Venom origin story: How did the Symbiote get his powers? Explained 

Spider-Man's most famous villain, Venom, is all set to have a big year as the character will be featured in the upcoming Spider-Man 2 game and the third Tom Hardy film. One of Marvel's biggest characters, the monster in black, has certainly been a mainstay of comics.

Venom's popularity is thanks to how he is a direct opposite of what Spider-Man is. The character itself has had many iconic stories alongside the Web Crawler. While many characters have taken over the mantle of Venom, Eddie Brock has remained the primary version of the character, and his origins are quite interesting, too, considering the hatred he has for Spider-Man.

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Venom originally bonded with Eddie Brock and is one of Spider-Man's arch-nemesis

Following the popularity of the Black Suit Spider-Man and the symbiote storyline, the idea for Venom was created. To realize the story, writer David Michelinie and artist Todd McFarlane came together, and the character first debuted as Eddie Brock in Web of Spider-Man #18 in 1986. It later appeared as Venom in Amazing Spider-Man #300 in January 1988.

According to Fandom, Eddie Brock was a young aspiring journalist disowned by his father, Carl Brock, as he would hold him responsible for his mom's death during childbirth. Growing up in a difficult household, Eddie one day sneaked out of his house and stole his father's car to go out drinking. However, he was later involved in an accident where he killed his neighbor's son.

His father beat him up for the accident, but he wouldn't plead guilty, and the charges were dropped. His father went on to resent him even more, as covering up the incident for Eddie cost him a lot to the point of going broke.

Eddie later fabricated an internship in his teenage years and was enrolled in ESU's journalism program. Striking up a romance with Anne Weying, Eddie's life was going quite well, with him even doing a master's in journalism. He soon moved to New York and married Anne while also finding work as a journalist at the Daily Globe.

Brock's big break as a journalist came when he received a letter from the serial killer Sin-Eater, who also revealed his identity as Emil Gregg. Interviewing Gregg, Eddie received pressure from the police to release his identity, which would lead to the arrest of Gregg, and the newspaper containing the article was sold out quickly too.

Unfortunately, Eddie's success was cut short when Spider-Man apprehended the actual Sin-Eater, Stan Carter. It was later revealed that Gregg was just his neighbor. This made Eddie a laughing stock and caused him to lose his job at the globe. Not owning up to his mistakes, Anne separated from him too, and Brock blamed all of his life's problems on Spider-Man.

To take his mind off the situation, he enrolled himself in a gym where he achieved peak physical perfection. Not being able to shake his hatred of Spider-Man, Brock ultimately decided to go to Church to commit suicide. However, Spider-Man was in the Church at the same time, separating himself from the symbiote, an alien substance that attaches to a host and amplifies its worst qualities. The symbiote latched onto Brock.

Having created a hatred for Spider-Man, too, as the symbiote didn't appreciate their separation, it would find common ground with Brock. Revealing Spidey's real name to Brock, the two entities would bond together and become the villain known as Venom.

The character has the same abilities as Spider-Man. He can swing through his tendrils and climb walls with extremely enhanced strength. He can also render Spider-Man's Spidey-Sense useless and has often clashed with the superhero. However, he does have weaknesses that come in high-pitched sounds and fire.

While Venom has been a major villain of Spider-Man, the character has also been portrayed as an anti-hero in recent years, famously working alongside the Webhead in the Lethal Protector storyline. The character's popularity surely has picked up over the years. He has been a part of films and has his own movie series, with Tom Hardy playing the titular character and a third film developing.

In the comics, many other Spider-Man characters, like Scorpion and Flash Thompson, have held the mantle of Venom. The animated series, Ultimate Spider-Man, had Harry Osborn bond with the symbiote, an approach that Insomniac seems to be taking with Spider-Man 2 as well. However, Eddie Brock is confirmed to exist in that universe, so nothing can be ruled out as of yet.

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Fans can check out Venom in Spider-Man 2 when it hits stores on October 20, 2023, for the PlayStation 5 system.