No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. Venom's old news... All played out. These days I prefer to be called-- Toxin! 
- —Toxin[src]
History
Origins
As a child, Edward Charles Allan Brock was raised as a Roman Catholic in suburban San Francisco. His father was cold and unloving towards him because he blamed Eddie for his wife's death during childbirth. Eddie constantly attempted to obtain his father's approval, though even after excelling in school, he only received half-hearted encouragements. Eddie often stole things from other children, just so he could "find" these items to gain their friendship.
In his teenage years he gained entrance to ESU's journalism program, fabricating an internship, and he romanced law student Ann Weying.[4] Though exceptional in athletics, Brock switched his major in college to journalism after reading an article on the Watergate scandal. Upon graduating, he moved to New York City, married Ann and as a member of the Associated Press, he obtained a job as a journalist for the Daily Globe. He proved himself to be highly talented, though even this did not get his father's approval.[3]
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Eddie in human form.
From Success to Failure
Being a young reporter, Brock faced down the shadowy alien Krobaa,[5] and uncovered illegal human testing at Devlin-MacGregor Pharmaceuticals, although threats on Ann's life prevented him from reporting that.[6] He later began to suffer from severe anxiety, which was soon discovered to be a symptom of adrenal cancer. With just months to live, he wanted to break a big story. Brock thought he had found this story when he was accidentally contacted by Emil Gregg, who claimed to be the serial killer Sin-Eater. Eddie wrote front-page exclusives of the Sin-Eater, protecting his identity under the First Amendment, until a crisis of conscience and pressure from the police and his editor forced him to write an exclusive article revealing Gregg as the Sin-Eater.
Although that edition of the paper sold out immediately, that same day, Spider-Man soon revealed the true identity of the Sin-Eater to be Detective Stan Carter. Gregg was found to be Carter's delusional neighbor, making Brock a laughingstock among his fellow journalists. Fired from the Daily Globe, he was forced to write venomous drivel for a tawdry tabloid. Ann left him, his father disowned him and his future appeared to be over. Brock blamed all of these problems on Spider-Man. Soon after, Brock began an intense physical workout program hoping to reduce the stress his life had become. However, such physical exertions only increased his violent obsession with Spider-Man. Although his body had been honed to near-perfection, Brock’s mind was reduced to an all-consuming vessel of hatred.
Birth of Venom
Venom is born.
Some time after Eddie's life took these drastic changes, and overwhelmed by his shame and the knowledge of his impending death, he decided to consider suicide. He decided to visit Our Lady of Saints Church to beg forgiveness from God for this mortal sin before doing it. As Eddie questioned his resolve to go through with his suicide, a strange man approached and said he might find what he was "looking for" inside. Once inside the church, he was caught by surprise when the symbiotic alien costume, which had earlier been discarded by Spider-Man in the church's bell tower, attacked and bonded with him, drawn by his despair, adrenaline, and fierce hate, on which it fed. The symbiote merged mentally and physically with Brock, whose bubbling hatred for Spider-Man was equaled by the symbiote's, and so they vowed revenge against him.
In effect, Brock’s emotions drove the symbiote insane, just as their bonding may have driven Brock over the edge. Brock soon discovered that the costume gave him all the powers of Spider-Man, and more. It also added bulk to his already large frame and increased his strength to superhuman levels. Calling themselves Venom: "Because that's what I'm paid to spew these days!" Through the costume, Venom learned a great deal about Spider-Man, including his secret identity.
Stalking the Spider
Brock taunted Peter Parker with minor assaults, such as pushing him in front of an oncoming train and then grabbing his ankle while scaling an Atlantic City building. The alien costume could cancel out the wall-crawler’s spider-sense presumably by projecting conflicting frequencies upon Spider-Man's brain waves. Venom finally made a bold move when he confronted Parker's wife, Mary Jane Watson, at their old Chelsea apartment. Although Venom’s twisted sense of morality did not allow him to physically harm Mary Jane, Spider-Man immediately realized the nature of this threat. Remembering the symbiotes weakness, Spider-Man retrieved a sonic blaster from the Fantastic Four, and fired the blaster at Venom. Spider-Man then discovered that the symbiote could not be separated from Brock because it had completely bonded with him. Spider-Man rationalized that further use of the weapon on Venom might kill him and decided to relent. Trying to escape and rethink his options, Spider-Man was caught unaware by Venom. He captured Spider-Man and secured him to the inside of the church bell with a considerable amount of webbing. Spider-Man narrowly escaped the bell’s crushing clapper before defeating Venom by forcing him to deplete his webbing supply, of which the alien symbiote was actually comprised. Before the alien could regenerate enough of its mass to become a renewed threat, Spider-Man brought Venom to the Fantastic Four who imprisoned him in a sonic containment cell. The Fantastic Four then shipped Venom to the government super-prison in the Colorado Rockies called the Vault.
A young Guardsman, Hugh Taylor, who had just been assigned to the Vault was fooled into thinking that Venom was a fallen colleague and released the gate mechanism, which imprisoned the criminal. Venom killed the naive guard and escaped to New York City. Later on, to avenge his son, General Orwell Taylor founded the armored vigilante team known as the Jury.[3]
While hitchhiking back to Spider-Man in Manhattan, he thwarted the criminal activity of a small militia in Missouri. This marked the first time he used the symbiote heroically and demonstrated his soft spot for those he deemed innocent.[7]
Resuming his vendetta, Brock brutalized the Black Cat, menaced May Parker and bested Spider-Man in combat on an isolated Montauk, Long Island beach. However, this time, Spider-Man used psychological warfare upon Venom, by taunting the alien symbiote to return to him. The alien, torn by its love-hate relationship for Spider-Man, tried to leave Brock and to re-establish its link with its original owner, but the trauma of trying to detach itself from Brock’s nervous system was too much to bear. The alien costume and Eddie Brock were both knocked unconscious and subsequently returned to the Vault, where they were incarcerated.
Some time later, Brock led a mass Vault breakout, requiring the Avengers and the Freedom Force to contain the villains.[8] He also was apprehended by Quasar during the Acts of Vengeance.[9]
Venom vs. Spider-Man.
Eddie then faked his own suicide and escaped the Vault again. He attacked Spider-Man in Central Park, but abandoned the battle to save an innocent baby. Returning to his underground lair. Styx and Stone attempted to follow him through the sewers in the hope of finding Spider-Man. Unfortunately for them, Venom escaped the sewers in his human guise. Venom lured Spider-Man into a confrontation in his sewer lair, and began fighting, when Styx and Stone appeared and attempted to kill Spider-Man. Fortunately for Spidey, albeit in a bad way, Venom would not allow anyone else to kill Spider-Man, save himself. Attacking the two, a brawl ensued. Spidey tried to save Venom before Styx, the living cancer, touched his symbiote, killing it in the process. With the symbiote seemingly dead, Eddie Brock was sent to a normal prison at Ryker's Island.
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Venom taking over
Short Reprieve and an Uneasy Alliance
In Ryker's Island, he made enemies with Cletus Kasady. Later it was revealed the symbiote was merely sent into a comatose state, apparently immune to Earthly diseases. Returning to Eddie Brock the two easily escaped. In the breakout, however, the suit left a small spawn behind it which would transform Kasady into Carnage. No one would be aware of this new threat for months. Eddie captured Spider-Man and battled him on a deserted island in the Caribbeans, away from people and innocents in the hope of killing him alone. However, Spider-Man later realized that Venom would only be happy if he knew that Spider-Man was dead. Faking his death, Spider-Man made Venom believe that he had died, thus was able to escape. Happy at last, Venom saw there was no reason to return to civilization, having all he needed on the island, and stayed there.
In a plan to help his father, Darkhawk hijacked a cargo plane which crashed onto the island. The two fought mostly because Venom desired privacy. After the symbiote sensed Powell's innocence, misleading the hero into thinking that he was dead.[10] His peaceful solitude was also interrupted by his stint as an unwitting pawn of Nightmare, to torment Wolverine inside a dream zone. Subsequently Venom & Wolverine allied to try and foil Nightmare's scheme. At one point Wolverine seemingly saved Eddie's life.[11]
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Venom & Spidey working together
A few months later, however, the megalomaniacal serial killer Carnage began a mass-murdering rampage throughout Manhattan, killing hundreds of people. Spider-Man attempted to stop him, but swiftly learned that despite his superior experience he was outmatched. Realizing that Carnage possessed a symbiote, Peter reluctantly realized that he needed Venom's help in order to stop this menace. Contacting Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, they traveled to the Caribbean island where Venom resided. When Venom realized that Spider-Man was alive, he attacked the two. After a brief spat, Venom listened to what Spider-Man had to say. Promising to help Spider-Man stop Carnage in exchange for his freedom, Spider-Man reluctantly agreed, starting the first of many uneasy alliances with each other.
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Carnage vs. Spider-Man vs. Venom.
Returning to New York, Venom and Spider-Man attempted to stop Carnage's rampage twice with equal failure. In their final attempt at Madison Square Garden, they stopped Carnage after he began trying to kill J. Jonah Jameson. Turning on the sound system to the maximum frequency, Spider-Man stopped Carnage. He then proceeded (albeit reluctantly) to use the sound waves on Venom before he attacked him, still possessing enough hatred and strength to choke him. His attempt to kill the wall-crawler, however, was stopped by the Fantastic Four, who Venom realized were behind this plan all along. Venom's hatred for Spider-Man now grew greater than ever. Later, he pretended the symbiote had died before going to trial, being defended by Matt Murdock and pleaded innocent since the alien overshadowed him, but he was caught lying.[12]
Venom escaped when Hag and Troll killed the Vault Guardsmen transporting him to prison. Brock wanted to avenge the murders, which led him into a battle with Demogoblin, Doppelganger,and a legion of Deathspawn with help from Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze.[13] Simultaneously, Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze prevented Venom from attacking Spider-Man, and Venom was forced back to the Vault.
"Final Confrontation"
Venom soon sprung himself from the prison[14] and immediately sought Spider-Man in what was meant to be their last battle to end it all. Learning that Parker's long-lost parents had resurfaced (unaware they were actually robot duplicates), Venom kidnapped them in order to protect their innocence from his corruption.[15] Spider-Man contacted Eddie's ex-wife, Ann Weying, in order to gain info on his whereabouts, which led Spider-Man to Thrill World where he found Venom waiting. Eddie noticed Ann, who had traveled there to try and reach him one last time. As the Wild Pack arrived, a battle ensued. An amusement ride fell next to Ann and Eddie couldn't hold it on his own. As Eddie started to falter, Spider-Man assisted him in holding the tremendous weight, and together they tossed the ride aside. Afterwards, Venom began to resume the fight with Spider-Man, but Ann stopped him, reminding Eddie that Spider-Man just saved an innocent life. Pondering this fact for a moment, Eddie realized that by not killing Spider-Man, more innocent lives could be saved. Venom then made a deal with him: so long as Spider-Man did not go after them, they would not go after him. Agreeing to the terms, Spider-Man watched as Venom attached a web line to a nearby helicopter, departing for a new city where he wouldn't interfere.[16]
The Lethal Protector
Venom as an Anti-Hero.
After dealing a truce with Spider-Man, Venom relocated to his hometown of San Francisco. Some cops recognized Eddie Brock and tried to bring him in, but he turned into Venom and while resisting arrest, incapacitated them. Spider-Man reads about how Venom is beating up police officers and breaks the truce by going to find him. Venom saved a handful of homeless people from being abused by criminals and in gratitude revealed their underground society descended from survivors of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Seeking revenge for Venom's murder of his son, General Orwell Taylor sent his task force called the Jury, to take down Venom, but ultimately failed. Venom was then taken prisoner by the Life Foundation and was forcefully made to spawn five more symbiotes. During this time, Venom managed to convince a pursuing Spider-Man that he was dedicated to protecting innocent people enough to solicit his help; though Spider-Man remained wary of Venom's ruthless aggression. He managed to incapacitate the other symbiotes and escaped the Life Foundation. The man responsible for the Life Foundation and the symbiotes, Roland Treece, planned on killing the underground civilization in order to obtain a large mass of gold supposedly buried within it. Enlisting Spider-Man's aid once again the two thwarted his evil scheme. Saving the citizens of the underground city, they awarded him their vote of acceptance to take up residence there.
When Venom heard the news of Carnage leading a massacre across NYC, he went there to stop the villain, but was outnumbered by Carnage and his minions. He took up alliance with Spider-Man and many other superheroes in an effort to stop Carnage and his henchmen. Venom advocated the use of lethal force against Carnage but Spider-Man refused this tactic, putting them at odds. The heroes eventually succeeded, with Venom tackling Carnage into a generator system, rendering him unconscious. Spider-Man and Black Cat believed that Venom had sacrificed his body to save them from Carnage. Venom survives and eventually returns home.
During his period of vigilantism, Eddie crossed paths with other superheroes and anti-heroes such as the Punisher,[17] Darkhawk,[18] Daredevil,[19] Iron Man,[20] Morbius,[21] Mace,[22] Hulk (Bruce Banner),[23] and Vengeance.[24] In one of these encounters he attempted to rid his symbiote of its weakness to fire and sound by acquiring a bio-virus but was convinced by Daredevil, that his weakness actually provides him an opportunity to prove himself as a hero.
Venom learned he was being hunted by a criminal group which led to his second encounter with Darkhawk. Venom expressed to Darkhawk how he felt betrayed by him, due to Darkhawk attacking him and swearing to turn him over to the authorities for his past crimes, despite Venom seemingly sparring Darkhawk's life in their previous encounter. Venom bested him in battle but resisted killing him as a return favor for his aiding him in battle against the Seekers. Venom offered to ally however Darkhawk believed Venom was intent on killing and swore to bring him to justice. Venom was then heavily assaulted and knocked unconscious by Darkhawk to prevent him from possibly killing their target. Despite this, Venom was still able to escape Darkhawk.
Romance and Transformation / Possession
Eddie became romantically involved with Beck Underwood, a lawyer and above-ground contact of the underground society. A company called Scarmore Inc. was behind some illegal experiments in which they mixed their toxic waste with mercury, however, all the substance did was sicken anyone who worked with it, both physically and mentally. Scarmore Inc. hired Black Tom and Juggernaut to kidnap Beck, who was prosecuting the Company. While protecting Beck from the Juggernaut, Venom became submerged in the Mercury mix.
The Mercury Virus turned out to be sentient and manipulated Venom. The Mercury Virus proceeded to bond with him and augment his strength and figure drastically, while simultaneously manipulating him. Venom became increasingly aggressive during an intimate moment with Beck that went awry. Demons from another dimension called the "Realm of Insanity", plotted to lure Venom into their world, by seeking to drive him further insane. Venom was convinced by a man to help Beck's cause by attacking Scarmore. He subsequently tried to kill the company president but, actually killed a janitor, which upon learning this, would cause Beck much grief. Later,Juggernaut attempted to kidnap Beck and once again fought Venom until Venom fell into the "Realm of Insanity". A demon by the name Necromancer (taking the appearance of Ghost Rider) explained that every time someone went mad they fell into the Realm of Insanity for an amount of time, and the degree of Venom's madness meant he could remain there indefinitely. During this time, Eddie hears the Symbiote tell him it is Cancerous, and venom believes he is dying from it. Venom conquered his conflicting personalities and the demons inside the realm, and was sent back to Earth. Eventually, an employee of Scarmore publicly confessed to the crimes.
As Juggernaut was holding Beck hostage, Venom burst in and attacked; the two fought until Juggernaut got fed up and left. Due to all that had happened Beck ended their romance and Venom extracted the Mercury Virus from his system. Despite everything, Venom respected the sentient virus and welcomed a reunion if he ever needed another power boost.[25]
The Hunger
Eddie struggles to fight the symbiote's cannibalistic impulses.
During his wandering of New York, deprived of sleep, Eddie grew more and more delusional with people appearing as demons and monsters to him. Everything he ate tasted like garbage, and he had a craving for something but did not know what it was. Using his old resources and skills as a journalist to find trouble, he went to a bar filled with the corrupt and started a fight for the sake of punishing the guilty and working up an appetite. He took down everyone in the bar fight with little effort, and proceeded to feed on one of the men's brains, however hearing the other bar patron's screams snapped him out of his feeding. To Eddie’s disgust, he felt the symbiote asking him for more; Eddie stood up to his other and refused to feed it. The symbiote separated from Eddie and went off on its own. In his attempts to warn the innocents of New York about the alien, Eddie (nude without the symbiote) was arrested.[26] He was eventually handed over to Doctor Paine.
Paine thought that Eddie had organic brain syndrome, but unknown proteins in his system, enlarged pores and a severe lack of phenethylamine in his brain proved otherwise. Paine listened to Eddie, and he was allowed to leave the hospital (due to Paine's ulterior motives.) Eddie stocked up on different supplies so as to better combat his "other," since he decided that he could not live with what it had become. Their mental link allowed Eddie to see through its attempt to ambush him and Eddie first tried to talk to the creature, but it raged at him and he had no choice but to fight it. Eventually, he downed the alien and had it at his mercy. Stating the symbiote was sick he gave it a dose of phenethylamine, which he overheard Dr. Paine mention. Having eaten away all it could leech from Eddie, the symbiote needed it from other sources. The other brains couldn't feed it nearly as much as Eddie’s due to his emotional attachment, and after digesting it the alien calmed down.
Dr. Paine and his Orderlies ambushed them, took the symbiote and left Eddie. After escaping an explosion he sensed that Paine was torturing & experimenting on the symbiote. He snuck into the complex and found the symbiote and freed it to become Venom again. With his powers returned Venom defeated the Orderlies before impaling Doctor Paine. Wanting to torture him, Paine retorted to Venom that he wouldn't be able to feel any of it; in response, Venom absorbed all the phenethylamine from the doctor's brain leaving him with an insatiable hunger for brains. Eddie later found that chocolate was also a good source of phenethylamine, removing the need to feed.
Return to Villainy
Venom was recruited via an ultimatum by the government to be a special operations counter-terrorist agent. Venom agreed, but one stipulation of the deal did not sit too well with him. A bomb was planted in his chest to assure complete and utter obedience. After a few missions, Venom became tired of the situation and had the symbiote perform surgery on him and extracted the bomb. A brouhaha ensued wherein the end result was Eddie Brock lying unconscious and the symbiote "dead," only to return later on and re-join with Eddie. Thus, Venom was whole again and looking to square things with Spider-Man once again. He had lost his memory and no longer knew the secret identity of Spider-Man, but knew that a deep seated hatred resided within him for the wall crawler.
Shortly after the reunion, Venom joined the Sinister Six for a brief period in order to get at Spider-Man. After being scorned by the group, he hunted down certain members of the team for revenge (including Electro, the Sandman, and Kraven the Hunter (Alyosha Kravinoff).) Later Eddie Brock approached his ex-wife Anne Weying, and at the thought of having the symbiote back in her life, she jumped out of her apartment window and killed herself. Venom blamed Spider-Man, whom he had a skirmish with right before Anne died. Thus, the hatred for the old Web-Head was fueled anew.
Carnage vs. Venom.
Toxin the Newborn
During a battle with Carnage, Venom explained the birthing process to Carnage, Carnage was disgusted and fled, as he was about to give birth to another symbiote, he was threatened by its existence and attempted to destroy it. Venom, however, wanted to raise and train the new symbiote as an ally and partner. Weakened by the actual birthing, Carnage was unable to kill the newborn. Supplanting the symbiote in Patrick Mulligan, a New York City cop, it returned days later. Venom named the new symbiote Toxin, after himself. Because they knew how powerful Toxin will be, and because his host is a cop, he would most likely be a good guy they made a temporary alliance, because they had to kill him, but, in the end, they were defeated.
Life with Cancer and the "Inner Venom"
Eddie living with his cancer.
After an extended period of inactivity, Venom resurfaced with cancer, and the only thing keeping him alive was the symbiote, who did not want him anymore. After seeing a spiritual movie, Eddie decided to sell his symbiote off in an auction, swearing off his life of vigilantism. The winner of the auction was the gang lord Don Fortunato. He gave the symbiote to his son, Angelo, in hopes that Angelo would finally make a name for himself. Unimpressed with Angelo, however, the symbiote eventually left him right in the middle of a powered jump, abandoning its host in mid-air and leaving Angelo to fall helplessly to his death. The symbiote passed on to Mac Gargan, the Scorpion. Brock was discovered after making an attempt to kill himself, and was hospitalized.
He was rapidly succumbing physically to his cancer and experiencing hallucinations of the symbiote, representing his dark side. After a while of being tormented by his other, he spotted Mary Jane Watson-Parker watching over Aunt May, who had been seriously wounded by a bullet. Eddie had no idea what to do, but his dark side then persuaded him to order a black suit similar to Peter's and put it on, apparently making the decision that may forever damn him.
Making a decision to go and try to murder Aunt May while she was in a coma, Eddie Brock embodied the black costume and set out to kill her, first murdering a nurse for getting in his way. But after sneaking into Aunt May's room, Brock had a change of heart, finding he could not murder someone as innocent as Aunt May. Peter entered the room moments later to find Brock sitting on the shattered window, having slit his own wrists dozens of times. Believing he had done too many terrible things to live on he jumped off, but Peter broke his fall by catching him. Awakening chained to his bed, Brock decided to take better control of himself for the remaining days he had left.
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Eddie becomes Anti-Venom.
Anti-Venom: New Ways To Live
Eddie started working for Mr. Li and Aunt May at the F.E.A.S.T. center. There he worked serving food to the homeless. Thanks to Mr. Li's "mysterious powers," Eddie was cured of both his cancer and the remnants of the symbiote. Unfortunately, the current Venom entered the F.E.A.S.T. center looking for Spider-Man. He found Eddie and the symbiote began to crawl onto him again. However, Mr. Li's powers clash with the takeover and they formed Anti-Venom. Later in a fight against Spider-Man, he noticed his foe rescue an innocent old man. Inspired, Anti-venom helped Spidey cure the current Venom. He engaged Venom in a fight, and after receiving some help from Spider-Man, cured Gargan from the symbiote, but also felt some remnants of the symbiote inside Peter's blood and began "curing" him as well, but also ended up sucking the radiation from Spider-Man's blood, something that might de-power him.
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Anti-Venom befriends Spider-Man.
Later, Thunderbolts guards arrived to take the disabled Gargan to the ship while Songbird and Radioactive Man battled Spider-Man and Anti-Venom. After the fight, Anti-Venom sneaked on the Thunderbolts ship and stole back Peter Parker's camera, looted by Norman Osborn in a bid to reverse engineer the tracing system allowing the camera to zero on Spider-Man's chest. He was able to help Peter escape Osborn's tracer and forewarns him about the villain's next move in a show of friendship and good-will.
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Anti-Venom vs. Mister Negative.
Anti-Venom led Spider-Man to Oscorp and the two split up. Brock disguised himself as Spider-Man to distract the other Thunderbolts while Spider-Man went after Osborn. After webbing up Songbird and Radioactive Man to a wall, Anti-Venom faced Gargan, who was now wearing a new Scorpion battlesuit to protect his recovering symbiote. After a grueling battle Gargan, as Scorpion, hit Anti-Venom with his stinger and injected a poisonous formula that seemingly destroyed Brock's symbiote. Gargan (now Venom) advanced to kill Brock but was met with resistance by his Venom symbiote. The symbiote gained strength and broke through Gargan's battle suit, refusing to let Gargan kill Brock. Gargan explained that the alien still loved Brock too much and gave up, but he promised Brock that he would get past this problem and someday finish him off, to which Brock replied: "Not if I kill you first." Unknown to Gargan, Brock's Anti-Venom suit reformed. Now a fugitive for helping Spider-Man and fighting the Thunderbolts, Brock was back on the streets, planning to continue his former vigilante antihero career with seemingly increased religious emphasis as the Anti-Venom. He even cured a young girl, Jenna Cole, from her heroin addiction.
Brock was the first person to find out that Martin Li was Mister Negative. In the end, Eddie questioned his own faith and cried out that no one would believe him, because he was a monster.[27]
Anti-Venom fights some thugs.
Working with Jenna Cole, Eddie fought crime in the sleazier areas of New York, having separated themselves from the F.E.A.S.T. foundation. As Anti-Venom, he would "cure" the streets of drug traders after Jenna would go undercover to lure them out. He became increasingly mentally unstable, however, reverting back to his "Venom" personality, and was overtly/near-lethally protective of Jenna. At a drug bust Eddie walked in on the Quintas gang after they had captured Jenna, preparing to transform until the Punisher intervened. Anti-Venom and Castle slaughtered the criminals until a gang member took Jenna hostage. Eddie stopped Castle from shooting the gang member through Jenna, however upon hearing his full name ("Eddie Brock the serial killer") he shot Anti-Venom in the head with a shotgun. Anti-Venom recovered and attacked the Punisher in retaliation. Eddie and the Punisher almost killed each other, but Eddie declared a truce, saying that if the Punisher didn't back down he'd make him go to Mexico with him in a wheelchair and that he could drive the Punisher's van. The Punisher agreed to the truce, but tried to kill Eddie again during the border crossing with a knife. He dropped Eddie off at the compound, figuring Eddie would die instead of him, and this way he planned to take care of two birds with one stone. When he talked on the phone to the leader of the Quintas gang and found that Jenna had relapsed and was doing drugs again, Eddie lost control and tore one of the Quintas in half in a fit of rage. After killing the remaining guards, Eddie rejoined the Punisher, and the two launched an attack on the Quintas. At the end of the raid, Eddie found a severely drugged Jenna, who seemed afraid of his Anti-Venom costume. After withdrawing the symbiote into himself, Eddie managed to calm her down. At this point, the Punisher attempted to snipe Eddie from a distance, but ultimately decided not to, only later discovering he had run out of ammo. After the Punisher left, Jenna and Eddie took a jeep and returned home.[28]
Spidey, Wraith and Anti-Venom vs. Mister Negative's henchman.
Return of Anti-Venom
During the Return of Anti-Venom story-line, Anti-Venom teams up with Spider-Man and the new Wraith to deal with Mr. Negative. Initially, Anti-Venom one night went to the harbor to deal with one of Mister Negative's drug shipments and encountered Wraith, who got there first. Later, after assuming a disguise as a civilian, he observed May Parker-Jameson have a seizure from meeting with Martin Li for the first time in a while (due to a memory relapse when she discovered his secret), causing Brock to realize that May also stumbled onto Martin Li's secret. Once Li left the center, Anti-Venom attacked his car only to fight a confused Spider-Man who didn't know what was going on only for Anti-Venom to capture him and web him to a pillar in his hideout. Even though Spider-Man didn't believe his story about Li being Mister Negative, Anti-Venom brought him to the museum and webbed him to a statue so he could witness the truth as Mister Negative had heroin shipped there that was placed within ancient Chinese terracotta statues, but Mister Negative was waiting for him and defeated Anti-Venom by placing his sword filled with his negative energy to disable Anti-Venom's healing powers (due to Negative's power being the source of his power). Once Wraith arrived and freed Spider-Man, and Spider-Man defeated Mister Negative, Wraith used her face recognition software to confirm Anti-Venom was telling the truth. Afterwards, Spider-Man removed the sword from Anti-Venom and they put an end to their previously tenuous relationship.
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Anti-Venom joins The Revengers.
The Revengers
Recently Eddie Brock has been recruited by Simon Williams to serve in his new Anti-Avengers team The Revengers. The Revengers defeated the New Avengers at Avengers Mansion, and later, they called a press conference at the court, where the Avengers appeared to confront them. After failing discussions with Wonder Man, Iron Man trapped him in his ionic form in a containment unit. Not willing to fight with too many civilians near, Thor teleported the Revengers to the City Field, where they were subdued by both the Avengers and the New Avengers and later imprisoned.[29][30]
The Chosen One.
Spider-Island
Apparently, Anti-Venom was freed or escaped prison. During the release of a virus that gave multiple civilians copies of Spider-Man's powers, Anti-Venom used his curative abilities to return people to normal. Venom was sent to get him, and a fight erupted between them, during which the symbiote briefly re-bonded to Brock. However, he was visibly terrified as they bonded, even shedding tears. However, Flash Thompson managed to call the symbiote back to him, and took Eddie to Horizon Labs. As an ultimatum, Reed Richards proposed to Eddie to use his symbiote as a cure to be distributed to everyone, however, he would never be able to become Anti-Venom again. As a result, without the symbiote, Eddie was now considered the hero of Spider-Island.[31][32]
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Brock becomes Toxin.
Becoming Toxin
Not being bonded to a symbiote anymore, Eddie used an obtained arsenal to hunt down Carnage, Venom, Toxin and the other symbiotes, starting with Hybrid and Scream. Despite having helped to save New York, Eddie was homeless and poor, and his arsenal was the only thing he had.[33]
When he was trying to kill the new Venom, he was knocked out in battle and forced by Crime-Master to become the host of the Toxin Symbiote to serve him in his Savage Six.[34]
Toxin tracked down Venom in order to kill him but was incapacitated by a sonic weapon and webbed up by Venom. He later recovered and returned to Crime-Master's hideout. When Venom arrived there searching for Betty Brant, Toxin and Megatak faced him, but finally both battled against each other to kill Venom. Finally, Thompson burned Toxin and tried to remove Eddie from it, but the symbiote recovered its host to die with him.[35] It was revealed that both the symbiote and Eddie survived, they continued to work as Toxin, hunting down and killing numerous criminals and gang members in their way to get revenge on Venom.[36]
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Toxin vs. Symbiote Slayer.
In Philadelphia, Venom's new base of operations, Toxin found Thompson trying to reason with a alien-machine hybrid monster. Eddie ate the cyborg to prove a point before attacking Thompson.[37] Using the sedative he was saving for his symbiote, Flash incapacitated Brock, who left the scene vowing a new encounter soon.[38] Toxin tracked down Flash to the high school he now worked in, wanting to confront him, but the alien machines whose host Toxin had killed infected new people, people who were now looking for both Toxin and Venom, their new natural enemies. In order to save innocent lives, Flash convinced Brock to temporarily team up and defeat the monsters, who were ultimately killed. Realizing he was doing good with Venom, Brock offered Flash a deal: he would let Flash live as long as he had control over the symbiote, but would mercy-kill him if he lost control.[39]
FBI
The FBI caught up with Toxin and had him in their sights for nearly a week until Brock finished dealing with Philadephia's drug gangs. They detained him with the employ of sonic cannons, but they saw the good Toxin could do and offered an opportunity. Toxin became an agent for the FBI, with his superior Claire Dixon using a symbiote dampener to control the symbiote, and let Brock use it as long as he followed orders, but only when needed.
Under Dixon's command, Eddie, John Jameson III, and Manuela Calderon instigated a trap to capture Carnage that resulted in Jameson, Carnage and several agents being trapped in Grey Ridge Mine, Virgina.[40] The team delved deeper into the mine to confront Carnage, ultimately dicovering the entire operation and its downfall was part of a plan orchestrated by the mine's owner Barry Gleason to sacrifice Carnage in a temple hidden deep within the mines for a Chthonic ritual. The team failed to apprehend Carnage, who had been empowered by Gleason's ritual instead of killed, and had escaped with the ritual's book, the Darkhold.[41]
Even after the Anti-Carnage task force was discharged by the FBI, it continued operating with funding from Victoria Montesi, an occult expert looking for the Darkhold.[42] Brock saw his team's subsequent quest to find Carnage and stop him from unleashing dark evils on the world as a signal that God was giving him a second chance to atone for his past wrongs, and tried to become a better man.[43]Attributes
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Powers
Powers (Toxin)
Red and Black Symbiotic Costume: Toxin possesses the "unique" special abilities of his two symbiote predecessors. He can stick to walls, can change his identity to that of a completely different person and also has unlimited webbing, which takes on a shape of a steel chain in his case. Toxin can also blend in with its surroundings and become undetectable, and he can form solid weapons from his limbs like his father. Toxin also seems to have some sort of quick-healing ability like his predecessors, as his wounds from his first battle with Razor Fist healed instantly. Unlike the others, Toxin can track anyone, not just other symbiotes, as long as he has something to begin from, within the entire city of New York and possibly further.
In addition, he seems to have a much stronger resistance to sonics and intense heat compared to Carnage. As Toxin, Eddie can grow immensely in height whenever he is angry or loses control of the symbiote,[44][35][38] and initially possesses a red body with black eyespots, small white eyes, and dozens of tendrils protruding from his back and shoulders.[34] When confronting Venom in Philidelphia, Toxin's lower body and forearms were black with red veins.[38] After joining the FBI, his appearance changed drastically, turning black with spikes on his legs, a red stylized spider emblem on his chest, eyespots, utility belt, pauldrons, and vambraces.[45]
- Superhuman Strength: He possesses vast superhuman strength, and is stronger than Carnage and Venom combined. Depending on how angry or upset he gets, he grows to a much larger size, with large claws and vicious fangs. His strength extends to his legs allowing him to leap heights and distances impossible for a normal human.
- Superhuman Speed: He can move or run at speeds greater than any normal human being.
- Superhuman Stamina: He can exert himself for at least 48 hours until fatigue impairs him.
- Superhuman Agility: His agility is superior to any normal human being.
- Superhuman Reflexes: His reflexes are superior to any normal human being.
- Superhuman Durability: He is much more resistant to injury than Spider Man, Venom and Carnage combined but still has the traditional symbiotes weaknesses but to a very minor degree. The tissue the symbiote is composed of renders Brock's body much harder and much more resistant to physical injury than the body of an ordinary human. Brock can withstand high caliber bullets, great impact forces, powerful energy blasts, and falls from great heights without sustaining physical injury. He is durable enough that he can withstand multiple barrages of high-caliber weapons such as machine guns from close range completely unperturbed, [46] can withstand blows from superhuman beings such as Wrecker, Spider-Man, Carnage, etc unharmed. He also possesses an extreme resistance to pain, and seems to feel it only to a certain extent.[47]
- Genetic Memory: The symbiote possesses some limited psychic ability, making it capable of obtaining information from its hosts and even other people and symbiotes simply by touch. It can, however, be forced to forget information if the symbiote is inflicted with heavy trauma.
- Offspring Detection: The symbiote is also capable of psychically detecting its offspring, however with effort this ability can be blocked.
- ESP (Spider-Sense): Brock is also granted an extrasensory ability similar to Spider-Man’s spider-sense. This response is not as complicated as Spider-Man’s inherent sense since the alien costume can detect danger from every direction and conduct Brock in plenty of time. It's a lot more efficient than Spider-Man’s spider-sense because it is more simplified to where the danger is.
- Immunity to Spider-man's Spider Sense: Due to Spider-Man being a host to the symbiote, Brock is able to bypass Spider-Man's spider-sense. As such, Brock is capable of attacking Spider-Man without alerting him, making him a deadly opponent.
- Constituent-Matter Generation: Toxin can also use the same substance comprising the symbiote in the form of constituent black matter or he can generate tentacle-like appendages from various parts of his body, which he often uses either in combat situations or to restrain someone.
- Constituent-Matter Manipulation: Toxin can manipulate his matter to enlarge or stretch his body in order to augment his attacks. He can morph sections of his body, such as his hands or feet, into spikes, blades, axes or a shield.
- Accelerated Healing Factor: He is capable of healing injuries in the host at a faster rate than normal human healing allows. The symbiote is even capable of healing injuries and illness that current human medical care cannot such as cancer and severe burns.[35][36]
- Camouflage Capabilities: The symbiote is capable of mimicking the appearance of any form of clothing, camouflaging with its surroundings, and even mimicking other people.
- Wall Crawling: Much like Spider-Man, Toxin has the ability to cling to virtually any surface. He can rapidly crawl, walk, or run across even slick/wet surfaces.
- Webbing Generation: Toxin can project a powerful, organic web-like substance similar to the webbing Spider-Man has. He typically uses this webbing to swing from building to building or as a means of immobilizing someone. The webbing is incredibly strong.
- Stretching and deforming: Although it's wide known that the Symbiote can stretch and deform itself, recently it was able to perform this ability during bonded with a human host.
- Poisonous Fangs: An ability developed by Brock when he bonded with the symbiote. Toxin's fangs not only intimidate foes but deliver a powerful, toxic bite.[35]
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Abilities
Expert Reporter: Before his bonding with the symbiote, Eddie Brock was an incredibly skilled reporter for the Daily Globe, and knew how to investigate. He also had many sources of information in helping with his plans.
Skilled Symbiote Hunter: Even though he is only human, Eddie has recently shown himself able to take on the symbiotes. This was shown when he killed Scream and Hybrid, using advanced and normal weaponry.Weaknesses
- Mental Instability: Eddie has been repeatedly shown relapsing into his unstable "lethal protector" mindset. Recently as Anti-Venom he's seemingly reverted back to this persona, killing criminals just as offhandedly as before despite the obvious option of curing them of their drug addictions and actually helping them with his powers.
- Sonic and Heat: As Toxin, Sonic and Thermal attacks but to a much lesser degree compared to the other symbiotes.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Toxin Symbiote.
Weapons
- Toxin can shape his limbs into various weapons, much like his father, Carnage.
Trivia
- Eddie is the only character to bond to 3 symbiotes, the Venom symbiote, the Anti-Venom symbiote, and, recently, the Toxin symbiote.
- The Toxin Symbiote is the only symbiote with a green tongue.
- One of the first concepts for Venom was to make him a female.
- Eddie believed that Spider-Man 2099 stole his costume design from him.[49]
See Also
- 441 appearance(s) of Edward Brock (Earth-616)
- 18 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Edward Brock (Earth-616)
- 88 minor appearance(s) of Edward Brock (Earth-616)
- 130 mention(s) of Edward Brock (Earth-616)
- 12 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Edward Brock (Earth-616)
- 1565 image(s) of Edward Brock (Earth-616)
- 144 quotation(s) by or about Edward Brock (Earth-616)
- 21 victim(s) killed by Edward Brock (Earth-616)
- 5 item(s) used/owned by Edward Brock (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Spider-Man: Brand New Day Yearbook #1
- ↑ In Venom Vs. Carnage #1 Venom named the Carnage Symbiote as the 999th symbiote in their lineage, making him the 998th and Toxin the 1000th
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Venom Lethal Protector #1
- ↑ Venom: Dark Origin #1
- ↑ Venom Seed of Darkness #-1
- ↑ Spider-Man Family (Vol. 2) #2
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man Annual #25
- ↑ Avengers: Death Trap - The Vault #1
- ↑ Quasar #6
- ↑ Darkhawk #14
- ↑ Marvel Comics Presents #117
- ↑ Spider-Man Special Edition #1
- ↑ Web of Spider-Man #95
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #373
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #374
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #375
- ↑ Venom Funeral Pyre #1
- ↑ Darkhawk #35
- ↑ Daredevil #323
- ↑ Iron Man #302
- ↑ Venom Enemy Within #2
- ↑ Venom The Mace #1
- ↑ Incredible Hulk vs. Venom #1
- ↑ Venom Nights of Vengeance #1
- ↑ Venom: The Madness #3
- ↑ Venom The Hunger #1
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #2
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom - New Ways To Live #1–3
- ↑ New Avengers Annual (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ Avengers Annual (Vol. 4) #1
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #667–673
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 2) #6–8
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 2) #16
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Venom (Vol. 2) #17
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 Venom (Vol. 2) #21
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Venom (Vol. 2) #30
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 2) #33
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 Venom (Vol. 2) #34
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 2) #35
- ↑ Carnage (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ Carnage (Vol. 2) #5
- ↑ Carnage (Vol. 2) #7
- ↑ Carnage (Vol. 2) #15
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 2) #18
- ↑ Carnage (Vol. 2) #4
- ↑ Venom Vs. Carnage #3
- ↑ Toxin #1
- ↑ Spider-Man The Ultimate Guide #1
- ↑ Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man #1
- ↑ Spider-Man: Brand New Day Yearbook #1
- ↑ Marvel Avengers: The Ultimate Character Guide Vol 1 3