Very few Marvel characters are as adaptive, well-rounded, and emotionally fleshed-out as Venom. From its introduction as an alien-suit, to the birth of the Lethal Protector, to its modern change to embrace fatherhood and face its past crimes, Venom has endured enormous character growth that rivals if not dominates even Spider-Man’s. The Venom symbiote isn’t just a terrifying monster, but one of Marvel’s most polished characters in the publisher’s history.

When the Venom symbiote first appeared as little more than a mysteriously otherworldly spider-costume in Amazing Spider-Man #252 (1984), the alien had unwhittedly kickstarted one of Spider-Man’s most iconic eras. However, when Venom and Eddie Brock first bonded in Amazing Spider-Man #299 (1987), and the combined “Venom” creature was officially born, Marvel was terrorized by its most horrifically violent abomination yet. In time, the symbiote has become an easy ally for many of Marvel’s heroes and villains. Venom has easily transcended its original purpose and evolved past its early expectations to become one of Marvel’s best characters of all time.

1 Venom’s Design Is as Terrifying As it Is Iconic

The Venom Franchise Has Sured Comics

Compared to Marvel’s overwhelming preference for superpowered heroes and caped crusaders, Marvel’s monstrosities haven’t received as much love. That is, except for Venom. When the symbiote and Eddie Brock first bonded, it was unlike anything the Spider-Man franchise had ever seen. Most of Peter Parker’s villains were silly animal-themed criminals. However, Venom is something distinctly alien. Its very nature is amorphous and ambiguous; compared to a street-level hero like Spidey, Venom stands out.

Throughout its Lethal Protector era, and even into his All-New Venom series, the symbiote’s violent proclivities have always been horrifically accentuated by his semi-cannibalistic nature. With or without a host’s permission, Venom has subjected its human hosts to the gruesomeness of consuming their own kind. When enraged, any aspect of Venom’s learned humanity fades away, leaving only a primal hunger to eviscerate the source of the symbiote’s wrathful ire. The only things more terrifying than Venom are the blood-hungry hellspawns it has produced over the years.

2 The Symbiote Emphasizes Its Hosts’ Greatest Qualities

Unfortunately, That Usually Means Greater Aggression

It is in a symbiote’s nature to unwittingly empower a host’s emotions and thoughts. The inorganic alien creatures sustain themselves on the chemicals produced in victims’ brains and the greater nervous system, which has, in turn, emboldened the hosts’ frequent emotions. This empowerment becomes even stronger if a host and symbiote’s minds are aligned. ittedly, Venom hasn’t usually influenced his hosts for the better. Hosts like Eddie Brock were only made more furious when they bond with the symbiote. Yet, this trait isn’t without its benefits.

When Spider-Man and Venom first bonded, Peter Parker never felt more alive. He was a stronger, faster, and more agile hero than ever before and Venom was thrilled to be part of that experience. However, through Parker’s newfound sense of pride came his sense of ego and then frustration. In turn, Venom began to influence those qualities, eventually driving both Parker and itself mad. In the right hands, such as with Venom’s new host, selflessly heroic hosts evolve into nobler and far greater protectors than before.

3 Venom Can Expose Spider-Man’s Flaws Better Than Peter Parker

Spider-Man and Venom Were Once One Mind

Coming off that last point, Venom has a knack for exposing its hosts’ inner selves. By emphasizing a host’s inner thoughts and emotions, Venom often reveals dark truths that had attempted to be buried. When Stan Lee first pitched Spider-Man to his publisher, he wanted a hero who had flaws but was pure of heart. However, Venom, more than any other villain, proved that Parker isn’t always the pure hero we treat him as.

Venom is intimately aware of its hosts’ thoughts at any time. As it feeds on the brain’s natural bio-chemicals, the symbiote feels its hosts’ emotions as they do. However, as an independent lifeform, Venom often provides its outside perspective to its hosts’ experience. In the recent Venom War, Spider-Man and Venom temporarily rebonded as a healthier and wiser pair than they were before. Peter is still struggling without Mary Jane, but it was Venom who helped clear Peter’s mind when he needed it. While Peter Parker may not be emotionally intelligent enough to process his own thoughts, Venom is.

4 Venom Possesses an Unmatched Rogues’ Gallery of Horror

The Symbiote's Children Alone are Nightmarish

Villains don’t often get their own rogues’ gallery, but Venom has a particularly terrifying one. When Venom first unknowingly laid its first spawn, it created one of the most dangerous powers the Marvel Universe has ever seen. While Venom is horrific in its own way, Carnage far sured its father’s terror. The flesh-infused symbiote was instantly just as much a Venom villain as it was a Spider-Man villain. Without Carnage to show Eddie Brock what symbiotes were fully capable of in the wrong hands, he wouldn’t have doubled down on his path to becoming a protector.

What makes Venom’s rogues’ gallery particularly unique is that it is near-exclusively composed of the symbiote’s family. Venom has fought against all its children in the past and has certainly not shown any greater affection for its grandchildren either. But, beyond familial spats, there aren’t many street-bound heroes who can claim they have feuded with a primordial entity. Venom’s creator is an artifact from an old Multiverse given new life in the void between existence. Yet, in the end, even the elder god fell to Venom and Eddie Brock’s enduring will.

5 The Symbiote Mythology Is Profoundly Complex

From Alien Costumes to Primordial Gods

When writer Donny Cates first stepped into the Venom franchise with 2018’s Venom series, he opened the symbiote to an entire multiverse of new stories and lore. Throughout his work Absolute Carnage and King in Black, Cates took Venom’s basic alien plot points and recontextualized the character using Marvel’s pre-established cosmic mythology. Soon, Venom was no longer a semi-exclusive Spider-Man character, but instead a pillar in the foundation of Marvel's mythology that actively extends to other character franchises like Thor and the Silver Surfer.

After Al Ewing took over for Donny Cates in 2021, Ewing brought a new mythological element to the Venom franchise that he has used in previous works such as Immortal Hulk. ittedly, not all readers have enjoyed this expansion, but it ultimately ties back to a core tenet of Venom’s origins. Eddie Brock and Venom first bonded in a house of God which both characters have repeatedly returned to in moments of extreme doubt and fear. There’s beauty in the symbiote’s journey, which began under one god’s roof and ended with Venom becoming a god to its own people.

6 Venom Has Amazing Crossover Potential

The Venomverse Is Just as Sprawling as the Spider-Verse

In 2017, writer Cullen Bunn and artist Iban Coello introduced the Venomverse, a twisted variation of the already successful Spider-Verse franchise. Where the Spider-Verse capitalizes on showing the multiverse’s greatest heroes, the Venomverse highlights the multiverse’s most horrific monsters. Since then, the Venomverse has become just as successful a comic franchise as its Spider-Man equivalent, as Venoms from across space and time gather to reap lethal justice in the darkest corners of the multiverse.

Even without the multiverse, Venom still possesses incredible crossover potential. The current predicament with Venom’s new host aside, the symbiote can bond with any character Marvel has in its catalog. Venom has canonically bonded with dozens of heroes and villains, each time creating completely unique stories that only that combination can tell. Heroes like Captain America or Cyclops aren’t commonly used to aliens poking around in their heads. By its ambiguous nature alone, Venom has the potential to be used as a tool and a character as any writer sees fit.

7 Venom Is the Quintessential Anti-Hero

The Symbiote Genuinely Wants to Do Good, Even if It Is Lethal

Eddie Brock significantly influenced how Venom’s early sense of morality shaped. While Brock was furious at Parker, Spider-Man, and the world as a whole, he never wanted to be a criminal. Eddie wanted to become a hero. In his own way, “lethal justice” made sense when the villains he targeted were some of the cruelest. As the Lethal Protector, Venom and Eddie genuinely wanted to make a positive difference, but reveled in the torturous deaths of the criminals and corrupt people they targeted.

ittedly, Venom is quite a bit more relaxed today than he ever has before. After Flash Thompson restored Venom’s connection to the Symbiote Hive in Venom Space Knight, Venom took a significantly greater turn toward heroism than before but still maintains some of its more aggressive tendencies. Despite its clear separation from its past villainous behavior, Venom itted it still has a preference for brains when it rebonded with Spider-Man during the Venom War. Even now, Venom believes that extreme violence is a valid answer.

8 The Symbiote Is a Tragically Relatable Character

Venom's Character Arc Is Rooted In Loss and Rejection

Venom is one of the saddest characters in the Spider-Man franchise and that’s saying a lot considering how depressing Peter Parker’s life is. Venom has frequently expressed in the last couple of decades how traumatic his first experience with Spider-Man was. The symbiote has long itted that bonding with a host is a deeply intimate process and Peter Parker was one of its first. But Spidey’s aggressive tendencies and ultimate distrust of Venom ravaged the poor symbiote’s sense of self-worth.

When Venom first bonded with Eddie, it was proverbially heartbroken by Peter’s betrayal. Its depressive pain remained the motivating force behind Venom’s aggression for decades. As Venom has aged, anger has transformed into sorrow. Its symbiotic family is often made pawns in others’ goals. Venom has had to kill its children, grandchildren, and kin simply to survive. Today, the symbiote is without Eddie or their son Dylan. While symbiotes don’t often consider their spawns family, Venom absolutely considers the Brocks close loved ones. Despite his monstrous exterior, Venom has a fairly soft heart in the face of rejection and loneliness.

9 Venom’s Power Is as Mighty as It Is Diverse

Venom Adopts Abilities From Every Host

The symbiotes are wildly diverse creatures whose genetics mildly alter with each host they bond to. As the host’s and the symbiote’s DNA entangle, the symbiote is imbued with many of the host’s powers. After moving to another host, symbiotes still carry artifacts of their last host to on to the next. After as many hosts as Venom has collected, the symbiote transcended far beyond its original enhancement abilities.

As with most symbiotes, Venom’s amorphous body has numerous applications, including camouflage, genetic memory absorption, symbiotic telepathy, and form manipulation. After bonding with so many hosts, Venom has learned to create webbing from Spider-Man, developed poisonous fangs and assimilating powers with Eddie Brock, and the power to merge itself with inorganic matter from Flash Thompson. Even now, Venom’s new host has been calling upon the stored knowledge and powers from the symbiote’s previous bonds to become the best hero possible.

10 Venom Is an Unrelenting Underdog

The Symbiote Always Faces Stronger Enemies

At the end of the day, Venom has always been the underdog. Despite its ridiculous powers and overall endurance, Venom, like his first host, is always facing a losing fight. In the beginning, it was Spider-Man and Carnage. Spidey will almost always win as the leading hero and Carnage has proven to be far more powerful than its parent will ever be. Then, during Knull’s invasion, Venom had to face an eldritch god. Throughout the Venom War, Venom became a target for both Eddie and Dylan.

The enemies and events Venom frequently faces place the symbiote against bad odds. Yet, Venom always recovers from a loss. It does what it needs to heal and grow, then it tries again. With each failure, Venom quite literally evolves to face the challenge until it wins. Today, Venom is the underdog as he faces the court of public opinion. Between Absolute Carnage, Knull's symbiote invasion, and ultimately the Venom War, the public is terrified of Venom. Yet still, Venom and its new host persevere to prove themselves a hero.