Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 promises to introduce a new take on the Venom character, but there is a long history of people who have worn the symbiote the game could choose from.
Debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #300, Venom quickly took comics by storm. The dark reflection of Spider-Man had no qualms about murder and torture, and fans enjoyed the over-the-top brutality he displayed.
Over the years, though, Venom has softened. He’s been an anti-hero, a hero, a space knight, and a special agent. And he’s had multiple hosts, each of whom left their own unique imprint on the symbiote.
Before Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 potentially introduces an all-new Venom for the masses, we’ve written up this handy guide on everyone in Marvel Comics who has worn the Venom symbiote.
Every Marvel Comics character who was ever Venom
From Peter Parker to Dylan Brock (and beyond!), here is everyone who has been Venom in Marvel Comics.
Peter Parker
Stranded on an alien planet during the Secret Wars event, Peter Parker finds himself with a conundrum. His costume has been damaged in the fight, and he doesn’t have the means of repairing it.
The other heroes run into the same problem and discover a machine that makes new costumes by thinking into it. Spider-Man goes to use the machine, but unfortunately, no one tells him which one to use.
Spidey doesn’t realize he uses the wrong machine and doesn’t question it too much when he winds up with a new, black costume. The machine he used is revealed later to have been a prison of sorts, holding in it a symbiote.
Eddie Brock
Years later, Spider-Man would learn the costume was a living being that trying to bond with him permanently. Spider-Man rejected the suit, and it was taken in by the Fantastic Four. Web of Spider-Man #1 saw the suit try to rebond with Peter, but he rejected it again, using the bells of a church to remove it.
Spidey believed the symbiote had died, but in reality, it had fled. In the church, it would find reporter Eddie Brock praying for forgiveness and contemplating suicide. He blamed Spider-Man for ruining his career after Brock exposed the wrong man as the Sin-Eater.
The symbiote would bond with Brock, and the two would fuel a mutual hatred of Spider-Man for years. Eventually, the two would chill out and come around, with Venom becoming downright heroic in some stories.
Anne Weying
In pursuit of the second Sin-Eater, Eddie’s ex-wife Anne was mortally wounded. At Eddie’s insistence, the symbiote bonds with her to heal her wounds.
Anne became affectionately known as She-Venom because it was the ‘90s. Her time with the symbiote was brief, but it did eventually briefly rebond with her while Eddie was injured, driving her mad and nearly eating someone with her in the suit.
Though Anne and Eddie would have an on-again, off-again relationship, the trauma over the time she spent bonded with the symbiote never left her. An amnesiac Eddie would re-enter her life, but she eventually took her own life after seeing Eddie change back into Venom.
Angelo Fortunato
The symbiote could do a lot for Eddie Brock, but it couldn’t fix everything. When Eddie was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he tried to sell the symbiote at a mob auction.
The symbiote was bought by Angelo Fortunato, the son of a mobster. As Venom, Angelo was terrifying. He had all of Eddie Brock’s strength and powers but was only interested in killing Spider-Man to make a name for himself.
Spidey would get the upper hand on Fortunato, though, and he tried to flee. Seeing his weakness firsthand, the symbiote abandoned Fortunato while he was in mid-air, letting him fall to his death.
The Scorpion
As the Scorpion, Mac Gargan was one of Spider-Man’s oldest foes. But Gargan was looking to make a name for himself as his career dwindled on, eventually resorting to kidnapping Aunt May so he could buy an upgraded Scorpion costume.
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But the symbiote, seeking a new host after it abandoned Angelo Fortunato, would discover Gargan. The two found themselves in a mutually beneficial spot: the Symbiote was desperate to kill Spider-Man, and Gargan wanted to be a big-time supervillain again. The result was the most malicious Venom ever.
Gargan would be Venom for years and even joined Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers as its twisted Spider-Man. After his role in the Siege on Asgard, Gargan would be imprisoned in super villain penitentiary, The Raft, where the symbiote would be forcibly removed as part of a secret government experiment.
Flash Thompson
While he was Peter’s chief bully and Spider-Man’s #1 fan in high school, Flash Thompson became a close friend of Peter’s as he grew older. He would go on to become a war hero but would return home after being wounded in combat, losing both his legs at the knee.
Flash still wanted to be a hero, though, and signed up for a government experiment that bonded him with the symbiote. As Agent Venom, Flash was the first truly heroic Venom, and his relationship did a lot to rehabilitate the symbiote.
During their tenure, Flash would take to space with the Guardians of the Galaxy and learn the extraterrestrial origins of the symbiote species. He eventually lost the symbiote when it was attacked by an FBI agent who used sonics, though Flash would later gain a new version of the symbiote, becoming Agent Anti-Venom.
Doctor Octopus
With his body breaking down after years of brutal fights with Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus cheats death by swapping his mind with Peter Parker’s. He becomes the Superior Spider-Man, masquerading as Peter for years.
Peter’s personality kept trying to resurface, so Otto eventually had to wipe it completely. This meant when he fought Agent Venom, he didn’t recognize Flash Thompson. Believing he was helping a soldier who had been infected, Otto removes the Symbiote, which was furious with Flash – and bonded with Otto instead.
The Superior Venom turned out to be an Avengers-level threat. Flash in an Iron Man suit, coupled with Otto’s tenacity, proved to be more than the symbiote could handle, putting it safely back in Flash’s control.
Lee Price
When the symbiote forcibly abandoned Flash, it was in a manic state because of the sonic attack used against it. It would eventually bond with Lee Price, a former Army Ranger turned low-level crook. Lee was saved from fatal gunshot wounds by the symbiote but managed to exert his will over the symbiote, killing everyone else in the area.
Lee’s bond with the symbiote was tenuous, at best. While the symbiote had been rehabilitated by its time with Flash, Lee’s desire to use Venom for evil meant it backslid and started exhibiting its darker tendencies again as a self-defense mechanism.
Lee Price’s time with the symbiote was fairly brief, and it was eventually forcefully removed by Eddie Brock, who once again became Venom. Though he would continue to be obsessed with Symbiotes, eventually finding a new one and calling himself Maniac, Lee would be unceremoniously killed by Venom’s offspring, Carnage, during a jailbreak at Ryker’s Island.
Dylan Brock
Anne’s bonding with the Venom symbiote somehow resulted in her pregnancy, but the trauma of the events was too much for her to bear. She sent her son, Dylan, to live with her father and lived the rest of her life in fear of Venom’s return.
Dylan is the progeny of the symbiotes, created as a measure to destroy the symbiote god Knull. Working alongside his father, Dylan would play a role in saving New York during the King in Black event, which saw Eddie ascend to godhood himself.
With Eddie scouring the cosmos alongside other Klyntar, Dylan eventually bonds with the Venom symbiote, becoming the all-new Venom. Though initially resembling his father’s look, Dylan would eventually compose his own look and adopt the identity Codex.
Kron Stone
The symbiote, unlike its hosts, is seemingly immortal. In the far-off future of 2099, it finds itself lying dormant, waiting for a new host. It got one in Kron Stone.
Kron was the criminal son of Alchemax CEO Tyler Stone, who had the bad luck to catch the eye of 2099’s Punisher, Jake Gallows. Fleeing, Stone would encounter the symbiote, which bonded with him.
The symbiote had evolved over the decades, developing the ability to spew acid and a terrifying new look. But it still hated Spider-Man, which worked out perfectly for Kron; Spider-Man 2099 was his half-brother, after all. Kron eventually lost the symbiote, with its last known location being an Alchemax laboratory.
That’s all we have for the history of Venom in Marvel Comics, but for more comic book history and news, be sure to follow all our coverage.