VENOMS BACKGROUND It all started with a simple mistake. While participating in the first Secret Wars, Spider-Man really trashed his costume. He came across two other heroes who earlier had similar problems and told him there was a wondrous machine capable of making any article of clothing you can think of. Unfortunately for poor Spidey, they neglected to tell him where to find it. Spider-Man did find a device that he thought looked like "it wants to make a costume". It produced a small, black ball that initially set off his spider-sense as he picked it up. The ball oozed over the confused hero and became a black costume. Spider-Man wore the costume for a few months, enjoying the fact that it produced its own webbing and could change to mimic his civilian clothes. This all came to an end when Spider-Man discovered his nifty new threads were actually an alien symbiote trying to bond to him permanently. Mr. Fantastic separated the two with his "sonic blaster" and captured the symbiote for study. It should be noted that during the period that Spider-Man wore the alien costume, there was evidence that the symbiote somehow fed on his adrenaline. The costume escaped and rejoined Spider-Man briefly, but the hero tried to kill the symbiote using the noise from a church's bell tower. The plan worked too well, and the symbiote saved Spidey's life before hiding itself in the church. The other half of this future combo, Eddie Brock, was the star investigative reporter for the Daily Globe. Eddie was a particularly driven man driven to seek the approval of his stone-hearted father. It stands to reason that when his biggest score--a man confessing to be the then-active Sin-Eater--was exposed as a fraud when the real Sin-Eater was captured by Spider-Man, Brock went a little over the edge. The paper fired him, his father disowned him, and his marriage ended. Brock's mind locked onto Spider-Man as the source of all his woes and thus began Brock's burning hatred of the Wall-Crawler. But life continued to deal harshly with Brock, and soon he decided to commit suicide. Stopping by a church to pray before he did the fateful deed, Brock's intense hatred of Spider-Man was noticed by the symbiote who had been hidden there since its last confrontation with Spider-Man. The two bonded and became Venom. Appearance Height: 6' 3" Weight: 260 lbs Eyes: Blue Hair: Reddish Blond Features: As Venom, Brock has an elongated jaw, teeth, and tongue which are really part of the alien costume Summary Created By: David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane, Symbiote Costume created by, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Brett Breeding Real Name: Edward "Eddie" Brock Current Aliases: None Former Aliases: None Dual Identity: Known to local authorites Current Occupation: Mad killer bent on revenge Former Occupation: Journalist for the Daily Globe, short stint as a Vigilante between murdering sprees Citizenship: United States of America Legal Status: Criminal record in U.S. Place of Birth: San-Francisco, California Marital Status: Divorced Known Relatives: Carol Brock (father), Anne Weying (ex-wife, deceased in Amazing v.2 #19), Mary Brock (younger sister, mentioned in Nova v.3 #6-7) Known Confidants: "Beck" Known Allies: Spider-Man, Morbius, Vengeance Major Enemies: Spider-Man, Carnage, Life Foundation, Juggernaut, Scarlet-Spider, Jury Usual Bases: New York City (again) Former Bases: New York City, San-Francisco, California Current Groups: None Former Groups: None Education: BA in Journalism Powers & Paraphenalia Strength Level: 11 tons under optimal contditons Powers: Brock's powers stem from his symbiotic relationship with the alien that serves as his costume. The symbiote can mimic any type of clothing whatsoever, as well as blending Venom in his surroundings, rendering him invisible. The symbiote has augmented all of Brock's physical abilities to superhuman levels equal to, and in some cases greater than, Spider-Man's. Abilities: Venom also possesses the ability to adhere to most sufaces. Venom can animate any part of his costume and can fire a web-like substance from his hands. Because the symbiote was previously attached to Peter, it knows how to shield itself from Spider-Man's spider-sense. Equipment: None Weapons: None Limitations: The symbiote is extremely sensitive to sonic and thermal attacks. VENOM Venom has battled Spider-Man, and anyone else who gets in his way, numerous times since then. Brock sees himself as a hero, protecting innocents from the "evil" Spider-Man. Venom desperately hates his "son", Carnage, who he sees as a perversion of all that he is. In truth Venom has acted as a hero on several occasions, but he believes anyone he sees as "evil" should die, and this puts him in the same dubious category as the Punisher. He still hates Spider-Man, but for a while regarded him as a necessary evil since the Wall-Crawler also protects the "innocent". Venom served a homeless community of "under people" in San Francisco as their "protector" for a while but make no mistake: that Venom was insane. Shortly after that, Venom had an epic struggle with the returned Spider-Clone, Ben Reilly, who was Scarlet Spider at the time and managed to separate Brock and the symbiote. After being rejoined, Venom's killer instincts surfaced once again, and little by little he became a threat to innocent people as well. He acquired selective amnesia (Brock no longer remembers Peter is Spider-Man, and the symbiote doesn't seem to make any effort to remind him of that). Brock absorbed Cletus Kasady's symbiote (who then found another one) and joined the Sinister Six shortly after the reboot. But he soon regretted it and then tried to kill his former teammates. He left Sandman near death, after biting a great chunk out of him, and attacked Electro, leaving him also for dead. He made some sort of peace with Spidey (again), only to foolishly blame him for something as farfetched as his wife's suicide. When the powerful human/alien hybrid known as Senator Ward, Venom lost his chance for revenge, since Ward split Brock and the symbiote apart (again). A secret agency created their own symbiote using a piece of Venom's tongue that bonded with a woman named Robertson in an alaskan science lab. Eventually, Venom would absorb this symbiote into himself. Unfortunately, he wasnt unable to remove that entire 18 issues run from existence, since it was a story that never quite found its way. Venom returned later on to reveal that Eddie Brock had cancer, and he could not survive without a permananent merge with the symbiote. In the end, spiderman convinces the symbiote to go through with this "permanent merge." However, Eddie goes through a religious awakening and auctions off the symbiote to Don Fortunato who gives it to his son, so he can be redeemed. The last we see of Venom, Eddie has slit his wrists in an alley and the symbiote is running free looking for a host. I'm not sure how this permananent merge was undone, or why the cancer that had just about killed Eddie before didn't kill him the minute he gave away the symbiote. However, I have a funny feeling that the symbiote will find Eddie Brock and remerge before he dies of his self inflicted wounds.