24 Brutal Facts About Venom, Spider-Man's Darker Half
The famed Marvel character, and Spidey’s archnemesis, is getting his solo time on the big screen, and Venom fans are finally getting all the creation and chaos of their favorite alien symbiote. Here are 24 facts about the iconic villain Venom. SPOILER WARNING: facts 13 and 11 contain major spoilers from 2018's Venom.
Venom Facts
24. Not as He Appears
We most commonly understand Venom as the long-toothed, eerie-grinned maniac who looks like a black, over-muscled Spider-Man. But, in fact, Venom is derived from a race of alien beings called "symbiotes" that take on a host in order to survive.
The Venom symbiote is a thick, black liquid-like being that latches onto its host and provides powers in exchange for the host's life-force.
Spider-Man, being one of Venom’s first hosts, had his life-force integrated into the symbiote, so when the creature was separated from him, it retained some of his powers. Thus, when it found another host, they became a sort of Spidey 2.0.
That host was, of course, Eddie Brock, who became one of Spider-Man’s most recurrent enemies.
23. Coming to this Earth
Venom wasn't actually created by a comic book writer. Rather, Randy Schueller, a 22-year-old comic fan and avid reader, first came up with the character.
He sent in a letter suggesting that Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four could create a black costume for Peter Parker using unstable molecules.
Marvel liked the idea and bought the character for $220, even offering Schueller the chance to write a script (though that later fell through). Mike Zeck and Todd McFarlane designed the original black costume, which made its first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Issue 252 in May 1984 (though chronologically, the suit first showed up in the Secret Wars Issue 8).
22. Adapting to our World
The unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your style) hosts of Venom are given great powers and abilities—Schueller's initial idea was that the black suit would enhance Spidey's powers by 25%.
As an independent symbiote, this creature can fend for its self apart from a host, using shapeshifting abilities, camouflage, and even the ability to morph into spikes or increase in size.
However, since Spider-Man was its original host, all future hosts gain Spidey’s powers and abilities. Even worse, the symbiote cannot be detected by Spider-Man’s spider-sense, which is why Venom is so difficult for the hero to defeat.
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