Brock and Venom

Brock and Venom

She-Venom - Anne Weying Brock

The Venom symbiote joined with Eddie's ex-wife on two occasions. The first bonding occurred when Anne was seriously wounded after being shot by the second Sin-Eater. With her condition rapidly deteriorating, the symbiote bonded with Anne on Eddie's insistence in order to save her. Under the influence of the symbiote, Anne impulsively murdered a pair of thugs, an act she instantly regretted. The second time she bonded with the symbiote occurred in police custody. Used as bait to lure her ex-husband, Anne was once again joined with the symbiote after Eddie transferred his other through a telephone line, allowing her to escape. These instances proved traumatic for Anne, causing her to commit suicide later on.

Eddie Brock

Brock was a reporter for the Daily Globe who had been fired after Spider-Man debunked his would-be career story, "the Sin-Eater case," humiliating him and ultimately ruining his career. He is then forced to find work writing for cheap gossip magazines, thus causing his utter loathing of Spider-Man. Prior to being fired, Brock found out he had cancer and had only his writing to keep his mind off it. As Venom, he fought Spider-Man many times, and came close to winning on several occasions. As well as fueling Eddie's rage against Spider-Man, the symbiote allowed him to indulge in a sporadic career as a vigilante.

Special Abilities Of Symbiotes

Symbiotes empower the natural abilities of a host to the point where they far exceed that of normal members of the hosts species. These abilities include the following:
Superhuman strength.
Superior speed and agility, enhances other physical attributes as well.
Enhanced durability and resistance to damage.
Genetic memory, recalling information from previous hosts.
Enhanced healing ability.
Can expand to any size as long as they have something to grow on such as a host or an object. Symbiotes can get inside of small areas such as electric wires and the insides of cars and completely disable them. The symbiote also reacts to the thoughts and will of the host. When Spider-Man was originally selected, he had been thinking about Spider-Woman's costume in the Secret Wars. The symbiote acted on this and formed a similar costume, the one seen on him and Venom. The following are functions that have been demonstrated from various hosts' wills (but are not limited to):
The ability to form fangs or simple bladed weapons out of their limbs.
The ability to form additional appendages: limbs, wings and tendrils out of their body
The ability to shape-shift, from mimicking clothing up to and including complete change of appearance and stature.
The ability to blend with its surroundings.
The ability to stick to walls (adapted from Spider-Man).
The ability to produce webbing from its own mass (adapted from Spider-Man).
The ability to bypass the Spider-Sense (because the original symbiote was attached to Peter first, it took his genetic information and spider-powers. This means that the symbiote attacking Peter would essentially be Peter attacking himself, which wouldn't set off his Spider-Sense; during the Clone Saga, this became complicated, as Venom did set off Ben Reilly's Spider-Sense, but Carnage apparently did not).
The ability to create storage portals inside of them (This created easy access to Peter's camera).
Each symbiote has their own unique ability, such as Carnage being able to see from every direction of his body (this is similar to Spider-Man's spider sense).

Weaknesses Of Symbiotes

Originally, Symbiotes were naturally weakened by intense sounds and intense heat especially large fires. And in some stories and games, (mostly mentioned in the 2000 Spider-Man game), they are also weakened by saw-dust. However as each new symbiote has spawned a child, a natural evolution seems to not only increase their strengths, but also reduce their weaknesses. Still, there has not been an invulnerable symbiote in mainstream continuity as even the newest breeds can still be harmed by incredible amounts of sonic waves and heat. Also in the mainstream Marvel Universe, symbiotes are invulnerable to the heat produced by high voltage electricity.

In some incarnations, the symbiote is depicted as requiring a certain chemical (most likely phenethylamine) to stay sane and healthy, which has been said to be found abundantly in two sources: chocolate and human brain tissue. Thus the host is forced to steal/purchase large amounts of chocolate or become an unwilling cannibal who devours the brains of those he kills. This peculiar trait has only been witnessed in the Venom symbiote, however, both Carnage and Toxin have threatened their enemies with aspirations to "eating their brains", as well as various other body parts. Some symbiotes have no weaknesses.

Bonding Of Symbiotes

Symbiotes can attach themselves to anything solid and grow on it or around, such as grains of sand or water, even though they need something living in order for a true bonding to occur, mostly humans (symbiotes have temporarily bonded to a wolf and a gorilla). The application of a symbiote provokes a cool feeling as the plasmic ooze covers its host. Symbiotes may start off small but can grow to match the size of any host, no matter the size. It stimulates them, provides for them, and protects them by itself when the host is unconscious or unaware of a true symbiotic relationship. Symbiotes rely on human hosts because they are able to feed off adrenaline which is essential to their survival. They also feed off diseases fatal to humans, due to the type of energy or "adrenaline" it may produce; for example, the Venom symbiote was able to save Eddie Brock's life from cancer by feeding off it, since Eddies' cancer produced the exact type of adrenaline that the symbiote needs to survive. Symbiotes are capable of living independently off a host as all known symbiotes have, as they have at one time or another, left their hosts or been forced to be without their hosts for extended periods of time. However, there has been no indication that a symbiote can survive permanently without a host.

It is possible that the symbiosis is preferred due to the advantages that host and symbiote gain, especially in regards to survival. Combined with a host, the symbiote is able to wield great strength, speed, stamina and other physical attributes of the host, enhanced well beyond normal levels. As such, symbiotes prefer stronger hosts and when they find an ideal one, will attempt to bond permanently with them.

If a symbiote is strongly bonded, as the Venom symbiote was to Eddie Brock, an attempt to break the bond causes a shock sufficient to render both host and symbiote unconscious. However, a symbiote can easily sever a weak bond, such as when the Carnage symbiote abandoned Cletus Kasady for the Silver Surfer, or when Angelo Fortunato was left to plummet to his death, mid-jump, by the Venom suit.

Recently within the Marvel mythos, the bond between a symbiote and it's host seems to becoming more of a "any host will do" type of situation. When Spider-Man originally was the host to the Venom symbiote, the symbiote would go out on patrol at night, using Peter's unconscious body as a mode of transportation. Carnage's bond to Kasidy has also been described as such, Kasidy quipping in the Carnage vs Venom miniseries, "You may be the bus driver, but you still need the bus." Mac Gargan has also been heard saying similar regards, describing that Venom and he are separate entities, saying that Venom was inside of him, not him himself in Thunderbolts 116. Toxin's bond with Mulligan is also this way, as can be seen throughout the Toxin miniseries.

Personality Of Symbiotes

While most symbiotes seen in the Marvel Universe have been shown to be capable of great feats of violence, deception and various criminal acts against humanity, it is notable that their hosts were generally unstable before bonding. In a strange twist of nature versus nurture, it seems that a symbiote's personality may be based on an amalgamation of the memories and thoughts that have been collected from the various hosts and stored within its genetic memory. This explains how a creature like the Venom symbiote who once valued life to some degree has mutated into a being who could take the lives of many even without a host to guide its actions.

Additionally, Patrick Mulligan, host to the Toxin symbiote, was a stable and virtuous human who was able to use his symbiote to perform genuinely heroic actions; according to Venom, this could also be because the thousandth symbiote of the line is subject to mental breakdown. Though the Toxin symbiote has occasionally tried to make Patrick utilize more violent methods in the pursuit of crime, this could be attributed to the genetic memories passed on from Carnage, his father, who is indifferent about his use of violence. In the MC2 universe, the Venom symbiote bonds with the grandson of Norman Osborn, Normie Osborn, but his good-hearted nature influences the suit and causes it to sacrifice itself against a sonic attack to defend Spider-Girl.

It is therefore also possible that while the symbiote possesses a complex sentience, and that it obtains some of its opinions on morality from the current host and as such, amplifies the hatred and evil in hosts like Kasady while someone devoid of hatred was capable of influencing the suit to be virtuous. More confused hosts, like Brock, seem to result in different personalities: Venom claimed 'innocence should be cherished' and rescued victims he deemed innocent, including human infants. However, Brock's poor judgment has led to him performing many criminal acts, including the murder of some apparently innocent people.