History Characters / VenomHosts

* Characters.VenomMainHosts: A list of all the humans who have bonded to the Venom symbiote and its clone, the Mania symbiote, and taken on a Venom (or related) codename.

[[WMG:[[center: [- [[Characters/VenomTheSymbiote The Venom Symbiote]] | '''Hosts of Venom''' | Characters/{{Symbiotes|MarvelComics}} | [[Characters/AlternateIncarnationsOfVenom Alternate Incarnations of Venom Characters Page]] | [[Characters/VenomSupportingCharacters Supporting Characters]] | [[Characters/VenomRoguesGallery Venom Villains]] | [[Characters/{{Carnage}} Carnage Characters Page]]]] -]]]

A list of all the humans who have bonded to the Venom symbiote and its clone, the Mania symbiote, and taken on a Venom (or related) codename. Current identities are in '''bold'''.
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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Symbiote Spider-Man]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Symbiote_Spider-Man_4411.jpg]]

-> '''AKA:''' Peter Benjamin Parker
-> '''Debut:''' ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' Vol. 1, #252 (with symbiote)

The symbiote's original -- retconned to be second -- human host, and the one it [[{{Yandere}} longs for the most]]. [[ComicBook/SecretWars1984 Peter Parker was among the superheroes chosen by an entity called the Beyonder to participate in a battle between good and evil on an artificial planet called Battleworld.]] His costume was damaged in the course of a fight, and after learning Thor had found a machine that could repair costumes, Peter sought it out himself. He found a device that deposited a small black ball into his hand, which spread to cover his body in a jet-black and white costume inspired by his admiration of the one worn by the second Spider-Woman.
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Peter quickly discovered the "Black Suit" could respond to his thoughts and whims: shapeshifting to resemble any clothing he imagined, creating its own webbing, and sliding away from his mouth so he could eat and drink without taking off his mask. Impressed, Peter took the Black Suit with him when he was returned to Earth. Despite its advantages, the Black Suit's autonomy began to unnerve Peter, who was becoming increasingly exhausted: the Black Suit was [[PuppeteerParasite taking over his body while he slept and using it to fight crime]]. Wanting answers, Peter visited the ComicBook/FantasticFour and asked Reed Richards to analyze it. Richards revealed to Peter that the Black Suit was not a costume, but a sentient extraterrestrial [[TheSymbiote symbiote]] that was attempting to permanently bond with him. Horrified and disgusted, Peter had the Fantastic Four remove the creature, discovering it was [[WeaksauceWeakness vulnerable to intense sonics and heat]], and returned to his classic red-and-blue outfit. The symbiote [[NotGoodWithRejection did not take Peter's rejection well]] and eventually escaped captivity, disguising itself as Peter's original costume and attempting to force itself on him during a fight with the Vulturions. In his struggle to remove it, Peter retreated to the bell-tower of an abandoned church and rung the bell, weakening the symbiote, which seemingly sacrificed itself to save him.
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He has, on occasion, worn the suit again or at least a black costume -- however, this is always temporary, and Peter now has a general dislike of anything symbiote-related.

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* AlternateSelf: Given how iconic the symbiote is, it's rare to find a retelling or adaptation that hasn't featured Symbiote Spider-Man, and a few ''WhatIf''s have asked the question of what would happen if the symbiote returned to Peter, or what would happen if they never separated to begin with.
** In ''What If the Alien Costume Had Possessed Spider-Man?'', Peter is accidentally killed by the symbiote, which tries to atone for this by curing Bruce Banner of his Hulk problem but is killed by a vengeful Felicia Hardy.
** In ''What If? Brave New World'', Peter is trapped on Battleworld with the other combatants. Over time, the symbiote assimilates his body until all that's left of him is a skeleton and his psyche, with the symbiote's biomass forming their body.
** In ''ComicBook/MarvelComics2'', the symbiote rebonds to Peter, taking him over to create Spider-Venom (a black and grey Spider-Man with Venom's face). After bonding to Normie Osborn to become the [[HeelFaceTurn heroic]] Dusk, it later bonds to his daughter May and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices itself to save her life]].
** In the ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' comic, the Black Suit is a cancer cure-turned-bioweapon created by Richard Parker that Peter accidentally exposes himself to. While he initially has the time of his life, he almost eats a burglar who reminds him of his Uncle's killer and realizes too late that the Suit is too dangerous to use. While he manages to rid himself of it and destroy the sample, Eddie Brock exposes himself to a second sample to become Venom. Said second sample later leaves Eddie to take over Peter until it's suppressed by the Ultimates.
** In ''Manga/MarvelMangaverse'', Peter finds a cursed amulet belonging to the evil Shadow Clan, which turns his costume black-and-white and amplifies his powers, but starts corrupting him at the same time. The cursed amulet [[HeroicSacrifice is removed by Venom]], who mysteriously returns with full control of the amulet's powers.
** In the ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' cartoon, the symbiote was created from a sample of Peter's blood and seeks to return to him. While it briefly bonds with him, it's notable that Harry Osborn is the one who becomes Symbiote Spider-Man, at least until he loses control of the symbiote.
** ''ComicBook/{{Venomverse}}'' has an alternate version of Symbiote Spider-Man who reclaimed the Venom symbiote from his villainous version of Eddie Brock. As such, he has a dim view of Earth-616 Venom; and just when it looks like they'll become FireForgedFriends, Venomized Spider-Man is consumed by a Poison and becomes Poison Spider-Man.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: When Spider-Man bonds to a symbiote to fight Deathbird and S.W.O.R.D. after they're overtaken, he enlists No-Girl to help him control it as proof she'd not the traitor within the X-Men. No-Girl has a showdown with the symbiote's will in the middle of Peter's [[MentalWorld inner replica of Queens]] and manages to hold it off for a while. She is ultimately no match for it and her consciousness is expelled, with Spider-Man being taken over and briefly turned into a copy of classic Venom.
* BloodKnight: With the symbiote he became more aggressive and bloodthirsty as he constantly lashed out in violence.
* TheBusCameBack:
** After years of being apart - not counting the "[[ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan Superior Venom]]" incident - and moments where it looked like it would choose him again, [[spoiler:the symbiote rebonded with Peter during his fight with Agent Venom during Civil War II. However, rather than take him over, it used the opportunity to have a long-overdue heart-to-heart with Peter and clarify a number of misconceptions]].
** In ''Go Down Swinging'', Eddie Brock lends the symbiote to Spider-Man so that he'll be able to fight evenly with the Red Goblin; the symbiote taking on an altered appearance with different spider-emblems and eyespots that stick out the side of his head.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Originally, the symbiote did not boost Spidey's powers or make him more aggressive, and he simply tried to kill the symbiote when he found out that it was alive and trying to bond with him. When later writers decided to use it as a new villain, they gave the previous story a quick RetCon [[NewerThanTheyThink based on the symbiote's portrayal in the 1994 animated series]], and gave Peter a better excuse.
* CheapCostume: Black Cat, who thought the Black Suit was sexier than Spidey's classic red-and-blues, made him a synthetic version that he wore until Venom attacked Mary-Jane. He still wears it from time to time, usually as an indicator of how pissed off he is.
* CostumeCopycat:
** The Black Suit's appearance was based off of the second Spider-Woman's costume, which Peter had been admiring at the time.
** Eddie Brock, Mac Gargan, and Peter himself have invoked this, the former two by impersonating Symbiote Spider-Man to discredit Peter, and Peter to impersonate Mac Gargan and infiltrate the Dark Avengers.
* CurbStompBattle: During one of the symbiote's moonlit joyrides, it came across Sandman. Baker engulfed Spider-Man attempting to smother him, only for the symbiote to rip him apart from the inside.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Black Cat thought [[EvilIsSexy Peter's black costume]] was sexy and made him a copy out of regular fabric after he got rid of the symbiote. He wore it for a while, until Mary-Jane was traumatized by Venom and begged Peter to stop wearing it. Peter started wearing it again during his DarkestHour in ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Back in Black]]''.
* ADarkerMe: Following the {{retcon}}, Peter became increasingly aggressive under the symbiote's influence, especially when it was in complete control of his body. Spider-Man himself invokes this, as when he's pushed too far he puts on the synthetic black suit Black Cat gave him, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness stops cracking jokes]], and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown stops pulling his punches]]. Just ask Wilson Fisk.
* EvilCostumeSwitch: On special occasions, like when Wilson Fisk hired a sniper who almost shot Aunt May and when Kraven the Hunter's family killed Kaine, Peter puts his synthetic Black Suit on and invokes this by not joking around and not holding back.
* HeroicHost: During the brief period Peter was bonded to the symbiote, he used it for good. He reluctantly rebonds to it during ''Going Down Swinging'' in order to be able to fight the Red Goblin evenly, and begrudgingly admits they make a good team.
* IconicOutfit: The Black Suit is hands-down Spider-Man's most famous and iconic costume aside from his red-and-blues, to the point of being featured in ''every'' adaptation since its inception.
* LegacyCharacter:
** When Mac Gargan agrees to join Norman Osborn's ComicBook/DarkAvengers and impersonate Spider-Man, he's given a drug that reverts the symbiote back to the way it looked when it was bonded to Peter. Also doubles as EvilCounterpart since Mac was still more-than happy to eat people.
** When it becomes clear that he's not powerful enough to take on the symbiote-possessed Deathbird, Spider-Man bonds to one of the symbiotes captured by Hellion and controls it with No-Girl's help, causing it to take on an appearance identical to the Venom symbiote's. Unfortunately, No-Girl loses her BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind with the creature's will and it takes control of Spider-Man... for a single panel, before it's removed by Beast.
** When Spider-Man is bonded to a symbiote during ''Venomized'', it immediately takes on the appearance of his black suit. Unable to remove it like he did his first one, he reluctantly remains bonded to it and it saves his life when he's impaled by Poison Carnage; ultimately being separated from him and returned to Klyntar.
* OneWingedAngel: When the Red Goblin mortally wounds Flash Thompson, Symbiote Spider-Man goes berserk and Venomizes, punching Osborn halfway across the city and roaring that he's going to eat his brain. The dying Flash manages to calm Spider-Venom down and begs Peter not to let his rage and hatred towards Osborn be the reason the recently redeemed symbiote relapses into its bloodthirsty monstrous state.
* {{Retcon}}: Initially the Black Suit ''was'' just a snazzy new shapeshifting costume, but its lack of popularity quickly led it to be turned into an alien parasite. The idea that the Black Suit was making Peter evil stems from ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', as prior to that Peter rejected the symbiote out of disgust and terror at learning it was alive and wanting to bond to him.
* PsychicBlockDefense: When Mosaic possesses Spider-Man and tries to view Peter's memories of his family, he's brutally attacked by multiple copies of Symbiote Spider-Man.
* SuperPoweredEvilSide: Subverted initially, as all the Black Suit did was [[PuppeteerParasite take his body out for joyrides while he slept]]. Later tellings have it make Peter more aggressive and brutal.
* SymbioticPossession: Played with: All the symbiote wanted to do was help Peter, something [[WhatTheHellHero it has repeatedly berated him for]], but Peter was becoming increasingly unnerved by its autonomy and that it was joy-riding his body while he was asleep to fight crime.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Symbiote Deadpool / Venompool]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/venompool_earth_616.png]]

-> '''AKA:''' Wade Winston Wilson
-> '''Debut:''' ''New Mutants'' #98; ''Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars'' #3 (with symbiote)

In a half-joking {{retcon}} to the original events of the ''Secret Wars'' saga[[note]]later said to be non-canon according to editors[[/note]], ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} was among the heroes and villains abducted by the Beyonder and taken to Battleworld. When his costume was shredded, Deadpool noticed Thor had acquired a new one and asked where he'd gotten it. Finding a strange machine, Deadpool activated it and a small black orb spread all over his body, turning his costume black and white. Initially revelling in his new costume's powers, Deadpool quickly realized that it was not only alive but sentient, and returned it to the machine out of fear that exposure to his fractured psyche would drive it insane. Exiting the room just as a certain other hero whose costume had been damaged and who had received directions from Thor entered, Deadpool advised Spider-Man to remember that "black is slimming".
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After Spider-Man forced the symbiote off of him using a church bell, the creature went into hiding, gradually regaining its strength with the help of a friendly janitor. the symbiote eventually re-bonded to Wade, who accepted its presence and used it to help people, before it attempted to kill the unconscious Spider-Man, but Deadpool refused to let it. The symbiote left him and returned to Our Lady of Saints church, just in time to meet a certain suicidal reporter.
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* AlternateSelf:
** One of Deadpool's alternate counterparts bonded the Venom symbiote and became known as Venompool. This is possibly alluded to when the Collector says that catastrophic calamity would have ensued if Deadpool had stayed bonded to the symbiote.
** The version of Wade from ''ComicBook/DeadpoolKillsTheMarvelUniverse Again'' kills Eddie Brock and steals the Venom symbiote so that he can use it to kill [[ImAHumanitarian and]] [[BrainFood eat]] Spider-Man. Unlike the ''What If'' Venompool, this one looks identical to the Earth-616 version.
* BadassMoustache: The Beyonder's power cured Deadpool of his cancer for the duration of the Secret Wars, at which point he spontaneously sprouted a thick PornStache and a CarpetOfVirility.
* BigEater: Venompool chows down a ship full of Zn'rx, Coldwar, and Killer Thrill's left arm in the space of a single night. He would have eaten the rest of Killer Thrill and Guzz had they not escaped, and would have eaten Spider-Man too had Wade not forced the symbiote to back off.
* TheCorrupter:
** Deadpool is half-jokingly implied to be the true cause of the symbiote's insanity... at least until ''ComicBook/VenomSpaceKnight'' revealed [[EvilAllAlong more of its backstory]].
** In an indirect manner, after separating from it, Deadpool notes that he never used to admire Spider-Man and wonders if the symbiote pushed all its positive emotions onto him, leaving it only with hatred, rage, bloodlust, and twisted obsession.
* CostumeCopycat: When first bonded to it, Deadpool uses the symbiote's shapeshifting abilities to mockingly copy the other heroes' outfits, including Spider-Man's.
* EatingTheEnemy:
** After stopping a squadron of Snarks from abducting the Power Pack, Deadpool overhears Jack lament that they'll eventually return. After pondering how to solve this problem in a heroic fashion, Deadpool latches onto the Snarks' ship sporting claws and a JaggedMouth, and has a super-sized helping of jumbo frog legs for dinner.
** When saving White Rabbit from Guzz and Coldwar, Deadpool Vulks out and chows down on the latter, [[ExtremeOmnivore completely disregarding that he's a robot]].
** Venompool is revealed to be the reason Killer Thrill is missing her left arm, slicing it off with his tongue and pulling it into his mouth. Immediately after this the symbiote would have eaten Spider-Man, but Wade refused to let it.
* GoThroughMe: When the symbiote separates from him to eat Spider-Man, Deadpool throws himself between it and Spidey, saying that it'll have to kill him too. It nearly does, then relents at the last second and returns to Our Lady of Saints Church.
* HulkingOut: After Black Cat is knocked out by Killer Thrill and White Rabbit is about to be killed by Guzz and Coldwar, Deadpool assumes a bulky, monstrous appearance and [[CurbStompBattle easily defeats them]]. Deadpool subsequently Venomizes when the symbiote takes over fighting Kraven, and in the final showdown against Killer Thrill.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Deadpool looks up to Spider-Man, something the symbiote takes umbrage with.
* InterruptedCooldownHug: When the symbiote lashes out over its rage towards Spider-Man, Deadpool tries to calm it by assuring it that it's got him now, and that it doesn't need Spider-Man and can let go of its anger. Kraven picks that moment to attempt to apologize over his MistakenIdentity and the moment he mentions Spider-Man's name the symbiote goes berserk again.
* JaggedMouth: Several of Venompool's {{Game Face}}s sport MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily that are black and blend into his mask.
* LiesToChildren: When Julie Power asks what happened to the Snarks, Deadpool says they teleported away before their ship crashed into the East River... burping midway through the lie.
* MistakenIdentity: He's mistaken for Symbiote Spider-Man by Black Cat, the Power Pack, and Kraven the Hunter.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Whenever he gets angry and/or the symbiote takes over, Deadpool sprouts the massive fanged maw and slavering tongue that would later become the symbiote's trademark.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: After separating from the symbiote, Wade bumps into Eddie Brock and unwittingly sets the stage for him to become Venom.
* OnTheRebound: ''Deadpool: Back in Black'' reveals the symbiote used Deadpool as a rebound after Peter rejected it, going on adventures with him before eventually being returned to the Our Lady of Saints Church for its fateful meeting with Eddie Brock.
* PetTheDog: In a rare moment of compassion, Deadpool realizes that the symbiote is sentient and immediately returns it to its prison, hoping that the brief period it had spent bonded to him didn't have any adverse effects.
* PopCulturedBadass: Deadpool being who he is, he makes pop-culture references and {{Shout Out}}s to media such as ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' and ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers''.
* PowerIncontinence: When Deadpool thinks about Spider-Man in a positive light, the symbiote nearly turns him into street pizza by refusing to shoot a webline. Black Cat catches him and cracks an innuendo about him being low on web fluid in more ways than one.
* RoguesGalleryTransplant: As the symbiote's host, Deadpool fought off a Zn'rx battalion who were after the Power Pack, teamed up with Black Cat to fight White Rabbit, and was the target of Kraven the Hunter's "second-to-last" hunt -- the latter two having mistaken him for Spider-Man. The symbiote is also being pursued by Killer Thrill, a bounty hunter first seen in the ''[[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Drax]]'' comic.
* RunningGag: Deadpool is mistaken for Spider-Man by the Power Pack, Black Cat, and Kraven the Hunter. He briefly considers taking advantage of Felicia's misunderstanding, but decides that would be too creepy even for him.
* SchrodingersCanon: Cullen Bunn has gone on record saying that ''Deadpool: Back in Black'' is canon, and has included references to it in ''Poison-X'' and ''Deadpool: Assassin'' #4; being backed up by one of the editors of the ''X-Men'' comics as the reason why Deadpool admires Spider-Man. However, Donny Cates has stated on Twitter that as far as he's concerned it ''isn't'' canon, with an editorial note in ''Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool'' stating that they're not counting it.
* ShoutOut: Deadpool and the symbiote argue with each other a la [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Smeagol vs. Gollum]] in the middle of a fight with Kraven the Hunter.
* TalkingToThemself: When Deadpool admires Spider-Man one too many times, the symbiote seizes control of him and goes on a tirade about how Spider-Man is a monster for trying to kill it and leaving it for dead on an alien world where it's being hunted. What follows is a Gollum-esque argument where Deadpool and the symbiote alternate control of their body, leaving Kraven the Hunter and three lions watching in stunned silence.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''Venom I''' / Anti-Venom I / Toxin II]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eddie_brock_9652.jpg]]

-> '''AKA:''' Edward "Eddie" Charles Allan Brock
-> '''Debut:''' ''Web of Spider-Man'' #18; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #299 (as Venom); ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #569 (as Anti-Venom); ''Venom'' Vol. 2, #17 (as Toxin II)
-->''"It's not about '''control''', or following orders like a soldier. It's about us. '''We.''' '''We are Venom!'''"''

Eddie Brock was raised a devout Catholic by his [[AbusiveParents cold and distant]] father, who blamed Eddie for his wife's death during childbirth, resulting in a distance between the two that instilled in Eddie a need to [[WellDoneSonGuy impress his father]]. As an adult, Eddie marries Anne Weying, a lawyer, and becomes a successful journalist for the Daily Globe in New York. Eddie's luck changes for the worst when he is contacted by a a man claiming to be the serial killer called the Sin-Eater. Eddie's interviews with the Sin-Eater initially bring him great success until the police force him to out his source, Emil Gregg. Unbeknownst to Eddie, the very next day Spider-Man seemingly debunks Brock's article by capturing a copy cat going by the name Stan Carter. Brock is subsequently [[TraumaCongaLine fired from the Daily Globe, divorced by his wife, and disowned by his father]]. Reputation destroyed, he is only able to find employment as a two-bit writer for a disreputable tabloid. [[FreudianExcuse Blaming Spider-Man for his troubles]], he begins to work out obsessively in an attempt to assuage his rage, but eventually Eddie [[DespairEventHorizon cannot take it anymore]] and goes to the Our Lady of Saints church to pray for forgiveness for the [[DrivenToSuicide suicide he is contemplating]] -- unaware that Spider-Man had used the bells in the selfsame church to drive away his symbiotic Black Suit. The symbiote, lying in wait for an appropriate host, is drawn to Brock's mutual obsession with Spider-Man and bonds with him. In the process, Brock learns Spider-Man's true identity, and Brock's overwhelming hatred for Spider-Man [[TheCorrupter turns the already bitter]] symbiote's love into a [[IfICantHaveYou twisted obsession]].
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Calling himself '''Venom''', Eddie becomes one of Spider-Man's most formidable foes: stronger, faster, and immune to his SpiderSense. Eddie wages a campaign of torment against Peter Parker, invading his private life and threatening his loved ones, yet still exhibiting [[PetTheDog moments of compassion]]. After Eddie's defeat by Spider-Man, the symbiote would break him out of prison, and the two, thinking they had killed Spider-Man on a secluded island, would retire. They were brought back into Spider-Man's life when it was revealed that the symbiote had spawned another symbiote during Eddie's breakout, which bonded to his then-cellmate, Cletus Kasady, who became the supervillain ComicBook/{{Carnage}}. Working with Spider-Man, the two defeated Carnage and after helping Venom save his ex-wife in a later confrontation they would come to an uneasy alliance -- they would stay out of each other's way. Eddie would go on to act as a protector of innocents and even a government agent.
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Eventually becoming disillusioned with the symbiote after it absorbed its evil clone and became abusive, Eddie sold it to the highest bidder. However, this would do little but feed his guilt and he would attempt suicide on numerous occasions. After being found by Martin Li praying in a church, Martin hired Matt Murdock to acquit Eddie for his crimes and gave Eddie a job at his soup kitchen, where Eddie would find some peace. This is where Martin Li's [[YinYangBomb mystical powers]] cured him of his cancer and created the '''Anti-Venom''' symbiote by fusing Eddie's white blood cells with the remnants of the Venom symbiote and the Light Force. Unlike his original stint as a anti-hero, Anti-Venom would make a attempt at full heroism and came into conflict with Norman's Thunderbolts, including the then-current Venom Scorpion, and Mr. Negative before sacrificing his Anti-Venom powers to save civilians from the machinations of the Jackal.
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He would then set out to [[KnightTemplar slay the remaining symbiotes]]. After killing some of the Venom symbiote's spawn, he would be forcibly bonded to Carnage's spawn, the Toxin symbiote, in order to combat the fourth Venom, Flash Thompson. Now going by '''Toxin''', Eddie would go on to menace Flash in the same way he menaced Peter Parker, even coming to a similar truce, allowing Flash to use the symbiote for good... threatening him with death if he did anything else. This got the attention of the FBI, who recruited him onto an anti-symbiote task force to fight a now Darkhold empowered Carnage, Eddie sacrificing the Toxin symbiote in the process.
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After the Venom symbiote was bonded to Lee Price, Eddie would leave the anti-symbiote task force to rescue and rebond to it. He would return to the Venom name and continue his "Lethal Protector" role.

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* EightiesHair: Eddie's had hairstyles ranging from a flattop to a mullet during the 80s and 90s, even switching to flat out BarbarianLonghair, and now has a crew cut.
* AbusiveParents: Carl Brock's wife's death in childbirth left him a shell of a man who barely acknowledged his children and blamed his son for her death.
* AdaptiveArmor: While symbiotes in general tend to function as this, as an FBI agent Toxin takes some costume tips from Agent Venom, sporting vambraces, pauldrons, army boots, and a utility belt.
* AlwaysSecondBest: To Flash Thompson, at least in his mind. Not only did Flash manage to be a true hero while he was Venom, something Eddie is still struggling with after rebonding to the symbiote, but Eddie believes that even their symbiote ultimately preferred Flash, even if it would never admit to that. [[spoiler: He's even shown to have some SurvivorsGuilt after Flash's death]].
* AntiHero: As Venom, Eddie starts off as a NominalHero before mellowing into an UnscrupulousHero, killing almost anyone who got in his way provided he didn't consider them "innocent". As Anti-Venom, he made an effort to stop killing people, but occasionally slipped back into his Lethal Protector mindset. As Toxin, however, he fully reverted back to his Lethal Protector mindset and has no problem killing and eating bad guys. Once returning to being Venom, Eddie is making an effort to stop killing people again, even chewing out his symbiote for killing a bunch of thieves, and has further mellowed into a PragmaticHero.
* AntiHeroSubstitute:
** In an alternate universe where he remained bonded to the Enigma Force, Spider-Man [[CurbStompBattle settled his rivalry with Venom]] before deciding to join the big-league superheroes and left Eddie to become the new wall-crawler.
** As of ''All New, All Different'', he seems to be being set up as a replacement for Agent Venom now that Flash is travelling the cosmos.
* AntiHeroTeam: Anti-Venom hooked up with the Revengers, and was the only member of the group that actually believed in team leader ComicBook/WonderMan's rants about how the Avengers needed to be knocked off of their high horse and be made to learn a thing or two about accountability.
* ArchEnemy: Eddie Brock was one of the reasons that Venom was one of Spider-Man's archenemies. After his HeelFaceTurn, Carnage and Mr. Negative (during his time as Anti-Venom) would become this to Eddie.
* ArtEvolution: [=Todd McFarlane's=] Venom [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e5/50/cc/e550cc16b1f485a53a347eab9afcc12a--venom-tattoo-todd-mcfarlane.jpg looked just like a bulkier and black Spider-Man]], before later artists started adding his iconic feral attributes. By editorial decree, Eddie returns to his original look after reclaiming the symbiote, with his monstrous traits only resurfacing when the symbiote goes feral.
* TheAtoner: As Anti-Venom, Eddie tried to make amends for the crimes he committed by using his healing powers to cleanse drug addicts or their addictions, and taking out the dealers supplying them. He also devoted himself to exposing Martin Li as Mr. Negative.
* AxCrazy: Back when Eddie was a villain, Venom was unhinged and hellbent on vengeance against Spider-Man, even approaching some levels of homicidal urges. However, after character development Eddie has grown out of this, to the point that as Venom he tries not to kill criminals anymore.
* BadassBeard: Recently Eddie has grown a full beard, and remains just as badass as ever.
* BadassNormal:
** After his career went down the dumper, Eddie spent all his time working out to vent his fury and developed a powerful physique; and even after becoming Venom kept working out to increase his base strength level. Long before he ever even crossed paths with Spider-Man, Eddie also single-handedly stopped the rampage of the crazed alien Krobaa (see below) with nothing but his flash camera.
** Often when separated from his symbiote or depowered, Brock has shown he can be quite resourceful in hunting down the symbiote after a stop at an army surplus store or fighting scores of guards while naked.
* BerserkButton: As Anti-Venom, calling his {{protectorate}} Jenna Cole a junkie will drive him into a violent rage.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Technically younger but he does not act that way. He had a beloved older sister named Mary and when she fell into a coma due to an incident involving ComicBook/{{Nova}}, Eddie blamed the hero for it, and went after him. While presumably still in this ConvenientComa, she unfortunately later dies of cancer, much like what almost killed him, while he was away in New York. Eddie later states this is his first proper experience with grief in the 2018 series and still beats himself up over not being there.
---> '''Eddie''': I first learned about grief from my sister, Mary. She died of breast cancer while I was away doing God knows what in New York.
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Anti-Venom's and Toxin's eye patches are jet-black, though as Anti-Venom he's not evil (and he's still not that evil as Toxin).
* BladeBelowTheShoulder: While not a power he regularly utilized as Venom, he could morph his limbs into bladed weapons, something he did more frequently as Anti-Venom and Toxin.
* BloodKnight: Eddie's aggressiveness has led him to pick fights over minor insults, and he's at his most eager when it comes to killing Spider-Man and Carnage.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Eddie's definitions of guilt and innocence are inconsistent at best.
* BodyHorror: When the Juggernaut knocked him into a vat containing a sentient insanity-inducing virus in ''The Madness'', the results were... [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/1/12871/1628085-kitty.jpg disturbing]].
* BoxedCrook: He was apprehended by the FBI, injected with symbiote suppressant, and blackmailed/bribed into helping them hunt down Carnage.
* BrainFood: Even before [[ImAHumanitarian Mac Gargan]] took this UpToEleven, Eddie was known to threaten to devour various body parts - especially brains. A later retcon gave the symbiote an addiction to phenethylamine and adrenaline and caused it to force Eddie to commit cannibalism, which Eddie prevented by eating chocolate. This chemical dependence was seemingly discarded after it bonded to Angelo.
* BreakoutVillain: David Michelinie had intended for Eddie Brock to be a minor villain and planned to kill him off 100 issues after his introduction. Eddie's runaway popularity with fans as an antihero kiboshed those plans and forced Michelinie to come up with ComicBook/{{Carnage}} instead. To this day, Eddie-as-Venom is one of Spider-Man's most popular antagonists and one of Marvel's most popular anti-heroes, being featured in almost every adaptation since his debut.
* BrokenAce: Growing up, Eddie was a straight-A student with multiple sports medals, became a successful journalist, and married a successful lawyer. [[WellDoneSonGuy All to please his aloof father]].
* ButtMonkey: In the ''Return of the Sinister Six'' he's treated like dirt by the other villains, his weaknesses are brought UpToEleven (just the sight of a campfire and a lighter are enough to freak him out) and his stint as an anti-hero is the subject of repeated mockery. He gets his revenge when he nearly kills Electro, Kraven II, and the Sandman.
* CantStayNormal: Eddie goes from being Venom to Anti-Venom to Toxin to back to being Venom with brief periods of humanity in between.
* CatchPhrase: As Anti-Venom up until he became Toxin, Eddie's was "I AM THE CURE!" Doubles as a BadassBoast.
* CharacterDevelopment: Zigzagged, as while Eddie slowly became more heroic as Venom and even tried to make the leap to true heroism as Anti-Venom, he lapsed back into Lethal Protector mode as Toxin. Even so, he was more willing to give Flash a chance to prove himself a hero than he was with Spider-Man. ''Venom'' Vol. 2 and ''Carnage'' Vol. 2 gives him a great deal of character development, showing him accepting his bond with Toxin, striving to emulate Agent Venom, and accepting that the bad things he did as Venom weren't solely due to the symbiote. By the time of ''Venom'' Vol. 3, however, he seeks to reclaim his "darling" symbiote from Lee Price, although he's determined to be a true hero and ensure that his relationship with the symbiote is different this time around.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Eddie started off as a standard supervillain but soon developed MoralMyopia in regards to those he considered innocent (see AntiHero above). Eventually, he had a HeelFaithTurn and gave up being Venom. As Anti-Venom he ''tried'' to become a hero, but temporarily relapsed back to being a SociopathicHero. After the events of ''Carnage'' Vol. 2 and reclaiming the Venom symbiote Eddie has mostly gone back to his Anti-Venom characterization. His religious devotion, which was ignored while he was Venom, was turned UpToEleven as Anti-Venom, but became more nuanced again when he became Venom again.
* CheapCostume: While dying of cancer, Eddie was drilled into almost killing the hospitalized Aunt May by hallucinations of Venom, and donned a store-bought black Spider-Man costume for the occasion.
--> '''Eddie:''' It's cheap nylon. It hangs loosely on my body. It's nothing like the symbiote. But it's everything... the only thing... I need now.
* CheshireCatGrin: Venom, as originally drawn by Todd [=McFarlane=], simply had an abnormally wide smile. It wasn't until Erik Larsen took over that he got his trademark [[FangsAreEvil fangs]] and OverlyLongTongue.
* ChristianityIsCatholic: Eddie's religion was downplayed during his stint as Venom, only to get brought back as the driving force behind his averted HeelFaceDoorSlam and rejection of the Venom symbiote. As Anti-Venom, he even comes to consider himself the one anointed by God to kill the demon that is Venom.
* ChurchgoingVillain: Eddie was a devout Catholic... whenever he isn't bonded to a symbiote, that is. He even met the Venom symbiote while praying.
* ChurchMilitant: As mentioned above, Eddie is a devout Catholic who, after becoming Anti-Venom, develops a messiah complex and sees himself on a mission from God to destroy the symbiotes, even turning the Our Lady of Saints church into his base of operations.
* ConsummateLiar: The non canon ''Dark Origins'' reveals Eddie was a chronic liar, stemming from his desire for acknowledgement, and even lied his way into getting a job at The Globe.
* CostumeCopycat:
** Aside from his tongue, fangs, claws, and eyes, Eddie-as-Venom was almost identical to Peter's black suit, a fact he exploited on occasion.
* CostumeEvolution:
** Exactly how monstrous and bulky Eddie was as Venom depended largely on who was drawing him. During the 90s, he was even drawn as being [[HollywoodDarkness dark blue]] instead of black.
** As Anti-Venom, whether his fangs were [[JaggedMouth black]] or white depended on the artist.
** When Eddie first became Toxin in the "Savage Six" arc of ''Venom'' Vol. 2, he was solid red. When he reappeared in "Toxin With A Vengeance" arc his lower arms and lower body were black with red veins. After being recruited by the FBI, he took a leaf out of Agent Venom's costume book and was jet-black with red eyes, pauldrons, vambraces, spider-insignia, and a utility belt.
* CourtroomEpisode: Eddie was captured and put on trial in... ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin On Trial]]''. ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} was his attorney, and Carnage was brought in as a witness for the prosecution.
* CurbStompBattle:
** His early fights with Spider-Man had him dishing this out with Spider-Man only winning by the skin of his teeth thanks to some quick thinking, or in one case, faking his own death so Venom would leave him alone.
** As Anti-Venom dealt one to ComicBook/ThePunisher in ''New Ways To Live''. Frank shot in the back of the head with a shotgun loaded with armor piercing ammunition, only for him to expel all the bullets from his head, punch Frank through a wall and take one of his guns from him. He was an inch away from shooting him, only for a message from the cartel they were chasing to divert their attention. Frank tried to use flamethrowers when Anti-Venom lets his guard down only for him to NoSell them and force him into working with him or he'll break his neck.
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Venom murdered a Vault Guardsman during one of his escapes. The man's wealthy father assembled a group of his son's grieving friends, gave them PoweredArmor, and dubbed them "The Jury".
* CreepyLongFingers: When drawn by John Romita, Jr. his fingers are unnaturally long, sometimes looking more like tentacles than digits. He also had these as Anti-Venom.
* CriminalDoppelganger: Eddie initially tried to exploit his resemblance to Black Suit Spider-Man in order to defame and torment Peter and Mary-Jane.
* DarkIsNotEvil: After his HeelFaceTurn as Venom, Eddie became an antihero who enforced his own self-styled and brutal version of justice. After reuniting with the Venom symbiote, Eddie is determined to go straight and become a true superhero, trying to avoid killing people when he can help it.
* DeadpanSnarker: Part of being Peter's EvilCounterpart, he's known to be the villain that actually makes ''Spidey'' scream "Shut up!"
* DependingOnTheArtist: Eddie has been drawn with hair color ranging from brown to blond, and his appearance as Venom has changed drastically depending on who's drawing him.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Eddie's characterization and backstory vary ''wildly'' depending on who's writing him.
* DrivenToSuicide: He's tried to kill himself numerous times, including in his origin story.
* DudeWheresMyRespect:
** Eddie is annoyed when one of Mr. Negative's goons continuously interrupts his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and completely incredulous when he learns that the thug is more afraid of [[DeadPersonImpersonation the Wraith]] than he is of [[LovecraftianSuperpower him]].
---> '''Anti-Venom:''' "The Wraith"?\\
'''Mook:''' She-- She's everywhere, man!\\
'''Anti-Venom:''' And you're ''more'' scared of her... than ''me?!'' *tosses the Mook in the river* Idiot!
** After ''Spider-Island'', Eddie was hailed as a hero for giving up the Anti-Venom symbiote, but a few months later was homeless and penniless with only an arsenal of advanced weaponry and his anti-symbiote crusade for comfort.
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] after the events of ''ComicBook/AbsoluteCarnage'' - the fact that Eddie saved the world from Dark Carnage does ''not'' go unrecognized, to the point where he was ''offered a spot with the Avengers'', and very clearly earned the respect of Captain America and Thor. [[spoiler: None of them knew at the time that stopping Carnage only served to unleash Knull - which was Carnage's goal the entire time]].
* EasyAmnesia: Numerous blows to the head once made him forget various details about Spider-Man, including that he was Peter Parker.
* EnemyMine: Would reluctantly arrange temporary alliances with Spider-Man to fight a common enemy neither could beat on their own, usually Carnage. He also forms a temporary alliance with Flash Thompson to fight the Symbiote Slayers.
* EvilCounterpart: To Peter Parker, and later Flash Thompson, though Eddie isn't evil. AS both Venom and Toxin Eddie Brock is pretty much what Peter and Flash would be he had Knight Templar qualities and never bothered to suppress the Symbiote they possessed.
* EvilIsBigger: Eddie's Venom looks like a roided-up, exaggerated version of Spider-Man, more specifically [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/venom_evilisbigger.jpg his Black Suit]].
* EvilMeScaresMe: The reason he hates the symbiote so much is because of the things he did under its influence. Even after rebonding to it and becoming Venom again, Eddie is unsure if that was the right decision to make given its renewed proclivity for excessive violence and that when he was unconscious it almost killed a innocent priest, and is making an effort to find out what happened to put it back in its vicious state.
* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: When Jorge Valdez rubbed the fact that Jenna Cole is back on drugs and "[his] girl" in Eddie's face, the first thing he did was grab the nearest thug and rip him in half while screaming in rage.
* TheExtremistWasRight: While as Anti-Venom, Eddie claimed that the symbiotes were a bunch of demons corrupting humanity, it turns out that this claim has some truth to it. As Knull orginally created the symbiotes to corrupt creation and bring them under his control, only for the symbiotes to later rebel and turn on him after being disconnected from his hivemind and bonding to humanity.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Eddie went from being a disgraced, terminally ill journalist to a monstrous anti-hero simply by virtue of being in the right place at the right time.
* TheFundamentalist: After his HeelFaithTurn he [[TheScourgeOfGod takes his religion a little too seriously]], especially in the middle of his SanitySlippage when it becomes the rock that he clings to. As Venom and Toxin, however, his zealotry is downplayed in favor of him eating people.(though as Venom him eating people was only a threat) His experiences in ''Carnage'' Vol. 2 ultimately cause him to abandon his faith, believing God has rejected him.
* {{Gasshole}}: When he [[MonstrousCannibalism ate]] (not absorbed, ''[[http://www.4thletter.net/gavok/venom/urp1.jpg ate]]'') the Carnage symbiote, he at first had trouble keeping it down, sprouting red tendrils, and burping almost non-stop.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: His initial characterization when he first debuted.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: As Anti-Venom his eyes were glowing red - and occasionally yellow.
* GoodAngelBadAngel: Eddie referred to Jenna Cole as his "angel" in that she gave him motivation to not give in to his fraying sanity and resist the murderous impulses left over from the symbiote, which he referred to as his "devil".
* GoodCostumeSwitch: As Anti-Venom he is a colour-inverted version of Mac Gargan's Venom form.
* GoodCounterpart: As Anti-Venom, Eddie became this to his own successor Mac Gargan. That said, he was still fairly antiheroic; in many ways, he'd simply displaced his obsession with vengeance into an obsession with "curing" people of their various ailments.
* GoodIsNotNice: After his truce with Spider-Man, Venom became a good guy and stayed good as Anti-Venom and Toxin, but was not adverse to using lethal force or even eating people as Toxin.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: Despite possessing the ability to generate CombatTentacles and spikes to dispose of pests, Eddie generally relies on his fists and claws in a fight.
* HealingHands: The Anti-Venom symbiote generated Lightforce-infused antibodies that could purge just about anything from diseases to drugs to symbiotes to radiation, though overusing this ability weakens him. Anti-Venom's cameo as Pestilence in an alternate universe version of Apocalypse's Four Horseman suggests that he can use this power to harm.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: His status swayed from story to story throughout the late 90s and into the 2000s until Mac Gargan took over. However, after Eddie Brock was cured from his cancer ad became Anti-Venom he made an effort to become a hero. As Toxin, he got back into this, first succumbing to the symbiote's control as a member of the Crime Master's Savage Six and later trying to take out Agent Venom, but after a heart-to-heart conversation with Flash he resolved to fight on the side of good in ''Carnage'' Vol. 2 and stayed good after becoming Venom once again.
--> '''ComicBook/MarvelAdventures Venom:''' *drapes his arm around Spider-Man's shoulder* We're sick of being hounded by the law! We want to use our powers to help people, just like you! Show us the ropes, Spider-Man! Let us apprentice ourselves to you... as your sidekick! They'll call us "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Venom... Lethal Protector!]]"
* HellishPupils: In the 1995 ChristmasSpecial ''The Venom Claus'', Venom's eyes are drawn so that they had a black pupil-like slit, which was adapted from his appearance in the 1990s animated series.
* HeroicHost: Despite Eddie going through a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, most of the time Eddie serves as this for the Venom symbiote.
* HorrifyingHero: Eddie prides himself for being one as the "Lethal Protector" and Anti-Venom. Flash even describes him as "pretty frightening -- but kind of nice, too" following their EnemyMine against the Symbiote Slayers.
* HulkingOut: When Eddie or the symbiote gets angry, Venom can bulk up to massive proportions. Special mention goes to Eddie's first appearance as Toxin, where he was at least twenty feet tall.
* HunterOfHisOwnKind: As Anti-Venom and Toxin, Eddie devoted himself to taking out Venom and Carnage.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** During the early years of his feud with Spider-Man, Eddie claimed to be a good Catholic but murdered an innocent cop and a VAULT guard when rendering them unconscious would have sufficed, lamenting the act as "necessary" to seek his revenge on Spider-Man.
** When Eddie came after Agent Venom claiming to have arranged a temporary truce with the Toxin symbiote, Flash accused him of being a hypocrite who spouted rhetoric about the symbiotes being cancer and demons while being in denial about enjoying being bonded to them.
* ImAHumanitarian:
** Eddie's aversion to satiating the Venom symbiote's appetite varies DependingOnTheWriter, but aside from ''The Hunger'' - where, in spite of his disgust, the symbiote forced him to follow through on his BrainFood threats - he was never shown actually eating people as Venom and actively tried to prevent himself from doing so ever again by eating chocolate. In the [[ExpandedUniverse novels]] featuring him, particularly ''The Venom Factor'', he's a lot less picky about munching on those he deems guilty. After reuniting with the Venom symbiote, when Eddie learns that two teenagers were killed and partially eaten by a seven-foot tall monster with claws and fangs, he worries the Venom symbiote -- which took control of him to attack a priest the night before -- was responsible, and is relived that the culprit was one of Stegron's dinosaur-men.
** As Toxin, Eddie devours one of the symbiote slayers during his fight with Venom to prove a point to Flash, and eats a second one during their battle at the high school.
* ImColdSoCold: His not-so-last words in ''The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Hunger'', after the symbiote abandons him to hunt on its own.
* InterspeciesRomance: There are a few... ''suggestive'' moments in ''Venom: The Hunger'', and in ''Venom'' Vol. 3 he outright calls the symbiote "my love".
--> '''Eddie:''' (as the symbiote leaves him) We share everything. Thoughts. Feelings. A purpose. It's not human, but it's given me things no girlfriend ever could. I used to live for words. But the Other's shown me how small and useless they really are. We talk to each other with moods and pictures, memories and heartbeats. Some things are the same in any language. Like the one thing I thought I'd never hear.
** Confirmed to be a romance by [[WordOfGod writer Mike Costa]].
* IntrepidReporter: In order to impress his father, Eddie became a successful journalist until the Sin Eater fiasco ruined his career. He still puts his investigative skills to use as Venom and Toxin.
* IrrationalHatred: Eddie's hatred for Spider-Man stemmed from the fact that Spider-Man caught the Sin Eater, exposing the man Eddie had been interviewing and just handed over to police as a compulsive confessor, (however while inverted Carnage found out Eddie was right) which cost Eddie his job. He was subsequently disowned by his father, divorced by his wife, and diagnosed with terminal cancer, and blamed his misfortune on Spider-Man. Bonding to the symbiote just made it worse.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Eddie's attitude pre-HeelFaceTurn, to the point where he has to remind himself that his therapist repeatedly reminds him that he is ''not'' the only important person in the world.
* JaggedMouth: As Anti-Venom, Eddie was often drawn with black fangs similar to Carnage's.
* KingOfTheHomeless: During his time in San Francisco he lived in an UnderCity with the indigent.
* KnightTemplar: As Venom he was obsessed with killing Spider-Man. As Anti-Venom and as Toxin, he was obsessed with killing [[MyGreatestFailure Venom]] and the [[OffingTheOffspring rest of the symbiotes as well]].
* LargeHam: Very prone to chewing the scenery, especially as Anti-Venom.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: For some time, Eddie forgot that Spider-Man was Peter Parker, and the symbiote neglected to re-inform him of the connection for reasons unknown.
* LegacyCharacter:
** Eddie passed on the identity of Venom to Angelo Fortunato, and later became the second incarnation of Toxin.
** A new Anti-Venom is among the "D-list do-gooders" recruited by Roderick Kingsley in ''ComicBook/{{Axis}}: Hobgoblin''. Doubles as a DevelopmentGag, since Cullen Bunn had planned to bring the character back in the ''Venom'' series. Whether he has some kind of duplicate of the symbiote or is just wearing a convincing yet entirely mundane costume is left unsaid.
---> '''Roderick:''' Hello, do-gooders!\\
'''Captain Ultra:''' [[{{Squee}} He means us!]]\\
'''Anti-Venom II:''' [[HellYesMoment Yeaaaaaah!]]
** Flash becomes an actual new Anti-Venom in Venom Inc.
* LetsYouAndHimFight: Venom spent most of the 1990s fighting and teaming up with other vigilantes, most notably Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider.
* LightIsGood: As Anti-Venom.
* MakeWayForTheNewVillains: Venom's threat level was diminished by the appearance of Carnage and villains with powers revolving around the symbiote's weaknesses.
* MagicEnhancement: The Anti-Venom symbiote was created when Martin Li used his Lightforce powers to cure Eddie's cancer, reanimating and altering trace remnants of the Venom symbiote's biomass in his blood in the process.
* ManBitesMan: Both as Venom and Toxin, Eddie didn't hesitate to put his [[FangsAreEvil teeth]] to use, and as Toxin even ate people.
* MementoMacguffin: An old photo he carried around convinced Eddie, burnt out over the whole superhero[=/=]villain thing, to try and reconnect with his ex-wife. This ended tragically.
* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: After divesting himself of the symbiote, Eddie keeps seeing Venom's face in place of his reflection and wonders if this is the case for him.
* MisplacedRetribution: Eddie focused his revenge entirely on Spider-Man, [[RevengeMyopia who did nothing but catch the fake Sin-Eater]], while at the same time ignoring the Sin-Eater, the fake Sin-Eater, The Daily Globe, ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} (who had helped Spidey bring the Sin-Eater down) and J. Jonah Jameson, who was revealed to have spearheaded Eddie's blacklisting in a late '90s story. The InsaneTrollLogic of this and more is mercilessly lampshaded in the final issue of Erik Larsen's ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'' run, which had Venom try to make Nova pay for being involved in a battle that left Eddie's sister comatose, not caring about the super villain who had actually started the fight. Paul Jenkins eventually wrote a story ("The Hunger") where it was revealed that the fixation was partly-spawned by Eddie knowing that deep down the symbiote would always love Peter more than him and wouldn't hesitate to abandon him to die of his cancer if Peter ever invited it back, so Spidey had to go.
* MoralityChain: Jenna Cole was one for Anti-Venom, as well as being his LivingEmotionalCrutch. Without her, he started slipping back into his "Lethal Protector" persona.
--> '''Anti-Venom:''' *while massacring Mexican gangsters* I try to be good, I really do. But... my angel. He's got my angel. He's making her do things. Things she's not supposed to do anymore. I think about it and it makes me wanna force men's bodies to do things they're '''not supposed to do.''' Men like these... they bring out the evil in people. That's how they make their money. They don't want you to change for the good... '''So I show them the ''old'' me.'''
* MuggingTheMonster: Eddie was subjected to this when a group of teenaged thugs mistook him for a homeless person, doused him in lighter fluid, and set him on fire while he was napping on the San Francisco subway. He was less than impressed.
* MultipleChoicePast: Eddie is either the son of a millionaire who became a successful journalist until tragedy struck, or the son of a working-class suburbanite who lied his way into success before getting his comeuppance. This looks more to be a case of SeriesContinuityError since Eddie did not personally recount his origins which showed him to be the son of a millionaire, instead this information was discovered and confirmed by witnesses. In ''Venom: Lethal Protector'' #3, Spider-Man visited Carl Brock, got rebuffed as Peter, but then as Spider-Man learned Eddie's origins through Carl Brock's housekeeper, who helped raise Eddie. Brock's ex-wife, Anne Weying, also confirms details concerning his bitter relationship with his father. The details about Brock's father being working-class suburbanite came from ''Venom: Dark Origin'', a piece rife with continuity errors including but not limited to Anne Weying initially being portrayed as being an African-American woman despite being a blonde white woman in all prior appearances, Carl Brock himself was depicted as a balding brunette with a mustache, rather than a stern-faced blond man with a receding hairline and Eddie is even retconned to be around Peter's age. Becoming a skinny, bullied kid who was the sports team's waterboy rather than the previous depiction that showed him to be a straight-A student and athlete, constantly trying to improve himself in order to gain respect from his father. It should be noted that the [[ComicBook/{{DonnyCatesVenom}} recent run of Venom's comics]] uses Lethal Protector's version of Eddie's past but keeps the design changes to Carl.
* MusclesAreMeaningful: As Venom, Eddie was at minimum built like a heavyweight wrestler. He was also a lot stronger than Spider-Man, but at the same time less agile.
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: As Anti-Venom, calling Jenna Cole a junkie was a ''really'' bad idea. We're looking at you, [[ComicBook/ThePunisher Frank Castle]].
* NecessarilyEvil: Eddie lamented killing Hybrid since Scott was a good person and using his symbiote to do good, but justified doing so with the statement that it was either Scott die along with the rest of the symbiote hosts or the whole world would be overtaken later.
* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Unlike most supervillains, for much of his career Eddie made a point of avoiding causalities of anyone he thought was innocent in his crusade against Spider-Man, and after his HeelFaceTurn Eddie prided himself on being the Lethal Protector of the innocent.
* NeverMyFault:
** Although Emil Greg was the actual Sin Eater, Eddie being forced into outting him by the police and his boss, and Spider-Man catching the supposed "real" Sin-Eater the following day was just a bad coincidence, but the mistake sparked a series of unfortunate events that ruined Eddie's professional and personal life, and he blamed Spider-Man for his misfortune.
** After Eddie parted ways with the Venom symbiote, he blamed it for all the bad things he'd done as Venom -- completely ignoring his own deep-seated anger issues and penchant for violence. It wasn't until ''Carnage'' Vol. 2 that he began to accept that he was at least in-part responsible for Venom being a monster, and by the events of '"Venom'' Vol. 4 questions whether he was a good person who the evil symbiote corrupted or if he was an evil person who corrupted the good symbiote.
* NormalFishInATinyPond:
** As Venom, Brock never fared that well when he branched out and fought other heroes (ComicBook/{{Darkhawk}}, ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} and Seige, ComicBook/IronMan, ComicBook/{{Quasar}}, etc.) besides Spider-Man, who he was a nightmare for due to being more powerful, knowing his secret identity, and being immune to his Spider Sense. ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #317 includes a scene where Eddie visits an oblivious Aunt May as a means of intimidating Pete into no longer asking for help from any of his superfriends like the ComicBook/FantasticFour, making it clear that if Pete won't keep their feud just between the two of them, then he won't either. Averted during his stints as Toxin and Anti-Venom, where he can kick a ''lot'' of ass. Mac Gargan and Flash Thompson also never ran into this problem, presumably because they already were an experienced supervillain and soldier, respectively. In his second stint as Venom, he has so far not really run into this problem, presumably owing to the Symbiote being more powerful and Brock being more experienced.
** Lampshaded in ''Venom'' Annual #1, where a group of villains at the [[BadGuyBar Bar with No Name]] tell each other Venom stories. Black Cat speaks of how she once got the jump on him and kicked him into an exploding car, the bartender speaks of how Venom once fought Wolverine, who mocked him for picking only on Spider-Man and got the better of him in that particular bout, and lastly a third patron speaks of how Venom once went toe-to-toe with Juggernaut - while claiming the entire time that Venom was out of his depth and got curb-stomped, [[UnreliableNarrator although the actual flashback shows Venom fending him off]]. Mac Gargan -- who once was Venom himself, mind you -- starts [[TemptingFate outright mocking Venom and asking why anything he just heard should give him the scares]]. [[spoiler:Then it turns out the third patron was Venom in disguise and he sends the bar's entire patronage running for their lives. Mac Gargan is ''not'' amongst the lucky ones, with the ending of the issue implying that Venom ate him, though later it would be revealed that he surived.]]
* NoSell: As Anti-Venom he not only laughed off the traditional weaknesses of symbiotes - fire and sonics - the only things effective against him were an anti-antivenom Norman Osborn created specifically to kill him and Mr. Negative's Darkforce magic. [[TooPowerfulToLive Small wonder he only appeared a handful of times before being depowered]].
* OffingTheOffspring: Carnage, Toxin, and the Life Foundation symbiotes were all on Eddie's hit list.
* OffModel: Purposely done by artist John Romita, Jr., who depicted Venom as being perpetually warped and distorted.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: During Eddie's tenure as Venom, if he teamed up with Peter it was either for this reason or protecting people. As Toxin, Eddie promises Flash that he will let him be so long as he uses the Venom symbiote for good, but ''[[InsistentTerminology when]]'' he loses control of it, Toxin will MercyKill him.
* PapaWolf: Killed a ''clown'' when he thought it was threatening a child. As Anti-Venom he was violently protective of [[MoralityChain Jenna Cole]], and as "Agent Toxin" he was protective of Jubulile van Scotter.
** Is this to Sleeper, whom he and the Venom symbiote parented together.
* PermaStubble: Eddie usually has five o'clock shadow.
* PetTheDog: Eddie's had several moments of compassion, but his most recent is putting his vendetta on Flash on hold, which he did a lot more readily than his grudge against Peter.
* {{Phlegmings}}: Venom is frequently drawn with copious amounts of green slobber. Angel Medina and ''especially'' Greg Luzniak really went overboard in this department, sketching spit being spewed all over the place.
* PoisonousPerson: As Venom, Eddie develops a poisonous bite that almost kills Sandman, and he retains this ability as Toxin, using it to off Megatak.
* ProgressivelyPrettier: In his early appearances Eddie looked (and was presumably meant to be) like a 40-ish, severely unkempt man, but as ComicBookTime set in and he InUniverse started taking care of himself, he nowadays more closely looks like a handsome man in his late thirties, in spite of a solid half-decade at least having passed since his introduction.
* RageAgainstTheReflection: After being separated from the symbiote, Eddie continues to see Venom's face whenever he looks in the mirror, and begins to undergo SanitySlippage until he meets Martin Li.
* RageBreakingPoint: When Jenna Cole was abducted by the Quintas Cartel and relapsed into drug use, Eddie - who had resolved to [[HeelFaceTurn redeem himself]] and reign in his fraying sanity for her sake - [[UnstoppableRage massacred a building full of armed thugs in a fit of rage, tearing several of them apart]].
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: In his second major appearance as Toxin, Eddie is mostly red but his lower arms and lower body are black with red TaintedVeins. A reporter even mistakes him for Carnage due to this.
* RedemptionQuest: As Anti-Venom, Eddie swore he would destroy [[MyGreatestFailure Venom]] once and for all. He continued this after being depowered, expanding his [[KnightTemplar crusade to include all symbiotes]], killing Scream and Hybrid, but was [[CantStayNormal turned into Toxin]] by the Crime Master. He maintains that the relationship between him and Toxin is a [[EnemyMine temporary truce to kill Venom]], but Flash accuses him of ''enjoying'' being bonded to a symbiote. Eddie eventually accepts this and comes to realize that it wasn't the symbiote who made Venom a monster but the other way around, and takes a leaf out of Flash's playbook.
* ReformedButNotTamed:
** As Anti-Venom, Eddie tried his hand at being a hero but his less-than-stable psyche caused him to slip up a few times, and as Toxin he reverts to his Lethal Protector persona.
** While working with the FBI, he maintains he's a good guy and is no longer in denial about being bonded to Toxin, even emulating Agent Venom's appearance. However, he's still eager to kill those he deems guilty (namely Carnage) and causally puts down a symbiote-infected sailor.
* ReformedButRejected:
** When Eddie tries to expose Martin Li as Mr. Negative, Spider-Man attacks him and refuses to listen to Eddie's explanations, believing he's reverted back to his brain-eating phase. Eddie loses patience and almost ''does'' perform a FaceHeelTurn, but stops himself and storms off after webbing Spider-Man up.
** When recruited by the FBI, Eddie repeatedly protests that as Toxin he's not the monster that he was as Venom, but Agent Dixon refuses to believe him, seeing him as being just as bad as Carnage. The lack of respect he gets despite taking Agent Dixon's place as the head of the Anti-Symbiote Task Force and his addiction to the power having a symbiote grants him causes him to reclaim the Venom symbiote and leave the organization.
* ReligiousBruiser: Eddie returns to Catholicism with a vengeance after divesting himself of the Venom symbiote, and he's more than capable of kicking ass as Anti-Venom and Toxin. However, the events of ''Carnage'' Vol. 2 cause him to abandon his faith.
* RestrainingBolt: After being "recruited" by the FBI, he's pumped full of the symbiote-suppressant formula developed for Agent Venom. His handler, Agent Dixon, is given a device that will release an antidote and let him use the symbiote, but refuses to use it except as an absolute last resort.
* {{Retcon}}: ''Dark Origin'' retconned his backstory to bring him more in line with his ''Spider-Man 3'' self, but has largely been ignored.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Eddie's and the symbiote's vendetta against Spider-Man is a classic case of this: Eddie for losing his job and reputation; the symbiote for being rejected. As Anti-Venom, when Eddie learns his LivingEmotionalCrutch Jenna Cole is back on drugs again... the [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge result isn't pretty]].
* RoyalWe: Refers to himself as "we" due to the presence of the symbiote. Gargan averts this, as does Flash mostly.
* SanitySlippage:
** The Venom symbiote's growing influence over Eddie is one of the reasons he parts ways with it, and as Anti-Venom he suffers relapses into his Lethal Protector mindset following the revelation that Martin Li is Mr. Negative or if Jenna Cole is in danger.
** ''The Madness'' miniseries had Eddie dealing with the symbiote, a sapient insanity-inducing virus they had accidentally merged with, and extra dimensional demons that had taken to tormenting them. He ends up exploding (figuratively) and nearly rapes and kills [[LoveInterests Beck Underwood]] while screaming incoherently and shapeshifting uncontrollably.
* TheScourgeOfGod: As Anti-Venom and as a human before being bonded to Toxin, Eddie's fundamentalist Catholic worldview coupled with his tenuous hold on sanity to convince him that God had chosen him as a holy warrior to purge the world of sinners, starting with anyone bonded to a symbiote.
* SelfDestructMechanism: During his tenure as a government operative he had a thermite bomb equipped with communications gear implanted in his chest. He eventually removed it (a failsafe prevented the symbiote from expelling it or tampering with it) via painful SelfSurgery.
* SerialKillerKiller: Eddie's most frequent targets were street-level criminals, thugs, and killers - people deserving of being turned into symbiote chow.
* ShaggyDogStory: Turns out he was right about Emil Greg being the original Sin Eater, and Stan Carter was the copycat all along.
* ShipTease:
** Despite his obsession with his ex-wife Ann Weying, in the 90s series Eddie had a crush on Beck Underwood, a lawyer fighting to protect the homeless people living in the underground city beneath San Francisco.
** In Daniel Way's ''Venom'' Vol 1, Eddie constantly flirted with Venom (Patricia Robertson), even though she wanted nothing more than to kill him.
** As Anti-Venom, his relationship with Jenna Cole was ''very'' possessive.
** In ''Carnage'' Vol. 2, Eddie has a number of moments with Manuela Calderon, who ultimately [[IncompatibleOrientation passed him over for Victoria Montesi]].
** After reuniting with the Venom symbiote in ''ComicBook/MikeCostasVenom'', Eddie begins calling it "my love" and "dear".
** The Venom symbiote notes that while Eddie says that he dislikes [[Characters/SpiderManLoveInterests Liz Allan]], he also thinks about her a lot and experiences "strange feelings" whenever they visit her at Alchemax.
* SignatureMove: Eddie's preferred method of killing people as Venom was to envelop their heads with the symbiote, using it to either suffocate them or cave their skulls in.
* SlasherSmile: While all Venom hosts have this type of grin, Eddie's version was not only the first, [[http://dailydead.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Venom-150-cover.jpg but by far the most sinister.]]
* SmarterThanYouLook: Despite looking like a heavyweight professional wrestler even when not in monster-mode, Eddie is smarter than he looks and often puts the investigative skills he developed as a reporter to good use.
* SociopathicHero: During his first outing as the Lethal Protector and Toxin, Eddie thought nothing of killing those he deems guilty, although he has been persuaded to call truces with Spider-Man and Agent Venom.
* SpikesOfVillainy: As Anti-Venom, Eddie had spikes protruding from his shoulders.
* StartOfDarkness: Chronicled in ''Uncanny Origins'' #7, ''Seed of Darkness'', and ''Dark Origin'', the latter of which [[SeriesContinuityError contradicts the first two on a lot of points and is non canon]].
* StoryBreakerPower: As Anti-Venom, the fact that he was a walking cure-all, and at one point ''STARTED CLEANSING SPIDER-MAN OF HIS POWERS'' meant that the character had to be short-lived because of it.
* StrangerBehindTheMask: During Venom's first appearance his identity was treated as a mystery, only for the enigmatic supervillain to be revealed as... a completely original, never before seen character. [[RememberTheNewGuy Although Peter knew who he was, even if the readers didn't]].
* StrawHypocrite: During their second rematch, Flash accuses Eddie of being one for claiming that all symbiotes are demons that need to be exterminated and then getting "chummy" with the Toxin symbiote.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: [[AllThereInTheManual Marvel's official handbook]] has variously ranked Eddie, both as Venom and Anti-Venom, as being able to lift either 11 tons, putting him just over Peter's 10 tons; or 25 tons, making him a little more than twice as strong as Spidey but weaker than Carnage. However, there have been occasions where he duked it out with the Juggernaut[[note]]albeit while enhanced by a sentient virus that amplified all of his abilities[[/note]] - whose strength is technically limitless, and Mac Gargan - who was able to lift 15 tons even without the Venom symbiote, which boosted his strength to ''60'' tons - and came out on top.[[note]]Although the Anti-Venom symbiote's ability to corrode the Venom symbiote factored in as well.[[/note]] Possibly the best[=/=]worst instance of this occurred in ''All-Access'' #1, which had him almost effortlessly smack around Spidey and ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''... [[http://cdn.denofgeek.us/sites/denofgeekus/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/venommo1.jpg at the same time]].
* SuperWindowJump: Invoked in ''The Enemy Within''.
--> '''ComicBook/{{Morbius}}:''' I still don't understand -- why not the front door, Venom?\\
'''Venom:''' Something about dramatic entrances, Morbie -- we'll explain later.
* SymbioticPossession: Eddie and the Venom symbiote got along perfectly until its growing bloodlust clashed with his growing conscience. He tells Agent Venom that he and the Toxin symbiote have reached an understanding that they'll try to kill each other after killing Venom, but Flash believes he's in denial about enjoying being bonded to a symbiote. Eddie later accepts this and sets out to follow Flash's example, working with Toxin as part of the FBI's Anti-Carnage Taskforce.
* TakeMeInstead: Horrifically inverted when Eddie and his future wife Anne are attacked by a gang in the prequel series ''Dark Origin''. Needless to say, many writers prefer to ignore it.
--> '''Eddie:''' P-please... just leave me alone. Take the girl... I won't say anything...
* TearsOfFear: During the ''ComicBook/SpiderIsland'' series, Eddie is reduced to sobbing in terror when the Venom symbiote takes advantage of him overusing his healing powers to ditch Flash Thompson and rebond with him.
--> '''Anti-Venom:''' *as the symbiote engulfs him* No! Not again! The demon... get it off! *reverts to Eddie Brock* Not again! No! Please, God!\\
'''Venom:''' Wee arre returnedd! Hhoome, sssweet ssymbiosisss!
* TerrorHero: As Venom, Eddie used his {{Lovecraftian Superpower}}s, monstrous appearance, and threats of cannibalism to intimidate people, making him a combination of Types I and III. As Anti-Venom, he thinks of himself as a Type V and is [[DudeWheresMyRespect insulted when he finds that is not the case]].
* TombstoneTeeth: When originally drawn by Todd [=McFarlane=], Venom had a too-wide mouth full of too-many too-long (but otherwise human-looking) teeth before quickly transitioning into fangs, and some artists go back to this look for the sheer creepiness factor.
* ThatManIsDead: He seems to do this whenever he develops a new identity.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: His to-do list in ''Spider-Man'' Vol. 2, #10.
** 1. Kill my [[CrankyLandlord landlord]]
** 2. Kill Spider-Man
** 3. Get symbiote back from Carnage
** 4. [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Kill Spider-Man]]
** 5. Destroy ''The Daily Bugle''
** 6. [[RuleOfThree Kill Spider-Man]]
** 7. [[OverlyLongGag Kill Spider-Man]]
* TokenEvilTeammate: He's considered as such whenever he's teamed up with more scrupulous heroes to fight other villains, both as Venom and as Toxin.
* TookALevelInKindness: After accepting his bond with Toxin, Eddie has displayed a shocking (to his comrades) degree of compassion towards Jubulile van Scotter, who is infested by the Carnage symbiote's spawn. It helps that she's an innocent teenaged girl being forced to suffer through unimaginable horrors, but at his worst he would have likely mercy killed her to prevent her from being taken over.
* UnscrupulousHero: While Eddie considered himself to be a hero, during his first outing as Venom and later Toxin he had no qualms about brutally murdering and as Toxin even eating those he considered guilty.
* TheUnsmile: In ''Dark Origin'', Eddie is shown with an unnaturally wide, creepy grin.
--> '''Eddie:''' [[ArcWords It was easy]].
* VillainTeamUp: He, under the control of the symbiote, briefly allies with Carnage to kill the original Toxin in ''Venom[=/=]Carnage'', and was a member of one incarnation of the Sinister Six. Both alliances were only temporarily since the other bad guys (especially the Sandman) didn't like him very much. The only reason he was allowed to join the ''Sinister Six'' in the first place is because Daniel Berkhart (the second Mysterio) weakly vouched for him.
* WellDoneSonGuy: The ''Lethal Protector'' series revealed that Eddie's father was a wealthy millionaire who [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild hated his son due to his wife's death in childbirth]]. Out of a desire for acknowledgement, Eddie got straight As in school, won numerous sports trophies, and became a successful journalist with a famous lawyer as a wife. The Sin Eater incident gave Eddie's father the excuse he needed to disown him, and Eddie's life went downhill from there. ''Dark Origin'' makes it more explicit, while {{Retcon}}ing most of the above to make Eddie less sympathetic.
--> '''Eddie:''' Shut up, Mary!\\
'''Mary:''' You shut up! We used to have a mom, before you came along!\\
'''Carl:''' Mary. I've told you, your mother died from complications during childbirth. It wasn't Eddie's fault. We can't blame him for everything.\\
'''Mary:''' Oh, what are you pouting about now?!\\
'''Eddie:''' I can tell... he's lying.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsPhlebotinum: Eddie satiated the symbiote's appetite for a chemical found primarily within brains by feeding it chocolate, which contains trace amounts of what it needed. This became ineffective as the symbiote's hunger grew out of control and its tastes expanded to include human flesh in general.
* WingedHumanoid: As Venom, Eddie once sprouted wings to glide away from Nova following their fight. [[spoiler:After the symbiote is augmented by Knull, it sprouts a pair of bat-like wings reminiscent of Grendel's.]]
* TheWorfEffect: Suffered this at the hands of Carnage, Shriek and Senator Ward (who curbstomped him entirely off-panel).
* {{Yandere}}: For a while, Eddie was this towards his ex-wife Anne Weying, and when she committed suicide he blamed Spider-Man, called off their truce and devolved back into a villain. During the ''New Ways To Live'' miniseries, Eddie displays yandere tendencies towards [[MoralityChain Jenna Cole]], inwardly admitting she's all that's keeping him from reverting back to his Lethal Protector persona and going [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge utterly berserk]] when he learns she has been forced back into drug use.
* YouFightLikeACow: During his Lethal Protector days, Venom was constantly spouting wisecracks and bad jokes.
* YouWouldntShootMe: After they rescue Jenna Cole from the Quintas, Punisher takes aim at Eddie with a sniper rifle. Eddie looks right at him through the scope, smiles, and says "Can't do it, can you? I'm a good guy like you." Castle puts the rifle away and tells his assistant he's bleeding out and ran out of bullets.
* YourHeadASplode: When the Punisher realizes Anti-Venom is Eddie Brock, he promptly [[ChunkySalsaRule shoots him point-blank in the head with a shotgun]]. When Castle is about to shoot through [[MoralityChain Jenna Cole]] to kill a random thug, the Anti-Venom symbiote gathers up the scattered pieces of Eddie's head, puts them back together, and reforms, leaving him none the worse for wear and ''severely'' pissed off.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:She-Venom]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shevenomann_448.jpg]]

-> '''AKA:''' Ann Weying
-> '''Debut:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #375; ''Venom: Sinner Takes All'' #2 (as She-Venom)

A lawyer and Eddie's ex-wife, Ann was given the Venom symbiote by her ex-husband after being fatally shot by the new Sin-Eater, briefly turning her into the murderously psychotic She-Venom. In a later story, Ann merged with the symbiote again, Eddie having sent it to her through a telephone line to break her out of the prison she was being held in under false charges, leading to a misadventure involving the ComicBook/ScarletSpider and a criminal gang. Traumatized by being forced to transform into She-Venom again, and by Eddie becoming Venom directly in front of her after the symbiote returned to him, Ann became agoraphobic, and convinced the symbiote was out to get her. She subsequently committed suicide by jumping from her high rise apartment after seeing Spider-Man wearing his black suit, and the visiting Eddie turn into Venom to get rid of him. Eddie placed the blame for this squarely on Peter, and called off their shaky truce they had established.
----
* AlternateSelf: ''1602: Witch Hunter ComicBook/{{Angela|MarvelComics}}'' #2 features appearances by Anne Weying and Edwin [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Brocc]].
* AxCrazy: Clearly had very little control as She-Venom, though Eddie (who nearly threw up at the sight of what she did to two thugs) tells her the symbiote can't make a person do something they don't already want to.
* BoobsAndButtPose: Is frequently drawn in this position as She-Venom, emphasizing her ImpossibleHourglassFigure.
* BorrowedCatchphrase: "--before I eat your brains!!!", paraphrased from her ex-husband.
* ButterFace: Two thugs remark on how attractive her [[ImpossibleHourglassFigure body]] is, despite her face being monstrous.
--> '''Junior:''' Huh? Wuzzat, Big Brown?\\
'''Big Brown:''' I dunno, Junior - but it sure as heck is female!!\\
'''Junior:''' Hoo-ha!! We can put a sack over her ugly head after we stomp her into submission!\\
'''[[http://4thletter.net/2008/12/we-care-a-lot-part-5-wrath-of-the-butterface/ Reviewer]]''': Yes. Yes, exactly. Because the first thing that comes to mind when I see a female Venom is, "Shit, I wish I could '''rape''' that thing!"
* CombatTentacles: And unlike most other Venoms, Ann's weren't [[RuleOfCool just for show]].
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Ann and [[Characters/SpiderManDailyBugle Joe Robertson]] are kidnapped in the novel ''Venom's Wrath''. When the day is saved, she dismisses Venom's involvement in her rescue.
--> '''Ann:''' The New York Police Department and Spider-Man rescued me. As far as I'm concerned, my ex-husband had nothing to do with it.
* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: "I'm going to '''rip''' your own '''guts''' out and '''stuff''' them down your own '''throats'''!!
* DarkActionGirl: When bonded to the symbiote she thought nothing of ripping apart those tho threatened her.
* DamselInDistress: [[IHaveYourWife Kidnapped]] or otherwise put in danger a lot.
* DestinationDefenestration: Her method of suicide.
* DistaffCounterpart: To Eddie Brock, her ex-husband.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Ann receiving the symbiote through the telephone is depicted very [[http://www.4thletter.net/gavok/venom/venomphonesex.jpg suggestively]]. The symbiote making a "once you go black"-ish comment beforehand ("She'll want us back because she's had a taste?") doesn't help.
* DrivenToSuicide: The trauma of being repeatedly confronted with her ex-husband and his monstrous alter-ego drove her to take her own life.
* EmbarrassingNickname: "Mrs. Venom" and "The Bride of Venom".
* EvilMeScaresMe: Ann hated being She-Venom mostly due to being afraid of what she could end up doing. Part of the reason why she killed herself was because she believed the symbiote (which she ''[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane claimed]]'' to be able to hear) might one day come back and attempt a permanent bonding. She might have been on to something, as the three times it bonded to Ann, the symbiote only left her because it was forced to.
* FemmeFatalons: The symbiote gives her long, thin talons.
* GraveMarkingScene: While visiting her grave Eddie was attacked and temporarily separated from the symbiote by Senator Ward.
* HappierHomeMovie: A [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/3/38/Venom_Along_Came_a_Spider_Vol_1_4.jpg/ wedding photo]] is used for the cover of ''Along Came a Spider'' #4.
* HelloAttorney: Ann was a lawyer, and a very successful and attractive one.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: The tiny girl to Eddie's huge guy, except when She-Venom.
* IHaveYourWife: While it was ostensibly implied that the reason why Eddie and Ann broke up was because of Eddie's increasingly deranged obsession with Spider-Man, a story in ''Spider-Man Family'' #2 indicated that the real reason for the divorce was Ann nearly being murdered by {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s that Eddie had been trying to expose.
* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Eddie tries this, [[OffhandBackhand but it fails]].
* ImAHumanitarian: Might have eaten her two victims, but it's left unclear.
* InterruptedCooldownHug: Ann breaks up a fight between Spider-Man and Venom. As things settle, the latter is attacked by ComicBook/SilverSable and the Wildpack.
* KickTheMoralityPet: Along with establishing that her and Eddie's relationship was founded on lies, ''Dark Origin'' also felt it pertinent to include a scene where Eddie tries to save his own skin by desperately offering a knocked out Ann to the gang members who had attacked them. Most writers have since treated it as CanonDiscontinuity.
* {{Meganekko}}: Anne wore glasses, except in ''Dark Origin''.
* MostCommonSuperpower: The symbiote definitely emphasized her figure.
* MrExposition: Introduced to provide details on Eddie's early life.
* MysticalPregnancy: In ''Venom'' Vol. 4 #12 it's revealed that [[spoiler:after Anne's first transformation into She-Venom, during which both she and Eddie had simultaneously bonded to the Venom symbiote, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son she named Dylan]].
* MythologyGag: She was the defense attorney of Curt Connors, according to the [[http://thedailybugle.tumblr.com/post/64888475045/by-ned-leeds-city-bureau-a-trial-date-has-been viral]] [[http://thedailybugle.tumblr.com/post/72509118182/by-joy-mercado-the-trial-of-dr-curt-connors-came marketing]] for ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2''.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: While She-Venom, she ripped apart a pair of thugs, and was left distraught by the incident.
* NightmareSequence: Has one where she bites off and eats Eddie's entire head in ''Rune vs. Venom''.
* PipePain: On Quintana, Rune, Ben Reilly... to quote [[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix5/weyingannvenm.htm The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe]]:
--> '''Minor Irritant:''' Man, Ann sure hits people with pipes a lot.
* ProgressivelyPrettier: Was rather "mousy" in her first appearance, but like most "Plain Jane" comic characters she got hotter over time.
* RaceLift: Was black in early editions of ''Dark Origin''. They realized the SeriesContinuityError in time for later printings.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Was fond of dishing them out while disemboweling people.
* ShapeshifterGuiltTrip: Rune's symbiote messes with Eddie by pretending to be her in ''Rune vs. Venom''.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Switched between Anne and Ann, though the latter was the most frequently used.
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Killed off just to reignite Venom's hatred of Spider-Man.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: At the time Eddie killed rather [[BloodlessCarnage bloodlessly]]. Ann, on the other hand, painted the room with her victims.
* TouchOfTheMonster: On the cover of ''Sinner Takes All'' #5
* VolumetricMouth: She-Venom's mouth could stretch to a ludicrous degree. While this is true for almost every symbiote character, in Ann's case it was ''[[http://symbiote.fr/images/comics/venom-spider0322.jpg really]]'' apparent.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Venom (Clone) / Scream II]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/patshevenom_3694.png]][[caption-width-right:250:As "Venom"]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/absolute_carnage_scream_vol_1_1_textless.jpg]][[caption-width-right:250:As Scream]]
-> '''AKA:''' Patricia Robertson
-> '''Debut:''' ''Venom'' vol. 1 #1; ''Venom'' vol. 1 #10 (as Venom); ''Absolute Carnage: Scream'' #1 (as Scream II)

-->''"I was only Venom for a short time. But '''long enough.''' Long enough to do some damage. Long enough to earn some debt. Long enough to miss it."''

Patricia Robinson was a communications specialist for the US Army, stationed in Antarctica. When a clone of the Venom symbiote was unleashed, it killed all of the personnel at her base, but Patricia fended it off, leaving her the sole survivor of the incident. She escaped with the aid of a nanorobotic alien known as the Suit, who, after implanting her with cybernetic augmentations, tricked the symbiote into bonding with her, the cybernetic implants allowing her to control it. Patricia was tricked into travelling to New York, many assuming her to be '''Venom''', where her cybernetics malfunctioned and she lost control to the symbiote and fought Spider-Man and the the real Venom before her cloned symbiote re-merged with the original Venom symbiote.
\\\
Years later, Patricia resurfaced, having trained to hunt down symbiotes using a small arsenal of anti-symbiote weaponry. Coming across the resurrected Scream symbiote, Patricia was taken over by it, and was sent to hunt Andi Benton before wrestling control back from the symbiote. Calling herself '''Scream''', she attempted to save innocents while Carnage and his symbiote forces attempted to resurrect the symbiote god, Knull.
----
* BaldWomen: Patricia's head [[TraumaticHaircut was completely shaved]] to give her the implants necessary to control the clone.
* BodyHorror: Patricia is knocked out, and wakes up bald, collared, and with a tube sticking out of the back of her skull. She is understandably upset.
* BoyishShortHair: She keeps her hair cut short in the "Shiver" arc of ''Venom'' Vol. 1 and ''Absolute Carnage: Scream''.
* {{Cyborg}}: The Suit turned Patricia into one to enable her to control the symbiote.
* DecoyProtagonist: ''Absolute Carnage: Scream'' focuses on her for its first two issues before shifting to Andi Benton in its last, the Scream symbiote bonding to Andi after Patricia's death.
* EvilIsBigger: As Venom, she is depicted to be at a '''very''' large size.
* {{Expy}}: In the "Shiver" arc of the ''Venom'' series, the Venom clone was a carbon copy of [[Film/TheThing1982 the Thing]], to go with the WholePlotReference.
* FanDisservice: There are a lot of creepy scenes involving Patricia and the Venom clone, which get so much worse after Patricia loses her hair and has metal things stuck in the back of her head.
* HeroicSacrifice: Dies while trying to protect the injured Andi Benton.
* LegacyCharacter:
** Patricia was one of many hosts of the Venom symbiote's clone, Mania -- and ''Absolute Carnage: Scream'' #1 reveals that she has a grudge against Andi Benton for "stealing" the symbiote and then losing it to Lee Price.
** After stripping the Scream symbiote from Donna Diego's skeleton in ''Absolute Carnage: Scream'' #1, Patricia is taken over by it [[spoiler:and has a brief mental dialogue with the symbiote -- which had imprinted Donna's psyche into itself -- before they're taken over by Knull]].
* MostCommonSuperpower: As revealed in ''Venom'' Vol. 1 #15, she's very busty, though it didn't show under her arctic gear.
* MsFanservice:
** One of the issues of "Shiver" opens with Patricia having a shower and wearing nothing but a small ModestyTowel afterwards.
** When seducing Agent Whitaker, Patricia dresses in form-fitting hip-hugger jeans and a top that exposes her midriff, which she pulls down to expose her cleavage.
** While walking through the sewers after her first fight with Eddie, Patricia is completely naked... [[FanDisservice except for her cybernetic collar and the fact that the symbiote is slowly taking over her, turning her teeth into fangs and eyes solid white]].
* OutWithABang: Patricia seduces Agent Whitaker, kills him, and impersonates him the following day. Whether they had sex is left ambiguous.
* PervertRevengeMode: When a rowdy, drunk Shield Agent groped her at a dive bar, she knocked him out by flicking a golf ball into his face, then hit another lecher with a pool cue.
* PurpleIsTheNewBlack: Her Venom form is coloured as being purple-black in comparison to Eddie's blue-black Venom form.
* PutOnABus: Patricia hasn't been seen since the ending of the series, aside from a brief pseudo-cameo.
* SamusIsAGirl: Spider-Man mistook Patricia for Eddie due to their Venom forms being nigh-identical.
* ScaryTeeth: While struggling to control the symbiote through sheer force of will, she undergoes a PartialTransformation that turns her teeth into fangs.
* TenLittleMurderVictims: The ''Shiver'' arc has the symbiote's clone infiltrate the Christmastown military base, taking over and killing the inhabitants one by one with Patricia and the Suit trying to stop it.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Pat disappeared for a good decade-and-a-half after the miniseries ended in 2004. Up until her return in ''Absolute Carnage'', the only reference to her subsequent to the series has been in [[ContinuityCavalcade the rundown]] of all the pre-Mac Gargan Venoms given in ''ComicBook/MightyAvengers'' #8.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Venom II]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Angelo_Fortunato_2134.jpg]]

-> '''AKA:''' Angelo Fortunato
-> '''Debut:''' ''Marvel Knights: Spider-Man'' #7

--> ''"Man, I'm 5'9, a hundred and ten pounds and the only girls that even talk to me are the ones my dad rents every birthday and Christmas. Exactly what am I throwing away here?"''

The "second" Venom: [[FanonDiscontinuity mostly ignored]] by both readers and canon. Angelo was the timid son of Don Vincente Fortunato, a Maggia don who purchased the Venom symbiote from Eddie Brock thinking it would get his son to man up. Despite [[InstantExpert quickly]] [[PossessionImpliesMastery mastering]] the symbiote's powers, Fortunato's fight with Spider-Man turned into a CurbStompBattle not in his favour when he murdered an otherwise innocent impostor dressed as Spider-Man. Angelo fled despite the symbiote urging him to keep fighting, causing it to deem him an unworthy host and abandon him in mid-leap to fall to his death.
----
* AbusiveParents: It wasn't just his peers who bullied him.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: One of his reasons for wanting to become Venom was his belief in this.
* AndShowItToYou: How he killed the Spidey impersonator.
* AuctionOfEvil: Where he and his father acquired the symbiote.
* BigBadWannabe: When Eddie took him aside and tried to warn him about the dangers of the symbiote, Angelo blew him off and gave him this little gem as his reason for desiring its power:
-->'''Angelo:''' Besides, have you seen how many websites this thing has out there? [[MostFanficWritersAreGirls You seen how many chicks are writing fan fiction about him?]] Becoming Venom puts me in the ComicBook/{{Magneto}} or ComicBook/DoctorDoom class after eighteen years of getting the crap kicked out of me.
* DirtyCoward: When Spider-Man got serious in their fight, Angelo fled.
* DisneyVillainDeath: The symbiote ditches him in mid-jump and he falls to his death.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: He was bullied and ridiculed his whole life, and abused by his father, who bought the symbiote in the hopes of getting his son to toughen up. During his fight with Spider-Man, Angelo ends up killing a cosplayer dressed like the web-slinger, to which Spidey decides to [[LetsGetDangerous stop holding back]] and give him a verbal beatdown, rebuking Angelo's crappy past and pointing out he himself was a bully magnet, but didn't become a killer.
-->'''Spider-Man''': You weren't bullied any more than I was, Angelo. You weren't punched or kicked or spat upon any more than me. You were given great powers and you used them to kill people, you little freak.
* IronicName: His name means "fortunate angel".
* TheMafia: Angelo was the son of Maggia don Vincente Fortunato.
* MilkingTheGiantCow: "I killed him for you, dad. You hear me? Angelo Fortunado just killed Spider-Man!"
* NoSell: Surprisingly, a fiery explosion didn't even faze him.
* OverlyLongTongue: Averted, making him the first host since Peter Parker to not have one in his monstrous form.
* PossessionImpliesMastery: Learns to use the symbiote's powers in record time.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** After Angelo kills a cosplayer dressed as Spider-Man, the web-slinger decides to stop pulling his punches and gives him a verbal beatdown to match.
---> '''Spider-Man:''' You weren't bullied any more than I was, Angelo. You weren't punched or kicked or spat upon any more than me. You were given great powers and you used them to kill people, you little freak. So like I said, no more chances.
** When Angelo flees from Spider-Man's beatdown, the symbiote decides it's had enough of him and ditches him mid-jump:
---> '''Symbiote:''' Sigh. You know your problem, Angelo...? You just don't have enough Venom!\\
'''Angelo:''' Jeezus! Where are you going!\\
'''Symbiote:''' To find someone else, what does it look like? You're even more pathetic than Eddie Brock ended up.
* RoyalWe: Averted, like Gargan and Flash.
* SinisterSchnoz: It was rather bulbous.
* SuperLoser: As Spider-Man said of Mac Gargan, a loser with a symbiote is a still a loser.
* UnskilledButStrong: Had all of Venom's power, but was nowhere near as competent a fighter as Eddie had been.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Appeared and died in the space of two issues.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Wanted his father's approval and thought he could earn it by becoming Venom. It worked. Too bad Angelo wasn't alive to hear the praise.
* YouHaveFailedMe: The symbiote scornfully ditches him for not having "enough venom".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Venom III / "Sinister" Spider-Man III]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gargan_Venom_115.png]]

-> '''AKA:''' [=MacDonald=] "Mac" Gargan
-> '''Debut:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #19; ''Marvel Knights: Spider-Man'' #10 (as Venom III); ''Dark Avengers'' #1 (as Spider-Man III)

--> ''"I ain't dumb, right. [[ComicBook/{{Siege}} I know Osborn's gone too far this time]]. Ain't no way in the world we don't get our butts kicked but good for this. So I figure I oughta enjoy myself until, you know, the inevitable. Don't let nobody tell you different--people... taste good. You bite off somebody's arm and it's what the marketing types like to call a 'taste sensation'. But these here Asgardians--(they're like, Gods or something? I didn't really pay attention to the mission briefing.)--these guys are the Kobe beef of people. Om nom nom."''
\\\
After ditching Angelo, the symbiote [[DealWithTheDevil directly approaches]] Gargan, already an established SuperVillain called [[ScaryScorpions the Scorpion]], offering him its power in exchange for murdering Spider-Man. Gargan eagerly agrees, and becomes the third incarnation of Venom, working alongside Norman Osborn for most of his tenure. The symbiote caused him to become erratic and unstable, increasing his bloodlust thanks to the symbiote, which resulted in him becoming a cannibal.
\\\
Following Osborn being made the head of SHIELD, Gargan is given a drug that reverts the symbiote to the appearance it had when Peter Parker wore it, and joins the [[EvilKnockoff Dark Avengers]], where he gleefully impersonates Spider-Man. After losing the symbiote, Gargan reverted to the Scorpion identity, but has found himself tangled up in many symbiote incidents since.

----
* AffectionateNickname: Gargan calls the symbiote "Symby" in his diary.
* AnArmAndALeg: It all started when Gargan ate Steel Spider's arm under the influence of the symbiote. As the Sinister Spider-Man, he took to eating the limbs of criminals he apprehended. This led to several of these criminals and supervillains banded together under the Redeemer and trying to kill him.
* AssKicksYou: When Doctor Everything [[WipeThatSmileOffYourFace replaces his mouth with a metal plate]] and Dementoid grabs him from behind, Mac turns his butt into a massive pair of jaws and tries to eat him that way.
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: During the early issues of ''Dark Reign'', Gargan's Venom form was ''T. rex''-sized.
* AxCrazy: Not surprising, since the character was written by most writers in a way to top every extreme Venom was associated with.
* BaldOfEvil: Mac has brown hair but keeps his head shaved, but it became more noticeable after he became Venom due to him being shown bareheaded a lot more.
* BewareMyStingerTail: Mac once sprouted a stinger-tipped tail as Venom, using it as a weapon against Spider-Man and a group of other superheroes. After the symbiote was nearly killed by Anti-Venom, Norman modified the Scorpion armor he'd built to turn Mac into "[[AtrociousAlias Ven-orpion]]", equipping the tail with a poison tailored specifically to kill Anti-Venom. After being infected with a piece of the Mania symbiote by Lee Price, he transforms into a monstrous form identical to his "Ven-orpion" form -- including a stinger-tipped tail -- but this is short-lived as his symbiote is purged by Agent Anti-Venom.
* BigBadWannabe: Why Mac so willingly partnered with the symbiote. When it abandons him in ''What If? The Other'' he's left on the verge of tears.
--> '''Mac:''' Wait! Stop! Where are you--?! Get back here! Don't leave me! Don't make me be nothing again!
* BigEater: Was fond of biting off people's limbs, and during the Secret Invasion Skrulls became one of the symbiote's favorite hors d'oeuvre.
--> '''Gargan:''' I eat most anything. Strippers, school buses, grapes. If it's something that can be eaten, I'll down it.
* BizarreTasteInFood: After Osborn is overthrown, Spider-Man complains that half of New York thinks he eats squirrels due to Mac viewing them as fuzzy popcorn.
* BlackComedyCannibalism: Gargan devouring people willy-nilly due to the symbiote's influence was, for the most part, played for laughs.
* BringIt: The discussion Gargan has with ComicBook/NormanOsborn after Daken and Bullseye fail to assassinate him invokes this; though it's not made clear whether Norman meant he'd suit up as the Green Goblin or Iron Patriot, and nothing ever came of it.
--> '''Spider-Man:''' Why'd you send 'em to kill me, Norman?\\
'''Norman Osborn:''' You were causing more trouble than you were worth.\\
'''Spider-Man:''' And now?\\
'''Norman Osborn:''' Now you learn to behave, or next time I'll suit up myself.\\
'''Venom:''' Any time, cornrows.
* BullyingADragon: Gargan tries to kill Lee Price out of personal dislike, with full knowledge that he's the Venom symbiote's most recent host. Even after the symbiote emerges and Venom starts trouncing him, Gargen continues to fight in hopes of taking the symbiote back.
* CantLiveWithoutYou: The procedure that gave Mac his powers destabilized his DNA, and without his Scorpion PoweredArmor or the symbiote his health rapidly deteriorates.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When Norman Osborn threatens to personally kill him the next time he goes AWOL, Gargan walks out, stating the valuable lesson he learned was that "if you start eating somebody, you finish the job".
* CaptainErsatz: Gargan's stint as Venom effectively answers the question of "What if ComicBook/{{Carnage}} was Venom?" -- as Gargan happily murdered innocents and indulged his symbiote's bloodlust.
* CostumeCopycat: As the Sinister Spider-Man, the symbiote takes on the appearance it had when Peter wore it. Peter later exploits this by infiltrating the Dark Avengers while wearing his synthetic Black Suit.
* CostumeEvolution: Gargsn's appearance as Venom changed over the course of his stint bonded to the symbiote. Originally, Gargan's Venom form had large spider-emblems with disconnected legs on his chest and back. As a member of the Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers he was often drawn as nigh-identical to Eddie Brock's Venom form -- but much more massive. In ''Amazing Spider-Man'' his emblems were depicted with the upper set of limbs going over his shoulders and the lower set of limbs going down his legs, and a set of white stripes wrapping around his upper arms -- an appearance mirrored by Eddie Brock as Anti-Venom. Even the color of his eyes -- and whether or not they were visible -- changed DependingOnTheArtist.
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Mac's habit of biting off the limbs of criminals leads to [[FunnyAnimal Hippo]], [[ThoseWackyNazis General]] [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Wolfram]], [[MakeMeWannaShout Eleven]], [[MindVirus Dementoid]], and [[CaptainErsatz Doctor]] [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Everything]] being outfitted with cybernetic limbs by the Redeemer and setting out to rehabilitate or kill him (whichever came first).
* CriminalDoppelganger: As the Sinister Spider-Man, Mac was identical in appearance to Black Suit Spider-Man, enabling him to gleefully impersonate his longtime foe and run Spider-Man's reputation into the ground.
* CurbstompBattle:
** When the Redeemers attempted to "redeem" him, Gargan ate two of them and mutilated the rest. Later, Osborn sent Daken and Bullseye to assassinate him. Gargan threw Daken halfway up a skyscraper and punched Bullseye's face in, all while chowing down on members of the Rolling Sevens and Park Avenue Players gangs.
** Mac tried to attack [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Ms. Marvel]], who responded by pulling him out the symbiote through Venom's mouth ("The Hell, lady?"). Unfortunately, this led to [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/1/11136/1200049-ms._marvel_venom.jpg the symbiote possessing Carol]].
---> '''Symbiote:''' Ha! We can fly! Ms. Marvel is now my favorite superhero!
** Later:
---> '''Mac/Symbiote:''' [[ShipTease I felt her emotions towards you. Wanna guess what they were?]]\\
'''Spider-Man:''' Wait--you what?\\
'''Mac/Symbiote:''' Oh, that got your attention, huh?
** Mac is on the receiving end when he suits up as the Scorpion and tries to kill Lee Price, who had acquired the symbiote. [[spoiler:Despite his tail possessing sonic and flame armaments, Gargan is swiftly defeated and only saved from being eaten when Spider-Man intervenes.]]
* ADayInTheLimelight: ''The Sinister Spider-Man'' miniseries is all about Mac's misadventures impersonating Spider-Man.
* DeadpanSnarker: While impersonating Spider-Man, Mac took up a wry form of BlackComedy.
* TheDragon: Before he fully succumbed to the symbiote's bloodlust, Gargan was more-or-less Norman's number two on the Thunderbolts. Their relationship decayed as Gargan became increasingly bloodthirsty and reckless.
* DressedInLayers: Some story lines had him somehow wearing his Scorpion armor under the symbiote, although this was quickly discarded.
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: While he was initially afraid of the symbiote's growing influence over him, he came to thoroughly relish being Venom. [[spoiler:Even after getting an upgraded Scorpion Suit, he tries to take the symbiote back from Lee Price.]]
* EatingTheEnemy: After the Bluestreak incident, Gargan's go-to solution to dealing with enemies was eating them.
* EvilCounterpart: As Venom, Mac was the symbiote's puppet. As the Sinister Spider-Man, he was all power, no responsibility.
* EvilHero: As a member of Osborn's Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers, Gargan was a government-employed superhero... who was more-than willing to maim and kill the criminals he apprehended, start gang-wars to troll Mayor Jameson, and couldn't be fussed about collateral damage in fights.
* EvilIsPetty: Started a gang war just to mess with J. Jonah Jameson's reputation, vomited a half-digested squirrel onto Dexter Bennet's desk to get back at him for an unflattering article in the [=DB=], and tried to kill [[Characters/IncredibleHulkFamily Carmilla Black]] for having the ''audacity'' to use his old nom de guerre.
* EvilMeScaresMe: Early during the ''Thuderbolts'' run, Mac grew increasingly terrified of the symbiote's [[HorrorHunger bloodlust]] and the [[PuppeteerParasite growing amount of control it had over him]], especially after he ate the Steel Spider's arm. After a hallucination of the symbiote gave him a [[BreakThemByTalking Breaking Speech]], however, he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope embraced its bloodlust wholeheartedly]].
* EvilerThanThou: As bad as Lee Price is, the Venom symbiote considers Gargan to be even worse: while Price is callous and ruthless, he follows orders to the letter; while Gargan is more-than willing to go against orders and cause collateral damage to get what he wants.
* EyeScream: Had an angry toy poodle thrown at him by Bullseye on Daken's behest.
--> '''Mac:''' AAAAAAH! Dog in the eye! Dog! Dammit!
* FightOffTheKryptonite: Mac was blasted point-blank by Eleven's [[MakeMeWannaShout sonic scream]]... and ate her. During the ''Siege'', he was thrown into an explosion by Colossus, and came out none the worse for wear but ''extremely'' pissed off.
* FullyEmbracedFiend: While he was initially afraid of the symbiote when it was dormant, after its hallucinated Breaking Speech Gargan came to fully embrace the power it gave him and relished it.
* FunctionalAddict: Despite initially fearing the symbiote, Gargan eventually [[EvilFeelsGood gleefully]] embraces its bloodlust while impersonating Spider-Man.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Gargan initially had a Comicbook/{{Spawn}}-like vibe, with glowing green/yellow/red eyes being visible within the symbiote's white eye-patches. Later on, Mac's Venom form resembled a ''much'' more monstrous version of Eddie Brock's, without the inner eyes at all.
* {{Gonk}}: Marvel seemed intent on making Mac's Venom form look as repulsive as possible in ''Beyond!''
* HealingFactor: The Swordsman almost cut Mac completely in half with his Makluan Sword, but he recovered thanks to the symbiote.
* HulkingOut: One of Mac's hallmark traits as Venom was that most often he was just a really bulky guy with sharp teeth, but whenever he got angry or the symbiote came down with a case of the munchies he'd bulk up to the point where he made the Hulk himself look vertically challenged. Also played straight with his ability to shift between his "Spider-Man" and "Venom" forms during the ''ComicBook/DarkAvengers'' arc.
* HumanPincushion: Bullseye turns him into one using a [[EyeScream toy poodle]] and ''corn dogs''.
* ImAHumanitarian: During a fight with the Steel Spider, Gargan was overwhelmed by the symbiote's bloodlust and ate Osnick's arm. Gargan [[EvilMeScaresMe was initially horrified by this]], and his team mates wouldn't let him live it down. Following a Breaking Speech by a hallucination of the symbiote caused by Bluestreak III, he embraced its bloodlust to the point where he would more-than willingly commit cannibalism to satiate it.
* IfICantHaveYou: Despite his fear of the symbiote, Gargan is addicted to its power and tries to take it back from Lee Price and Eddie Brock. When Maniac re-empowers him, he's jubilant to have symbiote powers again, and pleads with Agent Anti-Venom to let him keep them as he's being cleansed. He then joins Claire Dixon's Symbiote Task Force intending to bond to the Venom symbiote's latest offspring.
* ImpersonationGambit: Does this to the original Spider-Man as a member of the Dark Avengers, and has it done to him by Peter in return.
* InsanityImmunity: He was unaffected by Dementoid's madness-inducing touch, either due to the symbiote or because he's already too far off the deep end to go any further.
* JumpedAtTheCall: When the symbiote offered its services, Mac gleefully accepted.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: After the symbiote's Breaking Speech, Mac willingly succumbed to its bloodlust.
* MediumAwareness: Wrote the summaries for and answers the FourthWallMailSlot of his own ''Dark Reign'' tie-in.
* MeleeATrois: In the ''Sinister Spider-Man'' miniseries, Mac wound up caught between the surviving Redeemers - a group of vengeful supervillains he'd mutilated, Daken and Bullseye - who'd been sent by Osborn to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness assassinate him]], and the Rolling Sevens & Park Avenue gangs - who he had started a gang war between ForTheEvulz. Mac promptly {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s everyone until ''J. Jonah Jameson'' breaks the fight up, accidentally making Gargan look like a hero in the process.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Gargan was used to invoke this as a member of the Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers: anyone Norman wanted disappeared was thrown into Venom's cell. Om nom nom.
* NoSell: Getting tossed into an explosion during the "Dark Avengers vs. Utopia" arc just [[HulkingOut made him angry]].
* NotMeThisTime: During an altercation with the Jury, Mac exclaims, "Listen... I'm not... the same Venom... you guys had a beef with!"
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: After Gargan eats the Steel Spider's arm, the team becomes increasingly afraid of him, citing this incident. Gargan initially protested it had been an accident, but this became less and less convincing due to his growing inclination towards satiating the symbiote's hunger, and he eventually became proud of the event.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Gargan maintained he was only in the superhero gig for the money... and the strippers, and the [[AnArmAndALeg take-out villain limbs]]...
* PoweredArmor: Norman made him a new Scorpion suit, but to Osborn's outrage Mac turned it down to wear the symbiote. Osborn later [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11/117763/2651773-amazing_spider_man__572___page_24.jpg modified the armor]] so that Mac could wear it over the symbiote after it was almost killed by Anti-Venom. It's destroyed when Mac and the symbiote begin bickering over what they should do with Eddie.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: His eyes were drawn as being red in some comics.
* RoyalWe: Sometimes averted, sometimes played straight, depending on the writer. In his ''Dark Reign'' tie-in, he sneers that Eddie was a "sissy elitist" for insisting on referring to himself as "we".
--> '''Anti-Venom:''' You said "me", Gargan.\\
'''Mac:''' [[DiggingYourselfDeeper I-I-I]] meant usss!
* SanitySlippage: Mac became increasingly feral under the symbiote's influence, to the point where even his own teammates were afraid he'd try to eat them.
* ScaryTeeth: His fangs were yellow and just plain rotten looking in ''Beyond!''.
* SeinfeldianConversation: He has several such scenes with the other Thunderbolts[=/=]Dark Avengers.
--> '''ComicBook/{{Daken}}:''' So then I cut off his hand.\\
'''ComicBook/{{Bullseye|MarvelComics}}:''' Whose hand?\\
'''Daken:''' That ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} @#$%\\
'''Bullseye:''' Bull.\\
'''Daken:''' I did.\\
'''Bullseye:''' With what?\\
'''Daken:''' With [[WolverineClaws these]].\\
'''Bullseye:''' Well, sure. That'll do it.\\
'''Mac:''' I don't believe you, Daken.\\
'''Daken:''' I don't care.\\
'''Mac:''' [[Creator/BrianMichaelBendis You cut off his hands?]]\\
'''[[Characters/MsMarvel Moonstone]]:''' Good. That guy is annoying.\\
'''Daken:''' He thinks he's hilarious.\\
'''Mac:''' Like Spider-Man. "Oh Ho! I'm so funny!"\\
'''Bullseye:''' Spider-Man's [[ActuallyPrettyFunny kind of funny]].\\
'''Mac:''' Uh, not really.\\
'''Bullseye:''' If you're in the mood for it.\\
'''Mac:''' Well, then I'm never in the mood for it.\\
'''Moonstone:''' Every time I hear a guy prattle on like that with those stupid jokes, all I can think is that he must have a really small--\\
'''Bullseye:''' [[ComicBook/TheSentry Captain Crazy]] is back.
* SlasherSmile: As Spider-Man, Mac had a habit of manifesting a [[GameFace serrated grin]] without fully shifting into his Venom form, using it to frighten people.
* SociopathicHero: As the Sinister Spider-Man, he deliberately abused Spider-Man's reputation. Wven as a member of the Thunderbolts he threatened to eat innocent civilians, though he later claimed it was to scare Skrulls out of hiding.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Mac is given one by the symbiote - actually a hallucination induced by Bluestreak III - in ''Thunderbolts''. It worked, since he became a ''lot'' less reluctant about feeding it afterwards.
--> '''"Symbiote":''' Stop complaining. Always complaining. It's too cold. Stuff hurts. I didn't mean to eat that guy's arm. Whining little maggot. You don't deserve me. You never did. Did I actually hear you say you didn't want to be the scary guy? You used to be the Scorpion. You used to be a hard man. Why did you turn into a schoolgirl as soon as you tasted some fresh meat?
--> '''Gargan:''' What's... What's going on...\\
'''"Symbiote":''' I can't sit back and wait for you to become a man. I get hungry. Look at me, you little girl! It's time I took control of things. No more of you pretending you can't hear me, up there in the driver's seat. I'm hungry. We need to take care of that. Today. Now.\\
'''Gargan:''' No...\\
'''"Symbiote":''' Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes. We are going to get us an honest-to-God meal today. Or I'm just going to have to eat you from the inside out.
* TakeThat: Gargan calls Eddie a "sissy elitest" for referring to himself as "[[RoyalWe we]]" all the time.
* TokenEvilTeammate: Julia Carpenter convinced Mac to join her, Spider-Woman, and Anti-Venom in their crusade against the corrupted Peter in ''What If Spider-Man Killed Kraven the Hunter?''.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Other than [[ImAHumanitarian other humans]], he had a taste for squirrels and Skrulls.
* TranshumanTreachery: Mac originally dreaded the symbiote's influence over him, but after Bluestreak's MindRape he embraced it and became its willing slave. As Venom, Mac deliberately disobeyed Norman's orders multiple times, beginning from when he bonded to the symbiote instead of using the new Scorpion suit Gobby had made for him. This comes to a head when he is photographed committing crimes, putting Norman's power in jeopardy and causing Osborn to try to pull a YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness on him.
* VilerNewVillain: As Venom, Mac Gargan became far nastier than Eddie had been -- usurping ComicBook/{{Carnage}}'s place as the Marvel Universe's symbiote supervillain for more than half a decade and resulting in Cletus Kasady even being temporarily killed off.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: As a member of the Thunderbolts and the Dark Avengers.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: Back when Norman Osborn and Gargan both wore green, they worked together and Gargan came to consider Osborn a friend of sorts. With Osborn in [[PoweredArmor red-white-and-blue]] and Gargan in [[TheSymbiote black-and-white]], they're less amicable towards one another.
* WildCard: Osborn refers to him as such during their search for Spider-Man, where Mac was disregarding orders to follow the symbiote's psychic link to its past hosts.
* WorfHadTheFlu: Towards the end of ''Dark Reign'', Osborn grew weary of Gargan's wily ways and tried to curb them by forcing him to take mood-altering drugs that rendered him meek, introspective, and largely ineffectual.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Gargan begrudgingly admires J. Jonah Jameson for having "the cahones to grow a Hitler 'stache."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:"Agent" Venom IV / "Agent" Anti-Venom II]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/venom_vol_2_27_textless_9554.jpg]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/agent_venom_3_0_3763.png]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/381c118284fea37df33b79d0d0e42fdb.png]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anti_venom_flash_thompson_earth_616_from_amazing_spider_man_venom_inc_alpha_vol_1_1.png]]

-> '''AKA:''' Colonel Eugene "Flash" Thompson\\
'''Debut:''' ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #654 (as Venom IV); ''Amazing Spider-Man: Venom Inc. Alpha #1'' (as Anti-Venom II)
-->''"That suit's good now. Or it '''can''' be. I know--I helped make it that way."''

Peter Parker's former JerkJock [[TheBully bully]] of a friend. Flash enlisted in the army during the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]] and is grievously wounded in action, losing his legs while saving his comrades. Lauded as a hero for his sacrifice, he is given an offer by the military: he can "rent" the Venom symbiote, which was subdued by drugs, for 48-hour periods (never long enough for the symbiote to establish control) for use in important missions, regaining the use of his legs in the process. Thompson agrees and subsequently becomes the new '''Venom''', marking the character's transition to fully-fledged [[{{Superhero}} hero]].
\\\
After going AWOL to protect his friends and family from his enemies who had learned his identity, he is recruited onto the Secret Avengers by Captain America. Flash later set up a new life for himself as a vigilante and assistant high-school gym coach in Philadelphia, including having his own teenage sidekick, Mania. He would also join Thaddeus Ross' Thunderbolts during this time. Eventually, he was given the role of the Avengers' member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, leaving Earth to travel the cosmos. He would even later, after having learned the history of the symbiotes, become an Agent of the Cosmos -- this marking the ''symbiote's'' transition into a heroic figure -- before returning to Earth to assist Mania. After being ambushed by the FBI, he lost the Venom symbiote.
\\\
However, while hunting down Lee Price after his theft of the Mania symbiote, he would be reunited with his symbiote partner. In its anguish as it tried to decide between Eddie and Flash, it bonded to both of them, Spider-Man dousing it in an artificial Anti-Venom solution to try to destroy it. Instead, this resulted in the half of the Venom symbiote bonded to Flash -- the half that did not contain its mind -- transforming into a new Anti-Venom symbiote, Flash regaining the abilities he had as Venom and a few more. He resumed his heroic role, now going by '''Anti-Venom'''.

----
* AdaptiveArmor: After bonding to Flash the symbiote took on the appearance of body armor. When he joined the Guardians of the Galaxy it lost the body armor motif but retained a biomechanical exoskeletal appearance. After being purged of its bloodlust, the symbiote has gotten a new design which combines the body armor look with a sci-fi motif and a ridged faceplate resembling the [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Destroyer]]'s.
* AintTooProudToBeg: When the symbiote ditches him to forcefully rebond to Eddie Brock, Flash is forced to plead for it to return to him, even though he was relieved to be rid of it.
* TheAlcoholic: Currently recovering after a relapse after stress with the passing of his [[AlcoholicParent father]] and other issues caused him to fall off the wagon before while in Las Vegas. He suggests that the Thompsons are more likely to be alcoholics.
* AlternateSelf: As with most long-running Spider-Man characters, there have been a number of alternate universe iterations of Flash, both as himself and as Agent Venom.
* AntiHeroTeam:
** Flash joined the Red Hulk's Thunderbolts, a black ops team of [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver black-and-red]]-clad antiheroes, until he felt that the team's liberal attitude towards lethal force was causing his hold on the symbiote to slip.
* ArchEnemy: Jack O'Lantern, formerly one of Crime Master's minions, is the Green Goblin to Flash's Spider-Man, as he knows Venom's secret identity, targeted his {{Love Interest|s}}, and even possesses a similar gimmick to Norman - with a few nasty tricks of his own.To some extent Carnage serves as this as well.
* ArtificialLimbs: Flash initially uses the symbiote to form prosthetics, but is later equipped with a set of cybernetic legs by Peter (well, Otto while he was possessing Peter).
* AscendedFanboy: As a teenager, Flash was a Spidey-fanboy. Flash forward to post-''ComicBook/DarkReign'', and Flash is made the government-issue Spider-Man.
* BadassTeacher: He was the assistant gym coach at a Philadelphia high school and frequently finds himself butting heads with Darius Fowler, the local JerkJock and a GenerationXerox to his high school self.
* BlackCloak: Morphs the symbiote into one while infiltrating the DOA cultists and when incognito at an alien bar.
* BlackEyesOfEvil: When under control the symbiote's eyes take the appearance of white-rimmed black lenses, though they usually revert to their [[BlankWhiteEyes customary appearance]] when it goes berserk.
* BladeBelowTheShoulder: When duking it out with Carnage, Flash transforms his arm into a sword-like blade and decapitates Cletus, and retains the ability to form bladed appendages afterwards.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Flash accidentally uses the symbiote to throw a dodgeball so hard it sends Darius Fowler halfway across the gym. It's what tips Andi Benton off that there's something strange about her gym coach.
* CallingTheOldManOut: After Flash's alcoholic father berates him for being a cripple and dependent on the government, Flash internally berates his father for continually ruining his life even on his deathbed and walks... err... rolls out on him when he tries to apologize.
* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: A [[CantLiveWithoutYou literal example]]: Flash may not like being bonded to an oversized alien amoeba with a taste for human flesh, but he finds out that the drugs he's been taking to control it have altered his body so that without the symbiote he'll die in a few hours time. Of course, he only learns this ''after'' Superior Spider-Man separates him from the symbiote and takes it for himself.
* ChickMagnet: He's been described as very handsome by a few women. Betty, the Queen, Valkyrie, and that's just during his time as Venom.
* CoolGun: He initially had one, simply called the [[SwissArmyGun Multi-Gun]] which disappeared for no reason after issue six of his own series. Drax convinces him to sell it to an alien arms dealer in ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' #14, despite Flash protesting that it's a one-of-a-kind weapon and that he's grown fond of it.
* CursedWithAwesome: Flash sees being Anti-Venom as such, as it prevents him from re-bonding with the Venom symbiote. Despite possessing all the powers he had as Venom, he'd rather be with his partner. Once he realises Eddie is a good host, he accepts that the symbiote has someone else looking out for it and happily continues his heroic role, this time as Agent Anti-Venom.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Given his hero worship of Spider-Man it isn't that much of a surprise. His outfit is spiky and he can hulk out into a giant Venom form, but Flash is very moral and operates as a soldier would.
* DarkMessiah: Mephisto chose Venom as a candidate to become a Demon Lord following the events of the Circle of Four. Damian Hellstrom even stuffed a powerful demon into him in an effort to turn the symbiote into one of his Monsters of Evil. The "honor" has since been passed on to Mania.
* DeadpanSnarker: Takes a leaf out of Spider-Man's book and dishes out witty quips while beating up bad guys. Though he himself has expressed embarrassment at his bad jokes.
* DealWithTheDevil: After he's [[NeckSnap killed]] by Gari Goyle, Flash, Red Hulk, Ghost Rider, and X-23 make a deal with Mephisto, who offers to resurrect them in exchange for an unspecified service later on. Unbeknownst to them, the demon lord marks them as potential successors should he be selected to become the Devil during the Descent. When the Hell Mark is passed on to his teenage neighbor Andrea Benton and makes her a target of the DOA, Flash summons Mephisto, who helps them dispose of his turncoat minions but refuses to remove the Hell Mark from Andi, revealing it belongs not to either human but to the symbiote.
* DemonicPossession: Gets a powerful demon put in him by [[TheAntichrist Daimon Hellstrom]], though in a subversion the demon is ''not'' happy with the arrangement and actually ''wants'' to be exorcised. Flash is worried it and the symbiote are [[VillainTeamUp cooperating]] to take over him, but it turns out the symbiote itself is less-than pleased with the arrangement and apparently evicts the demon along with the Hell Mark into Mania.
* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: Flash has a dream-vision of what would have come to pass had the demon taken him over and[=/=]or he'd become a Hell-Lord after the Descent, with Philly reduced to a PlanetHeck and his demon-form perched on a decapitated statue.
* DependingOnTheArtist: Prior to joining the Guardians of the Galaxy, Flash's Agent Venom form had two main designs, dubbed "[[http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120428010912/marveldatabase/images/8/8c/Eugene_Thompson_%28Earth-616%29_Agent_Venom.png MK II]]" and "[[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maesxk16QE1qc63ooo1_500.jpg MK III]]" in the concept art. Which design was used depended largely on who was drawing him.
* EnemyMine: Pulls one with Toxin to fight the Symbiote Slayers, and Eddie eventually concedes that as long as Flash uses the Venom symbiote to do good he'll leave them alone.
* FaceHeelTurn: Invokes this in ''Thunderbolts #23'' when he lets the symbiote take over to see if the team could stop him if he truly lost control.
* FailureHero: No matter how much Flash tries, he gets as much and even worse crap dropped in his lap than Peter Parker in a much shorter amount of time. He lampshades this in inner monologues, lamenting that none of his childhood dreams have come true and that he continuously fails the people most important to him.
* FireForgedFriends: After transitioning from an EnemyMine through TeethClenchedTeamwork, Flash's relationship with the Venom symbiote -- especially post-purification -- has become this. Even after it's re-corrupted by Mercurio, Flash [[GoThroughMe refuses to let Tarna kill it]] and take him to the Planet of the Symbiotes to get a replacement, calling it his friend, and helps it keep a handle on its rage.
* FishOutOfWater: Flash was simply a member of the US Military who lost his legs trying his damnedest to save a superior officer, before jumping at the opportunity of being able to walk again thanks to the symbiote and volunteering to essentially become a government issue Spider-Man. And then was taken even further out of water by being appointed as the Avengers' liaison to the Guardians of the Galaxy.
* FriendlyEnemy: Flash tries to be this towards Eddie after they team up against the Symbiote Slayers, even going so far as to tell the reporters that Toxin fought to protect the students, give him sole credit for the rescue, and call him "pretty frightening... but kinda nice too."
* GetOut:
** When Andi comes across him [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice severely wounded]] after his rematch with Toxin, Flash yells at her to leave him alone.
** Noticing Flash has a symbiote, an alien arms dealer angrily demands that he leave the premises, screaming, "[[FantasticRacism We don't serve your kind here!]]" [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] due to symbiotes in general being highly seen as dangerous predatory parasites that are [[TheDreaded feared throughout the galaxy]].
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Flash's night vision causes the black parts of his eye-patches to glow green, although he's only seen using it in during his battle with Kraven and when tracking down Jack O'Lantern.
* GoodCounterpart:
** Flash is one to Eddie Brock, who he shares many similarities with. However, while Flash manages to suppress the symbiote ([[SuperpoweredEvilSide most of the time]]), Eddie never bothered suppressing it and just gave into its bloodlust.
** H'elian's Mirror Cauldron spat out the Evangelist, a tall, skinny preacher with a Bible full of razor-edged pages, as Flash's Antithesis. While Ichor was technically [[ComicBook/GhostRider Alejandra's]] Antithesis, it was designed to look like an angelic version of Agent Venom.
* GunsAkimbo: Usually uses guns this way on the covers. Switches back and forth between this trope and the proper way to use a gun in the books themselves. He's also used symbiote tendrils to wield up to six guns total.
* HairTriggerTemper: Flash still has a bit of a temper left over from his alpha-jock high-school bully days, and he has a minefield of {{Berserk Button}}s that set him off, like being offered alcohol, Jack O'Lantern's [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor antics]], his girlfriend being threatened, and his father. Unfortunately, Flash getting angry gives the symbiote a foothold to take control and start eating people.
* HandicappedBadass: Proves it during a battle without the symbiote suit against a equally depowered and legless Cletus Kasady during the ''Carnage U.S.A.'' series.
* HeadbuttingHeroes:
** Flash's first encounter with Spider-Man as Agent Venom happened when the symbiote was rampaging. Both of them were looking to save Betty Brant, who had been kidnapped by the Crime Master, but Spider-Man assumed Venom was behind it and [[PoorCommunicationKills misinterpreted Flash's garbled attempts at explaining what was happening]], which weren't helped by the symbiote trying to kill him. Flash managed to tell Spider-Man where Betty was being kept, and the two of them later argued over whether Venom had been behind the kidnapping or trying to help.
** During a manhunt for Carnage, Agent Venom bumped into [[ComicBook/ScarletSpider Kaine]], who was -- to put it lightly -- having a bad day. The Venom symbiote going on a rampage and first trying to eat and then bond to Kaine didn't help matters.
** As a member of Ross' Thunderbolts team, Flash didn't get along with any of the other members due to the nature of the missions clashing with his moral compass and making it hard to keep the symbiote in check.
** When Venom returned to Earth to find Mania, Spider-Man ambushed him and picked a fight, thinking the symbiote was still evil and had taken over Flash.
** He also gets into it with Captain America. At one point, Cap went to the military base where Flash was at to retrieve the symbiote and the two eventually meet up with neither willing to give ground. Subsequently, they get into a fight with Agent Venom punching Captain America hard enough to send him flying off a cliff (Agent Venom saved him after that).
* HealingFactor: Flash has had his head sliced in half by Crossbones and was impaled by Toxin, and recovered with a few days' R & R thanks to the symbiote.
* HeroicHost: From the start Flash has served as this for the Venom symbiote, even joining multiple super hero teams including the Secret Avengers, Ross' Thunderbolts, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Agents of the Cosmos.
* HeroicSacrifice: Despite his weakened state, he attempts to battle the Red Goblin and loses, being electrocuted by the madman. He then refuses the Venom symbiote's healing powers in fear that, should it fail, it would die -- that and he thought Spidey needed it against the Red Goblin.
* HollywoodCyborg: "[[Comicbook/SuperiorSpiderMan Peter]]" outfits him with a set of robotic legs, and uses the operation as an excuse to remove the Venom symbiote from him. Flash later throws them away, but gets a new set from 803.
* HoneyPot: The ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' Annual has the team acquiring mystical weapons for use against a rogue ComicBook/DoctorStrange (actually a disguised EldritchAbomination). Flash's mission involved... seducing and sleeping with his on/off girlfriend Valkyrie, while ComicBook/ThePunisher raided her armory and made off with her CoolSword.
* HonorBeforeReason: Has had bouts of this since the end of the Savage Six arc and his joining the Avengers.
* HulkingOut: When the symbiote takes control of Flash it usually bulks up enormously -- to the point of matching Red Hulk in height and mass - and occasionally emulates Eddie Brock's appearance as Venom, and more rarely Mac Gargan's.
* ImAHumanitarian: While Flash has tried to rein in the symbiote's appetite for human flesh, he wasn't able to completely suppressed it. When overwhelmed by a group of armed thugs in ''The Thunderbolts'' #17, he loses control and is shown chowing down on an armed thug's intestines.
* ICannotSelfTerminate:
** ComicBook/ThePunisher interprets Flash's request for the Thunderbolts to take him down with the symbiote cut loose as a request for a mercy-killing.
** Flash tells Eddie that if he ever loses control of the symbiote, he'll want Toxin to mercy-kill him.
* IHatePastMe: Flash hates that he used to be a bully in high school - especially after seeing the trauma he caused his former victims - and finds himself wishing he could go back in time and beat some sense into his teenaged self. Unfortunately, one of his students, Darius Fowler, is a GenerationXerox of his old self, which infuriates him to no end.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: After losing the symbiote, Flash laments to Betty Brant that he misses being a superhero and hates being a normal human.
* ImNotAHeroIm: Flash refuses to be called a superhero, especially one remotely close to being at the level of his idol Spider-Man. [[ImAMonster He's just Venom]].
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Flash is not adverse to [[ScareEmStraight terrifying criminals]] by threatening to eat them.
* JaggedMouth: After joining the Guardians of the Galaxy his appearance changed, with him manifesting a mouth lined with solid black teeth.
* JustEatHim: When Deadpool tried impersonating Spider-Man during Flash's fight with the Thunderbolts, Venom simply chewed him up before spitting him out in pieces.
* KidSidekick: Gets one in the form of [[DistaffCounterpart Mania]] when the Venom symbiote's clone bonds to his teenaged neighbour Andrea Benton.
* LaResistance: ''[[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Secret Wars]]: ComicBook/SpiderIsland'' is set in a domain of Battleworld based on a reality where the Spider-Queen succeeded in taking over New York. Flash is the head of a resistance that includes ComicBook/SpiderWoman, Vision, the furry half of ComicBook/WerewolfByNight, [[EnemyMine Stegron]], Spider-Man, and monster-ized versions of Captain America, [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]], ComicBook/IronMan, the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk, Betty Brant, ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson, Carlie Cooper, and [[ComicBook/{{Agent 13}} Sharon Carter]].
* LightIsGood: As Agent Anti-Venom.
* ManBitesMan: He bites off Toxin's arm during their first rematch, and occasionally munches on thugs to satiate the symbiote's hunger.
* TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife: His relationship with Betty Brant takes a nosedive after he becomes the new Venom. It is only after her surviving the Savage Six arc and learning he has been operating as Venom where she dumps him for good.
* MilitarySuperhero: He's a colonel in the US military and was working for them until a short time after the ''ComicBook/SpiderIsland'' arc. Following that, he served under ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and the Avengers while moonlighting as an independent hero. He later signed onto Red Hulk's Thunderbolts before leaving the team to join the Guardians of the Galaxy.
* MindRape: An ability Flash's "[[SuperpoweredEvilSide Venom]]" persona developed after Hellstrom stuck a demon into him, making it able to look into enemies' minds and remotely control several individuals at the same time. He only demonstrated it during his battle with the U-Foes and hasn't used it again since.
* MistakenForGay: Deadpool jokes that Flash has the hots for General Ross. His response:
-->'''Agent Venom:''' [[SarcasmMode Don't ask; don't tell.]]
* MonstrousHumanoid:
** When the symbiote went berserk when bonded to Flash both as Agent Venom and as a member of the Agents of the Cosmos, Venom would often transform into a monstrous form similar to Eddie's but with two spider legs going over his shoulders and two under his arms... or just transform into Eddie's Venom form.
** The form Flash takes when threatening a drunk Kree was ''very'' H. R. Giger-y.
* OffTheWagon: After the death of his father and being blackmailed into helping Jack O'Lantern steal the Toxin symbiote, he goes AWOL and resumes binge-drinking.
* OneWingedAngel: He has two: if he loses control of the symbiote it will revert to its monstrous form -- often with a chest insignia having two spider legs going over his collarbones and two going under his arms, while sometimes maintaining the body armour appearance and white-rimmed black eyes; and Demon Venom, which turns the spider chest insignia into a pentagram and usually comes with a pair of long, backwards curved horns and the ability to control demons.
* PromotionToParent: In his long list of aspirations, Flash notes that the one thing he ''never'' wanted to be was a father due to [[AbusiveParents his own being a jerk]]. However, he ultimately accepts the responsibility of looking after Andi after her own father is killed because of him and she's bonded to the symbiote's demonically-enhanced clone.
* PuppeteerParasite: The symbiote tries to usurp control of Flash whenever he gets sufficiently angry or the drugs suppressing it wear off. Its HorrorHunger even managed to freak out a ''demon'' Daimon Hellstrom put into Flash, though the two of them seem to have become [[VillainTeamUp BFFs]]... at least until the symbiote decides it doesn't want a roommate and apparently shunts the demon along with its clone to a new host.
* RageBreakingPoint: In the lead-up to and during ''Spider-Island'', Flash had a ''really'' rough time, to the point where he was happy to let the symbiote take over Eddie Brock. When on his way to the hospital to check on Betty and begrudgingly make amends with his dying abusive father, Flash came across the Hijacker going on a bank-robbing spree while the NYPD is struggling to recover from being turned into spider-monsters. The Hijacker runs over a security guard ploughing through a bank wall, and when Agent Venom tries to stop him he rockets his tank into the air and accidentally runs over a mother and her young son. Flash promptly goes berserk and ambushes the Hijacker when gets back to his base, breaking his fingers off, beating his face in, making him beg for his life, and then biting his head off.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: When he joins the Thunderbolts, Flash shifts the white parts of the symbiote to red, much to ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'s derision.
-->'''Agent Venom:''' ...I might as well fall into compliance.\\
'''Deadpool:''' Brown-noser.\\
'''Agent Venom:''' Uniforms serve a purpose, you little [[SymbolSwearing $%&#%#]]. They let the ''dumber'' ones in the squad know which people ''not'' to shoot.
* RePower: While Flash may have lost the Venom symbiote, as part of ''Venom Inc.'' he became ''Agent Anti-Venom''.
* SecondSuperIdentity: In order to avoid people figuring out that he's Venom after moving to Philadelphia, Flash uses the symbiote's shapeshifting to come up with secondary super identities, including a spectral nun called Hail Mary, the Mother Superior of Punishment.
* SelfDestructMechanism: Initially had one of these placed by the government on him if he ever went out of control in the suit, though the symbiote later removed the device.
* SleepWalking: Develops a dangerous example due to the demon inside of him taking over, where while asleep he lashes out at various people ranging from {{Mooks}} he defeated earlier to terrorizing his own traumatized mother.
* SpeakInUnison: Mania does this to annoy him while he's threatening Crossbones and Master Mayham.
* SpikesOfVillainy: An antiheroic example. The symbiote's pauldrons, vambraces, and greaves were often drawn as being studded with spikes meant to make them resemble an arthropod carapace.
* SuperheroPackingHeat: One of the trademarks of Flash's Venom is that he is usually armed with some form of gun or at least starts out like that. He even stores spare pistols using the symbiote's pocket dimension ability.
--> '''Spider-Man:''' The Punisher is dressed like me.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide:
** If Flash loses his temper or surpasses the drugs' time limit the symbiote takes control and rampages, often taking on appearances similar to Brock's or Gargan's incarnations. Following it being purged of bloodlust, this is (presumably) no longer an issue, though it can still manifest a fanged mouth and tongue at will.
** Later he gets a actual demon placed in his body that occasionally tries to take over him.
* TaintedVeins: There are visible veins in Flash's "mask" in ''Carnage U.S.A.''
* TeethClenchedTeamwork:
** Flash and the symbiote initially only got along because Flash kept it chemically lobotomized most of the time and he liked being able to walk, and because it was sick of changing hosts all the time and all its favorite hosts wanted it dead. Flash was relieved when it briefly abandoned him to re-bond with Eddie Brock, and only took it back because he needed Eddie's [[HealingHands Anti-Venom powers]] intact, while the symbiote jumped at the opportunity to return to its former hosts and only reluctantly returned to Flash.
** During the Minimum Carnage crossover, Scarlet Spider and Agent Venom don't get along too well, with Flash being less-than impressed with Kaine's callousness and hair-trigger temper. Things aren't helped with the Venom symbiote takes over Flash, beats the snot out of Kaine, and tries to leave Flash to take over him.
** When the Symbiote Slayers attack the high school where Flash is working as a gym coach, Flash and Eddie set aside their differences and grudgingly work together, though Flash briefly considers letting the machines kill Eddie.
* TerrorHero: Like Eddie, Flash is a Type 1 + 3 more than willing to bust out the [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily teeth]], talons, and BrainFood threats to [[ScareEmStraight scare thugs into submission]].
* ThemeMobile: Once had the symbiote merge with a junked car to create the [[http://cdn.denofgeek.us/sites/denofgeekus/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/venommo10.jpg Venom-Mobile]], which came complete with an "Agent Venom" VanityLicensePlate.
* TokenGoodTeammate: Flash was the most moral member of the Red Hulk's Thunderbolts, and ultimately quit due to their proclivity towards excessive lethal force undermining his control of the symbiote.
* TopHeavyGuy:
** Whenever Flash gets mad or the symbiote takes over, it usually bulks up to the proportions it had when bonded to Eddie Brock and Mac Gargan.
** ''[[ComicBook/VenomSpaceKnight Space Knight]]'' Venom was given a bulky appearance as a deliberate callback to when Eddie first wore the symbiote.
* UnstoppableRage: After CListFodder Hijacker murders a security guard and a mother and her son with his battle tank in front of him, Flash goes berserk and tracks him to his lair. He proceeds to [[{{Fingore}} break off Hijacker's fingers]] and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beat him to near-death]], then tells the thug to beg for his life before [[OffWithHisHead biting his head off]] and spitting it back out.
-->'''Flash''': I could take him to the cops. Vehicular manslaughter, fleeing the scene of a crime - he'd get life in jail. But he doesn't ''deserve'' life ''anywhere.''
* VitriolicBestBuds: Flash and Peter rib each other over their past relationship as a JerkJock and {{Nerd}}, though they're HeadbuttingHeroes as Venom and Spider-Man.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Flash used the symbiote to assume a multitude of appearances ranging from a Satanic cultist to a morbidly obese nurse. While trying to stay incognito early on in Philly, Flash had some fun with this aspect of the symbiote by coming up with a few alternate superhero identities, such as a chain-wielding ghostly nun.
* WeaponOfChoice: While Flash is good with a variety of guns, semi-automatic pistols are his favourite, and he keeps several stored in the symbiote's vambraces.
* WellDoneSonGuy: All Flash wanted growing up was his abusive alcoholic father's approval.
* WingedHumanoid: When Flash loses control of the symbiote after joining the Guardians, his new Venom form has bizarre bat/insect wings instead of arms.
* WorkingWithTheEx: His physical therapist ended up being his ex-wife Sha Shan Nguyen.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mania / '''Scream III''']]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/348px-andrea_benton_earth-616_from_venom_vol_2_38_001_1525.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:As Mania]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scream_andi_benton.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:As Scream]]

-> '''AKA:''' Andrea "Andi" Benton
-> '''Debut:''' ''Venom'' Vol. 2, #31; ''Venom'' Vol. 2, #38 (as Mania); ''Absolute Carnage: Scream'' #3 (as Scream)

--> ''"Venom? Puh-leeze! Let'cha in on a lil' secret, asswipes. I'm ''nastier''. ''Angrier''. And way ''scarier'' than Venom. He's a big softie. I'm Mania. I'm the vicious cat, and I came to scratch out some eyes."''

A teenage girl who lived in the apartment above Flash's and goes to the high school where is an assistant gym coach, Andi noticed something was unusual about her teacher and learned that he was Agent Venom. Shortly afterwards, her family was attacked by Jack O'Lantern in an attempt to get to Flash, her father dying in this attack. When Flash extended the Venom symbiote in an attempt to protect Andi, the cloned portion it had previously reabsorbed separated and bonded to her, and she would go onto dub herself '''Mania'''.
\\\
She also later learned that the portion of the symbiote she possessed contained the hell mark bestowed upon Venom by Mephisto and possibly the demon Daimon Hellstrom had possessed him with. She later lost her symbiote, but would retain her hell mark and its demonic powers and continued to fight crime in Philadelphia.
\\\
After being hunted by Carnage during his quest to resurrect Knull, Andi ran into Patricia Robertson while she was bonded to the Scream symbiote. The two worked to protect innocents before Patricia was killed by Cletus Kasady, her symbiote bonding to Andi and turning her into the third '''Scream'''. Alone and stranded in New York, Andi struggled with depression and PTSD before being dragged into a new conflict with another primordial symbiote, Grendel's Mother, which sought to claim the Scream symbiote as her surrogate daughter.
----
* AlternateSelf: One of the alternate timelines or futures [[http://i.imgur.com/L9u5geU.jpg glimpsed]] by the Rigellian Recorder in ''Deadpool & the Mercs for Money'' #5 showed Mania as a member of a team that included {{ComicBook/Valkyrie|MarvelComics}}, ComicBook/AdamWarlock, a female [[ComicBook/TheVision Vision]], and what looked like the Superior Spider-Man.
* AmbiguouslyGay: In ''ComicBook/ScreamCurseOfCarnage'', Andi encounters a fellow homeless girl named Guinevere who acts flirtatiously towards her; and despite her best efforts to be standoffish and push Guinevere away Andi finds herself being playful towards her, confusing both the Scream symbiote and herself. The series being CutShort kiboshed the development of any relationship between Andi and Guinevere, and when Clay [=McLeod=] Chapman was asked whether he'd planned to make Andi a lesbian or [[AmbiguouslyBi bisexual]] he teasingly replied that he would never tell.
* AntiHero: Andi is more than willing to mow down any crook who gets between her and Lord Ogre. Flash tries to restrain her, but isn't very successful.
* AnimeHair: As Mania, Andi gains a spiky hairdo resembling VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog.
* TheApprentice: Venom tells Spider-Man that Mania is his protégé. According to Cullen Bunn, Toxin (Eddie Brock) also took her under his wing before being apprehended by the FBI.
* BadassBoast: Mania threatened to stomp a mud-hole through ''ComicBook/{{Mephisto}}'', and when she made her debut gave a group of Lord Ogre's henchmen a chilling little introduction.
* BladeBelowTheShoulder: Can transform her arms into scythe or sword-like blades.
* BreathWeapon: After first bonding to the Scream symbiote she blasts Dark Carnage with a torrent of hellfire exhaled from her jaws.
* BroughtDownToBadass: While the Mania symbiote was stolen by Lee Price at the beginning of ''Venom Inc.'', Andi still had [[MarkOfTheBeast the Hell-Mark]]'s demonic powers.
* TheBusCameBack: Despite Flash essentially adopting her and promising to help rid her of the Hell Mark at the end of ''Venom'' Vol. 2, he joined up with the Guardians of the Galaxy with [[PutOnTheBus nary a mention or thought of her]], leading to fans fearing she'd been KilledOffScreen by the DOA or Toxin. It's revealed that Flash told her he was leaving, but he essentially forgot all about her after going into space and that the Hell Mark subsequently corrupted both her and her symbiote.
* CallBack: Andi was bonded to the clone of the Venom symbiote created way back in 2003's ''Shiver'' arc.
* TheCorruption: ''ComicBook/VenomSpaceKnight'' reveals that the Hell-Mark has corrupted her symbiote, causing it to take complete control of her and slaughter criminals. It then transferred to her and turned her evil until she was injected with an elixir that suppressed its influence.
* DarkActionGirl: A female [[KidHero Kid]] AntiHero who kicks ass and takes names with a demonically-enhanced alien parasite for a costume.
* DemonOfHumanOrigin: In ''Web of Venom: Funeral Pyre'', she uses the Hell-Mark to turn into a demon in order to even the odds against Carnage. It doesn't work.
* DemonicPossession: Bears Mephisto's hell mark and possibly Daimon Hellstrom's demon.
* DependingOnTheArtist:
** Declan Shalvey intended her to be in her early-to-mid teens and an aversion to the MostCommonSuperpower trope, and was unhappy with how she was drawn by R.B. Silva and Gerardo Sandoval -- who left out her facial piercings and greatly increased her bust size starting with ''Venom: Space Knight''.
** In her first appearance as Scream, Andi was initially drawn with black hair and a red lower jaw to distinguish her from Donna and Patricia's appearances; though in ''Scream: Curse of Carnage'' she's drawn as identical to them.
* DespairEventHorizon: ''Scream: Curse of Carnage'' opens with her in the middle of one, being alone in New York with everyone she cares about either having abandoned her or having been killed. It gets so bad that she tries to kill herself by jumping off the top of a bridge, only for the Scream symbiote to save her.
* DiscardAndDraw: Aside from blasting Carnage with a torrent of hellfire in ''Absolute Carnage: Scream'' #3, she's pretty much never shown using her symbiote and Hell-Mark together, which makes them seem mutually exclusive.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Andi's eyes glow red when her Hell-Mark activates.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: The Mania symbiote is revealed to actually be afraid of the Hell Mark-corrupted Andi in ''ComicBook/VenomSpaceKnight #12''.
* InadequateInheritor: Mania sees Eddie Brock as being an inferior Venom to Flash Thompson in ''Venomverse'', sneering that he's not ''her'' Venom.
* InterruptedSuicide: At the beginning of ''Scream: Curse of Carnage'', Andi gives in to despair and throws herself off a bridge but is saved by the Scream symbiote.
* KidHero: While her age has never been stated, she attends high-school and Declan Shalvey envisioned her as being in her early-to-mid teens.
* KidHeroAllGrownUp: By the time of ''Web of Venom: Funeral Pyre'', Andi has graduated from high school and is struggling to adjust to civilian life while coping with the loss of her symbiote and the death of her mentor/father-figure. In ''ComicBook/ScreamCurseOfCarnage'', she falls on hard times after having her remaining family killed, being stranded in New York, and bonding to the Scream symbiote.
* KidSidekick: She plays this role to Agent Venom, initially with great reluctance.
* LeeroyJenkins: Despite promising Flash that she'll wait for him to get back from checking up Daimon Hellstrom, she goes on a rampage the moment he boards the plane.
* LegacyCharacter: She's the third Scream, after Donna Diego and Patricia Robertson.
* LittleMissBadass: When she was only a high-school student, she threatened [[SatanicArchetype Mephisto]], a powerful demon-lord.
* MarkOfTheBeast: Her Hell-Mark manifests as a flaming pentagram either on her chest or forehead.
* MindManipulation: Can take control of demons using the hell mark.
* MissingMom: Andi's mother left when she was young, forming the root of Andi's abandonment issues.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: When pissed off she manifests a mouth full of fangs. When rampaging against the fake Jack O'Lantern, her whole face becomes a massive LampreyMouth out of sheer hatred and bloodlust.
* MostCommonSuperpower: Andi was originally designed by Delcan Shalvey as a deliberate aversion to this, being flat-chested. To Delcan's dismay, beginning in ''Venom: Space Knight'' she was drawn with an increasingly large chest, with her Scream form being just as busty as Donna and Patricia's.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When Andi comes to her senses and sees the destruction she caused as a result of succumbing to the Hell-Mark in ''Venom: Space Knight'', she's horrified.
* NinetiesAntiHero: Leaving aside her [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast choice of alias]], as Mania Andi sports a loose belt, knee-pads, vambrace, bangles, and army boots, all studded with spikes. She's also more vicious and unrestrained than Flash is.
* OhCrap: When she realizes Lord Ogre ''wasn't'' bluffing about the dead man's switch-rigged bio-bomb.
* OutOfFocus: She disappeared for the majority of ''ComicBook/VenomSpaceKnight'', and only returned in ''Venom Inc.'' so that Lee Price could steal her symbiote.
* PlayingWithFire: One of the powers granted by the hellmark, and one she retains after being separated from her symbiote. She later uses it against its thief to great effect.
* PossessionImpliesMastery: One of the things that tipped Flash off to the fact that something was off about Mania was how fast she mastered the symbiote's abilities.
* PrehensileHair: As Scream, Andi's hair initially wasn't nearly as long as Donna's and Patricia's, but she can still extend it into tendrils.
* PutOnABus: Andi was left to fill in for Flash on Earth while he served with the Guardians of the Galaxy, to the point Flash literally forgot about her and had to return after being informed her symbiote was corrupted. She's been put back on the bus after Venom Inc., going back to Philadelphia to act as its protector while Flash stayed in New York to "keep Brock and Spidey from killing each other".
* RebelliousSpirit: She has numerous facial piercings, dyes her hair purple, and routinely cuts class.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: When the fake Jack O'Lantern kills her father, Andi tried to tear him apart and smother him with the symbiote, even though she knew he'd been hypnotized by the real Jack O'Lantern, until Flash called her off. She also swore revenge against Lord Ogre and was even willing to detonate the dead man's switch he had connected to a bioweapon powerful enough to take out half of Philly, reasoning that the symbiote would make her immune to the fallout.
* RubberMan: She can stretch her limbs to attack foes at a distance.
* TheSlacker: Was this before Jack O'Lantern paid her and her father a visit.
* SpeakInUnison: Does this with Venom to annoy him while they're threatening Crossbones and Master Mayhem.
* StreetUrchin: After Venom left for space, Andi ended up living in the sewers. After being stranded in New York in the wake of ''Absolute Carnage'', she's stuck living at the F.E.A.S.T. shelter and spends most of her nights invoking MuggingTheMonster by hunting would-be rapists to vent her anger and despair on.
* SummonMagic: Andi can use her Hell-Mark to summon demons, which lands her on a suspect list in ''Monsters Unleashed'' #2 when giant monsters start popping up.
* TroubledFetalPosition: When the corrupted Mania symbiote retracts from her after a night of violence, Andi huddles into a fetal position, crying and begging for help.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: At the beginning of ''Scream: Curse of Carnage'', Andi hated being bonded to the Scream symbiote and rejected its attempts to help and protect her.
* WhatTheHellHero: Has been on the receiving end of several from Flash regarding her less-than-heroic behaviour. She responds with YoureNotMyFather, but in the end they share a heartfelt hug.
* YoureNotMyFather:
** When Flash starts getting [[PapaWolf overly protective of her]] and disrupting her RoaringRampageOfRevenge, Mania yells at him that he is not her father. This is enough to shock Flash out of his monstrous Venom form, though they later reconcile with a hug, and it's clear that she ''does'' view him as a surrogate father.
** In ''Scream: Curse of Carnage'', when she's confronted by an undead symbiote-monster impersonating her mother for a second time, she doesn't fall for it and angrily rips it to shreds. She also repudiates Big Mother's attempts to claim the Scream symbiote as her "daughter".
* YouKilledMyFather: The reason she wanted Lord Ogre dead was that the bounty he put on Flash got her father killed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Superior Venom]]

[[quoteright:278:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/superior_venom_1205.png]]

-> '''AKA:''' [[ComicBook/DoctorOctopus Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius]] in the body of Peter Benjamin Parker
-> '''Debut:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #697; ''Superior Spider-Man'' #23 (as Superior Venom)

--> ''"We... are... the SUPERIOR VENOM!"''

When Agent Venom returned to New York City to hunt down the supposedly resurrected Crime Master and his minions, the Superior Spider-Man intervened and helped him. Otto would then insist on helping Flash, in actuality wanting to destroy the Venom symbiote. Instead, it bonded to him and he relished its power, dubbing himself the '''Superior Venom'''.

----
* AngelFaceDemonFace: When Otto was in control of the symbiote his eye lenses and webbing motif were smooth. However, he could assume a monstrous form with a fanged maw, jagged eyes, a distorted webbing motif.
* BadLiar: Otto tells everyone that he was being controlled by traces of the symbiote that infected him when Spider-Man fought Agent Venom in ''Venom'' Vol. 2 #4. Mary Jane buys the excuse, but the Avengers do not.
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Like Flash, Superior Venom has white-rimmed black lenses for eyes. Unlike Flash, Otto plays this trope straight by becoming increasingly brutal and bloodthirsty.
* CombatTentacles: The symbiote turns Otto's robotic spider legs into biomechanical tentacles resembling the ones he had as Doctor Octopus.
* CurbStompBattle: Otto easily defeated Bruin, Devil-Spider, Steeplejack, Tumbler, Ringer, and Blaze - a troop of the Hobgoblin's minions. When the Avengers stopped him from killing Blaze, Otto proceeded to take them all on at once and nearly won. He tanked a direct blow from Mjolnir while staggering Thor with a punch of his own, and badly damaged Iron Man's Model 42 armor with a single blow.
* FightingFromTheInside: In a striking inversion, the ''symbiote'' was the one fighting against Otto's control. When it succeeded in taking him over, Otto unsuccessfully tried to fight it off and gave up until Ghost Peter intervened.
* HijackingCthulhu: Otto dominated the symbiote with his will, preventing it from returning to Flash. The symbiote later [[PuppeteerParasite returned the favor]].
--> '''Symbiote:''' Old host... bad. Tastes... wrong. Want to go home.
--> '''Flash:''' That's it. Come to Flash. Back where you belong.
--> '''Otto:''' I think not!
* HulkingOut: Superior Venom bulks up massively when the symbiote takes over.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: The reason Otto decided to keep the symbiote instead of killing it or putting it back into containment.
* MythologyGag:
** The symbiote turned Otto's robotic spider legs into [[CombatTentacles biomechanical tentacles]] similar to the ones he had as Doctor Octopus.
** Otto refers to himself as a Lethal Protector, Eddie Brock's title during his period as an anti-hero.
* OhCrap: When Otto realizes the symbiote has been undermining his will and that he can't control it anymore, let alone force it to leave him, he starts to panic and gives up. Fortunately for him, Peter's psyche intervenes.
* SssssnakeTalk: As Otto's control over the symbiote wavered his speech became increasingly sibilant.
* TaintedVeins: Superior Venom possesses a white webbing motif on his head and shoulders, as a MythologyGag to Venom in ''Film/SpiderMan3''. When he goes berserk, it becomes distorted and even more vein-like.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: As Otto's control over the symbiote slips, he speaks in distorted red speech bubbles with jagged white text, though he often catches himself and goes back to speaking normally. When the symbiote fully takes over, the speech bubbles become black.
* WhatTheHellHero: When Flash asks the symbiote to come back to him a second time, it fully seizes control of Otto and lays into him verbally and physically for keeping it chemically suppressed.
--> '''Venom:''' You... used chemicals, controlled me. Now I am in control. Better, faster, stronger... Sssuperior!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Venom V / Maniac]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/venom_v.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:As Venom]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_amazing_spider_man_vol_1_792_leinil_francis_variant.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:As Maniac]]

-->'''AKA:''' Lee Price
-->'''Debut:''' ''Venom'' Vol. 3 #1

Lee Price was born in Queens to abusive parents. Eventually, he would set fire to his home, killing his parents along with some others, getting away with it thanks to the presence of a mutant neighbour who possessed fire powers. He would then join the Army Rangers, where he was injured in a mine explosion that killed several members of his squad and cost him two fingers on his left hand. Discharged, unable to get his benefits and desperate for employment, he does some light criminal work for Black Cat before the Venom symbiote bonds with him when he is ambushed. The symbiote is ecstatic, thinking Lee to be an honourable soldier like Flash Thompson, but Lee revealing his true nature to the symbiote and imposing his will on it, all while using it to further his own position within the criminal underworld while secretly also operating as '''Venom'''.
\\\
He eventually loses the symbiote when he is attacked by the authorities and Spider-Man. Wanting it back, he arranged for his lawyer to have him acquitted for his crimes and then ambushes Andi Benton, stealing the Mania symbiote and rechristening himself '''Maniac'''. Using the symbiote to control others, he begins a crime organisation and comes into conflict with Spider-Man, Venom, Anti-Venom and Black Cat.

----
* AbusiveParents: Price states that his father was a violent man who beat both him and his mother, and abandoned him after her death. It's later revealed that he murdered both his parents to stop them from beating him.
* AnimeHair: In his initial appearance he has slicked-back spiky black hair with a couple of strands that dangle alongside his face, giving him a striking resemblance to Zack Fair from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''.
* BadassLongCoat: He's a former soldier and host to to the Venom symbiote, which he's subdued with his will alone; and usually wears a brown trench coat, which accentuates his sinister appearance. As Maniac, he shifts the Mania symbiote into a black and white trench coat.
* BigBad: Lee Price returns as the main antagonist of the ''Venom Inc.'' crossover, where he steals the Mania symbiote from Andi Benton and renames himself Maniac.
* BigShutUp: When the Venom symbiote gushes about how much it's looking forward to making the world a better place with him, Price snaps at it to shut up and then dominates it with his will.
* CharacterDeath: Price was killed by Cletus Kasady, who ripped the Mania symbiote out of him while impersonating Eddie Brock.
* CompositeCharacter: Costa has stated that Price takes aspects from all previous hosts of Venom. So far he's exhibited a similar appearance to Brock's Venom form, Flash's military background, and Gargan's villainous role.
* TheCorrupter: The symbiote was searching for a worthy host to replace Flash Thompson... but it picked the wrong person. It was initially excited to bond to another soldier, but upon discovering how callous and cruel Price was it came to intensely dislike him. Price, however, revels in the power it gives him and is slowly [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen turning the symbiote from a heroic Agent of the Cosmos back into a "slathering, fanged monster"]]. In issue 4, Price notes that the symbiote is becoming less eloquent and more vicious as its corruption worsens. Using the Mania symbiote, it's gotten worse -- he can now ''possess other people''.
* CurbStompBattle: Despite Gargan having outfitted his Scorpion suit with sonic and flame weapons, once Price transforms into Venom the only thing that saves Mac from being eaten is Spider-Man's timely intervention.
* DependingOnTheArtist: How old he looks fluctuates. As originally drawn by Gerardo Sandoval, he seems to be in his mid-early twenties, which fits with the dialogue, such as Black Cat calling him "kid". However, some later artists took to drawing him older, older than ''her'', in fact, most notably in his final appearance.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: His very first scene sets him up as a stoic man with no moral qualms about killing people. He even creeps out longtime super-villain and former Venom host Mac Gargan by barely saying anything. His response to being asked if he's killed anyone is about as casual as it gets.
--> '''Gargan''': You ever kill anybody?\\
'''Price''': Yeah. Why? We gonna have to kill someone for this job?
* EvilCounterpart: As a soldier who was unable to serve as a result of losing a limb, Price serves as one to Flash Thompson -- thus far being a thoroughly unlikable psychopathic {{Jerkass}}.
* EvilVersusEvil: Price bonding to the Venom symbiote leads to him being targeted by the Scorpion.
* FinGore: Price lost the ring and pinky fingers of his left hand in an explosion, which saw him discharged from the military. He wears a glove on his left hand to hide this, but bonding with the symbiote evidently healed him, as both of his hands look normal on the final page of his first issue.
* FlatWhat: His response when FBI Agent Bagman, rather than ask him to be a mole in Black Cat's syndicate, tells him to reveal Spider-Man's civilian identity.
* FromCamouflageToCriminal: He was a member of the Army Rangers who lost part of his hand in a mine explosion, and turned to crime to make ends meet when his disability cheques failed to come in.
* HateSink: ''Dear God''. There's almost no likeable or redeeming qualities from him. Even Mac Gargan, the previous villainous host of Venom, [[EvenEvilHasStandards is creeped out by him]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Casually murders his best friend since kindergarten because he knows Tony can't keep a secret.
* HulkingOut: After Agent Anti-Venom, Venom, Mania, and Spider-Man defeat and depower his Inklings, Lee Price reabsorbs the distributed parts of the Mania symbiote and transforms into his monstrous Venom form, roaring that the symbiote only belongs to him. [[spoiler:In the following issue he grows even bigger.]]
* INeverToldYouMyName: The symbiote causes Lee to slip up and call Gargan Black Cat's "pet Scorpion," causing Gargan to become suspicious since he'd never mentioned his super villain codename.
* ImAHumanitarian: As Venom, Price tries to bite off Mac Gargan's head and later attempts to eat him like an oyster.
* ImmuneToMindControl: Thanks to his military training, Price has been conditioned to be resistant to psychic incursions, including the symbiote's.
* IneffectualLoner: Price adamantly insists that friends and allies are a liability, even as his plans come crashing down around him.
* LegacyCharacter: Lee Price is the Venom symbiote's fifth main host, and second outright villainous host after Mac Gargan. He's also the Mania symbiote's sixteenth host.
* LoveIsAWeakness: When the symbiote reveals that Lee wasn't always so callous and once had friends and comrades in the army, he sneers that all that taught him was that friends are a weakness.
* MakeMyMonsterGrow: In the final issue of ''Venom Inc.'', Price reabsorbs the scattered pieces of the Mania symbiote and grows into a fifty-foot tall Venom.
* MindRape: He forces the symbiote to view his memories of his traumatic childhood in order to shut it up when it berates him for using its powers to kill wantonly. When it finally separates from him, the symbiote returns the favour by doing to Lee what it did to Flash on its first host's homeworld.
* MissingMom: His mother was killed in an accident involving a pyrokinetic mutant child when he was a boy.
* MistakenIdentity: Not knowing the symbiote changed hosts, Spider-Man initially mistakes Price-as-Venom for Flash Thompson.
* MoreThanMindControl: As Maniac, he can control people by infecting them with a portion of the symbiote, somewhat similarly to Carnage's former ability.
* MortonsFork: After cornering Price in Tony's apartment, Agent Bagman offers him an ultimatum: work as a mole for the FBI, or kill him and risk being blown up by a high-explosive RPG. Both choices ruin Price's plans of anonymity, but Bagman points out that even if he survives the RPG, Black Cat would become suspicious and he would be targeted by every law enforcement agency and superhero on the planet.
* NeckSnap: He casually breaks the neck of his childhood friend Tony, on account of him being unable to keep secrets.
* NotSoStoic: Beneath his mask of stoicism and anger is a lonely, abused child who doesn't want to be alone.
* PartialTransformation: As Maniac, rather than take on a monstrous appearance like he did as Venom, Price forms the symbiote into a trench coat and gloves, and it only covers his face -- leaving his mouth and occasionally his eyes visible behind its eyespots and jaws.
* PerpetualFrowner: He almost-constantly sports a serious expression, to the extent that it creeps even the likes of Mac Gargan out. The only time he was shown smiling is as a child, when witnessing the powers of a pyrokinetic mutant, or in the rare occasions he breaks into a [[SlasherSmile menacing grin]].
* PragmaticVillainy: Price is cunning and scheming by nature, seeking to exploit every opportunity to advance his position while not drawing attention to himself. As a result, he eschews standard super-villain schemes and tries to avoid unnecessary collateral damage, not because he's a good person but because it's impractical and counterproductive.
* ReplacementGoldfish: After being taken from Flash Thompson and upon its escape, the Venom symbiote was looking for any suitable host. Once it catches a glimpse of Lee's life as a soldier, it assumes him to be like the heroic Flash Thompson and immediately tries to bond with him... only to realise the differences between the two.
* {{Revenge}}: His goal in ''Venom Inc.'' is to take revenge on Venom, Spider-Man, and Black Cat for ruining him and getting him arrested at the end of ''Venom'' Vol. 3.
* RevisitingTheRoots: Mike Costa mentions that he's harkening back to the original Venom as depicted by David Michelinie, Todd [=McFarlane=], and Erik Larsen.
* SelfMadeOrphan: The symbiote reveals he killed his own parents, though Lee protests that he did so to stop them from hurting him anymore.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Price had a rough life growing up, which he joined the Army Rangers to escape. He was injured in combat when a mine blew up next to his squad, and was discharged. Mac Gargan pegs him as having P.T.S.D., but gives him NoSympathy.
* SlasherSmile: Lee breaks out into a menacing grin when the symbiote lets slip about its sanguinary past, and when telling Patrick Healy to hang up the phone.
* SociopathicSoldier: Like Flash Thompson, Lee Price is a soldier, specifically a former Army Ranger... but he completely lacks Flash's moral compass. As a result of his messed up childhood and possible PTSD from serving overseas, Price is cold and ruthless to an extent that unsettles even hardened criminals like Mac Gargan. His first action upon bonding to the Venom symbiote is to tell it to shut up and then use it to slaughter both Tombstone's and Black Cat's groups of thugs, the latter of whom he was working for.
* TheStarscream: Once his plans to remain anonymous and keep his possession of the symbiote secret are FUBAR'd, Price decides to turn Adams over to the FBI so that Black Cat can be put away for good, and then take over her organization.
* TheStoic: Price rarely shows emotion, lecturing the outraged Venom symbiote that it's the people who stay calm who are the victors. Even Mac Gargan is creeped out by how emotionless he appears.
* TattooedCrook: As revealed in the 2019 Free Comic Book Day ''Venom/Spider-Man'' issue, while imprisoned in Ryker's Island he gets a tattoo of Venom's chest insignia.
* VillainProtagonist: Price is a stoic psychopath who gives the Venom symbiote a taste of its own medicine by dominating it with his will and using it to commit crimes. Costa has drawn comparisons with his intentions for Price and Walter White from ''Breaking Bad'': an ordinary if unscrupulous man in a desperate situation who stumbles across something that grants him the power to change his circumstances for the better, but is corrupted by that power into something even worse than he started out as.
* VolumetricMouth: When Venom'd up and about to eat the Scorpion like an oyster, Price's mouth opens to an enormous extent.
* WarIsHell: He expresses this view to Gargan, telling him he never wants to serve another tour of duty again.
[[/folder]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Black Cat -- having mistaken him for Spider-Man -- is disgusted when Deadpool admits to knowing many floozies and flirts with Killer Thrill, snapping that she's almost tempted to let the bounty hunter kill him.

* CaptainErsatz: What if ComicBook/{{Carnage}} was Venom?

* EvilIsPetty: Started a gang war just to mess with J. Jonah Jameson's reputation, vomited a half-digested squirrel onto Dexter Bennet's desk to get back at him for an unflattering article in the [=DB=], and tried to kill [[Characters/IncredibleHulkSupportingCharacters Carmilla Black]] for having the ''audacity'' to use his old nom de guerre.

[[WMG:[[center: [- [[Characters/VenomHosts Hosts of Venom]] | [[Characters/AlternateIncarnationsOfVenom Alternate Incarnations of Venom Characters Page]] | [[Characters/VenomRoguesGallery Venom Villains]] | [[Characters/{{Carnage}} Carnage Characters Page]]]] -]]]

[[center: [- [[Characters/{{Venom}} Main Venom Page]] | [[Characters/AlternateIncarnationsOfVenom Alternate Incarnations of Venom Characters Page]] | [[Characters/VenomRoguesGallery Venom Villains]] | [[Characters/{{Carnage}} Carnage Characters Page]]]] -]

* AmbiguouslyGay: In ''ComicBook/ScreamCurseOfCarnage'', Andi encounters a fellow homeless girl named Guinevere who acts flirtatiously towards her; and despite her best efforts to be standoffish and push Guinevere away Andi finds herself being playful towards her, confusing the Scream symbiote. The series being CutShort kiboshed the development of any relationship between Andi and Guinevere, and when Clay [=McLeod=] Chapman was asked whether he'd planned to make Andi a lesbian or [[AmbiguouslyBi bisexual]] he teasingly replied that he would never tell.

** In ''Scream: Curse of Carnage'', when [[spoiler:she's confronted by an undead symbiote-monster impersonating her mother for a second time, she doesn't fall for it and angrily rips it to shreds]].

[[center: [- [[Characters/SpiderManRoguesGallery Main Spidey villains page]] | [[Characters/{{Venom}} Main Venom Page]] | [[Characters/AlternateIncarnationsOfVenom Alternate Incarnations of Venom Characters Page]] | [[Characters/VenomRoguesGallery Venom Villains]] | [[Characters/{{Carnage}} Carnage Characters Page]]]] -]

** The Venom symbiote notes that while Eddie says that he dislikes [[Characters/SpiderManSchoolmates Liz Allan]], he also thinks about her a lot and experiences "strange feelings" whenever they visit her at Alchemax.

* EvilIsPetty: Started a gang war just to mess with J. Jonah Jameson's reputation, vomited a half-digested squirrel onto Dexter Bennet's desk to get back at him for an unflattering article in the [=DB=], and tried to kill [[Characters/IncredibleHulk Carmilla Black]] for having the ''audacity'' to use his old nom de guerre.

[[folder:Mania / Scream III]]

* BroughtDownToBadass: While her symbiote was stolen by Lee Price at the beginning of ''Venom Inc.'', Andi still has [[MarkOfTheBeast the Hell-Mark]]'s demonic powers.

* PrehensileHair: As Scream, Andi's hair initiallu wasn't nearly as long as Donna's and Patricia's, but she can still extend it into tendrils.

* WhatTheHellHero: Has been on the receiving end of several from Flash regarding her less-than heroic behaviour. She responds with YoureNotMyFather, but in the end they share a heartfelt hug.

* DependingOnTheArtist: Declan Shalvey intended her to be in her early-to-mid teens and an aversion to the MostCommonSuperpower trope, and was unhappy with how she was drawn by R.B. Silva and Gerardo Sandoval -- who left out her facial piercings and greatly increased her bust size starting with ''Venom: Space Knight''.

* HorrifyingTheHorror: The symbiote is revealed to actually be afraid of the Hell Mark-corrupted Andi in ''ComicBook/VenomSpaceKnight #12''.

* LittleMissBadass: Is only a high-school student, but threatens to "stomp a mud-hole" through [[SatanicArchetype Mephisto]], a powerful demon-lord.

* PrehensileHair: As Scream, Andi's hair isn't nearly as long as Donna's and Patricia's, but she can still extend it into tendrils.

* SchrodingersCanon: Cullen Bunn has gone on record saying that ''Deadpool: Back in Black'' is canon, and has included references to it in ''Poison-X'' and ''Deadpool: Assassin'' #4. Donny Cates has stated on Twitter that as far as he's concerned it ''isn't'' canon, with an editorial note in ''Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool'' stating that they're not counting it.

[[folder:Venom 2099 (original run)]]
->'''AKA''': Kron Stone\\
'''Debut''': ''ComicBook/ThePunisher2099'' #1; ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2099'', Vol.1, #35 (as Venom)

The son of Tyler Stone, the CEO of Alchemax. A psychologist murderer, he was left for dead in the sewers by the Punisher, only to find the severely weakened Venom symbiote there and bond with it. The two now set to kill Tyler Stone, and they becone a mortal enemy of Spider-Man in the process - not that this wasn't the case already...

For tropes on him, go to [[Characters/SpiderMan2099 this page]].
[[/folder]]

[[caption-width-right:350:As Mania]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scream_andi_benton.png]]
[[caption-width-right:328:As Scream]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: In ''ComicBook/ScreamCurseOfCarnage'', Andi encounters a fellow homeless girl named Guinevere who acts flirtatiously towards her; and despite her best efforts to be standoffish and push Guinevere away Andi finds herself being playful towards her, confusing the Scream symbiote. The series being CutShort kiboshed the development of any relationship between Andi and Guinevere, and when Clay [=McLeod=] Chapman was asked whether he'd planned to make Andi a lesbian or [[AmbiguouslyBi|bisexual]] he teasingly replied that he would never tell.

* AmbiguouslyGay: In ''ComicBook/ScreamCurseOfCarnage'', Andi encounters a fellow homeless girl named Guinevere who acts flirtatiously towards her; and despite her best efforts to be standoffish and push Guinevere away Andi finds herself being playful towards her, confusing the Scream symbiote.

** Despite his obsession with his ex-wife Ann Weying, in the 90s series Eddie had a crush on Beck Underwood, a woman living in the underground city beneath San Fancisco.

** After reuniting with the Venom symbiote, Eddie begins calling it "my love" and "dear".
** The Venom symbiote notes that while Eddie says that he dislikes [[Characters/SpiderManSchoolmates Liz Allan]], he also thinks about her a lot and experiences "strange feelings" whenever they visit her at Alchemax. %%Time will tell how Liz hooking back up with Harry Osborn affects this.

-> '''AKA:''' Colonel Eugene "Flash" Thompson
-> '''Debut:''' ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #654 (as Venom IV); ''Amazing Spider-Man: Venom Inc. Alpha #1'' (as Anti-Venom II)

Peter Parker's former JerkJock [[TheBully bully]] of a friend. Flash enlisted in the army during the [[TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]] and is grievously wounded in action, losing his legs while saving his comrades. Lauded as a hero for his sacrifice, he is given an offer by the military: he can "rent" the Venom symbiote, which was subdued by drugs, for 48-hour periods (never long enough for the symbiote to establish control) for use in important missions, regaining the use of his legs in the process. Thompson agrees and subsequently becomes the new '''Venom''', marking the character's transition to fully-fledged [[{{Superhero}} hero]].

* EightiesHair: Eddie's had hairstyles ranging from a flattop to a mullet during the 80's and 90's, even switching to flat out BarbarianLonghair, and now has a crew cut.

** Exactly how monstrous and bulky Eddie was as Venom depended largely on who was drawing him. During the 90's, he was even drawn as being [[HollywoodDarkness dark blue]] instead of black.

* HellishPupils: In the 1995 ChristmasSpecial ''The Venom Claus'', Venom's eyes are drawn so that they had a black pupil-like slit, which was adapted from his appearance in the 1990's animated series.

* LetsYouAndHimFight: Venom spent most of the 1990's fighting and teaming up with other vigilantes, most notably Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider.

** Despite his obsession with his ex-wife Ann Weying, in the 90's series Eddie had a crush on Beck Underwood, a woman living in the underground city beneath San Fancisco.

* AlwaysSecondBest: To Flash Thompson, at least in his mind. Not only did Flash manages to be a true hero while he was Venom, something Eddie is still struggling with after rebonding to the symbiote, but Eddie believes that even their symbiote ultimately preferred Flash, even if it would never admit to that. [[spoiler: He's even shown to have some SurvivorsGuilt after Flash's death]].