the Venom symbiote - at one point undergoing a dark transformation and declaring that its god was coming in an eldritch language after mutilating the new Jack O'Lantern. Venom was subdued by Rex Strickland, who recruited Eddie to rescue a team of symbiote-augmented supersoldiers created during the Vietnam War. When Venom liberated the Sym-Soldiers, he discovered they were being controlled by the same malevolent force affecting the Venom symbiote, and unwittingly unleashed the symbiote-dragon from his nightmares. (Venom v4 #1) After a short skirmish, Venom teamed up with Spider-Man (Miles Morales) to fight the symbiote dragon, subduing it with one of Miles' Venom Blasts. However, a humanoid entity manifested itself from the symbiote-dragon, introducing himself as Knull - an abyssal god who had created the symbiotes billions of years ago. (Venom v4 #3)

The shock from Miles Morales allowed the Venom Symbiote to remain connected to Brock along with giving him new abilities such as the power of flight but it retained a dim connection with Knull. Together, they confronted Strickland when they came to realise that he was actually a fragment of Knull's primordial Grendel Symbiote. Rex revealed that his host had actually died long ago but he had taken his identity as he came to love the light and sought to stop Knull. He joined with Venom in order to provide the Symbiote greater power so that they could stop the god-host before he could be freed. (Venom v4 #5)

Eddie's body was found by soldiers working for the Maker while obtaining a surviving sample of the Grendel symbiote. The Venom symbiote - reduced to a seemingly mindless feral state - took over Eddie and eluded capture for three weeks, eventually resurfacing on Carl Brock's doorstep. Carl allowed the Maker's soldiers to capture Eddie, and for the following two weeks, Eddie was repeatedly interrogated, suffering from partial amnesia due to the seemingly braindead symbiote instinctively erasing traumatic memories. (Venom v4 #7)

Whilst keeping a low profile, he learnt that Kasady had framed him for the murder of Lee Price making Eddie a wanted man. In desperation, he decided to seek out Spider-Man's help and together they learnt that Carnage was looking to collect the codices from former hosts of Symbiotes. Thus, they decided to work together to stop him and went to find a means of extracting the codex from Norman Osborn. Whilst at Ravencroft, the facility came under attack rom Carnage who was infecting the prisoners and created an army of followers. (Absolute Carnage v1 #1)

With the new power, he went into the sky to stop Carnage from going to the Planet of the Symbiotes to free Knull. It was then that Cletus decided to target Dylan in order to place Eddie in a no-win situation. He could either see his son be killed or Brock could kill Kasady thus absorbing his Symbiote which would complete the codices that would free the god of the Symbiotes. Ultimately, Eddie decided to save his son and killed Cletus whereupon he absorbed the Carnage Symbiote into his body. This act ended the threat of Carnage's army but only Brock was aware of the fact that deep in space that Knull was free. Instead, Eddie looked to try to manage events now that Dylan was aware that he was his father. (Absolute Carnage v1 #5) In the aftermath, Liz Allan allowed the Brock's to stay at her home whilst they found their feet. Eddie looked to get a new job where he was invited to Avengers Mountian and offered a place on the Avengers. However, his mind that formerly only contained the Venom Symbiote's voice was now beginning to be populated by the Carnage Symbiote. It was looking for him to lose control and kill people around him with this leading to Brock not accepting a place on the Avengers. He instead claimed that he and Dylan needed to adjust after the recent crisis. During the night, Brock was affected by dark dreams and scars on his back that said 'God was Coming' with him being worried about losing control of himself to the Carnage Symbiote that was part of his body now. This led to Eddie deciding to quarantine himself in order to protect others from himself. He asked Captain America for resources to be transported to Isla de Heusos (Island of Bones) where he would survive until he could have a better control over the Symbiote. During the flight, Carnage took control causing the plane to crash where it absorbed the Venom Symbiote leaving Eddie powerless as the two began to hunt one another. (Venom v4 #21) Without his Symbiote, Eddie was forced to go on the run as Carnage began subverting the local animals to hunt Brock down. However, Brock came upon a plan to go to an old radio tower with Carnage in pursuit with the tower drawing a lightning strike that separated the two Symbiotes. Brock though was badly wounded and lost consciousness with him waking up again as Captain America and the Avengers rescued him. The heroes then fired a warhead on the island to eliminate the Symbiote infestation despite Eddie's plea to save Venom. (Venom v4 #23)

With the power of the Enigma Force, Venom with the power of the god of light in the form of Captain Universe had the strength to challenge Knull. He came to gain the hammer Mjolnir and the Silver Surfer's board that had been reshaped to be a sword. These allowed Brock to overpower the King in Black and destroyed his body that was plunged into the sun to destroy it. This resulted in Venom becoming the new King in Black and the core of the hive mind for the Symbiote race. Venom's power also allowed Brock to remove the Symbiote fragments within Dylan thus freeing him finally from Knull's influence. With that done, the Enigma Force left him and Brock began a new era as he was hailed a hero that saved the planet. (King in Black v1 #5) In gratitude, Tony Stark came to give him an apartment where Eddie relocated the Symbiote Spire allowing him to command the Symbiotes across the cosmos. As the new King in Black, he came to rule the Symbiotes which he used as a force for good in the universe. This included protecting peaceful races from conquerors, rebuilding worlds devastated by Knull and repairing damage to the fabric of the universe. However, he came to sense a coming threat that was posed by the Maker and warned various superheroes of the danger posed by that alternate version of Reed Richards who intended to invade this universe. (Venom v4 #35)

Absent Throne

For weeks afterwards, Eddie found himself connected to the hive-mind where he managed the Symbiotes across the cosmos. It was during this time, he began to receive cryptic messages from the future stating that his tenure as the King in Black wold be short and that his son along with the Venom Symbiote were in danger. By projecting his consciousness to the future, he came to see that Dylan was being targeted by an organization called the Absent Throne. However, before he could relay this information he was seemingly killed by a missile shot at him leaving nothing behind but his bones. Though killed, his codex allowed him to be pulled into the far future where he reformed a body for himself from the form of a Symbiote where he was greeted by an entity called Meridus. (Venom v5 #1)

Overview

Personality and attributes

His tenacity led to him being called the Comeback King. (Venom v4 #31) Upon bonding with the Symbiote, he came to take the name of Venom. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300) After being cured of cancer, his body manifested a new Symbiote-like substance leading to Eddie becoming Anti-Venom. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #569) He was bonded forcibly with the Toxin Symbiote leading to him becoming the new Toxin. (Venom v2 #17) After defeating Knull, Brock and Venom came to be the new god of the Symbiote race where they inherited the title of the King in Black. (King in Black v1 #5)

He identified as being a Catholic and saw suicide as being a mortal sin. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300) His Catholic upbringing significantly influenced his actions, in particular as Anti-Venom, and for a time he came to see himself as having been chosen by God to cleanse Earth of the symbiotes. (Venom v2 #7)

Eddie used to hold a deep hatred of Spider-Man and saw himself as the Wall-Crawler's victim with him being ruined by Peter Parker. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300)

Brock had said that people came to see him as a monster but he was determined to be better and become a good guy. (Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom - New Ways To Live v1 #1)

For a time, Eddie believed that all Symbiotes were a plague on the world and looked to ending this scourge. (Venom v2 #15)

He believed that his entire life was the result of his father who was a old man. Eddie blamed his father for not being able to hold a relationship, a job and resulted in him having a temper. His father told Edward that his residence was not his sons home as he believed his child had brought nothing but pain, misery and shame to the family. Despite hating his father, he still said he was his son and could not stand being denied being family after losing his mother, Mary and Anne. Cancer was said to run deep within his family as his uncle and sister both died from it. (Venom v4 #9)

Sometimes, he and the Venom Symbiote would get excited together. (Venom: The Madness v1 #1)

She eventually came to be a practicing lawyer under her own name. In that time, the pair came to be married where she took the name Anne Brock. However, the scandal that affected Eddie's career caused their marriage to fall apart leading to her taking a divorce and going by her family name one again. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #375)

During his reconnection with Anne Weying, she came to be pregnant with Eddie's son who she named Dylan Brock. However, she could not care for her son and instead left him with his paternal grandfather where she asked him to pretend that the boy was his own child rather than reveal the truth. Thus, Eddie was unaware that he had a son and his child was raised by his faher. (Venom v4 #12) As such, he came to mistakenly believe that he had a kid half-brother in Dylan Brock. (Venom v4 #10)

As Venom, he once came to be romantically involved with Beck Underwood who had a desire to save him. (Venom: The Madness v1 #1)

Eddie's drive to protect the innocent stemmed from his childhood where he accidentally killed a child in a car accident. He felt enormous guilt for his actions and intended to plead guilty but his father forced him to plea innocent. By adulthood, Eddie was determined to protect other people from individuals like himself who were guilty of crimes. (Venom v4 #10)

One account claimed that his greatest fear was being alone. (Venom v4 #23)

Powers and abilities

Originally, Eddie Brock was an ordinary human being with no special powers though by adulthood he came to be a good reporter. After his career was ruined, he used his money to purchase body building equipment where he developed strong muscles as a result. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300)

By accident, he came to bond with the Venom Symbiote and served as its host. This led to him gaining all of Spider-Man's powers in addition to his own muscle strength. He could also generate organic webbing that was composed from the Symbiote's own substance. Over time, it was capable of regenerating and thus produce new webbing as a result. However, excessive using of webbing could drain the Symbiotes reserves and thus weaken Venom from the strain. In addition, he gained an immunity to Spider-Man's Spider-Sense which could not detect him. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300)

The bond between the Symbiote and Brock was strong enough that using sonics against the Symbiote could also stun and kill Brock. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300)

A mutation of the Symbiote remnants in him caused Brock to manifest a new organism similar to a Symbiote. Anti-Venom had the ability of purging foreign matter in organic cells and literally burnt them out through contact. Thus, his touch was poisonous to Symbiotes who burnt upon being touched by him. He was also able to do this to other individuals such attempting to remove the radiation within Spider-Man that gave the hero his superpowers. In addition, Anti-Venom shared many of the similar traits of a Symbiote as it was able to shapeshift and manifest according to its hosts will. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #570)

Through a connection to the god-host and primordial Symbiote, Venom gained a number of new strengths and allow it to accomplish much more by connecting to the hive mind. This provided new abilities such as the power to manifest wings to enable the host to fly or to alter chemicals in the body to calm the host. However, this restored the connection to Knull who was able to track the Symbiote and Eddie so long as they were connected to one another. (Venom v4 #5)

As the King in Black, Brock came to be the ruler of the entire Symbiote race all of who came to serve him. In this state, he gained many of the abilities that were held by Knull whereby he could remotely pilot a Symbiote over great distances. He could see through a billion eyes and touch the souls of trillions of Symbiotes with the one exception being Venom who he could not track or see through. Control over the hive though was not an easy feat for a human body as it caused Eddie to age greatly over a short period of time and placed an enormous strain on him. (Venom v4 #35)

At one point, Brock came to find peace on the Isla de Heusos (Island of Bones) after he believed he had killed Spider-Man. (Venom v4 #21)

Notes

• Eddie Brock was created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane where he made his first appearance in Web of Spider-Man v1 #18 (September, 1986).
• The character debuted as Venom in Amazing Spider-Man v1 #299 (April, 1988).
• He later appeared as Anti-Venom in Amazing Spider-Man v1 #569 (October, 2008).
• Brock then became the character Toxin in Venom v2 #17 (July, 2012).

Alternate Versions

• In Spider-Girl v1 #5 (1998), an alternate version of Eddie Brock appeared in the Marvel Comics 2 reality that was designated as Earth-982 in the Multiverse.
• In Ultimate Spider-Man v1 #33 (2002), an alternate version of Eddie Brock appeared in the Ultimate Marvel reality that was designated as Earth-1610 in the Multiverse.
• In 1602 Witch Hunter Angela v1 #2 (2015), an alternate version of the character appeared in the setting of the Marvel 1602 reality that was designated as Earth-311 in the Multiverse.
• In Spider-Gwen v2 #19 (2017), a alternate female version of the character appeared in the setting of the Spider-Gwen reality that was designated as Earth-65 in the Multiverse.

In other media

Television

• In Spider-Man, Eddie Brock appeared in the 1994 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Hank Azaria. He was shown as being a photographer at the Daily Bugle and a rival to Peter Parker. He attempted to get pictures of the Lizard only to lose on the assignment and after a failed unveiling of Spider-Man he was fired from the Daily Bugle. During a job interview, Brock's prospective employers work place was attacked by a Spider-Slayer causing his boss to fire him with Brock blaming Spider-Man for his misfortune. Brock later bonds with the Venom symbiote to seek revenge against Spider-Man under the belief that the webslinger ruined his journalism career, only to be defeated and separated. In the episodes "Venom Returns" and "Carnage", Brock is reunited with the Venom symbiote and joins forces with Spider-Man and Iron Man to defeat Carnage, Baron Mordo, and Dormammu before he and Venom sacrifice themselves to ensure the villains' defeat.
• In Spider-Man Unlimited, Eddie Brock as Venom appeared as an antagonist in the 1999 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Brian Drummond. He and Carnage travel to Counter-Earth to join the Synoptic, a hive mind of symbiotes, and ally themselves with the High Evolutionary while secretly helping the Synoptic grow more powerful to infect the planet's population with symbiotes. In the episode "One is the Loneliest Number", Brock is briefly separated from the Venom symbiote and is shown to have become dependent on it for survival. In the series finale, the High Evolutionary separated Venom and Carnage from their respective hosts, but the two symbiotes succeed in unleashing the Synoptic on Counter-Earth.
• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Eddie Brock featured in the 2008 animated series where he was voiced by Benjamin Diskin. This version appeared as a young blonde hair teenager that was the best childhood friend of Peter Parker. He got a job as a research assistant to Dr. Curt Conners. A series of misunderstandings causes Brock to eventually resent Parker and Spider-Man. By the episodes "Intervention" and "Nature vs. Nurture", Spider-Man attempts to destroy the symbiote that Brock was studying, but he frees and bonds with it, transforming into Venom to destroy Spider-Man, only to be foiled and separated. Throughout the second season episodes "First Steps", "Growing Pains", and "Identity Crisis", Brock manipulates Spider-Man into reuniting him with the Venom symbiote so he can seek revenge against the webslinger, only to be defeated and separated once more before he is taken into custody for treatment.
• In Spider-Man, Eddie Brock appeared in the 2017 animated television series second season starting in the episode "How I Thwipped My Summer Vacation" where he was voiced by actor Sean Schemmel. He worked under J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle and slowly grows envious of Peter Parker. In the episode "Dead Man's Party", Brock was assigned to take pictures of the V-252 symbiote before merging with it. His jealousy of Parker revises the organism's memories of its previous bond with Spider-Man. Dubbing himself Venom, Brock battles Spider-Man, only to be driven back by air horns. In the episode "Venom Returns", Brock takes Parker's friends and acquaintances hostage and exposes his secret identity, but Miles Morales dons a spare Spider-Man costume to refute the claim. Spider-Man defeated Venom using a sonic device to destabilize the symbiote, which also leaves Eddie in a coma. In the episode "Superior", the symbiote abandoned the comatose Eddie after it mutated to the point where it no longer needed a host.

Films

• In Spider-Man 3, Eddie Brock appeared as an antagonist in the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Topher Grace.
• In Venom, Eddie Brock featured in the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Tom Hardy.
• In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eddie Brock appeared in a cameo in the epilogue of the live-action film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he was once more portrayed by actor Tom Hardy.

Video games

• In Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, Venom appeared as a protagonist and playable character in the 1994 video game adaptation of the comic storyline.
• In Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety, Venom appeared as a protagonist and playable character in the 1995 video game adaptation of the comic storyline.
• In Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Eddie Brock as Venom appeared as an antagonist in the 2008 video game where he was voiced by actor Keith Szarabajka.
• In Spider-Man: Edge of Time, Eddie Brock as Anti-Venom appeared in the 2011 video game where he was voiced by actor Steven Blum.
• In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Eddie Brock as Anti-Venom appeared as a character in the Facebook video game.
• In Marvel Heroes, Eddie Brock appeared as Venom where he was a playable character in the MMORPG video game and had different skins that included him as Anti-Venom and as Toxin.
• In Marvel: Contest of Champions, Eddie Brock as Venom appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game video game.
• In Marvel: Future Fight, Eddie Brock as Venom appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game.

Appearances

• Web of Spider-Man v1: (1986)
• Amazing Spider-Man v1:
• Venom: Lethal Protector v1:
• Venom v1:
• Venom: The Madness v1:
• Marvel Knights: Spider-Man v2:
• Carnage v2:
• Venom v2:
• Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom - New Ways To Live v1:
• New Avengers Annual v2:
• Venom v3:
• Venom v4:
• Absolute Carnage v1:
• King in Black v1: (2021)
• Venom v5: (2021)

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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