Venom (Marvel)
Venom is an extraterrestrial comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
History
Venom was a black coated member of the parasitic race of beings known as the Symbiotes. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #299)
At some point, the Kree empire came upon the Klyntar homeworld and harvested what became the Venom Symbiote from it. They then underwent an experiment to bond it with a deep cover agent named Tel-Karr who went through months of gruelling training to become a superpowered operative. They were dispatched to fight in the Kree-Skrull War, acting as a deep-cover spy, saboteur, and assassin. When Tel-Kar broke cover to rescue a ship of Kree refugees, he separated from the symbiote and erased its memories of him in case it was captured. Tel-Kar instructed the leader of the refugees to take the symbiote to Hala, but the symbiote left them to search for Tel-Kar and was abandoned by the refugees to be marooned on a planet when the ship crash-landed. (Venom: First Host v1 #2)
The U.S. military later captured the Venom Symbiote where it was taken for use by Project Rebirth. (Venom v2 #1)
Flash continued his search for the Symbiote and managed to learn that his former partner was with Eddie Brock who was at Alchemax. Whilst Eddie was there, Flash broke into the facility and attempted to convince Venom to rejoin with him leading to the Symbiote torn between the two hosts. Spider-Man arrived and believed the Symbiote was dangerous with him seeking to destroy it. He made use of Dr. Steve's astrobiological serum in an effort to kill Venom with the material being toxic to the Symbiote. Both Eddie and Flash were exposed to the serum with it bonding with Thompson turning him into the new Anti-Venom whilst Brock was severely weakened. (Amazing Spider-Man: Venom Inc. Alpha v1 #1) Weakened, Flash was able to take the Symbiote from Brock but was unable to hold onto Venom as Thompson's touch was now toxic to the organism due to having the powers of Anti-Venom. As such, he used a container to hold Venom and left Alchemax with the intention of somehow finding a way to re-bond with his former partner despite the warnings from Spider-Man. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #792)
With Spider-Man facing the threat of the Red Goblin, J. Jonah Jameson decided that Peter needed a Symbiote of his own to battle Norman Osborn. Thus, he tracked down Eddie Brock and convinced him to lend his aid. As Venom, he arrived to protect Mary Jane Watson from Osborn who had arrived to kill her but was wounded in the fight. To give Spider-Man a chance, Brock had Venom bond with the Wall-Crawler so that he would have sufficient power to fight the Red Goblin. Despite this advantage, he was unable to defeat Norman but instead decided to use Osborn's ego at being the one to defeat Spider-Man by convincing him that the two should fight without their Symbiotes. This allowed the Venom Symbiote to depart where it returned back to Eddie after Osborn was defeated. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #800)
When the Maker intended to exhume Flash Thompson's remains, the Venom Symbiote reacted violently to protect his former hosts body and attacked the villain. During this time, the codex fragment of Thompson's memory imprint was smashed and absorbed into the Symbiote allowing for Flash's persona to temporarily take over Eddie Brock's body where together they worked to escape the Maker's laboratory. Over time, the persona imprint was burnt out and disappeared from the Symbiote's form but it allowed Eddie to escape whereupon he paid respects to Flash Thompson's grave. (Venom v4 #8)
Overview
The Symbiote was said to had always liked Flash Thompson the best and cared for him deeply. (Venom v4 #8)
It was shown that the Symbiote had the potential to absorb energy and redirect it back as a blast at an enemy. The host said that the process was painful but it afforded them the ability to conduct a ranged attack against a foe. (Venom v4 #27)
Hosts
- Tel-Karr : a male blue Kree who was selected from a pool of recruits to bond with a Klyntar after the empire's first discovery of the Symbiotes which was used to bond with him to make a super-powered operative. (Venom: First Host v1 #2)
- Peter Parker :
- Eddie Brock :
- Angelo Fortunato :
- Mac Gargan :
- Flash Thompson :
- Lee Price : a dark haired male born in Queens, New York who witnessed his mother being constantly beaten up by his father and was himself brutally bullied as a child. He befriended a pyrokinetic Mutant boy who razed the apartment complex he lived in that accidently killed his mother. Lee was abandoned by his father and went into protective services for five years until he decided to become an Army Ranger. He suffered an injury from a mine explosion that took two fingers from his left hand leading to him being discharged. As a result, he was sent back home as a disabled veteran but struggled in getting benefits or employment leading to him engaging in criminal activities. He bonded to the Venom symbiote and brutalised it into following his commands despite its reluctance in becoming a villain. (Venom v3 #1)
Notes
- The Alien Costume design was created by Randy Schueller but Venom was developed by David Michelinie, Mike Zeck and Todd McFarlane where the Alien Costume debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man v1 #252 (May, 1984) before it first appeared as Venom in The Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300 (May, 1988).
Alternate Versions
- In Wolverine v3 #66 (2008), an alternate version of the Venom Symbiote was shown in the world designated as Earth-807128. This version was shown to be without a host and inhabited the Wastelands where it bonded to various beings and went on a murderous rampage.
- In Venom 2099 v1 #1 (2019), an alternate version of the Venom Symbiote was shown in the world of Marvel 2099. This version was taken by the Alchemax corporation who studied it and divided the Symbiote into its constituent parts. These were then used as part of the corporation's All-Cure product line that was hailed as a miracle drug able to heal all injuries. One of the test subjects was Alea Bell who suffered from bad burns with the drug healing her but the Symbiote piece within her wanted her to reunite its scattered parts. Thus, she broke into Alchemax and the Symbiote was reconstituted whereupon it killed the scientist studying it but not before forcing him to dlete all data on it from the company's computers.
In other media
Television
- In Spider-Man, Venom appeared in a number of episodes in the 1990s animated television series where it was voiced by actor Christopher Daniel Barnes. It was discovered on a passing asteroid where a pair of astronauts that included John Jameson where they took a rock sample only for a black oil to emerge. The sample later known as Promethium X had the Venom Symbiote coated to it where it attacked the astronauts causing their shuttle to crash back to Earth. Spider-Man bonded with the symbiote before eventually rejecting it, after which it bonded to Brock, turning him into Venom. They then sought revenge on Spider-Man, who defeated and separates them before sending Venom back to space. In the episodes "Venom Returns" and "Carnage", Venom returned to Earth where it re-fused with Brock, and joined forces with Spider-Man and Iron Man to combat its offspring Carnage, Dormammu, and Baron Mordo. Both Venom and Brock ultimately sacrificed themselves to ensure the villains' defeat.
- In Spider-Man Unlimited, Venom appeared in the setting of the 1999 animated television series where as Eddie Brock it was voiced by actor Brian Drummond. This version of the Venom symbiote evolved into a more powerful form, gaining full control of its host's body as well as acquiring elastic powers and the ability to change into a liquid-like form. Venom and Carnage travelled to Counter-Earth to join the Synoptic which was the hive mind of Symbiotes that resided deep underground on that world. they came to ally themselves with the High Evolutionary whilst secretly helping the Synoptic grow powerful enough to infect the planet's population with Symbiotes.
- In Spider-Man, the Venom Symbiote appeared in the animated television series starting in the episode "A Day in the Life" and was voiced by actor Benjamin Diskin. It was discovered in a space expedition with it being designated as V-252. The substance was brought to Horizon Labs for study with Max Modell being unaware that it was a living organism. During study of it, Peter Parker bonded with it where it became his living costume when he operated as Spider-Man. It was discovered that the organism was making Spider-Man more aggressive and violent with him ultimately deciding to abandon using the suit after he learnt it was vulnerable to sonic attacks. It was later taken as Horizon's prize project at the Stark Expo where Spider-Man used it to help him in a fight against the Ghost but then had others help him in taking it off him. The V-252 was taken by Iron Man for safekeeping but a piece of it bonded to Flash Thompson where it remained in hiding. It eventually gained control over him when he was asleep where it transformed him into Venom that did not trigger Spider-Man's Spider-Sense. Venom would attack people that Flash was angry with leading to a number of confrontations with Spider-Man. The Symbiote later took over Thompson during his football game with Spider-Man separating Venom from the host but it bonded to others until the pair used fire extinguishers to freeze the organism. The remaining pieces of the Symbiote were taken by Max Modell to Horizon High for safekeeping.
Films
- In Spider-Man 3, the Venom Symbiote appeared in the setting of the 2007 live-action film. After landing on Earth, the symbiote bonds with Spider-Man until he eventually rejects it, after which it bonds with Brock and forms an alliance with Flint Marko to kill Spider-Man, only to be killed by Spider-Man via one of the New Goblin's pumpkin bombs.
- In Venom, the Venom Symbiote appeared in the setting of the 2018 live-action film where he was voiced by actors Tom Hardy and Brad Venable.
Video games
- In The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes, Venom bonded to Eddie Brock appeared in the setting of the 1995 action game.
- In Marvel Heroes, Venom appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game where the Eddie Brock version was voiced by actor Neil Kaplan. The symbiote suit also appeared as an alternate costume for Spider-Man.
Appearances
- Amazing Spider-Man v1: (1988)
- Venom v1:
- Venom v2:
- Venom: Space Knight v1:
- Venom v3:
- Old Man Hawkeye v1:
- Venom: First Host v1: (2018)
- Venom v4:
- Absolute Carnage v1:
- Venom 2099 v1:
- King in Black v1:
External Links
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