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Venom
Gender	Male
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Origin	New York City
First Appearance	Spider-Man #300 (1988)
Creator(s)	David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane.
Alter ego	Eddie Brock & the Alien Symbiote. Later, Angelo Fortunato and Mac Gargan
Aliases	None
Abilities	Superhuman strength, agility, can morph appearance and duplicate Spider-Man’s powers and neutralize his spider-sense.
Affiliations	Briefly a member of the Sinister Six, The Sinister Twelve, and the Thunderbolts.

Venom is a fictional comic book super villain, nemesis of Spider-Man, who is a superhero character owned by Marvel Comics.

Tracking Venom’s origin and first appearance is complicated, because he’s really two beings combined into one. First, it is an alien Symbiote that came to Earth hitching a ride on Spider-Man when he was on an alien planet in the original Secret Wars (1984) limited series. Then it was the Symbiote, now rejected and forced into separation from Peter Parker, his favorite host. Finally, he is Eddie Brock, former reporter whose career was destroyed when the same Peter Parker brought to light that his big breakthrough story was based on a fraudulent source.

When the Symbiote found Eddie Brock, alone in a church contemplating suicide, it realized that Eddie Brock hated Peter Parker as much as it did. It found that an excellent basis for a brand new symbiotic relationship.

The Symbiote has grafted itself to Eddie’s nervous system and adrenal system and has enhanced his strength and agility to levels of those roughly equivalent to Spider-Man’s. In addition, the Symbiote knows and can duplicate Spider-Man’s powers and style from the time that he was joined to Peter Parker. Venom can stick to surfaces by manipulating the flux of inter-atomic attraction between molecular boundary layers and can shoot strands of itself like webbing which also is strong and sticks to surfaces. Venom can also morph to look like any clothing and even make itself (both Symbiote and host) invisible. Also, it has the ability to disguise itself from Peter’s extra-sensory spider-sense, so it can follow him and ambush him unexpectedly.

Currently, Eddie Brock is hospitalized, powerless and dying from cancer. He sold the Alien Symbote to Angelo Fortunato.

Later Venoms

The second Venom was Angelo Fortunato, the son of a Mafia Don. He proved too physically weak to serve as a good host, and was easily defeated by Spider-Man. Angelo died in a fall when the Symbiote deserted him while swinging between buildings.

The third Venom host is criminal Mac Gargan. Gargan was the villain known as the Scorpion. He merged with the Symbiote hoping it would give him an extra edge. As Venom, he started as part of Norman Osborn’s Sinister Twelve, though was also defeated by Spider-Man. Gargan is now part of a group of criminals working as part of the Thunderbolts in exchange for their freedom, since the events of the crossover series Civil War (Marvel) and tracking down those in violation of the Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA).