Something Is Wrong With the Venom Symbiote

We're going to be jumping into Marvel's new Venom solo title. The two issues that have been released are fairly good, and they take Venom in a new direction. So what we are going to be focusing on today is a very brief history of Eddie Brock and the Venom Symbiote, and what has happened in the first two issues of this title so far. So a spoiler warning right here if you want to read it.

Essentially the Venom Symbiote is part of a race of aliens called the Klyntar. The Klyntar are basically beings that can only survive when bonded to a host. Generally these guys try to be good guys, and they want to use the host to do right, but sometimes these symbiotes can become corrupted and turn evil. I wouldn't necessarily say that the Venom symbiote is a purely malignant force because though the symbiote has been a villain, it generally tries to do the right thing. More often than not I'd say that Venom, no matter who it has been bonded to in the past, has been portrayed as more of a hero than a villain. Anyways, the Venom Symbiote was discovered by Spider-man in the Secret Wars event in the 80s. At the time, the symbiote was introduced as just an alien suit that Peter could make appear and reappear whenever he wanted. Parker then realizes that he is exhausted all the time, and realizes that it's because of the symbiote. Essentially what the symbiote did was latch onto Peter without Peter realizing that the "alien suit" was not just an "alien suit," and remained incognito and let Parker take control of the suit. When Spider-man would be done crime-fighting and would hit the hay, the venom symbiote would take control of Peter's body and go fight crime. Peter realizes this and wants to get rid of the symbiote. So somewhere along the line, Peter discovers his suit gets weird when he is exposed to sonic energy, and when Peter tries to get rid of the symbiote after realizing it was essentially possessing him, he uses a church bell that makes a ton of noise to keep the symbiote away from him. The symbiote gets upset that Parker doesn't want him and develops a hatred and obsession with him. At this point is where we go into Eddie Brock and his relationship with the symbiote.

Eddie Brock was a reporter whose career was essentially ruined because Peter revealed that one of his sources was false. With his life in shambles, Brock decides to find solace in a church. This is the same church Spider-man is in to get rid of the venom symbiote. After Parker gets fully un-bonded to the symbiote, the symbiote binds to Brock. Brock decides to call himself Venom. One thing that is revealed is that the Venom Symbiote can communicate with its host, and Eddie and the symbiote both discover that they both share a hatred for Peter Parker and became a villain. This didn't last forever as the Venom symbiote was bonded to many more people than Eddie Brock. In fact, at some point venom is used as a military agent with Flash Thompson as its host (Peter's high school bully). The two hosts that Venom had for the longest time were Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson. Recently, in the comics, the symbiote has returned bonded to Brock, but things seem to be going on with the Venom Symbiote.

There are spoilers for the first issue from here on!!!!

The first issue starts off with Eddie Brock having a dream where these soldiers in a castle are trying to stave off an enemy, but are having a hard time doing so, and one of the soldiers calls out to Beowulf and shouts asking where he is. The dream ends with a crack of lightning waking Eddie up. Eddie gets up and sees that the Venom Symbiote is scared, not of the lightning but of the dream that Eddie had. The symbiote re-bonds to Brock, but Brock takes anti-psychotics. What this does is it allows Eddie Brock more control over the symbiote because he notices that the symbiote has a newfound bloodlust that has never happened before. The symbiote notices it too and they both wonder what is happening. After Brock takes his meds he goes out with the Venom symbiote, but because the Symbiote has gotten more violent he has not been fighting crime but taking pictures for his job as a photographer. He takes picture of an arms deal that takes place, and lets the police do their job instead of fighting the arms dealers as Venom, but one of the dealers fires a gun at a cop and runs away from the scene. Brock realizes that he needs to use the symbiote to stop the dealer even though he may lose control of the symbiote. And that is exactly what happens. The Venom symbiote states that it doesn’t want to do this but it feels like its being controlled and forced to do it. And that’s when this happens:The cops see that Venom is beating the arms dealer really badly, and the cops intend on arresting Venom, but notice that he looks like… well… this...

Venom...when he's not in the right headspace...

Which would be a horrifying site, so out of panic, the cops blow Venom sky high. Seeing as though fire is another weakness of Venom, the blast looked large enough to kill both Brock and the Venom symbiote. But Brock and the Venom Symbiote awaken in a dark room with a guy that has a partially burned face, and that’s how the issue ends.

Feel free to read my previous posts, and in the next few posts I’ll be covering A LOT of Flash history, and Marvel’s The Adamantium Agenda.