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Venom
VenomSpiderMan3
Name: Edward Brock Jr.
Alias(es): Eddie
"Symbiote"
Affiliation: The Daily Bugle

(formerly)

Rank: Villain
Portrayed by: Topher Grace
Only Appearance: Spider-Man 3
Appears in: 1 Film
"I like being bad, it makes me happy."
―Venom[src]

Venom, or Edward Brock, Jr. is one of the main antagonists (alongside Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus' Mechanical Tentacles) of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy. He was portrayed by Topher Grace.

Eddie was a photographer, and Peter Parker/Spider-Man's enemy at the Daily Bugle. After bonding with the symbiote, Eddie turned into a psychopathic foe with the powers of Spider-Man. This made Venom oof Spider-Man's arch-rival, and in a sense, his evil counterpart. He is an adaptation of Venom from the original comics.

History

Spider-Man 3

Eddie was a new arrival at the Daily Bugle and was hired as a freelance photographer by Jameson just a week before the "crane incident" involving Gwen Stacy in the movie. Eddie is at first glance, an exact opposite to Peter Parker in almost every way imaginable; he dresses in spiffy designer clothes, uses enormous hair products, rides a motorcycle and seems progressively tanned. Eddie Brock is louder, more flamboyant, more able to schmooze and socialize. He is overly arrogant and obnoxious, but certainly a lot more polished. However, Eddie lacks elsewhere, he apparently has no real friends or close family.

Eddie Brock considers himself a ladies' man, but the ladies themselves don't concur. He is known to have once dated Gwen Stacy who's a model and a physicist. But after one coffee date, she has no interest in pursuing things further. He later met Captain Stacy and told him he is dating his daughter. He attempts to flirt with J. Jonah Jameson's secretary Miss Betty Brant. She's amused at the gesture, but brushes him off. And his cologne seems to disgust more than it attracts. After the alien symbiote took him over, Peter Parker became more like Eddie Brock, both in speech and personality. He gets a hip hairstyle, a pricey suit, an over-inflated ego, more swagger, more overall arrogance and Eddie's ability to schmooze and socialize with women. He also becomes increasingly aggressive towards others.

After losing his job and his reputation for forging a photo of Spider-Man robbing a bank, Eddie Brock saw Peter Parker with Gwen Stacy and quickly became depressed. Angry at Peter for ruining his life and refusing to accept responsibility for losing his job, he went into a church and prayed for Peter's death. Almost like a divine hand granting his wish, he heard a scream from above. Peter Parker was at the top of the bell tower attempting to tear the symbiote suit from his body, and with the help of the bell's thunderous chimes, the suit seems to be shrieking in pain. The symbiote then seemed to look more demonic and aggressive.

Eddie Brock

Eddie Brock prays for Peter's death

Peter Parker peeled off the creature and it descends down the bell tower. Just as he tossed the debris of the alien suit, it landed directly on top of Eddie Brock and completely consumes him, even more so than Peter. Eddie struggles like he's in a straightjacket sinking directly into quicksand. But, the creature won in the end and found a new host.

After bonding with the suit, Eddie slowly got used to the alien symbiote. At first driven mad by the alien's attempts to communicate with him, he attacked several teenagers in his lunacy and attracted the attention of some police officers. After fighting them off, he finally allowed the symbiote to communicate with him, and it sent images of Parker's life and role as Spider-Man to Eddie, due to it copying the previous host's memories. This confirmed Eddie's suspicions that Parker was Spider-Man. By tapping into the symbiote's memories of Spider-Man, Venom was able to replicate his abilities of web production, wall-crawling, and super strength. Realising that he could use the symbiote in his desire to get back at Spider-Man for his humiliation, as he found out that the symbiote also wanted revenge on Spider-Man for rejecting it. He sneaked over to the Stacy apartment and watched Gwen through a window. After she left the room, he broke in to look at Captain Stacy's files, and found Flint Marko's file, inspiring him to choose him as a potential ally.


Venom

Venom offers Sandman to team up

Eddie Brock, now re-christened and re-born as Venom, traveled around the city web-slinging and swinging in Spider-Man's own style, looking for the real Spider-Man himself. While doing such, he happened to run into The Sandman. After The Sandman attacked Venom, mistaking him for the actual Spider-Man, Venom gives him a disapproving roar before Flint tosses him aside. Before he leaves, Eddie proposes a deal to Flint in a sympathetic tone. Painting Spider-Man as a bad person for not allowing Sandman to gain money illegally for his sick daughter, Venom asks Flint if he's interested in working together to kill Spider-Man, to which Sandman agrees to.

Venom holding Mj's Hostage

Venom holds MJ in hostage

Eddie Brock captures Mary Jane Watson through use of a taxi. Seeing her captured at a construction site on the news, Peter Parker put on his old traditional blue and red Spider-Man costume. Peter attempted to plead with Harry to help him save M.J, but Harry scornfully told him to get out, revealing his half scarred face. Arriving on the scene, he attempted to fight Eddie but he proved too strong. Restrained, he tried warning Eddie about the Symbiote but the cautions did not faze Eddie. Peter was almost killed from Venom and Sandman teaming on him, but then Peter's friend Harry Osborn came blazing onto the scene to save the day, in his New Goblin gear.

Venomve4

Venom is attacked by New Goblin's Razor Bats

Harry tried to keep The Sandman at bay while Peter tried to take care of Venom. After defeating Sandman, Venom kidnaps Peter. Harry attempted to save Peter from Venom, ultimately sacrificing himself by getting impaled by his own glider in order to save Peter from the same fate.

Venom-Spider-Man-3-venom-1883845-949-452

Venom attempts to stop Spider-Man from making sound waves

Peter remembered that it was sound waves that made the symbiote creature scream and grow weak. He took a metal beam and banged it against a row of others, making a thundering chiming. The alien writhed in pain at the noise as Peter saw the face of Eddie Brock underneath the weakened symbiote. He lets a web fly at Brock, pulling him free from the parasite.

Eddie Catch Venom

Brock attempts to save Venom

Now the creature is unmanned, on a rampage. It's suddenly become more than just a poison. It's a free-thinking creature of evil, ready to kill Peter. Peter grabbed one of Harry's pumpkin bombs and hurled it right at the alien matter. Eddie, seeing what was about to happen, ran toward the symbiote and was caught, and killed in the explosion by fatal mistake.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

When Peter of Earth-199999 asked what some of strangest villains his fellow counterparts has faced, Peter of Earth-96283 citied one of his battles with him having fought "an alien made out of black goo once", referring his battle with Venom as his strangest villain encounter.

Personality

"You made me lose my girl, now I'm gonna make you lose yours. How's that sound, tiger?"
―Venom mocking Spider-Man[src]

Eddie Brock initially came across as a fun, easy-going photographer; when first introduced he was well-dressed and confident, if not a little arrogant, and problem free. However, Eddie Brock is no saint, he is highly competitive, and willing to do whatever it takes to win; such as doctoring photos to get Jameson's attention and win the staff job at the Bugle. Eddie showed no remorse in falsifying photos of Spider-Man, and when confronted by Peter about his deception, he did not feel the need to justify his actions, and had no intention of admitting what he had done. It is possible that Eddie felt completely justified in his deception, and only showed remorse because he was caught; suggesting that Eddie may be a psychopath. After his deception was exposed by Peter and he lost his job, career and girlfriend, Eddie turned to religion, however, instead of repenting, or seeking forgiveness for his actions, Eddie sort revenge; blaming Peter for what he had lost, rather than accepting responsibility for his actions. It is unknown if Eddie was actually religious or if he just turned to God in his “time of need”. After becoming the host to the Symbiote, Eddie was quickly seduced by the power and its influence; amplifying darker emotions such as anger, arrogance, and Eddie’s hatred of Peter Parker (which he shared with the Symbiote). In pursuit of his revenge against Peter, Eddie kidnapped Mary Jane and intended to kill her in front of Peter (as a sadistic way of torturing him), before killing Peter himself. Unlike most villains in the Spider-Man trilogy, there is nothing redeemable about Eddie’s mentality; he was willing to do anything to get what he wants, no matter who got hurt in the process, and, after bonding with the Symbiote, killed multiple people without remorse. In fact, when he was about to kill Peter, he told him "I like being bad, it makes me happy", which further suggests that Eddie may indeed be a psychopath.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Symbiosis: As the host to an extraterrestrial, symbiotic being of black biomass, Eddie Brock possesses a number of superhuman abilities; his physical attributes (such as strength, durability, speed, agility and healing) are enhanced to considerable superhuman levels. The symbiote bonds to the host on a psychic, and sub-cellular level; not only does this allow it to amplify the host’s physical attributes, but it also allows the symbiote to copy the traits and abilities of said host, by interacting with their genetic code.

  • Symbiotic Suit Manifestation: Whilst bonded to Eddie, the symbiote can emerge from his body; enveloping the host's body with black biomass. The symbiote biomass acts as a malleable, highly resilient, full-body combat suit; Venom's full body suit emulates that of its Human host. When enveloped in the suit, Eddie's physical attributes are greatly enhanced, amplifying his strength, durability, speed, agility and reflexes to superhuman levels; far beyond that of any normal Human, as well as other superhumans such as Spider-Man and Harry Osborn. The symbiote suit also affords the host wickedly sharp fangs and claws.
  • Superhuman Strength: Whilst bonded to the symbiote, the host possesses tremendous superhuman strength; enabling Eddie to easily overpower, lift, toss and kill others. The symbiote allows its host to exert immense physical force; Eddie’s strikes can easily break various metals, and send objects and people flying at high speed and force. Venom can easily bend, rip and tear apart various materials, lift and throw heavy objects such as cars, and overpower superhumans such as Spider-Man and Harry Osborn.
  • Superhuman Durability: The symbiote also drastically increases the host’s physical toughness and durability; as a result, Eddie Brock is more resistant to trauma, injuries and impact forces. The symbiote allows its host to endure and survive great impacts and traumas; Eddie can survive falls from heights, heavy and dense objects dropping on his head, stab wounds and slashes, as well as blows from superhumanly strong opponents (that would severely injure or kill a normal Human) without sustaining injury. Despite its resilience, the symbiote and its host are vulnerable to fire and high frequency sound waves.
  • Enhanced Stamina: The symbiote significantly enhances the host’s stamina and endurance; as a result, Eddie is able to exert himself for longer and in a superhuman capacity, without experiencing any strain or fatigue. Whilst bonded to the symbiote, Eddie was able to fight on par with, and overpower the superhuman Spider-Man and Harry Osborn in a long and arduous battle.
  • Enhanced Agility: The symbiote will increase the host’s reflexes, agility, balance and bodily coordination; as a result, Eddie is far more agile than any normal Human, and is able to move, pounce and climb with an animalistic agility. The symbiote allows the host to run and move with superhuman speed and athleticism, Eddie is able to easily perform acrobatic and gymnastic stunts, and can keep up with and outmanoeuvre other superhumans.
  • Superhuman Speed: The symbiote will increase the host’s speed and athleticism to superhuman levels; as a result, Eddie is able to run and move at extremely high-speeds. The symbiote allows Eddie to suddenly appear and disappear from sight, quickly scale up the sides of buildings, swiftly catch up to and dispatch enemies, and outpace superhumans like Spider-Man and Harry Osborn, as well as outmatch them in combat.
  • Genetic Memory: By bonding on a sub-cellular level, the symbiote is able to inherit the abilities from any host it achieves symbiosis with; as a result, any adopted traits and abilities can be utilised by future hosts. Bonding to the symbiote after it had bonded with Spider-Man afforded Eddie the same spider abilities (however his physical abilities were superior due to the effects of the symbiote).
  • Organic Webbing Generation: After bonding with Spider-Man, the symbiote was able to afford Eddie the ability to generate organic webbing. The webbing that the symbiote can generate and project is incredibly strong, elastic and adhesive; it is so strong that it could be used to suspend a New York Taxi in the air, and restrain the superhumanly strong Spider-Man.
  • Wall-Crawling: After bonding with Spider-Man, the symbiote is able to grant its host (Eddie Brock) the ability to walk, run, climb and adhere to any surface (including vertical and upside down surfaces), no matter how rough or slippery.
  • Spider-Sense Immunity: After bonding with Spider-Man, the symbiote will no longer trigger Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense; as a result, the symbiote’s new host, Eddie Brock, was able to sneak up on and attack Spider-Man.

Abilities

  • Skilled Photographer: Eddie possessed the skills and knowledge to take professional photographs; he was one of the few photographers able to take decent photographs of Spider-Man, and new enough about photography to doctor photos and frame Spider-Man.
  • Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Despite only being bonded to the symbiote for a short period of time, Eddie was able to effectively use the symbiote to combat the experienced superhuman fighter Spider-Man; overpowering him for most of their conflict.

Gallery

Trivia

Venom Concept Art

Venom concept art by Constantine Sekeris.

  • In July 2007, Spider-Man 3 producer Avi Arad revealed a Venom spin-off film was in the works. Jacob Aaron Estes was commissioned to write a script, but it was rejected the following year. In September 2008, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese signed on to write the film. Reese later revealed that they had written two drafts for the film and that the studio was pushing the film forward. In 2009, Gary Ross, who was then rewriting the latest draft of the unproduced Spider-Man 4, was assigned to rewrite the Venom script and direct the movie, in which Venom would be an anti-hero rather than a supervillain. The project was cancelled after Spider-Man 4 was scrapped in 2010. In June 2012, a new Venom movie was being considered as part of the Spider-Man reboot directed by Marc Webb.
  • His working for the Daily Bugle and frame-up of Spider-Man bears similarities to his 1990s counterpart and both get fired as a result, but unlike his 1990s counterpart, he goes to the side of outright evil while his 1990s counterpart redeemed himself and became an ally of Spider-Man.
  • Venom was originally not planned to be in the movie as Sam Raimi wasn't initially a fan of the character, stating the character "lacked humanity" in comparison to the previous villains. Instead, he planned to have Vulture as the main villain of the story. However, he was pushed by Avi Arad to replace him with Venom, as he felt that the series was relying too much on Raimi's personal favourites instead of the villains that the fans like.
    • That being said, fans did not like this iteration of Venom, particularly because Brock does not become Venom until towards the end.
    • In other earlier scripts of the film, the Lizard and Electro were planned to be the antagonists, rather than Venom and the Sandman. The Lizard would later appear in The Amazing Spider-Man movie while Electro appeared in the sequel.
  • Eddie Brock is never referred to as "Venom" in Spider-Man 3. Although, he was referred to as "Symbiote" by Curt Conners.
    • In the Spider-Man 3 game, however, Sandman does refer to him by his name in the end.
  • This incarnation of Venom has several differences from his comic counterpart:
    • In the comics, Eddie Brock has reddish-blonde hair, blue eyes and has a brawny physique. In this film, green eyes and has a scrawny physique.
    • In the comics, Eddie is occasionally an antihero when he is not begrudging Spider-Man. This version is a completely psychotic, irredeemable and sadistic villain; he even willingly claims that he enjoys being evil of his own free will while smiling evilly. His personality and physique as mentioned earlier, makes the film Eddie greatly resemble Cletus Kasady/Carnage, Venom’s offspring from the comics. However, he still has one genuine redeeming quality, which is his true love for Gwen Stacy, while Cletus/Carnage lacks any redeeming qualities.
    • In the comics, Eddie begrudged Spider-Man when he published an article incriminating a man, he thought was the serial killer Sin-Eater, but Spider-Man caught the real culprit which proved his story to be false. This shamed Eddie, causing him to be fired from his job and abandoned by his family. In the film, Eddie deliberately forges and publishes fake photos made to slander Spider-Man, digging his own grave and guaranteeing he was going to get caught and fired. This makes his grudge against Peter petty and unreasonable as a result, as all the consequences he faced as a result of his deliberate dishonesty are entirely his fault, compared to his comic counterpart who made an honest mistake.
  • In the Ps2/PSP/Wii and Ps3/Xbox360/PC versions of the Spider-Man 3 game, Venom's death is slightly altered in 2 ways, a normal one and a more gruesome one.
    • In the Ps2/PSP/Wii version, after Venom is defeated by Spider-Man with a mix of soundwaves and a beating, he starts to suffer from trying to control it any further and eventually collapses and dies possibly due to brain damage caused by the Symbiote's sensitivity to soundwaves before he mentions that he couldn't control it.
    • In the Ps3/Xbox360/PC version, while Spider-Man uses soundwaves against Venom and fights, they both fall off the building under construction, Spider-Man survives but Venom is impaled by iron bars down below, killing him.
  • In the Ps3/Xbox360/PC version, Venom's voice is distorted when he talks, but not in the movie when Brock is talking to Sandman.
  • In the first movie, Robbie Robertson referred to a photographer called Eddie, (who worked for the Daily Bugle) had been working for weeks to get a picture of Spider-Man, but “couldn’t get a glimpse of him”. This was initially believed to be Eddie Brock, however when the character makes their first onscreen appearance in Spider-Man 3, there is a scene Robbie mentions Eddie had only been hired a week ago, meaning the Eddie referred to in the first movie is a different photographer.
    • The reason for this may be because Venom was originally not planned to be in the movie, as Sam Raimi wasn't initially a fan of the character, stating the character "lacked humanity" compared to previous villains.
  • Eddie's death in the Spider-Man 3 novelization differs to that of the movie. Whereas in the movie, Eddie dies while trying to rebond with the symbiote and is caught in the pumpkin bomb's explosion, in the book, when Peter uses sonics to weaken the symbiote until it unbonds with Eddie, only when it does unbond, all that remains is Eddie's blackened skeleton. This was actually filmed and b-roll footage has surfaced online depicting the skeletal remains of Eddie. [1]
    • Venom was the only villain from the Raimi trilogy who did not return in Spider-Man: No Way Home. He's also one of the only villains from pre-MCU Spider-Man movies who did not return, the others being the Green Goblin and the Rhino from The Amazing Spider-Man duology (not counting all the minor villains). That said, a variant of Venom did appear in a post-credit scene.

See Also


Raimi Film Series
Films: Spider-Man | Spider-Man 2 | Spider-Man 3
Characters: Peter Parker/Spider-Man | Mary Jane Watson | Harry Osborn | J. Jonah Jameson | Uncle Ben | Aunt May | George Stacy | Gwen Stacy | Robbie Robertson | Betty Brant | Curt Connors | Flash Thompson | Dr. Stromm | Mr. Ditkovich | Ursula Ditkovich | Maximillian Fargas | Henry Balkan | Rosalie Octavius | Hoffman | Bernard Houseman | Mr. Aziz | Bonesaw McGraw
Enemies: The Green Goblin | Doctor Octopus | The Sandman | New Goblin | Venom | The Carjacker
Locations: The Daily Bugle | Oscorp Technologies | Quest Aerospace | Osborn Penthouse | Goblin Lair
Video Games: Spider-Man | Spider-Man 2 | Spider-Man 3
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