Monday, October 5, 2020

Character Analysis: Venom

 

Background

Eddie Brock

Edward Charles Allen “Eddie” Brock was born the son of the wealthy Carl and Jamie Brock. However, his mother unfortunately died while giving birth to him, and Carl resented his son for it for all of Eddie’s childhood. The abuse and lack of love that Eddie endured made him reckless, which peaked when he went out with his friends one evening and drove home drunk, hitting the neighbour’s kid with a car and killing the little boy. Eddie’s father forced him to plead innocent, resulting in Eddie becoming obsessed with the idea of innocence. The Brocks won the case and Eddie was a free man… but only because his dad paid everybody off to make sure that their reputation wouldn’t be ruined, along with car repairs and condolences to the family. Having lost so much of his money for the sake of this case, Carl Brock’s resentment of his son turned to pure hatred. Eddie would spend his adult years trying to win his father’s affection, leading to him getting a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Empire State University and writing for the Daily Globe newspaper.


Unfortunately, Eddie would come to develop adrenal cancer as an adult, resulting in severe anxiety attacks. Fearing for the end of his life and wanting to make the most of what time he had left, Eddie wished to break a big story to the world and achieve national success. His golden opportunity presented itself when he came into contact with Emi Gregg, a man claiming to be a serial killer known as the Sin-Eater. After weeks of contact, Brock finally broke the case of his career and revealed in a front-page exclusive the identity of this mass murderer. Eddie was finally going to achieve his dream!


…Only to have the rug pulled right out from underneath him when on the very same day, Spider-Man caught the real Sin-Eater, Stan Carter, neighbour to compulsive liar Emi Gregg. Now a fraud, Eddie was fired from his job, his father fully disowned his disgrace of a son, his wife left him, and Eddie still only had a short time left to live. Eddie was forced to get a job at the tabloids, and started lifting weights in order to relieve stress, but the damage was done. Eddie Brock had become a miserable man filled with rage and hatred, and a burning desire to kill the Spider-Man who ruined his life.


The Symbiote

The Symbiote was born to a race of extraterrestrials known as the Klyntar who lived by possessing the bodies of other lifeforms, draining them of energy through negative emotions in order to survive themselves. The muck that ended up on Earth was deemed insane even by its own race when it decided to commit to a host and stay with it instead of using it up. It wound up banished from the alien race because of this and was sent off into space.


The symbiote wound up on our planet and found Peter Parker, the Spider-Man, going through some struggles with relationships and work. As it was capable of feeding off these emotions, the symbiote stuck to Spider-Man, who initially welcomed its help, believing it wasn’t sentient and was just helping him out with his job by making him stronger, faster, capable of producing his own webs without the shooters, etc.


As time went on however, the symbiote slowly corrupted Spider-Man, turning him more violent and angry, as well as began to take over Peter completely. Realizing this, Spider-Man rejected the symbiote, though it continued to try to force control against him. Luckily for the wall-crawler, he found out about the parasite’s weakness to high frequency sounds, and struck a large bell to create enough sound to get the alien off of him. With how weak it was and how it was rejected, the symbiote was forced to leave its first host, but swore vengeance on him.


Venom

While Spider-Man was busy removing the symbiote from himself, an unknowing Eddie Brock was standing in the church below them. He was at rock bottom, and asking God for forgiveness as he prepared to take his own life. When the symbiote slinked away from Spider-Man, it was drawn to the anger and sadness felt by Eddie Brock and latched onto the disgraced journalist. The two bonded, and with two beings as one, they became the ruthless vigilante known as Venom.


Naming themselves after Eddie’s belief that he had been “spewing venom at the tabloids he worked for”, Venom has been one of Spider-Man’s most dangerous, ruthless, and prominent enemies since his debut in the 90s. He spent the majority of his early days wanting to do nothing but kill Spider-Man and protect innocents, though he was not above joining forces with the web-slinger if their goals coincided, such as when they battled Carnage together on numerous occasions.


As time has gone on, Eddie and the symbiote’s relationship has been through many ups and downs. They have parted ways on several occasions, even battling each other when the symbiote bonded with Mac Gargan A.K.A The Scorpion, while the residual symbiote cells in Eddie’s bloodstream manifested itself as the Anti-Venom. The Venom symbiote has also been hosted by Flash Thompson, where they became the military agent known as Agent Venom.


Experience

Eddie and the Venom symbiote have spent years bonded with each other, and during this time have been constant threats to Spider-Man, busy defending the secret underground city of San Francisco, and have worked as government agents. They’ve also taken part in several symbiote-related wars, such as the Poisons invasions and Dark Carnage symbiote attacks. Eddie is not a trained fighter however, instead having spent all his time building up his muscles. 


Both Eddie and the Venom symbiote have spent their time apart from each other and partaking in combat with others however. Eddie has been bonded with both the Anti-Venom and Toxin symbiotes, and the Venom symbiote has bonded with several other hosts such as Flash Thompson, Mac Gargan, Tel-Kar and Spider-Man to name the most prominent ones, and some off-handed ones such as the Hulk, Angelo Fortunato, Anne Weying, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Deadpool (debatable canonicity), Otto Octavius (the Superior Spider-Man), and many, many more.

Arsenal

Venom Symbiote

Biology

The Venom symbiote hails from an alien race known as the Klyntar, which bond themselves with living hosts and grant them superhuman abilities. They are inorganic and amorphous, with their bodies behaving like liquids which allows them to shapeshift and graph themselves onto hosts of all shapes, sizes and species. They can even merge with and augment machinery, and this malleable physique makes it difficult for their bodies to be harmed by bullets, typically being sucked in and popped back out. Or it can spit them right back at the person who shot them in the first place. It even allows Venom to absorb blows from the likes of Ben Reilly without taking any damage. The symbiote can also survive rotting and decaying by retreating into a comatose state, and thanks to the nature of its tissue it cannot be broken down and absorbed by Dirt nap’s enzymes.


Symbiotes are powered by emotions, existing as empathic creatures who are capable of sensing and feeding off of the emotions of others, and having a hunger for phenethylamine, a chemical found as a neurotransmitter in the human brain which helps improve one’s focus, mood and behaviour. Because of this hunger, symbiotes (especially the Venom symbiote) can be led to consume this chemical from their hosts and seek to feast off the brains of humans to get their fill, though chocolate contains this chemical and can satiate their hunger too.


Symbiotes have been shown to be able to throw acid through manipulating its host’s metabolism, though Eddie hasn’t shown off this ability himself. The symbiote also does not need to sleep.

Abilities

Host Bond

Mental Link

The symbiote can read its hosts thoughts, performing actions without being explicitly told to do so even when it isn’t being worn. The symbiote and Eddie also have a psychic link with each other, even when they’re separated, tasting and seeing what the others sees and their link getting stronger as they get closer to each other. It can act even when Eddie isn’t aware that it’s still bonded to him.


Chemical/Bodily Manipulation

The symbiote can feel anything that’s on it even if Eddie doesn’t notice it himself. It can produce chemicals itself, emulating skin and feeding oxygen directly to Eddie’s body to prevent him from passing out while he's unable to breath. The symbiote lives inside of Eddie’s body while they’re bonded, and so it can control his bodily functions while in there, such as his pulse and breathing. The symbiote managed to control these so well that it even managed to fool Daredevil into believing that he was telling the truth on everything during their court case. 


When Eddie is knocked unconscious, the symbiote retreats back into his body. Mac Gargan said the symbiote living inside of him made him want to puke. It’s also capable of affecting the chemicals in another person’s body, even sucking them dry of phenethylamine and making them go crazy themselves. This has led to the symbiote morphing Eddie at a cellular level. Through this, it managed to trick Eddie into believing he had cancer by mimicking the symptoms of the disease. It even created false memories of non-existent family member’s who had cancer to add onto the lie. But on a more positive note, it supplies Eddie with all of the nutrients he needs itself, so the host himself doesn’t need to eat.


Separation

Oddly enough, despite still being bonded, Eddie and the symbiote are able to break apart from each other and act independently and reform once they’re done.

Genetic Memory

When the symbiote bonds with a host, it graphs that hosts unique abilities into their genomes and physiology, allowing those same abilities to be used again by later hosts. For the Venom symbiote, Spider-Man has easily influenced its powerset and abilities more than any other host.


Web-Slinging

The Venom symbiote is capable of reproducing the effects of Spider-Man’s webbing, allowing him to swing from building to building, or trap foes in gallons of webbing. He can also use these to suffocate people by wrapping it around their heads or just blind them. And while he typically just fires off single shots like Spider-Man does, Venom is able to create a lot of webbing from his body at once.


However, since these are natural webs created from the symbiote’s body, they have some drawbacks. As these webs are natural and draw on Venom’s own strength, they weaken in power as he does. While their adhesive strength is impressive, it becomes less strong when it gets further away from the main symbiote body. The webbing also gets weaker overtime as it becomes stale, and if Venom expends too much webbing, he will need time to recharge his reserves.


Wall-Crawling

Just like Spider-Man, Venom is capable of sticking to and crawling along walls, ceilings, and many more solid surfaces by altering his electron attraction.


Wingsuit

A lesser known ability, but Venom can also mimic the web-wings on some of Spider-Man’s costumes which enable him to glide through the air.


Unseen Abilities

Due to the nature of the symbiotes and how they imprint a host’s physiology onto themselves upon bonding, it stands to reason that Venom should be capable of recreating certain unique powers and abilities seen from other hosts that the symbiote has bonded with despite never showing them off himself. Think of it like how we know Sasuke Uchiha should be capable of certain Six Paths abilities despite not using them due to the nature of the Rinnegan.
Some of these abilities can include:



However, due to the symbiote’s physiology and biology, it’s unlikely that it would be able to replicate attacks such as the Hulk’s Thunderclap or Captain Marvel’s Photonic Blasts, as the former is performed through Banner’s strength while the latter is performed through Danvers’ energy manipulation.

Shapeshifting

Through the symbiote’s malleable body, Venom is able to mold himself into a variety of different forms and structures. He can increase the size of his entire body or just some of his limbs, make its host look completely unrecognizable by mimicking clothing and body structures (even dressing up as Santa!), make his foes suffocate by either covering their face or sending the symbiote into their bodies, cover Eddie's eyes to prevent himself from being blinded, and use camouflage to mimic his surroundings to the point of seeming invisible. 


Venom can also send the symbiote onto other people to protect them from harm, or give himself that extra bit of defense by creating multiple thick symbiote shields. He can even shapeshift the symbiote into the form of a key. And while Eddie’s body does exist underneath the alien costume, Venom has managed to shapeshift his form into some less human-like objects in the past.


Venom can also create weapon-like objects from its body (usually arms), such as maces, spikes, scythes, blades, and claws. In a What-If? Story in which the Punisher was in the church below Spider-Man instead of Eddie Brock, this Punisher Venom created guns on its arms. Venom is also capable of sprouting wings to fly. These were initially attached to his arms like batwings, but after being augmented by Knull, Venom was capable of sprouting them from his back while keeping his arms free. Even regardless of that, the Venom symbiote also did this when bonded with the Punisher in that same What-If? story.


If he doesn’t want to use webs, Venom can instead attack his foes with tendrils, which prove useful for sneak attacks coming from underground. These can also help him get a better grip on his opponents, even trapping them in entire blobs. These tendrils can slip through tiny cracks in glass or even down to the molecules. The tendrils can be used to jam guns, and Venom can spread them over a large distance too. And if he wants to get real creepy, Venom can send the symbiote into someone’s body and make them explode from the inside out.

Other Abilities

360 Degree Vision

While Venom does not have a spider-sense, symbiotes grant their uses vision in all directions from even the slightest piece (writers tend to forget about this a lot though).


Possession/Forced Bonding

The symbiote can forcibly take over a living creature and make them act for it against their will. Even with hosts like Eddie himself, it has made him do things he hasn’t wanted to before, such as eating people’s brains. A clone of the Venom symbiote was even able to possess and take over Wolverine. The success of this forced bonding is dependent on the strength of the victim’s spirit however.


Regeneration/Healing Factor

Venom has a bit of a healing factor, which it carries out through “molecular knitting”. It was once claimed that the symbiote’s healing factor could make someone immortal, though this is likely untrue given that symbiote users such as Carnage (who has much better regenerative abilities than Venom) have died in the past. Venom himself has managed to survive being blown up by a rocket launcher as a puddle of goo, and Mac Gargan’s Venom has survived being sliced in half.


Electronic Immersion

Symbiotes like Venom and Carnage can also move through electronics, though this ability must be learned.


Psychic Wail

When it was on its own after Eddie wanted to unbond with it for a while to figure himself out, the Venom symbiote let out a psychic wail that made a lot of people feel bad. It even managed to make an invasion of symbiotes feel so bad that they were convinced life was awful and all killed themselves.

Feats

Strength

Scaling

Speed

Scaling


Durability


Scaling

Skill


Scaling Explanations

Symbiotes

Venom should scale to anyone else who has used the Venom symbiote such as Gargan and Agent Venom since it’s the same symbiote. Eddie himself has the physique of an olympian thanks to all his weight lifting, putting him in similar leagues of physique as Gargan and Flash on their own (without their tech/symbiote).


Venom has fought and defeated all of his symbiote spawn before, most prominently Carnage. Since they’re all the same species, they should be comparable, and this is supported through their battles with each other.


Spider-People

Venom should scale to Spider-People like Peter Parker, Miles Morales and Miguel O’Hara since he’s managed to consistently compete with them in combat on even footing. He’s even matched and defeated Peter before, who has admitted himself that Venom is stronger than him, and who’s considered the strongest of the average Spider-People (i.e ones without their own symbiotes, cosmic powers, the Leopardon, etc.).

Weaknesses

When it comes to symbiotes, they have two big weaknesses in particular: sound and fire (and similar heat sources such as microwaves), and Venom is no exception, though he generally fairs better against fire than sound. A large enough amount of either will force the symbiote off of its host, and long enough exposure can completely sever their bond. However, he has been able to power through the pain in spite of that, recover from these attacks in a few short moments and since this was always the tactic that the heroes used to take down Venom during his early days, he has built up more resilience against them. 


Aside from that however, Brock’s anger and aggression borders on madness, even being called insane and schizophrenic at certain points. He’s been so crazy, he was even sent to the Realm of Madness! All this means that Venom is not much of a strategist when it comes to combat, stated by Spider-Man to “react” more than “reason” which makes him susceptible to falling for other people’s traps. He only really plans anything out when it’s to try tearing Spider-Man’s life apart piece by piece. And due to the symbiote feeding off of these intense emotions, this has led to it manipulating its human hosts into doing what it wants to, such as going on mass murders so it can satiate its phenophylamin hunger, often leading to Eddie and the symbiote to conflict with each other.


Since Venom’s “webbing” is really just parts of the symbiote, they get weaker the further they get away from the body, and like Spidey’s own webbing, it gets weaker overtime. If Venom expends too much webbing, he will need to take time to recharge. While Venom can change his color to turn invisible and blend in with surroundings, this does not prevent him from being detected on infra-red vision. And finally, people who have strong enough willpower or who can simply overpower the symbiote are capable of resisting its bonding process.


In their early days, the symbiote and Eddie could be killed if their bond was severed by force (i.e with enough sound or fire). If one of them were to die, the other would also die. In recent times however, this is not a problem, though they can still be separated from each other.

Fun Stuff

Compilation of Venom and eating brains


Venom enjoys singing


Funny Panels/Pages


Funny Clips

- Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Season 1, Ep10


Cool Quotes


Character Bits


Venom’s Eight Children


Oh the child support he’s gonna have to pay.
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