Respect Venom! (Eddie Brock, Marvel 616)
"You may call me venom-- for that's what I'm payed to spew out these days! I'm your victim, Spider-Man-- I'm the innocent you ruined!
-Venom, Amazing Spider-Man v1 #300
Respect Eddie Brock, AKA Venom!
INTRO
Bio:
Eddie Brock was a promising journalist who became well known after his inside reports on the murderer known as Sin-Eater hit the front page and made him famous. Unbeknownst to Brock, the source he was using for his reports was actually a madman who was inspired by Sin Eater, and not the real Sin-Eater himself. When Spider-Man exposed Sin-Eater's true identity and it was revealed that Eddie's reports were faulty, Eddie was disgraced as a journalist and fired from his job. Eddie blamed Spider-Man for his humiliation and vowed to see him dead. Before he set off to kill Spidey, Eddie went to a church to pray for forgiveness. What he didn't know was that the symbiote suit that Spider-Man had brought back from the Secret Wars and abandoned had been hiding out in the same building. Sensing a being with a mutual hatred for Spider-Man, the symbiote leaped at Brock and bonded with him, becoming Venom. Venom, now referring to itself as "we" instead of "I", attacked Spider-Man and did battle with him many times (he is aware of Peter Parker's true identity due to the symbiote's knowledge) before deciding to become a vigilante himself, and serve the world by protecting innocents (generally in a much more brutal fashion than Spidey.) Eventually Eddie lost the Venom symbiote and became convinced that all symbiotes were evil and demonic, although he himself is now bonded with the Toxin symbiote.
Origin as told in Amazing Spider-Man #300
Mentality:
Eddie Brock isn't a very mentally stable guy. He is obsessed with the concept of innocence and seeks to preserve it at all costs (usually by trying to kill Spider-Man...) although he will kill innocents when he has to. He rarely jokes and banters while fighting, and his threats often involve ripping out his opponents' intestines or eating their brains. Despite all this, he is able to hide his mental issues pretty well. More recently he has been portrayed as completely insane and obsessed with the eradication of all symbiotes. Part of this is due to a tumor in his body that produces excess amounts of andrenalin, and part of it is due to his long term exposure to multiple symbiotic entities.
Related Links:
Symbiote family tree (credit to u/bserum)
Respect thread for Carnage, Venom's "son" and one of his worst enemies
Respect thread for Venom's sometimes enemy/sometimes ally Spider-Man
Respect thread for Agent Venom, the government agent currently equipped with the Venom symbiote
Respect thread for Mac Gargan, who was equipped with the symbiote after Eddie
Character Rant on symbiote weaknesses
POWERS AND ABILITIES
Venom's symbiote gives him powers very similar to Spider-Man, including enhanced strength, superhuman agility, web-shooting, and wall climbing. He also has a few powers of his own, including shapeshifting, stretching, and camouflage. Eddie Brock himself has peak human physicals even without the symbiote. It is worth noting that although Venom is primarily a Spider-Man villain, he is consistently displayed as being Spider-Man's superior in terms of power.
Strength:
Eddie's symbiote amps his strength to an extreme degree, enabling him to lift, punch, and throw with incredible force.
[Punching & Striking]
- Smashes into a brick wall with a punch
- Impales Wolverine on a tree branch by punching him into it
- Stuns Juggernaut with his punches
- Staggers Juggernaut
- Smashes a building to pieces
- Swipes a cyborg in half and crushes another one's head
- Demolishes a burning building
- Tears the side off of a vehicle with his swipe
- Cracks Spider-Man's ribcage with a punch
- Backhands Spider-Man completely out of sight
- Punches a pair of the Baxter Building's doors completely off their hinges
- Staggers Carnage with a punch
- Smashes through a mining mech's head
- Punches a cyborg's head to bits
- Shatters concrete and metal with Spider-Man's head (on a side note, this is a pretty crazy durability feat for Spidey)
- Smashes Spidey through a wall and then backhands him a far distance away
- Punches a clone of himself through the street and into the sewers (Eddie is the slightly blue one)
- Punches through a thick metal door
- Stuns Nova with a punch
- Blows from his tentacles shatter bricks
- Punches Carnage hard enough to fracture the sidewalk
- Knocks Spider-Man back a tremendous distance with a punch
[Leaping & Kicking]
- Kicks a kid's skateboard hard enough to send him flying over the top of an incoming truck
- Leaps at a mech and knocks it down
- Leaps off a truck's roof to Spider-Man's height (several stories up)
[Lifting, Pushing, & Pulling]
- Lifts a bulldozer over his head, and overpowers the arm of the mech who took it from him
- Pulls Ghost Rider's chain off of his neck
- Tears Ben Reilly's impact webbing
- Rips an alien robot's head off
- Bends metal bars
- Stops a military vehicle and tears it apart
- Snaps a demon's neck
- Tears down one of Tony Stark's doors...
- and one of his walls
- Holds up a falling Ferris wheel while only partially transformed
- Shatters the hand and forearm of a mech suit
- Rends a prison wall asunder with his hands
- Rips Spider-Man's webbing off of his head by expanding his symbiote's head
- Casually holds back Spider-Man's arm while only partially transformed
- Pulls Spidey through a wooden wall on a web line, and then knocks him out with a punch
- Pulls a car out of a pit (honestly this isn't too good of a feat but the page is hilarious so I had to include it)
- Swims while carrying Darkhawk with a few tendrils
- Casually lifts a huge vehicle overhead
- Casually tears a huge tree in half
[Throwing & Swinging]
- Flings a police car through the side of a church with one of his tentacles
- Hurls a man through the window of a building and across the street with just a tendril
- Hurls a burning car towards Spider-Man at high speed
- Hurls Spider-Man hard enough to dent the side of a bus
- Flings a goon completely out of sight
- Hurls a car out of sight
- Tosses a truck at Spider-Man hard enough for it to flatten when it hits the ground
- Throws a shard of metal through a mech's visor, killing the pilot
- Hurls a car onto a bridge
- Swings Spidey through a wooden wall on a web line
- Swings Spidey on one of his own webs after he tries to web Venom
SPEED
Eddie's agility and reactions are greatly enhanced by the symbiote, and is even able to react to opponents without looking at them.
[Movement Speed]
- Leaps and swings across a city with high speed
- Overtakes Spider-Man while web swinging
- Escapes from a group of guards by leaping through of a window
- Bounds along the side of a wall for quite some distance
- His speed surprises Ben Reilly
[Reflexes]
- The symbiote catches a pair of bullets before they hit him
- Dodges the blast from a plasma weapon
- Easily dodges close range gunfire
- Leaps around Spider-Man when he attempts to blitz
- Knocks Spider-Man away when he attempts to leap at him
- Notices a man and several building materials falling off of a board and catches them with his webbing
- Intercepts a shotgun blast at close range
- Dodges a sonic attack
- Transforms into Venom and intercepts Spider-Man before he is able to grab a sonic device laying on the floor nearby
- Smothers the guns of two police officers before they are able to fire
- Dodges a series of plasma bolts
- Catches Cletus Kasady with a long tentacle before he hits the street
- The symbiote catches Eddie just before he hits the ground
- Grabs onto the axle of a vehicle that rolls over a car he is driving
- Evades helicopter fire while only partially transformed
- Catches a goon's knife in his hand and then shatters it
- His tendrils, spread underneath the ground, catch a man trying to sneak up on him from behind
- Reacts to a police car driving straight towards him at high speed
[Blitzing]
- Blitzes Spider-Man
- Blitzes a flying super soldier
- Lands a series of hits on Spider-Man before he is able to react
- Blitzes a group of men
- Blitzes a group of super soldiers known as the Jury
- Leaps and tears out half of a cyborg's face before she is able to react
- Blitzes a group of guards by dropping in on them from the ceiling
- Blitzes Darkhawk, making expert use of his tentacles to surround his enemy
- Blitzes Hulk
DURABILITY & REGENERATION
Although Eddie's symbiote seems squishy and gelatinous, it is incredibly tough and resistant to damage. If he does end up taking damage, however, his symbiote boosts his regeneration, allowing him to heal rapidly from near fatal wounds
[Blunt]
- Survives several attacks to the head from Spider-Man with little damage
- Another example
- Slammed from the top of the Golden Gate bridge into a truck and is unharmed
- Unharmed by a punch to the jaw from Hulk
- Survives getting thrown across a city by Carnage
- Daredevil can't even hurt him
- Survives a punch from Sentry that sends him flying through a wall (No, not that Sentry)
- No sells a kick to the belly from Spider-Man
- Tanks a hit from an anti-tank rocket
- Tanks punches and kicks from the Juggernaut
[Piercing & Cutting]
- Toxic darts can't penetrate the symbiote
- Venom is bulletproof. Not conventionally bulletproof, though. His symbiote absorbs bullets and then spits them back out.
- Carnage's projectile spikes pop out of his skin, doing no damage
- Extends his symbiote to protect Punisher from gunfire
- Even bullets fired from close range can't penetrate the symbiote
- ...you get the picture
[Energy/Other]
- Survives the explosion of a power plant
- Tanks a pair of repulsor beams
- "Electricity doesn't kill us"
- A shapeshifting monster is unable to digest him
- A laser drill designed to cut stone can't pierce his hide
[Regeneration]
- Quickly purges poisons that enter his system
- Cuts an implanted bomb out of his chest with his symbiote's tentacles and then heals the wound
- Instantly heals a cut across his arm
- Heals a slash across his chest
- Heals a cut across his back that draws blood
- Eddie can heal allies from near fatal wounds by sharing his symbiote with them
- The symbiote heals Eddie after he gets shot while not transformed
- Can reform his signature tongue if it gets cut off
- Heals after taking a blast to the side from some sort of demonic fire gun
- Quickly heals after wolverine stabs his claws all the way through Venom's chest
SHAPESHIFTING
Eddie's symbiote is very stretchy and able to form itself into a variety of shapes, as well as extend tentacles and alter his appearance. He gives a neat demonstration of his shapeshifting capabilities here.
[Tentacles & Stretching]
- Grabs a flying man and clogs up his weapon
- Fills an area with his tentacles to snare an invisible opponent
- Suffocates a guard with his symbiote
- Sends his symbiote sliding across the floor to ambush Spider-Man
- Ambushes Spider-Man and drags him through a layer of sand
- Crushes a man's head
- Sends his symbiote through hairline cracks in glass
- Strangles a man through a laser grid
- Sneaks up from behind Spider-Man with a tendril and strangles him
- Deactivates a trap that uses infrared trip wires
- Stuns Carnage with a tentacle
- Grabs a pair of goons and "washes out their lungs"
- Kills a police officer by extending a tendril from his foot and smothering him (so much for "protector of the innocent")
- Forms a tendril into a key and picks a lock
- Drags a man out of a mech suit through a fire
[Shape Manipulation]
- Lengthens his teeth
- Forms defensive shields out of his symbiote that stand up pretty well against bullets and burning rays
- Forms his hands into spikes
- Forms wings and glides
- Lengthens his arms to hit Spider-Man
- Pours his symbiote down a punk's mouth
- Envelops Spider-Man
- His claws are razor sharp
- Starts to suffocate the Thing with his tongue
- Extends his head
- Forms a parachute
- His symbiote fills a man up and makes him almost explode
- Extends his symbiote far away from his body
- Hides a bit of his symbiote in a sonic weapon, allowing it to gain strength and return him to power once it is fired again
- Compresses his size and hides in a small block
- Creates a decoy Venom containing a grenade
CAMOUFLAGE
Venom can alter his color and texture to change his clothes or even turn practically invisible.
[Appearance Alteration]
- Mimics his death well enough to fool medical professionals
- Hides his symbiote inside of his body and uses it to fool lie detectors
- Mimics an employee to get information
- Can even mimic people of other skin colors
- Can form a variety of disguises with the symbiote
[Stealth]
- Fools an alien cyborg's sensors by mimicking water
- Turns invisible and ambushes Spider-Man
- Mimics a tree to ambush Spider-Man
- Blends in with a brick wall
- Extends his symbiote to camouflage both him and Darkhawk
- Blends in with a concrete wall
WEBBING
Venom can produce large amounts of webbing from his symbiote at will. Unlike Spider-Man's webbing, Venom's webbing has several special properties.
- Extrudes a huge amount of liquid webbing to wrap up a group of punks
- Can extrude webbing from any part of his body, not just the hands
- Can fire webbing while only partially transformed
- Can retract his webbing like a grappling hook
- His webbing is airtight, and he can extract the oxygen from it
- Fires his webs over Darkhawk and captures him
- The webbing is strong enough to restrain Spider-Man
- More accurate than Spider-Man
"WEAKNESSES"
Venom, like all symbiotes, has a noted weakness to fire and sonic attacks. Despite this, he is still more resistant to extreme heat and noise than a normal human, just less resistant to them than he is to other types of attacks.
[Fire/heat]
- Being splashed with lighter fluid and ignited does nothing but aggravate him
- Defeats the Human Torch and Spider-Man at the same time
- Escapes from a trap involving powerful microwaves set up by the Punisher
[Sonics]
- Able to make it all the way to Shriek before being taken down, tanking her sonic blast the entire time
- Quickly recovers from Hulk's thunder clap
- Kills a large group of guards armed with sonic weapons
- Escapes from a sonic cage
- I won't show every instance of Venom tanking sonic beams but he does it a lot
- The symbiote can survive in the middle of a raging fire
FEATS FOR EDDIE BROCK
Eddie is a peak human without the symbiote. He worked out constantly to impress his father and vent his anger, and is not helpless in a fight even without his symbiotic ally.
- Has "olympic level strength," AKA bullshit Marvel peak human strength
- He lifts, bro
- He... really lifts
- Damn son
- Casually lifts a couch after getting beaten within an inch of his life
- He is an exceptional investigative reporter
- He has had an uncanny ability to detect lies since he was a child
- He doesn't scare easily
- Survives hours of edgy teenager music
FEATS FOR THE SYMBIOTE
Even when detached from its host, the symbiote is able to move and fight on its own. It has even learned to speak in more modern comics.
- If Brock is incapacitated the symbiote will continue to fight for him
- Can detach to guard him
- Grabs a bullet in mid flight and rides it to its next host
- Can fire the bullets it absorbs as if it was a gun
- Forms an image of Eddie's face
- Defeats Spider-Man
LOW SHOWINGS
To help show where Venom stands in terms of power, I am including a section to demonstrate Eddie's limitations and weaknesses.
- Darkhawk gets the drop on Venom and beats the crap out of him
- Eddie's symbiote can think for itself, which sometimes leads to unexpected trouble for him
- He can temporarily run out of webbing
- Eddie doesn't have a spider sense, and as a result he gets hit a lot
- Although Venom is somewhat resistant to his weaknesses, they can still put him out of commission for short periods of time
- He is visibly and consistently weaker than Carnage
- He is easily distracted in fights, especially by mention of his hated enemy Spider-Man
RIDICULOUSLY HIGH SHOWINGS
These are funny outliers, and shouldn't be used in serious debates.
- Is a galactic level telepath
- Kills every member of his species (This was heavily retconned but it's still pretty funny)
- Can send his symbiote through the ethernet to fight Carnage in a digital world
- Can send his symbiote through the telephone
NOTABLE FIGHTS
MISCELLANEOUS
Other stuff that doesn't really fit into any of the categories.
- Detects spider tracers attached to his skin
- Eddie is so terrifying that many opponents are too scared to even fight him
- He's a good fisherman
- Can cling to walls and ceilings
- His symbiote traps air for him to breathe
- He's good with kids
- This didn't really fit in the RT but it's one of my favorite scenes with Eddie
- Totally in a business relationship with the symbiote, nothing personal at all
- Knows totally radical skater slang
- Lobotomizes someone
- Eddie talks about eating brains all the time, but he has only actually lost control done it once. As it turns out, his symbiote requires a chemical found in human brains to survive every once in a while. Luckily enough, that same chemical is also found in chocolate
- And finally, a poorly edited collection of venom quotes! Use them as reaction images or valentine cards
Special thanks to u/8fenristhewolf8 for providing a few of the feats used in this RT!
Posted Mar 1, 2016, 3:11 AM UTC · edited