Edward Brock Jr. (Earth-1610)

Venom
Name	Edward "Eddie" Brock Jr.
Current Alias	Venom
Aliases	Eddie Brock; "The Suit"
Affiliation and Relationships
Relatives	Edward Brock Sr. (father, deceased); Jamie Brock (mother, deceased); unnamed grandparents; Venom (symbiote)
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	5′11″ (1.8 m)
Weight	175 lbs (79.38 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Blond
Unusual Features	Freckles; As Venom, the symbiote grants its host an elongated jaw, fangs, claws, and a prehensile tongue which are really part of the symbiote
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human bonded to the Venom Suit
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-1610
Place of Birth	New York City, New York
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Prisoner; former fugitive, Empire State University student
Education	College student; extensive bioengineering studies
Base of Operations	Latveria Formerly Mobile; Empire State Building, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley
First	Ultimate Spider-Man #33 (February, 2003) (as Eddie Brock) Ultimate Spider-Man #37 (May, 2003) (as Venom)
First	Ultimate Spider-Man #33 (February, 2003) (as Eddie Brock) Ultimate Spider-Man #37 (May, 2003) (as Venom)

 I felt-- no, see... I didn't feel anything. It wasn't me. It was him. 

—Eddie Brock

History

Origin

Eddie Brock Jr.

Eddie Brock Jr. was Peter Parker's closest childhood friend. However, the genesis of "Venom" had begun years earlier. A genetically engineered protoplasmic "Suit", it was designed by Richard Parker and Edward Brock Senior. Richard intended it to be used for medical purposes in his quest to cure cancer, functioning as a symbiotic suit of bio armor that not only cured diseases but augmented its wearer's body. Edward Sr. was more interested in the military applications of the suit, and when they ran out of funds persuaded Richard to sign a deal with Bolivar Trask. Trask seized their research, resulting in a drawn-out legal battle that ended with the deaths of both Parker and Brock. Eddie Jr. continued the research, using two samples of the suit's second stage that he found in his father's cold storage unit that were originally created for Richard Parker's DNA.

When Peter Parker, his childhood friend, reached out to him, Eddie attempted to rekindle their friendship, showing him the sample of the Venom Suit that he had been studying. The following day, Eddie arrived at Midtown High and joined Peter and Gwen Stacy for lunch, but their conversation was interrupted by a phone call from Curtis Connors, Eddie's supervising professor. Eddie invited Peter and Gwen to a reggae concert, but Peter declined. After the concert, Eddie took Gwen back to his dorm room, expecting her to have sex with him despite their age difference. When she stormed out on him in disgust, Eddie turned on the television to see a news report of Spider-Man wearing a black suit, and rushed to the lab to find an injured Peter in the process of stealing the sample. When Eddie demanded to know what was going on, Peter revealed that he was Spider-Man, and explained that the Venom Suit, in its incomplete state, filled its host with murderous rage and ravenous hunger that not even he, with his superpowers and genetic connection to its creator, could control. When Peter expressed his intent to destroy it, Eddie protested, saying the Suit was all he had left of his father, but Peter insisted. Admitting that he couldn't stop Peter, Eddie let him take the sample and left to process what he'd been told.

Venom

Soon afterwards Eddie returned to the lab, angry with Peter for destroying the Suit. Removing the second sample from cold storage, Eddie dipped his hand into it and was engulfed by it, causing him extreme pain as it bonded to him. A janitor came across him cocooned in the Suit and he instinctively devoured her, gaining control over it and taking on the appearance of a muscular version of Black-Suit Spider-Man, sans the spider emblems. A pair of security guards investigating the janitor's screams arrived, and Eddie promptly lost control of the Suit and transformed into a semi-amorphous monster with a fanged maw, claws, and thorny tendrils.

Driven by the Venom Suit to consume Spider-Man and become complete, Eddie confronted Peter at his high school, where the two fought; Venom attempting to devour Spider-Man. The fight spilled out onto a nearby street, where police arrived. When Venom attacked them, the police opened fire, forcing him back and causing him to accidentally step on a broken power line. Following this, Eddie mysteriously disappeared, leaving only a small dead pile of the suit on the ground.

On The Run

Eddie spent the next several months hoping that someone would put him out of his misery, in-between feeding frenzies to satiate the symbiotes ravenous hunger. Drawn to a fight between Spider-Man and R.H.I.N.O., Eddie realized the symbiote was drawn to Spider-Man, who had been its previous host. Later, he was attacked by Silver Sable and her Wild Pack, escaping by transforming into Venom. Wanting to find out why the symbiote was drawn to Spider-Man, he attacked Peter as Venom at a museum and was beaten into submission by Silver Sable and her Wild Pack; taken into confinement by Bolivar Trask and Adrian Toomes. The two leading researchers made a deal with Eddie to remove the symbiote, which Eddie accepted when they threatened to just let the symbiote consume him from the inside-out. While Venom was being contained in a research chamber and being studied by Trask and his scientists, Beetle suddenly broke into Trask's facility and attempted to retrieve a sample of the symbiote.

The Beetle released Venom and tried to convince Eddie to give him a sample, but when Venom attacked the Beetle he cut off Venom's tongue and fled. Venom devoured the unconscious scientists and gave chase, cornering the Beetle on one of New York City's streets. Spider-Man arrived and fought Venom, but just before Venom could claim victory the symbiote left Eddie and bonded with Peter, turning him into Venom. Eddie pleaded with the symbiote to return to him, but it ignored him. Before Peter, unable to control his actions, could attack any of the civilians present the Ultimates arrived and battled the new Venom, giving Eddie time to escape. Venom was ultimately defeated by Thor and Peter was freed from the suit, which was taken by S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives for study.

Venom Vs. Carnage.

Eddie reappeared at Peter's high school and demanded that he get the symbiote back, threatening to reveal to the world that Peter was Spider-Man if he refused. Later, he showed up at the Parker household looking for Peter. Instead, he was confronted by May Parker, Peter's aunt. Eddie lied to May and said that he is a friend of Peter's, but after May asked Eddie a few questions she put a gun to his head, having seen through his ruse. Eddie quickly overpowered May, taking her gun and threatening her. Spider-Man quickly subdued him and angrily brought him to a deserted industrial part of New York City.

Spider-Man berated Eddie for wanting the symbiote back, and when Gwen Stacy, who followed the two, arrived he asked her to turn into Carnage and show Eddie how insane he was to want to become a monster again. Gwen complied and transformed into Carnage, but Eddie reached out to her, black tendrils extending from his hand as the Venom suit started to reform. Carnage attacked him, but Eddie assimilated part of the Carnage symbiote, fully rejuvenating the Venom suit. Reborn, Venom attacked Carnage, and when Spider-Man attempted to intervene Venom bashed him aside, enraging Carnage.

Venom's new form.

After a fierce battle, the Carnage symbiote was absorbed by Venom, which not only freed Gwen but also transformed Eddie into an enormous new Venom with glowing red eyes. Venom told Spider-Man that "we have what we want" and quickly escaped into the sewers as Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived on the scene. Eddie later appeared in Central Park recounting the previous events to a passerby. When the passerby asked Brock if he fought Spider-Man and was Venom, Brock transformed in order to devour the man. However, the passerby revealed himself to be the Beetle and Venom was easily captured and taken to Latveria.

Eddie's fate following his capture is unknown, as he has not been seen since.

Personality

Despite his initially cordial behavior around Peter after reuniting with him, Eddie cynically told Peter that in five years he wouldn't even remember his high-school girlfriend's name, and that all the issues he was dealing with were "training wheels" compared to the "real life" that started with college; later repeating that same line in an attempt to flirt with Gwen Stacy. Discovering a sample of the symbiotic biosuit his father and Richard Parker had created, Eddie felt it was their legacy and thus his obligation to continue his father's work and began studying bioengineering. However, Eddie quickly exposed a sleazy and vindictive side - expecting the fifteen-year-old Gwen Stacy to sleep with him on the same day they'd met, then accusing her of leading him on when she rejected him out of disgust. After seeing news footage of Spider-Man wearing the symbiotic biosuit, Eddie assumed Peter had betrayed their fathers' legacy and was initially furious, and was shocked to discover Peter himself was Spider-Man. Despite listening through Peter's explanation of how dangerous the symbiotic biosuit was and why it needed to be destroyed, Eddie was enraged by this perceived betrayal and deliberately exposed himself to a second sample out of pure spite.

When the symbiotic biosuit took over him and forced him to devour others to survive, Eddie blamed Peter for his predicament. Compelled by the suit's ravenous bloodlust and his own rage to hunt down Peter, Eddie attempted to assimilate him into the symbiotic biosuit. In the months that followed, Eddie struggled to piece together how his life had fallen apart, spending much of his time dominated by the symbiotic biosuit's insatiable hunger - leaving him with only fragmentary memories while it was in control, and wishing for someone to put him out of his misery. While Trask's experiments managed to grant Eddie marginally more control of the suit, and when it abandoned him to rebond to Peter Eddie was devastated - having grown addicted to the power it granted him despite its detrimental aspects. When he was able to regenerate the symbiotic biosuit, Eddie resumed what had become the status-quo of his life - telling his life-story to those unfortunate enough to encounter them before eating them.

Powers and Abilities

Power Grid

Powers

• Venom Symbiote: Venom's powers all stem from the suit that has bonded to Brock. The suit was designed to restore and rebuild damaged body tissues, granting Venom tremendous regenerative abilities and augmenting his physical abilities. It is also capable of limited shape shifting, producing tentacles and spikes to subdue and attack prey. Ultimate Venom is physically more powerful than Spider-Man, being able to lift at least 25 tons, although he does not have the same amount of speed and agility. Eddie's suit cannot create organic webbing, but instead uses extruded tentacles to 'web-swing' from building to building. The Venom symbiote can overload Spider-Man's Spider-Sense, to the point where Peter is in such physical mental pain that he sometimes cannot move.

Abilities

Eddie has a natural aptitude for bioengineering.

Physical Strength

While the exact extent to his strength is unknown, Venom has been depicted as vastly stronger than Spider-Man. Venom could be capable of lifting at least 25 tons.

Weaknesses

Venom's two greatest weaknesses are the symbiotes ravenous hunger for flesh, which is such that the symbiote will consume its host from the inside out unless satiated; and its crippling vulnerability to electricity. The Venom Suit is not specifically vulnerable to sonics or fire, but given that Peter was able to dispose of the first Venom sample (and later Carnage, which was based partially on a sample of the suit) in an industrial smokestack, some weakness to fire must be assumed. Due to being an incompatible host, Brock had a much greater negative reaction to the suit than Peter did due to the genetic similarity between Peter and his father, who was the suit's intended user.

Also of note is that when Peter wore the Suit, it was a small sample stretched over his entire body, making it thinner, and thus more likely to be vaporized by an extreme amount of electricity; however, Eddie took a whole jarful of the suit, making a mix that could quite possibly withstand the same amount of voltage Peter suffered.

Notes

• Ultimate Venom is notable for his lack of the signature white spider-emblems, although he's shown with it on many covers. However, Mark Bagley's inked artwork shows he was originally going to possess the spider-emblems, which have, via a few slip-ups from the colorist, appeared on his chest in small panels - such as when he was electrocuted in Ultimate Spider-Man #38. In comparison while Spider-Man was temporarily Venom, he had the white spider-emblem on his chest.
• In the Ultimate Spider-Man video game, originally written as part of the comic's canon, Venom gained the spider emblems after absorbing the Carnage symbiote from Peter Parker.
• In Ultimates 3 #1, an android of Venom created by Ultron fully sports the white symbol.

Trivia

• Mark Bagley designed the appearance of Ultimate Venom thinking of him as more of a monster than a super villain, describing him as a "huge cancerous/tumorous creature," which is why he had masses and random rows of teeth growing all over him.

See Also

• 19 appearance(s) of Edward Brock Jr. (Earth-1610)
• 2 minor appearance(s) of Edward Brock Jr. (Earth-1610)
• 34 image(s) of Edward Brock Jr. (Earth-1610)
• 4 quotation(s) by or about Edward Brock Jr. (Earth-1610)

Links and References

Footnotes

Like this? Let us know!