Venom (character)

Did You Know?

• The Venom symbiote contains a small dimensional aperture allowing hosts to carry items without adding mass to the costume.
• The symbiote can communicate telepathically with its host and may possess technopathy, as it summoned a flying device to escape the Baxter Building.
• Venom's offspring include Scream, Lasher, Phage, Agony, Riot, Mania, Sleeper, and Carnage.

Conception and creation

The concept for Spider-Man's new costume, which later became Venom, originated with Marvel reader Randy Schueller of Norridge, Illinois. Artists Mike Zeck and Rick Leonardi designed the black costume. Writer/artist John Byrne later stated he had conceived a self-healing biological costume for Iron Fist, and Roger Stern asked to use the idea for Spider-Man's alien costume. Stern plotted the costume's first appearance but left the title before it was published. Writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Frenz established the costume as a sentient alien vulnerable to high sonic energy during their run preceding David Michelinie's.

Hosts

Spider-Man acquired the black costume in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8, where a machine on Battleworld created a black sphere that formed a new costume after his original was ruined. The costume could mimic street clothes and provided unlimited webbing. Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz later revealed the costume was a sentient alien symbiote vulnerable to fire and high sonic energy. Reed Richards discovered the costume was alive, and Parker rejected it after realizing it sought permanent bonding. The symbiote escaped, rebonded with Parker, and was repelled by church bell sound waves, though it moved Parker to safety before leaving. In the 2018 "Go Down Swinging" storyline, Norman Osborn bonded with the Carnage symbiote, and Spider-Man rebonded with Venom to stop Osborn as Red Goblin. During the battle, Flash Thompson was mortally injured, and both symbiotes detached from their hosts.

Other versions

In the Marvel Comics 2 series, Norman Osborn used Venom's genetic material to create a human-symbiote hybrid. Mayday Parker allowed the symbiote, which named itself April Parker, to live with her. April befriended May's friends, including Gene Thompson, but later became jealous and inadvertently killed Mayday in battle. Overcome with guilt, April sacrificed herself to resurrect Spider-Girl.

April Parker first appeared in Amazing Spider-Girl #20. Two versions of Venom appear in the Marvel 2099 imprint. Kron Stone, older half-brother of Spider-Man 2099, was abused by an android housekeeper as a child and became a bully. After being fatally wounded by Jake Gallows, Stone bonded with a mutated Venom possessing acidic blood and saliva, seeking to torment Miguel O'Hara.

A new Venom 2099, Alea Bell, was introduced in a 2019 one-shot. After a crash that killed her mother and burned her arm, Alea underwent experimental treatment at Alchemax that used a piece of Venom. She reluctantly agreed to the symbiote's request to be made whole in exchange for her normal life.

In other media

Venom appears in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, with Spider-Man's version voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes and Eddie Brock's by Hank Azaria. The symbiote arrives via a meteorite sample collected by John Jameson. After bonding with Spider-Man and being rejected, it bonds with Brock to become Venom. Spider-Man defeats them and sends Venom to space, but Venom returns and joins forces with Spider-Man and Iron Man against Carnage, Dormammu, and Baron Mordo before sacrificing themselves.

In Spider-Man Unlimited, the Eddie Brock incarnation, voiced by Brian Drummond, features a more powerful symbiote with full control and elasticity. Venom and Carnage travel to Counter-Earth to join the Synoptic hive mind, allying with the High Evolutionary. In The Spectacular Spider-Man, the symbiote arrives on John Jameson's space shuttle and bonds to Spider-Man, voiced by Josh Keaton. After rejection, it bonds with Brock, voiced by Benjamin Diskin, seeking revenge. Venom is defeated and separated multiple times, with the symbiote escaping at the end.