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- NOTE: This page is about the Raimiverse incarnation of Venom. For his mainstream version, see here.
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“ | I want him dead, too, Flint. That's why I've been looking for you. Oh yeah, I know all about you, like the fact that Spider-Man won't let you help your poor daughter. It's just... that doesn't seem right to me. Look, I wanna kill the Spider, you wanna kill the Spider. Together, he doesn't stand a chance. Interested? |
„ |
~ Venom striking Sandman with a deal. |
“ | Never wound what you can't kill. | „ |
~ Venom taunting a tied up Spider-Man as he tortures him. |
“ | I like being bad. It makes me happy. | „ |
~ Venom telling Spider-Man that he enjoys his villainy, and his most famous quote. |
Edward "Eddie" Brock Jr., later known as Venom, is the main antagonist of the 2007 superhero film Spider-Man 3, the third and final installment in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and the main protagonist of its tie-in comic book Spider-Man 3: The Black.
He was a former freelance photographer and Peter Parker/Spider-Man's enemy at the Daily Bugle who, after bonding with the symbiote, turned into an unhinged, sadistic and monstrous mutant known as Venom, equipped with the same suit and powers of Spider-Man. This, alongside his personality, makes him Peter Parker/Spider-Man's arch-rival as well as his evil counterpart.
He was portrayed by Topher Grace, who also played Edwin in Predators, Adrian Yates in American Ultra and David Duke in BlacKKKlansman.
Personality[]
While he appears to be a perfect counterpart to Peter Parker, well-dressed and looks super confident, and problem free, Eddie Brock is no saint. He thinks of himself as better than Peter, will do anything such as doctoring photos to get Jameson's attention and be number one at the Bugle. The biggest downside is that he doesn't consider himself guilty; inside, he is rotten to the core, thinks of himself as a ladies' man, as well as being a glory hound and mistakenly believes that he has a right to it. He's also arrogant, as he believed that he might just get off scot-free for publishing fake photos to slander Spider-Man, when he was completely guilty of committing the crime of forgery and slander, which made his offense petty and unfounded.
He also displayed no real care for Gwen, as he photographed her clinging to her life on a building, and was briefly seen flirting with Jameson's assistant, Betty Brant. Upon capturing Mary Jane in The Black, he made a sick joke to Sandman that they should flip a coin over whom he should kill in front of the other once Spider-Man arrives. Even Sandman was disgusted by this and told him to put her back in the cab and stick to their plan. He'd also make jokes to Spider-Man about his perverted feeling towards Mary Jane with his line "my spider sense is tingling".
Overall, Eddie is corrupt, immoral, dishonest, and incapable of change beyond redemption despite being a Catholic (which was actually just a lie he made up, as heavily implied by multiple theories by fans that he only goes to the cathedral, just to, in a rather sacrilegious manner, insult God’s teachings there) and unlike most villains in the Raimi trilogy, there is nothing redeeming about Eddie's mentality, as when he told Peter "I like being bad. It makes me happy." after Peter stole his date and was going to kill Mary Jane, thus making him a true villain in the trilogy.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Symbiotic Suit: He get venom symbiotic suit what upgrade he's strength, speed, durability, agility, stamina, reflexes, senses, healing, wall-crawling and memory.
- Superhuman Strength: After how he get venom symbiote he get very high strength what make him very hard to fight.
- Superhuman Speed: He turn very fast, what make him more harder to fight because he can run very fast and attack very fast what make it very dangerous.
- Superhuman Durability: He get superhuman durability, what make him more stronger and good at fighting.
- Superhuman Agility: Agility, is also think what he get, agility make him more faster and stronger what also make him very good to figting.
- Superhuman Stamina: Stamina, also make him more stronger, faster and harder to fight.
- Superhuman Reflexes: He's reflexes upgraded to much, what do so he can hear his victims when they attack.
- Organic Webbing Generation: He can generate webs from his hands, like how Peter does.
- Superhuman Senses: He can detect someone else's thoughts and/or feelings.
- Wall-Crawling: He can walk onto any surface with all of his limbs, which also helps him from not falling onto any low-positioned surface.
- Accelerated Healing Factor: When he gets physically harmed, he can also regenerate those injuries of his.
- Spider-Sense Immunity: His own thoughts and feelings are shielded from being detected by any other telepathic being.
- Genetic Memory: He apparently can keep the memories of any of the Symbiote's previous hosts, such as Peter's.
Abilities[]
- Master Combatant: Once he's merged with the Symbiote, he's significantly capable of fighting against someone else.
- Genius-level Intellect: He has the capacity to deceive someone else, and later recall someone else's memories after merging with the Symbiote, such as Peter's.
- Expert Photographer: Before he became Venom via the Symbiote, he has the capability of photoshooting with any type of camera.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Gwen Stacy - Former Friend and Former Love Interest (on his side)
- Captain George Stacy (to a degree)
- Flint Marko/Sandman - Former Accomplice
Enemies[]
- Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Arch-Rival, Attempted Victim, and Killer
- Mary Jane Watson - Kidnapped and Attempted Victim
- Harry Osborn/New Goblin † - Victim and Posthumous Indirect Killer
- J. Jonah Jameson - Former Boss
Biography[]
Spider-Man 3[]
“ | You made me lose my girl, now I'm gonna make you lose yours. How's that sound, tiger? | „ |
~ Venom mocking Spider-Man. |
As a photographer on Daily Bugle[]
At first glance, Eddie is an exact opposite to Peter Parker in almost every way imaginable; he dresses in spiffy designer clothes, uses enormous hair product, rides a motorcycle, and seems to have a progressively tanned complexion.
As a boyfriend for Gwen Stacy[]
Eddie is louder, more flamboyant, more able to schmooze and socialize, and overly arrogant and obnoxious, but certainly a lot more polished. However, Eddie lacks elsewhere, he apparently has no friends or close family possibly due to his arrogant personality. Eddie considers himself a ladies' man, but the ladies themselves don't concur. He is known to have once dated Gwen Stacy who's a model and a physicist.
Losing his job and transformation[]
After one coffee date, she has no interest in pursuing things further. Eddie flirts with J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, Betty Brant. She's amused at the gesture, but brushes him off, and his cologne seems to disgust more than it attracts. After the alien symbiote took him over, Peter began to act more like Eddie.
After losing his job and his reputation for forging a photo of Spider-Man robbing a bank and being blacklisted, Eddie saw Peter with Gwen Stacy and was more angry than ever. Angry at Peter for ruining his life and refusing to accept that him losing his job was his fault, he went into a church and prayed for Peter's death. Almost like a divine hand granted his wish, he heard a scream from above.
Peter was at the top of the bell tower attempting to tear the symbiote suit from his body and with the help of the bell's thunderous chimes (due to realizing its negative influence), the suit seemed to be shrieking in pain. Peter ripped off the symbiote, and as it fell, it landed on Eddie, transforming him into Venom.
The Black[]
In the one-shot comic tie-in for the film The Black, Eddie slowly gets used to the symbiote. At first driven mad by the alien's attempts to communicate with him, he attacks several teenagers in his lunacy and attracts the attention of some police officers. After fighting them off, he finally allows the symbiote to communicate with him, and it sends images of Parker's life and role as Spider-Man to Eddie, like his encounters with the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus, confirming his suspicions that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. By tapping into the symbiote's memories of Spider-Man, Venom is able to replicate his abilities of web production, wall-crawling, and super strength. He sneaks over to the Stacy apartment and watches Gwen through a window. After she leaves the room, he breaks in to look at Captain Stacy's files, and finds Flint Marko's file, inspiring him to choose him as a potential ally.
Making Flint Marko his ally[]
Brock, now reborn as Venom, traveled around the city web-slinging and swinging in Spider-Man's own style, looking for the real Spider-Man himself. While doing so, he happened to run into the Sandman in an alley. The Sandman attacked Venom, believing him to be Spider-Man, but Venom proposed that the two of them form a partnership to kill the web-slinger, which the Sandman agreed to.
Final battle and death[]
Brock later captured Mary Jane Watson through use of a taxi. Peter put on his old traditional blue and red Spider-Man costume when he heard of her kidnapping from the news. Upon arriving at Venom's trap, Peter attempted to plead with Eddie and warned of the dangers of the symbiote, and the unholy being it made its wearer. The cautions didn't faze Eddie as he preferred being evil. But then Peter's friend Harry Osborn came blazing onto the scene to save Peter, in his New Goblin gear. Harry tried to keep Sandman at bay while Peter tried to take care of Venom. Then, Harry sacrificed himself to save Peter and Mary Jane during the ensuing fight, Venom fatally impaling him with his own glider, similar to how his father Norman Osborn died.
Recalling the symbiote's weakness to sonic vibrations, Peter gets into a fit of furious rage for what Venom did to Harry, as he took 2 pipes and banged them together, temporarily weakening Venom. Then Peter trapped Venom in a wall of steel pipes and banged one against the row of other pipes, making a thundering chiming to make Venom writhe in pain, revealing Brock as he screams in pain too and allowing Peter to finally separate Brock from the suit. However, the symbiote, now completely independent and full of rage, makes an attempt to attack Peter, but Peter banged the pipes one more time as it still weakens the symbiote to back away. Peter then grabbed one of Harry's pumpkin bombs and hurled it right at the symbiote to destroy it. In an unexpected surprise, Eddie became horrified by this and jumped towards the symbiote in order to save it from explosion. Peter was shocked at what Eddie had done and rushed to save him, but was too late when the bomb detonated, vaporizing and killing both Eddie and the symbiote.
Spider-Man: No Way Home[]
“ | Yeah, I fought a... an alien made out of black goo once. | „ |
~ Raimiverse Peter mentioning Venom. |
Although Venom didn't come back from Doctor Strange's botched spell moments before his death in Earth-96283, he is mentioned when MCU Peter Parker asked what were some of the strangest villains his fellow counterparts had faced, Raimiverse Peter Parker cited his battle with him having fought an "Alien made of out of black goo", referring to his battle with Venom as his strangest villain encounter.
Quotes[]
“ | I'm having a moment. This is what he cares about the most in the world. His heart is filled with her. Her and her and her. He'll come here to get her. He'll come, and then we can flip a coin to decide if we kill him in front of her, or her in front of him. Either way, I'm good. | „ |
~ Venom planning his revenge on Peter and Mary Jane in the comic The Black. |
“ | Ooh, my Spider-Sense is tingling... if you know what I'm talking about. | „ |
~ Venom making a perverted remark towards Mary Jane. |
“ | You're so right. I'm thinking… humiliation. Kind of like how you humiliated me. Do you remember? Do you remember what you did to me? You made me lose my girl, now I'm gonna make you lose yours. How's that sound, tiger? | „ |
~ Eddie to Peter as he is about to kill Mary Jane. |
“ | Peter, what are you doing?! NO!!! | „ |
~ Eddie Brock's last words before being vaporised in the explosion of the symbiote. |
Music[]
Venom Transformation Theme by Christopher Young[]
Venom Theme by Christopher Young[]
Trivia[]
- Apart from the credits, Venom's name is never mentioned in the film. A similar instance happens with Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
- Venom is the only villain in the Raimi series to willingly become evil as he enjoys being an evil villain, thus making him the most evil villain in the entire trilogy, unlike the other major villains of the film series who became evil due to certain circumstances:
- Green Goblin became evil due to a serum creating within him an evil split personality although he did have an unpleasant side even before his split personality took over.
- Doctor Octopus became evil due to falling victim to his tentacles' manipulation.
- New Goblin became evil in a misguided quest to avenge his father's death.
- Sandman resorted to crime to support for his sick daughter and was haunted after accidentally killing Ben.
- Dennis Carradine was briefly helping Sandman in robbing to support for his daughter.
- His working for the Daily Bugle and frame-up of Spider-Man bears similarities to his 1990s counterpart and both get fired as a result, but unlike his 1990s counterpart, he goes to the side of outright evil while his 1990s counterpart redeemed himself and became an ally of Spider-Man.
- Venom was originally not planned to be in the movie as Sam Raimi wasn't initially a fan of the character, stating the character "lacked humanity" in comparison to the previous villains. Instead, he planned to have Vulture as the main villain of the story. However, he was pushed by Avi Arad to replace him with Venom, as he felt that the series was relying too much on Raimi's personal favorites instead of the villains that the fans like.
- That being said, fans disliked this iteration of Venom, particularly because Brock does not become Venom until towards the end.
- In other earlier scripts of the film, the Lizard and Electro were planned to be the antagonists, rather than Venom and the Sandman. The Lizard would later appear in The Amazing Spider-Man movie while Electro appeared in the sequel. Vulture also appeared as the main antagonist of the first Spider-Man movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- According to Raimi, a spin-off titled Venom was planned by Gary Ross. Also, Ross planned to include Spider-Man and a cameo of Stan Lee in the spin-off. The film was planned to release in 2012 or 2013. However, after the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 and the reboot of the Spider-Man theatrical franchise, Sony canceled and scrapped the spin-off, which proves Venom died in the explosion.
- However, Venom would still receive his own spin-off film in October 2018, but this version of Eddie Brock/Venom is portrayed by Tom Hardy. In addition, he is portrayed as an anti-hero and vigilante.
- In the video games adaptations of Spider-Man 3, Venom's defeat is very different to his defeat in the movie:
- In the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions of the video game, he and Spider-Man fall from the construction site, but Spidey saved himself and left Venom to fall onto metal tubes, which impale and kill him. Also, in the video game, is never made clear what happened with the Symbiote after this.
- In the PS2, Wii and PlayStation Portable versions of the video game, after Spider-Man simply defeats him, Eddie Brock lost control of the Symbiote where it simply killed him. Also, in the video game, it was never made clear about what happened with the Symbiote after this.
- In the Game Boy Advance version of the video game, Venom fell from the construction building with Spider-Man. However, Spidey saved himself, and Venom fell into the void, before the symbiote abandons Eddie's body entirely, leaving his fate unknown.
- In the Nintendo DS and TV Game versions of the video game, Venom was simply defeated by Spider-Man.
- In the mobile phone version of the game, Venom was defeated by Spider-Man, but he escaped when Spider-Man saves Mary Jane. However, he promised Spider-Man that they would meet again before escaping.
- It is never explained how he found out about Peter and Mary Jane's relationship since he never saw them together prior to kidnapping MJ and when he kidnapped her, she and Peter were partially estranged. However, since Brock knows that Peter is Spider-Man, it is possible that the symbiote retains the memories of its past hosts like in most other versions. A possible evidence that highlights this is when Brock, during their battle, called Peter "tiger", which is what MJ called him in the final scene of Spider-Man 2, while boasting about how he planned on killing her as revenge for Peter getting him fired from The Daily Bugle.
- This theory was indeed confirmed in the one-shot comic tie-in for the film The Black, where it is shown how Eddie slowly becomes Venom and learns of Peter's memories thanks to the symbiote's skills.
- This incarnation of Venom lacks the others' bulky physique, being nearly the same physique as Spider-Man himself.
- At the time of Spider-Man's first appearance in New York, Eddie Brock is seemingly already an active freelance photographer. While mulling over what to make of Spider-Man, the Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson is heard remarking "Eddie's been trying to get a picture of him for weeks". However, this may just be another Eddie completely distanced from Eddie Brock, since it is made clear in Spider-Man 3 that Eddie was a new arrival at the Daily Bugle and was hired as a freelance by Jameson just a week before the "crane incident" involving Gwen Stacy in the movie.
- Unlike most versions of the character, who refer to themselves as "we" (i.e. both Brock and the symbiote), this version refers to himself as "I", implying that Brock is in total control of the symbiote and being evil of his own free will (as he even claims he enjoys being evil), though the symbiote did allowed Brock to do so after discovering within him the same negative personality traits that it brought out of Peter while the latter was under its influence.
- While being in the Venom costume, Topher Grace didn't drink any water during his breaks because he couldn't use the bathroom with his costume on.
- To prepare for his role as Venom, Topher Grace worked out for six months, gaining 24 pounds of muscle. He based his performance on alcoholics and drug addicts.
- Both Topher Grace and Thomas Haden Church confessed that when they were unceremoniously invited to meetings at Sony, they had no idea they would be auditioning for this film.
- Eddie's line "My spider-sense is tingling... if you know what I'm talking about!" when referring to MJ, was Topher Grace's idea.
- When the symbiote attaches to Peter's motorcycle license plate, it takes on the shape of a V (for Venom).
- The character of Eddie Brock/Venom, as portrayed in this film, is an amalgamation of his "Amazing Spider-Man" (an obsessive journalist) and "Ultimate" (a skinny young man with a crush on Gwen Stacy) versions. This was done to present Eddie Brock as a shadowy reflection of Peter Parker (which shows that Peter Parker, when affected by the symbiote, starts to act like Eddie).
- In the comics, the symbiote was a flowing sentient liquid ooze. Sam Raimi was very clear on the film's portrayal of the symbiote: he wanted it to have character, but not to resemble a spider or octopus. As portrayed in the film, it possesses a webbing form (it was composed of many separate CGI threads) that gives it a sense of life and an appearance of gripping onto someone's body.
- The font of Venom's web message is the same font used for the title of the comic, Sensational Spider-Man.
- The villains' meeting would have seen Eddie coming across Flint pretending to be sand in a playground for his little girl to play on. Talking to Flint, Eddie would have convinced him that his girl may be cured yet.
- The union between Venom and Sandman originally had Venom just offering the cash Sandman needs to save his daughter in exchange for helping him kill Spider-Man, but during the battle, Sandman's daughter would come and tell her father that she could not be cured and was going to die, and wanted to die with her father being a good man, not a criminal.
- While Topher Grace was a big comic book fan and had read the first Venom stories as a boy, he found the suit he had to wear as Venom extremely unpleasant. It took an hour to put on (and four hours to apply the prosthetics), and it had to be constantly smeared with goo to give it a liquid organic feel. Grace also had to wear fangs, which bruised his gums.
- When Spider-Man removes the symbiote costume, he is in a church tower and the sound of the bell allows Spider-Man to remove it, immediately afterward, it attaches itself to Eddie Brock where he transforms into Venom. This is almost exactly what happened in the Amazing Spider-Man comics.
- Originally in the film, towards the end, the Symbiote would have revealed a smoking skeleton and when Peter separated the symbiote, all that remained was a hunk of bones, meaning that the symbiote drained Eddie's life, the symbiote itself was also going to talk and say the line of "Never wound what you can't kill" before trying to merge with Peter again. The skeleton props were also made, with Eddie's skull in particular having a resemblance to Venom's face. This was reshot because the test audience deemed it too dark.
- When Eddie jumps in the symbiote, during his death in the explosion, for a few frames, his skeleton briefly appears, around the same time, the ball of nuclear energy is released, after being pulled in. This is the only part that still remains of the original scene.
- This scene is still present in the novelization version for the film though.
- Despite being the main antagonist of the film, Eddie doesn't become Venom until near the end of the movie. Furthermore, as the symbiote itself drives most of the plot, the symbiote itself is arguably the main antagonist of the movie, though not as worse as Eddie himself is. The latter part might be proven further when a possible fan theory suggests that the symbiote developed a little bit of interest in Gwen Stacy as it’s seen influencing Parker in taking her out on a date, but was later rejected (albeit not while being bonded to her in any way) by Gwen around the same time she dumped Peter after what it made him do to Mary Jane.
- Unlike Peter whose personality was manipulated by Venom, Eddie is proud to have his personality merged with Venom's. In fact, Eddie was already a self-absorbed and biased egomaniac even before bonding to the symbiote.
- This incarnation of Eddie Brock is more similar to Cletus Kasady/Carnage than to the original version of Venom, aesthetically and personality-wise; such as being a hardly redeemable sadist, referring to himself in single pronouns due to having bonded completely with the symbiote, and being lean instead of muscular. Not to mention the fact they were both very bad people even before getting their respected symbiotes (albeit that Cletus was a far worse person then Eddie due to being a serial killer). In fact, since the two are comparable to each other that way, it’s safe to assume that Eddie Brock is actually Cletus Kassidy, with the name of the former being made up and used by the latter to possibly hide his true identity from the rest of the authorities, who were, despite being neither mentioned nor on-screen, heavily implied to be searching for since whatever crime the self-proclaimed “freelance photographer” committed, that was also theorized to be so terrifying in a unthinkable way, the authorities refused to inform the public of that crime, since it’ll only cause mass panic.
- Venom was the only villain from the Raimi trilogy who didn't return in Spider-Man: No Way Home. He's also one of the only villains from pre-MCU Spider-Man movies who didn't return, the others being the Green Goblin and the Rhino from The Amazing Spider-Man duology (not counting all the minor villains). That said, a variant of Venom did appear in a post-credit scene.
- Some fans claim that the original Venom did appear in the MCU, only to be mysteriously teleported and maybe recruited by Knull the god of the Klyntars, who made an offer to help him to take over the multiverse with his symbiote army in exchange to prevent him from going back to his original demise. This is because there are rumors about Knull being the main antagonist for both Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony's Spider-Man Universe.
- When asked in interviews, Topher Grace would jokingly imply that he would be making an appearance in the film as Eddie Brock/Venom. While Grace had no involvement in the film, Tom Hardy does pop up in the stinger as Brock.
- In contrast to his comic counterpart, who made an honest mistake by writing a false story from a poor source which got him fired (in which Spider-Man was indirectly responsible for debunking), the cinematic counterpart digs his own grave by deliberately publishing a false story with his own forged photos to slander Spider-Man, practically guaranteeing he was going to get caught eventually and fired, making his grudge against Spider-Man pettier and unreasonable.
- Venom's meeting with Sandman was slightly altered in the video game adaptations. In the movie, Sandman willingly joined forces with Venom out of his desire of killing Spider-Man. In the games, however, Sandman had no interest in killing Spider-Man but Venom revealed he had kidnapped his daughter, Penny, and used her to blackmail Sandman into joining forces with him.
- The late Heath Ledger was considered for the role of Eddie Brock/Venom before Topher Grace was cast. Ledger would later play the Joker in The Dark Knight before his death.
- Eddie Brock was originally planned to appear in the first Spider-Man film, portrayed by R.C. Everbeck, before the scene was deleted from the final cut. He is however referenced in a newspaper from the Daily Bugle and Robbie Robertson also mentions him.
- Venom is the only main antagonist in the Raimi series who never interacted with or held Aunt May hostage.
- Venom is the only main antagonist in the Raimi series that Spider-Man killed (albeit unintentional for Eddie's part), unlike the other two, being Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus who died by their own hand.
- There were two deleted scenes from the film that foreshadowed the symbiote:
- The scene showcasing Peter briefly stares at his own reflection in a mirror before seeing a brief flash of the symbiote screaming with a human mouth, possibly Peter's. This startles Peter and makes him lock the black suit inside the suitcase as seen in the movie.
- Before Peter goes to fight Harry, he opens the suitcase containing the black suit, and the suit briefly moves on its own while Peter stares and smiles eerily.
- Peter Parker was indirectly responsible for Eddie's transformation to Venom, as the former told the latter to get religion to get forgiveness after calling him out for faking the pictures of Spider-Man, which made Eddie go to a church and asks God to kill Peter. Peter himself went to church to take off the Venom symbiote suit as he made the noise of the bell, which attracted Eddie. When Peter finally removes the Venom suit, the symbiote falls into Eddie and bonds with him, becoming Venom.
External Links[]
- Venom on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Venom on the Spider-Man Films Wiki
- Venom on the Marvel Wiki
- Venom on the Marvel Movies Wiki
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