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Venom I / Anti-Venom I / Toxin II / Sleeper I / Captain Universe / King in Black II

Alter Ego: Edward "Eddie" Charles Allan Brock

Notable Aliases: Lethal Protector

Editorial Names: Venom: Lethal Protector

Species: Human

First Appearance: Web of Spider-Man #18; The Amazing Spider-Man #299 (as Venom); The Amazing Spider-Man #569 (as Anti-Venom); Venom Vol. 2, #17 (as Toxin II); Venom: First Host #3 (as Sleeper); Venom Vol. 4 #34 (as Captain Universe); King in Black #5 (as King in Black II)

"It's not about control, or following orders like a soldier. It's about us. We. We are Venom!"

Eddie Brock was raised a devout Catholic by his cold and distant father, who blamed Eddie for his wife's death during childbirth, resulting in a distance between the two that instilled in Eddie a need to impress his father. As an adult, Eddie marries Anne Weying, a lawyer, and becomes a successful journalist for the Daily Globe in New York. Eddie's luck changes for the worst when he is contacted by a a man claiming to be the serial killer called the Sin-Eater. Eddie's interviews with the Sin-Eater initially bring him great success until the police force him to out his source, Emil Gregg. Unbeknownst to Eddie, the very next day Spider-Man seemingly debunks Brock's article by capturing a supposed copy cat going by the name Stan Carter. Brock is subsequently fired from the Daily Globe, divorced by his wife, and disowned by his father. Reputation destroyed, he is only able to find employment as a two-bit writer for a disreputable tabloid. Blaming Spider-Man for his troubles, he begins to work out obsessively in an attempt to assuage his rage, but eventually Eddie cannot take it anymore and goes to the Our Lady of Saints church to pray for forgiveness for the suicide he is contemplating — unaware that Spider-Man had used the bells in the selfsame church to drive away his symbiotic Black Suit. The symbiote, lying in wait for an appropriate host, is drawn to Brock's mutual obsession with Spider-Man and bonds with him. In the process, Brock learns Spider-Man's true identity, and Brock's overwhelming hatred for Spider-Man turns the already bitter symbiote's love into a twisted obsession.

Calling himself Venom, Eddie becomes one of Spider-Man's most formidable foes: stronger, faster, and immune to his Spider-Sense. Eddie wages a campaign of torment against Peter Parker, invading his private life and threatening his loved ones, yet still exhibiting moments of compassion. After Eddie's defeat by Spider-Man, the symbiote would break him out of prison, and the two, thinking they had killed Spider-Man on a secluded island, would retire. They were brought back into Spider-Man's life when it was revealed that the symbiote had spawned another symbiote during Eddie's breakout, which bonded to his then-cellmate, Cletus Kasady, who became the supervillain Carnage. Working with Spider-Man, the two defeated Carnage and after helping Venom save his ex-wife in a later confrontation they would come to an uneasy alliance — they would stay out of each other's way. Eddie would go on to act as a protector of innocents and even a government agent.

Eventually becoming disillusioned with the symbiote after it absorbed its evil clone and became abusive, Eddie sold it to the highest bidder. However, this would do little but feed his guilt and he would attempt suicide on numerous occasions. After being found by Martin Li praying in a church, Martin hired Matt Murdock to acquit Eddie for his crimes and gave Eddie a job at his soup kitchen, where Eddie would find some peace. This is where Martin Li's mystical powers cured him of his cancer and created the Anti-Venom symbiote by fusing Eddie's white blood cells with the remnants of the Venom symbiote and the Light Force. Unlike his original stint as a anti-hero, Anti-Venom would make a attempt at full heroism and came into conflict with Norman's Thunderbolts, including the then-current Venom Scorpion, and Mr. Negative before sacrificing his Anti-Venom powers to save civilians from the machinations of the Jackal.

He would then set out to slay the remaining symbiotes. After killing some of the Venom symbiote's spawn, he would be forcibly bonded to Carnage's spawn, the Toxin symbiote, in order to combat the fourth Venom, Flash Thompson. Now going by Toxin, Eddie would go on to menace Flash in the same way he menaced Peter Parker, even coming to a similar truce, allowing Flash to use the symbiote for good... threatening him with death if he did anything else. This got the attention of the FBI, who recruited him onto an anti-symbiote task force to fight a now Darkhold empowered Carnage, Eddie sacrificing the Toxin symbiote in the process.

After the Venom symbiote was bonded to Lee Price, Eddie would leave the anti-symbiote task force to rescue and rebond to it. He would return to the Venom name and continue his "Lethal Protector" role. After learning that he and Anne Weying had a son named Dylan and combating the dark god Knull, Eddie gave the symbiote and Dylan his blessing to become the new Venom. Eddie, meanwhile, became the new King in Black, serving as ruler of the symbiotes. Using his newfound powers, Eddie attempted to redeem symbiotes in the eyes of the universe after the destruction of Knull's rampage.

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Eddie Brock provides examples of the following tropes:

A-F

• '80s Hair: Eddie's had hairstyles ranging from a flattop to a mullet during the '80s and '90s, even switching to flat out Barbarian Longhair, and now has a crew cut.
• Abusive Parents: Carl Brock's wife's death in childbirth left him a shell of a man who barely acknowledged his children and blamed his son for her death.
• Adaptive Armor: While symbiotes in general tend to function as this, as an FBI agent Toxin takes some costume tips from Agent Venom, sporting vambraces, pauldrons, army boots, and a utility belt.
• Alternate Self: In addition to his standard multiversal counterparts, Eddie gains several temporal offshoots as a result of time-space shenanigans during Venom (Vol. 5), where he becomes embroiled in a time-loop that he eventually manages to break, turning his different temporal incarnations into offshoots.
  • When fighting Darkoth in Limbo, the clash between the King in Black and the King of Limbo causes time to split, creating a version of Bedlam who loses (becoming the main Eddie Brock) and a version of Bedlam who wins (continuing the time-loop to become Meridius).
  • The resurrected Eddie showing up in Baywater to fight Bedlam creates another timeline split—one branch continuing as it should have, with Bedlam cooling his heels in the ruins of the Renegades' bar until he turns into Wilde, and another where Bedlam pulls a Hazy-Feel Turn and bonds with Eddie to help him.
  • Eddie and Bedlam crash-landing the Fantastic Four's time-machine into the Garden of Time breaks the time-loop and causes all of his iterations to branch off into alternate selves. In the resulting confrontation, Finnegan and Wilde join forces with Eddie, Tyro doubles down on villainy, the two Bedlams fight each other, Space Venom is a Naïve Newcomer who Eddie disdainfully curb-stomps, and Meridius is enraged until being upstaged by Carnage.
• Always Second Best: To Flash Thompson, at least in his mind. Not only did Flash manage to be a true hero while he was Venom, something Eddie is still struggling with after rebonding to the symbiote, but Eddie believes that even their symbiote ultimately preferred Flash, even if it would never admit to that. He's even shown to have some Survivor's Guilt after Flash's death.
• Anti-Hero: As Venom, Eddie starts out as a villain, evolves into a Nominal Hero and finally mellows into an Unscrupulous Hero, killing almost anyone who got in his way provided he didn't consider them "innocent". As Anti-Venom, he made an effort to stop killing people, but occasionally slipped back into his Lethal Protector mindset. As Toxin, however, he fully reverted back to his Lethal Protector mindset and has no problem killing and eating bad guys. Once returning to being Venom, Eddie is making an effort to stop killing people again, even chewing out his symbiote for killing a bunch of thieves, and has further mellowed into a Pragmatic Hero.
• Anti-Hero Substitute:
  • In an alternate universe where he remained bonded to the Enigma Force, Spider-Man settled his rivalry with Venom before deciding to join the big-league superheroes and left Eddie to become the new wall-crawler.
  • As of All New, All Different, he seems to be being set up as a replacement for Agent Venom now that Flash is travelling the cosmos.
• Anti-Hero Team: Anti-Venom hooked up with the Revengers, and was the only member of the group that actually believed in team leader Wonder Man's rants about how the Avengers needed to be knocked off of their high horse and be made to learn a thing or two about accountability.
• Arch-Enemy: Eddie Brock became this to Spider-Man in the late '80s and early '90s, helped by Green Goblin being dead and Doctor Octopus becoming Out of Focus. Out of the three, Venom had the shortest stint as Spidey's arch-foe, but is arguably the most famous. After his Heel–Face Turn, Carnage and Mr. Negative (during his time as Anti-Venom) would become this to Eddie, and by the time of Absolute Carnage, Carnage and Knull serve this role for Eddie.
• Art Evolution: Todd McFarlane's Venom looked just like a bulkier and black Spider-Man◊, before later artists started adding his iconic feral attributes. By editorial decree, during Mike Costa's run Eddie returned to his original look after reclaiming the symbiote, with his monstrous traits only resurfacing when the symbiote goes feral.
• The Atoner: As Anti-Venom, Eddie tried to make amends for the crimes he committed by using his healing powers to cleanse drug addicts or their addictions, and taking out the dealers supplying them. He also devoted himself to exposing Martin Li as Mr. Negative.
• Ax-Crazy: Back when Eddie was a villain, Venom was unhinged and hellbent on vengeance against Spider-Man, even approaching some levels of homicidal urges. However, after character development, Eddie has grown out of this, to the point that as Venom he tries not to kill criminals anymore.
• Badass Normal:
  • After his career went down the dumper, Eddie spent all his time working out to vent his fury and developed a powerful physique; and even after becoming Venom kept working out to increase his base strength level. Long before he ever even crossed paths with Spider-Man, Eddie also single-handedly stopped the rampage of the crazed alien Krobaa (see below) with nothing but his flash camera.
  • Often when separated from his symbiote or depowered, Brock has shown he can be quite resourceful in hunting down the symbiote after a stop at an army surplus store or fighting scores of guards while naked.
• Befriending the Enemy:
  • Eddie Brock blamed the loss of his journalism career on Spider-Man seemingly revealing the Sin-Eater who Eddie had been interviewing as a compulsive confessor. This led to Eddie's father — who already hated him — disowning him and his wife divorcing him in disgust. Bonding to the equally resentful Venom symbiote exacerbated Eddie's hatred of Spider-Man and informed him of the superhero's civilian identity, leading to a long-running feud. Even during Eddie's anti-hero days as both Venom and Anti-Venom — where he had a nominal truce with Spider-Man — they would come to blows over their inability to trust one another thanks to Peter's grudge and general dislike of symbiotes. It took nigh-on thirty years for Eddie and Peter to fully bury the hatchet, but as of Go Down Swinging and Absolute Carnage they no longer see each other as mortal enemies and are now friends.
  • As Anti-Venom, Eddie started off trying to purge Flash Thompson of the Venom symbiote like he almost did with Mac Gargan — later resorting to attempted murder after losing his symbiote and its ability to separate host and symbiote. After Eddie became Toxin, Flash struck a chord in him that led to him reconsidering his relationship with the symbiotes and they formed a truce similar to Eddie's original one with Peter. In Venom Inc. while they did argue over who was the better host for the Venom symbiote, Flash decided give up his claim and let Eddie keep it after becoming Agent Anti-Venom. Which resulted in a amicable team up, with Flash even defending Eddie and the Venom symbiote from Peter, gaining Eddie's appreciation and respect. Following Flash's death, Eddie attended his funeral and in Venom (Donny Cates) he even admitted that Flash was the better host — calling him his brother.
• Berserk Button: As Anti-Venom, calling his protectorate Jenna Cole a junkie will drive him into a violent rage.
• Big Brother Instinct: Technically younger but he does not act that way. He had a beloved older sister named Mary and when she fell into a coma due to an incident involving Nova, Eddie blamed the hero for it, and went after him. While presumably still in this Convenient Coma, she unfortunately later dies of cancer, much like what almost killed him, while he was away in New York. Eddie later states this is his first proper experience with grief in the 2018 series and still beats himself up over not being there. However, it's revealed that Mary never existed and was the result of the Venom symbiote gaslighting Eddie by modifying his memories to make him believe he would die of cancer without it.
  Eddie: I first learned about grief from my sister, Mary. She died of breast cancer while I was away doing God knows what in New York.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Anti-Venom's and Toxin's eye patches are jet-black, though as Anti-Venom he's not evil (and he's still not that evil as Toxin). His future counterpart, Bedlam, also sports these.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: While not a power he regularly utilized as Venom, he could morph his limbs into bladed weapons, something he did more frequently as Anti-Venom and Toxin.
• Blood Knight: Eddie's aggressiveness has led him to pick fights over minor insults, and during the 1990s he was at his most eager when it came to killing Spider-Man and Carnage.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Eddie's definitions of guilt and innocence are inconsistent at best.
• Body Horror: When the Juggernaut knocked him into a vat containing a sentient insanity-inducing virus in The Madness, the results were... disturbing◊.
• Boxed Crook:
  • At the end of Venom: On Trial he was given the choice of going to prison or becoming a black-ops agent under the authority of the Overreach Committee. He spent the events of Venom: License to Kill and Venom: Sign of the Boss hunting down terrorists, but after botching a vaguely-worded order to intimidate J. Jonah Jameson the Overreach Committee deemed him too much of a loose cannon and attempted to kill him in Venom: The Finale.
  • At some point prior to Carnage (2016), he was apprehended by the FBI, injected with symbiote suppressant, and blackmailed/bribed into helping them hunt down Carnage.
• Brain Food: Even before Mac Gargan took this up to eleven, Eddie was known to threaten to devour various body parts - especially brains. Later retcons gave the symbiote an addiction to phenethylamine and/or adrenaline and caused it to force Eddie to commit cannibalism, which Eddie prevented by eating chocolate. This chemical dependence was seemingly discarded after it bonded to Angelo.
• Breakout Villain: David Michelinie had intended for Eddie Brock to be a minor villain and planned to kill him off 100 issues after his introduction. Eddie's runaway popularity with fans as an antihero kiboshed those plans and forced Michelinie to come up with Carnage instead. To this day, Eddie-as-Venom is one of Spider-Man's most popular antagonists and one of Marvel's most popular anti-heroes, being featured in almost every adaptation since his debut.
• Broken Ace: Growing up, Eddie was a straight-A student with multiple sports medals, became a successful journalist, and married a successful lawyer. All to please his aloof father.
• Butt-Monkey: In the Return of the Sinister Six he's treated like dirt by the other villains, his weaknesses are brought up to eleven (just the sight of a campfire and a lighter are enough to freak him out) and his stint as an anti-hero is the subject of repeated mockery. He gets his revenge when he nearly kills Electro, Kraven II, and the Sandman.
• Can't Stay Normal: Eddie goes from being Venom to Anti-Venom to Toxin to back to being Venom with brief periods of humanity in between.
• Catchphrase: As Anti-Venom up until he became Toxin, Eddie's was "I AM THE CURE!" Doubles as a Badass Boast.
• Character Development: Zigzagged, as while Eddie slowly became more heroic as Venom and even tried to make the leap to true heroism as Anti-Venom, he lapsed back into Lethal Protector mode as Toxin. Even so, he was more willing to give Flash a chance to prove himself a hero than he was with Spider-Man. Venom Vol. 2 and Carnage Vol. 2 gives him a great deal of character development, showing him accepting his bond with Toxin, striving to emulate Agent Venom, and accepting that the bad things he did as Venom weren't solely due to the symbiote. By the time of Venom Vol. 3, however, he seeks to reclaim his "darling" symbiote from Lee Price, although he's determined to be a true hero and ensure that his relationship with the symbiote is different this time around.
• Characterization Marches On: Eddie started off as a standard supervillain but soon developed Moral Myopia in regards to those he considered innocent (see Anti-Hero above). Eventually, he had a Heel–Faith Turn and gave up being Venom. As Anti-Venom he tried to become a hero, but temporarily relapsed back to being a Sociopathic Hero. After the events of Carnage Vol. 2 and reclaiming the Venom symbiote Eddie has mostly gone back to his Anti-Venom characterization. His religious devotion, which was ignored while he was Venom, was turned up to eleven as Anti-Venom, but became more nuanced again when he became Venom again.
• Cheap Costume: While dying of cancer, Eddie was drilled into almost killing the hospitalized Aunt May by hallucinations of Venom, and donned a store-bought black Spider-Man costume for the occasion.
  Eddie: It's cheap nylon. It hangs loosely on my body. It's nothing like the symbiote. But it's everything... the only thing... I need now.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Venom, as originally drawn by Todd McFarlane, simply had an abnormally wide smile. It wasn't until Erik Larsen took over that he got his trademark fangs and Overly-Long Tongue.
• Christianity is Catholic: Eddie's religion was downplayed during his stint as Venom, only to get brought back as the driving force behind his averted Heel–Face Door-Slam and rejection of the Venom symbiote. As Anti-Venom, he even comes to consider himself the one anointed by God to kill the demon that is Venom.
• Churchgoing Villain: Eddie was a devout Catholic... whenever he isn't bonded to a symbiote, that is. He even met the Venom symbiote while praying.
• Church Militant: Eddie was a devout Catholic who, after becoming Anti-Venom, developed a messiah complex and saw himself as being on a mission from God to destroy the symbiotes, even turning the Our Lady of Saints church into his base of operations.
• Cloudcuckoolander: During the 1990s, as Venom shifted away from being a villain towards being an antihero he became more comical, frequently making sadistic jokes and quips while brutalizing his opponents, and all the while considering himself to be a true hero.
• Consummate Liar: The non canon Dark Origins reveals Eddie was a chronic liar, stemming from his desire for acknowledgement, and even lied his way into getting a job at The Globe.
• Costume Copycat: Aside from his bulky physique, tongue, fangs, claws, and eyes, Eddie-as-Venom was almost identical to Peter's black suit, a fact he exploited on occasion.
• Costume Evolution:
  • Exactly how monstrous and bulky Eddie was as Venom depended largely on who was drawing him. During the '90s, he was even drawn as being dark blue instead of black.
  • As Anti-Venom, whether his fangs were black or white depended on the artist.
  • When Eddie first became Toxin in the "Savage Six" arc of Venom Vol. 2, he was solid red. When he reappeared in "Toxin With A Vengeance" arc his lower arms and lower body were black with red veins. After being recruited by the FBI, he took a leaf out of Agent Venom's costume book and was jet-black with red eyes, pauldrons, vambraces, spider-insignia, and a utility belt.
• Courtroom Episode: Eddie was captured and put on trial in... Venom: On Trial. Daredevil was his attorney, and Carnage was brought in as a witness for the prosecution.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • His early fights with Spider-Man had him dishing this out with Spider-Man only winning by the skin of his teeth thanks to some quick thinking, or in one case, faking his own death so Venom would leave him alone.
  • As Anti-Venom he dealt one to The Punisher in New Ways To Live. Frank shot in the back of the head with a shotgun loaded with armor-piercing ammunition, only for him to expel all the bullets from his head, punch Frank through a wall and take one of his guns from him. He was an inch away from shooting him, only for a message from the cartel they were chasing to divert their attention. Frank tried to use flamethrowers when Anti-Venom let his guard down only for Eddie to No-Sell them and force him into working with him or he'll break his neck.
• Create Your Own Villain: Venom murdered a Vault Guardsman during one of his escapes. The man's wealthy father assembled a group of his son's grieving friends, gave them Powered Armor, and dubbed them "The Jury".
• Creepy Long Fingers: When drawn by John Romita, Jr. his fingers are unnaturally long, sometimes looking more like tentacles than digits. He also had these as Anti-Venom.
• Criminal Doppelgänger: Eddie initially tried to exploit his resemblance to Black Suit Spider-Man in order to defame and torment Peter and Mary-Jane.
• Culturally Religious: Eddie was raised Catholic by his father, although this was heavily downplayed during his first tenure as Venom — only making a resurgence in the early 2000s where Eddie visits a priest to pray for forgiveness when he learns he's dying of cancer and giving up the symbiote after watching The Passion of the Christ. As Anti-Venom he became The Fundamentalist, but as Toxin he found himself questioning his faith and by the time of his return as Venom he lost his faith in God... although that didn't stop him from praying for a miracle when Knull tossed him off the roof of the Empire State Building in King in Black.
• Dark Is Not Evil: After his Heel–Face Turn as Venom, Eddie became an antihero who enforced his own self-styled and brutal version of justice. After reuniting with the Venom symbiote, Eddie is determined to go straight and become a true superhero, trying to avoid killing people when he can help it.
• Deadpan Snarker: Part of being Peter's Evil Counterpart.
• Deity of Human Origin: At the end of King in Black, Eddie kills Knull and becomes the new God of the Symbiotes. Venom Vol. 4 #35 places an interesting twist on this, as while Eddie is now the nexus of the Hive-Mind, his body is still mortal and tapping into his god-powers places a massive amount of strain on it and is causing him to rapidly age.
• Depending on the Artist: Eddie has been drawn with hair color ranging from brown to blond, and his appearance as Venom has changed drastically depending on who's drawing him.
• Depending on the Writer: Eddie's characterization and backstory vary wildly depending on who's writing him.
• Driven to Suicide: He's tried to kill himself numerous times, including in his origin story.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?:
  • Eddie is annoyed when one of Mr. Negative's goons continuously interrupts his "The Reason You Suck" Speech and completely incredulous when he learns that the thug is more afraid of the Wraith than he is of him.
    Anti-Venom: "The Wraith"?
    Mook: She— She's everywhere, man!
    Anti-Venom: And you're more scared of her... than me?! [tosses the Mook in the river] Idiot!
  • After Spider-Island, Eddie was hailed as a hero for giving up the Anti-Venom symbiote, but a few months later was homeless and penniless with only an arsenal of advanced weaponry and his anti-symbiote crusade for comfort.
  • Averted after the events of Absolute Carnage - the fact that Eddie saved the world from Dark Carnage does not go unrecognized, to the point where he was offered a spot with the Avengers, and very clearly earned the respect of Captain America and Thor. None of them knew at the time that stopping Carnage only served to unleash Knull - which was Carnage's goal the entire time.
  • When Knull invades Earth, many of the heroes not-in-the-know immediately assume Venom is to blame once they realize they're up against symbiotes, when he was one of the ones trying the hardest to stop Knull from winning.
• Easy Amnesia: Numerous blows to the head once made him forget various details about Spider-Man, including that he was Peter Parker.
• Enemy Mine: Would reluctantly arrange temporary alliances with Spider-Man to fight a common enemy neither could beat on their own, usually Carnage. He also forms a temporary alliance with Flash Thompson to fight the Symbiote Slayers.
• Evil Counterpart: To Peter Parker, and later Flash Thompson.
• Evil Is Bigger: Eddie's Venom looks like a roided-up, exaggerated version of Spider-Man, more specifically his Black Suit◊.
• Evil Is Petty: Frequently terrorized and tried to kill Spider-Man and his loved ones all because he blames his misfortunes on Spider-Man catching the Sin-Eater. He eventually gets over it after much Character Development.
• Evil Me Scares Me: The reason he hates the symbiote so much is because of the things he did under its influence. Even after rebonding to it and becoming Venom again, Eddie is unsure if that was the right decision to make given its renewed proclivity for excessive violence and that when he was unconscious it almost killed an innocent priest, and is making an effort to find out what happened to put it back in its vicious state. He's also very (and rightfully) suspicious of Meridius when he introduces himself as his aid in the Time Garden, yet allows Bedlam to tear Finnegan apart. To say that Meridius revealing himself to be an Eddie Brock from a far future is something that does not sit well with Eddie. AT ALL.
• Evil Wears Black: As Venom with his black costume contrasting vividly with Spider-Man's brightly colored red and blue. Notably, after his start into his anti-hero transition he was colored more to be blue in the '90s despite earlier comics with him as a villain just coloring him black.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: When Jorge Valdez rubbed the fact that Jenna Cole is back on drugs and "[his] girl" in Eddie's face, the first thing he did was grab the nearest thug and rip him in half while screaming in rage.
• The Extremist Was Right: While as Anti-Venom, Eddie claimed that the symbiotes were a bunch of demons corrupting humanity, and it turns out that this claim has some truth to it. As Knull originally created the symbiotes to corrupt creation and bring them under his control, only for the symbiotes to later rebel and turn on him after being disconnected from his hivemind and bonding to humanity.
• Fitness Nut: Not as extreme as other examples, but Eddie does like to work out. In Venom: On Trial, Kasady mentions that Brock was always doing sit-ups and the like when they were cell mates.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Eddie went from being a disgraced, terminally ill journalist to a monstrous villain simply by virtue of being in the right place at the right time. Taken even further when taking Meridius into account, who is an Eddie Brock so far into the future, he manipulates Eddie and the other Kings in Black (i.e, himself from different points in time) in order to create a Stable Time Loop, ensuring that Eddie will eventually turn into him.
• The Fundamentalist: Eddie was raised Catholic, and after his Heel–Faith Turn he takes his religion a little too seriously — especially in the middle of his Sanity Slippage as Anti-Venom, when it becomes the rock that he clings to. As Venom and Toxin, however, his zealotry is downplayed in favor of threatening to eat people. His experiences in Carnage Vol. 2 ultimately causes him to abandon his faith, believing God has rejected him. However, later on his conflict with Knull and experiences with his son restored it.

G-L

• Gasshole: When he ate (not absorbed, ate◊) the Carnage symbiote, he at first had trouble keeping it down, sprouting red tendrils, and burping almost non-stop.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: His initial characterization when he first debuted, given his flimsy logic behind blaming Spider-Man for ruining his life.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: As Anti-Venom his eyes were glowing red, or occasionally yellow.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Eddie referred to Jenna Cole as his "angel" in that she gave him motivation to not give in to his fraying sanity and resist the murderous impulses left over from the symbiote, which he referred to as his "devil".
• Good Costume Switch: As Anti-Venom he is a colour-inverted version of Mac Gargan's Venom form.
• Good Counterpart: As Anti-Venom, Eddie became this to his own successor Mac Gargan. That said, he was still fairly antiheroic; in many ways, he'd simply displaced his obsession with vengeance into an obsession with "curing" people of their various ailments.
• Good Is Not Nice: After his truce with Spider-Man, Venom became a good guy and stayed good as Anti-Venom and Toxin, but was not adverse to using lethal force or even eating people as Toxin.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Despite possessing the ability to generate Combat Tentacles and spikes to dispose of pests, Eddie generally relies on his fists and claws in a fight.
• Healing Hands: The Anti-Venom symbiote generated Lightforce-infused antibodies that could purge just about anything from diseases to drugs to symbiotes to radiation, though overusing this ability weakens him. Anti-Venom's cameo as Pestilence in an alternate universe version of Apocalypse's Four Horseman suggests that he can use this power to harm.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: His status swayed from story to story throughout the late '90s and into the 2000s until Mac Gargan took over. However, after Eddie Brock was cured from his cancer ad became Anti-Venom he made an effort to become a hero. As Toxin, he got back into this, first succumbing to the symbiote's control as a member of the Crime Master's Savage Six and later trying to take out Agent Venom, but after a heart-to-heart conversation with Flash he resolved to fight on the side of good in Carnage Vol. 2 and stayed good after becoming Venom once again.
  Marvel Adventures Venom: [drapes his arm around Spider-Man's shoulder] We're sick of being hounded by the law! We want to use our powers to help people, just like you! Show us the ropes, Spider-Man! Let us apprentice ourselves to you... as your sidekick! They'll call us "Venom... Lethal Protector!"
• Hellish Pupils: In the 1995 Christmas Special The Venom Claus, Venom's eyes are drawn so that they had a black pupil-like slit, which was adapted from his appearance in the 1990s animated series.
• Heroic Host: Despite Eddie going through a Heel–Face Revolving Door, most of the time Eddie serves as this for the Venom symbiote.
• Horrifying Hero: Eddie prides himself for being one as the "Lethal Protector" and Anti-Venom. Flash even describes him as "pretty frightening — but kind of nice, too" following their Enemy Mine against the Symbiote Slayers.
• Hulking Out: When Eddie or the symbiote gets angry, Venom can bulk up to massive proportions. Special mention goes to Eddie's first appearance as Toxin, where he was at least twenty feet tall.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: As Anti-Venom and Toxin, Eddie devoted himself to taking out Venom and Carnage.
• Hypocrite:
  • During the early years of his feud with Spider-Man, Eddie claimed to be a good Catholic but murdered an innocent cop and a VAULT guard when rendering them unconscious would have sufficed, lamenting the act as "necessary" to seek his revenge on Spider-Man.
  • When Eddie came after Agent Venom claiming to have arranged a temporary truce with the Toxin symbiote, Flash accused him of being a hypocrite who spouted rhetoric about the symbiotes being cancer and demons while being in denial about enjoying being bonded to them.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • Eddie's aversion to satiating the Venom symbiote's appetite varies Depending on the Writer, but aside from The Hunger - where, in spite of his disgust, the symbiote forced him to follow through on his Brain Food threats - he was never shown actually eating people as Venom and actively tried to prevent himself from doing so ever again by eating chocolate. In the novels featuring him, particularly The Venom Factor, he's a lot less picky about munching on those he deems guilty. After reuniting with the Venom symbiote, when Eddie learns that two teenagers were killed and partially eaten by a seven-foot tall monster with claws and fangs, he worries the Venom symbiote — which took control of him to attack a priest the night before — was responsible, and is relived that the culprit was one of Stegron's dinosaur-men.
  • As Toxin, Eddie devours one of the symbiote slayers during his fight with Venom to prove a point to Flash, and eats a second one during their battle at the high school.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: His not-so-last words in The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Hunger, after the symbiote abandons him to hunt on its own.
• Improbable Age: In "The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock", Eddie says he was only 22 when he was fired from the Daily Globe and bonded to the Venom symbiote. Even assuming Eddie applied to ESU right out of high-school and only got a bachelor's degree in journalism before joining the Daily Globe, he would've already been 21 or 22 at that time, giving him less than a year to cultivate the fairly successful career he was shown to have had as an investigative reporter in prior and subsequent stories.
• Interspecies Romance: There are a few... suggestive moments in Venom: The Hunger, and in Venom Vol. 3 he outright calls the symbiote "my love". The exact nature of Eddie's relationship with the Venom symbiote varies Depending on the Writer, as some like Mike Costa have depicted their relationship as being romantic in nature, while other writers like Donny Cates have stated they dislike this portrayal — if only because of how toxic it was.
  Eddie: [as the symbiote leaves him] We share everything. Thoughts. Feelings. A purpose. It's not human, but it's given me things no girlfriend ever could. I used to live for words. But the Other's shown me how small and useless they really are. We talk to each other with moods and pictures, memories and heartbeats. Some things are the same in any language. Like the one thing I thought I'd never hear.
• Intrepid Reporter: In order to impress his father, Eddie became a successful journalist until the Sin Eater fiasco ruined his career. He still puts his investigative skills to use as Venom and Toxin.
• Irrational Hatred: Eddie's hatred for Spider-Man stemmed from the fact that Spider-Man caught the Sin Eater, exposing the man Eddie had been interviewing and just handed over to police as a compulsive confessor, which cost Eddie his job. He was subsequently disowned by his father, divorced by his wife, and ostensibly diagnosed with terminal cancer, and blamed his misfortune on Spider-Man. Bonding to the symbiote just made it worse.
• It's All About Me: Eddie's attitude pre-Heel–Face Turn, to the point where he has to remind himself that his therapist repeatedly reminds him that he is not the only important person in the world.
• Jagged Mouth: As Anti-Venom, Eddie was often drawn with black fangs similar to Carnage's.
• King of the Homeless: During his time in San Francisco he lived in an Under City with the indigent.
• Knight Templar: As Venom he was obsessed with killing Spider-Man. As Anti-Venom and as Toxin, he was obsessed with killing Venom and the rest of the symbiotes as well.
• Large Ham: Very prone to chewing the scenery, especially as Anti-Venom.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After almost getting blown up by dynamite in Spider-Man: The Venom Agenda, Eddie forgot that Spider-Man was Peter Parker, and the symbiote neglected to re-inform him of the connection for reasons unknown.
• Laughably Evil: Eddie inherited a dark, cruel version of Spider-Man's wisecracking tendencies, which would border on being goofy if he weren't also a gigantic sludge monster. Depending on the Writer this would stick after his transition to anti-hero.
• Legacy Character:
  • Eddie passed on the identity of Venom to Angelo Fortunato, and later became the second incarnation of Toxin.
  • A new Anti-Venom is among the "D-list do-gooders" recruited by Roderick Kingsley in AXIS: Hobgoblin. Doubles as a Development Gag, since Cullen Bunn had planned to bring the character back in the Venom series. Whether he has some kind of duplicate of the symbiote or is just wearing a convincing yet entirely mundane costume is left unsaid.
    Roderick: Hello, do-gooders!
    Captain Ultra: He means us!
    Anti-Venom II: Yeaaaaaah!
  • Flash becomes an actual new Anti-Venom in Venom Inc.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Venom spent most of the 1990s fighting and teaming up with other vigilantes, most notably Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider.
• Light Is Good: As Anti-Venom, Eddie gets a new symbiote augmented by Martin Li's Lightforce powers and tries to use it to atone for his crimes as Venom. Eddie later on in King in Black would be chosen to be the next Captain Universe, in which he used his newfound powers to defeat Knull and free Dylan of his influence.

M-R

• Make Way for the New Villains: Venom's threat level was diminished by the appearance of Carnage and villains with powers revolving around the symbiote's weaknesses.
• Magic Enhancement: The Anti-Venom symbiote was created when Martin Li used his Lightforce powers to cure Eddie's cancer, reanimating and altering trace remnants of the Venom symbiote's biomass in his blood in the process.
• Man Bites Man: Both as Venom and Toxin, Eddie didn't hesitate to put his teeth to use, and as Toxin even ate people.
• Master of Your Domain: After using his King in Black powers to resurrect himself in Venom (Vol. 5), Eddie becomes a "human symbiote" and is able to freely control his own body to do things like regenerate From a Single Cell, use Uninhibited Muscle Power to give himself super-strength, evulse his intestines to use as tendrils, and fire his nerves like webbing.
• Memento Macguffin: An old photo he carried around convinced Eddie, burnt out over the whole superhero/villain thing, to try and reconnect with his ex-wife. This ended tragically.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: After divesting himself of the symbiote, Eddie keeps seeing Venom's face in place of his reflection and wonders if this is the case for him.
• Misplaced Retribution: Eddie focused his revenge entirely on Spider-Man, who did nothing but catch the fake Sin-Eater, while at the same time ignoring the Sin-Eater, the fake Sin-Eater, The Daily Globe, Daredevil (who had helped Spidey bring the Sin-Eater down) and J. Jonah Jameson, who was revealed to have spearheaded Eddie's blacklisting in a late '90s story. The Insane Troll Logic of this and more is mercilessly lampshaded in the final issue of Erik Larsen's Nova run, which had Venom try to make Nova pay for being involved in a battle that left Eddie's sister comatose, not caring about the supervillain who had actually started the fight. Paul Jenkins eventually wrote a story ("The Hunger") where it was revealed that the fixation was partly-spawned by Eddie knowing that deep down the symbiote would always love Peter more than him and wouldn't hesitate to abandon him to die of his cancer if Peter ever invited it back, so Spidey had to go.
• Morality Chain:
  • Jenna Cole was one for Anti-Venom, as well as being his Living Emotional Crutch. Without her, he started slipping back into his "Lethal Protector" persona.
    Anti-Venom: [while massacring Mexican gangsters] I try to be good, I really do. But... my angel. He's got my angel. He's making her do things. Things she's not supposed to do anymore. I think about it and it makes me wanna force men's bodies to do things they're not supposed to do. Men like these... they bring out the evil in people. That's how they make their money. They don't want you to change for the good... So I show them the old me.
  • In Venom (Donny Cates), discovering he has a son, Dylan Brock, inspires him to make a concerted effort to become a better person.
• Moral Sociopathy: During his Anti-Hero days in the 1990s, Eddie — influenced by the Venom symbiote's bloodlust — went out of his way to protect people he deemed innocent but would happily murder anyone he deemed guilty in gruesome fashions, often cracking sadistic jokes while doing so. There were also a few lines he was — usually — unwilling to cross, such as satiating the symbiote's growing appetite for flesh by committing cannibalism.
• Mugging the Monster: Eddie was subjected to this when a group of teenaged thugs mistook him for a homeless person, doused him in lighter fluid, and set him on fire while he was napping on the San Francisco subway. He was less than impressed.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Eddie is either the son of a millionaire who became a successful journalist until tragedy struck, or the son of a working-class suburbanite who lied his way into success before getting his comeuppance. This looks more to be a case of Series Continuity Error since Eddie did not personally recount his origins which showed him to be the son of a millionaire, instead this information was discovered and confirmed by witnesses. In Venom: Lethal Protector #3, Spider-Man visited Carl Brock, got rebuffed as Peter, but then as Spider-Man learned Eddie's origins through Carl Brock's housekeeper, who helped raise Eddie. Brock's ex-wife, Anne Weying, also confirms details concerning his bitter relationship with his father. The details about Brock's father being working-class suburbanite came from Venom: Dark Origin, a piece rife with continuity errors including but not limited to Anne Weying initially being portrayed as being an African-American woman despite being a blonde white woman in all prior appearances, Carl Brock himself was depicted as a balding brunette with a mustache, rather than a stern-faced blond man with a receding hairline and Eddie is even retconned to be around Peter's age. Becoming a skinny, bullied kid who was the sports team's waterboy rather than the previous depiction that showed him to be a straight-A student and athlete, constantly trying to improve himself in order to gain respect from his father. It should be noted that the recent run of Venom's comics uses Lethal Protector's version of Eddie's past but keeps the design changes to Carl.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: As Venom, Eddie was at minimum built like a heavyweight wrestler. He was also a lot stronger than Spider-Man, but at the same time less agile.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: As Anti-Venom, calling Jenna Cole a junkie was a really bad idea. We're looking at you, Frank Castle.
• Necessarily Evil: Eddie lamented killing Hybrid since Scott was a good person and using his symbiote to do good, but justified doing so with the statement that it was either Scott die along with the rest of the symbiote hosts or the whole world would be overtaken later.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Unlike most supervillains, for much of his career Eddie made a point of avoiding causalities of anyone he thought was innocent in his crusade against Spider-Man, and after his Heel–Face Turn Eddie prided himself on being the Lethal Protector of the innocent.
• Never My Fault:
  • Although Emil Greg would later claim to be the actual Sin Eater, Eddie being forced into outing him by the police and his boss, and Spider-Man catching the real Sin-Eater the following day was just a bad coincidence, but the mistake sparked a series of unfortunate events that ruined Eddie's professional and personal life, and he blamed Spider-Man for his misfortune.
  • After Eddie parted ways with the Venom symbiote, he blamed it for all the bad things he'd done as Venom — completely ignoring his own deep-seated anger issues and penchant for violence. It wasn't until Carnage Vol. 2 that he began to accept that he was at least in-part responsible for Venom being a monster, and by the events of '"Venom'' Vol. 4 questions whether he was a good person who the evil symbiote corrupted or if he was an evil person who corrupted the good symbiote.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond:
  • As Venom, Brock never fared that well when he branched out and fought other heroes (Darkhawk, Daredevil and Seige, Iron Man, Quasar, etc.) besides Spider-Man, who he was a nightmare for due to being more powerful, knowing his secret identity, and being immune to his Spider Sense. The Amazing Spider-Man #317 includes a scene where Eddie visits an oblivious Aunt May as a means of intimidating Pete into no longer asking for help from any of his superfriends like the Fantastic Four, making it clear that if Pete won't keep their feud just between the two of them, then he won't either. Averted during his stints as Toxin and Anti-Venom, where he can kick a lot of ass. Mac Gargan and Flash Thompson also never ran into this problem, presumably because they already were an experienced supervillain and soldier, respectively. In his second stint as Venom, he has so far not really run into this problem, presumably owing to the Symbiote being more powerful and Brock being more experienced.
  • Lampshaded in Venom Annual #1, where a group of villains at the Bar with No Name tell each other Venom stories. Black Cat speaks of how she once got the jump on him and kicked him into an exploding car, the bartender speaks of how Venom once fought Wolverine, who mocked him for picking only on Spider-Man and got the better of him in that particular bout, and lastly a third patron speaks of how Venom once went toe-to-toe with Juggernaut - while claiming the entire time that Venom was out of his depth and got curb-stomped, although the actual flashback shows Venom fending him off. Mac Gargan — who once was Venom himself, mind you — starts outright mocking Venom and asking why anything he just heard should give him the scares. Then it turns out the third patron was Venom in disguise and he sends the bar's entire patronage running for their lives. Mac Gargan is not amongst the lucky ones, with the ending of the issue implying that Venom ate him, though later it would be revealed that he survived.
• No-Sell: As Anti-Venom he not only laughed off the traditional weaknesses of symbiotes - fire and sonics - the only things effective against him were an anti-antivenom Norman Osborn created specifically to kill him and Mr. Negative's Darkforce magic. Small wonder he only appeared a handful of times before being depowered.
• Offing the Offspring: Carnage, Toxin, and the Life Foundation symbiotes were all on Eddie's hit list.
• The Omnipresent: As God of the Symbiotes, Eddie can be anywhere there's a symbiote, although unlike Knull, he doesn't control them, and he prefers to ask for permission before manifesting.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: During Eddie's tenure as Venom, if he teamed up with Peter it was either for this reason or protecting people. As Toxin, Eddie promises Flash that he will let him be so long as he uses the Venom symbiote for good, but when he loses control of it, Toxin will Mercy Kill him.
• Papa Wolf: Killed a clown when he thought it was threatening a child. As Anti-Venom he was violently protective of Jenna Cole, and as "Agent Toxin" he was protective of Jubulile van Scotter.
  • Is this to Sleeper, whom he and the Venom symbiote parented together.
• Passing the Torch: At the end of Venom (Donny Cates) he allows Dylan to bond with the Venom symbiote, since he's too busy as God of the Symbiotes and his human body has aged significantly.
• Perma-Stubble: Eddie usually has five o'clock shadow.
• Pet the Dog: Eddie's had several moments of compassion, but his most recent is putting his vendetta on Flash on hold, which he did a lot more readily than his grudge against Peter.
• Phlegmings: Venom is frequently drawn with copious amounts of green slobber. Angel Medina and especially Greg Luzniak really went overboard in this department, sketching spit being spewed all over the place.
• Poisonous Person: As Venom, Eddie develops a poisonous bite that almost kills Sandman, and he retains this ability as Toxin, using it to off Megatak.
• Progressively Prettier: In his early appearances Eddie looked (and was presumably meant to be) like a 40-ish, severely unkempt man, but as Comic-Book Time set in and he In-Universe started taking care of himself, he nowadays more closely looks like a handsome man in his late thirties, in spite of a solid half-decade at least having passed since his introduction.
• Rage Against the Reflection: After being separated from the symbiote, Eddie continues to see Venom's face whenever he looks in the mirror, and begins to undergo Sanity Slippage until he meets Martin Li.
• Rage Breaking Point: When Jenna Cole was abducted by the Quintas Cartel and relapsed into drug use, Eddie - who had resolved to redeem himself and reign in his fraying sanity for her sake - massacred a building full of armed thugs in a fit of rage, tearing several of them apart.
• Rapid Aging: At the end of Venom (Donny Cates), after becoming the new God of Symbiotes, Eddie ages significantly, looking in his sixties or seventies in the span of merely a few months.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: In his second major appearance as Toxin, Eddie is mostly red but his lower arms and lower body are black with red Tainted Veins. A reporter even mistakes him for Carnage due to this.
• Redemption Quest: As Anti-Venom, Eddie swore he would destroy Venom once and for all. He continued this after being depowered, expanding his crusade to include all symbiotes, killing Scream and Hybrid, but was turned into Toxin by the Crime Master. He maintains that the relationship between him and Toxin is a temporary truce to kill Venom, but Flash accuses him of enjoying being bonded to a symbiote. Eddie eventually accepts this and comes to realize that it wasn't the symbiote who made Venom a monster but the other way around, and takes a leaf out of Flash's playbook.
• Redemption Promotion: Eddie in the 616 verse is usually a lot more powerful or competent as an anti-hero than a straight villain. As Anti-Venom, Toxin, or the King in Black he lacks his usual weaknesses or has extra superpowers he doesn't have as Venom and while returning as Venom did bring back said weaknesses, this didn't stop Venom from gaining extra super powers that he lacked as a supervillain. This carries over to the Venom symbiote in modern times as well.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed:
  • As Anti-Venom, Eddie tried his hand at being a hero but his less-than-stable psyche caused him to slip up a few times, and as Toxin he reverts to his Lethal Protector persona.
  • While working with the FBI, he maintains he's a good guy and is no longer in denial about being bonded to Toxin, even emulating Agent Venom's appearance. However, he's still eager to kill those he deems guilty (namely Carnage) and causally puts down a symbiote-infected sailor.
• Reformed, but Rejected:
  • When Eddie tries to expose Martin Li as Mr. Negative, Spider-Man attacks him and refuses to listen to Eddie's explanations, believing he's reverted back to his brain-eating phase. Eddie loses patience and almost does perform a Face–Heel Turn, but stops himself and storms off after webbing Spider-Man up.
  • When recruited by the FBI, Eddie repeatedly protests that as Toxin he's not the monster that he was as Venom, but Agent Dixon refuses to believe him, seeing him as being just as bad as Carnage. The lack of respect he gets despite taking Agent Dixon's place as the head of the Anti-Symbiote Task Force and his addiction to the power having a symbiote grants him causes him to reclaim the Venom symbiote and leave the organization.
• Religious Bruiser: Eddie returns to Catholicism with a vengeance after divesting himself of the Venom symbiote, and he's more than capable of kicking ass as Anti-Venom and Toxin. However, the events of Carnage Vol. 2 temporarily caused him to abandon his faith until his conflict with the King In Black restored it.
• Restraining Bolt: After being "recruited" by the FBI, he's pumped full of the symbiote-suppressant formula developed for Agent Venom. His handler, Agent Dixon, is given a device that will release an antidote and let him use the symbiote, but refuses to use it except as an absolute last resort.
• Retcon:
  • Dark Origin retconned his backstory to bring him more in line with his Spider-Man 3 self, but has largely been ignored.
  • Eddie's involvement in the Sin-Eater storyline is this. In the original story, Emil Gregg went to the Daily Bugle armed with a gun intent on killing Jameson because of his anti-vigilante stance. Peter (who wasn't in Spider-Man gear at the time) knocked him out with a typewriter allowing him to be subdued and arrested. Daredevil was able to deduce that Gregg wasn't the Sin-Eater by listening to his heartbeat and finding out it didn't match the real Sin-Eater's. A search of Gregg's apartment and the discovery that he was the neighbor of Stan Carter, the actual Sin-Eater, proved Daredevil's claim. The story makes no mention of Gregg talking to a reporter about being the Sin-Eater yet Brock's origin as told in Amazing Spider-Man #300 has him as the one who turned Gregg over to the police instead of the Daily Bugle staff.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Eddie's and the symbiote's vendetta against Spider-Man is a classic case of this: Eddie for losing his job and reputation; the symbiote for being rejected. As Anti-Venom, when Eddie learns his Living Emotional Crutch Jenna Cole is back on drugs again... the result isn't pretty. His future counterpart Bedlam basically lives off this trope, wanting to destroy Meridius; but he's so caught up in his anger, it allows Meridius to manipulate Bedlam to do his bidding.
• Royal "We": Refers to himself as "we" due to the presence of the symbiote. Gargan averts this, as does Flash mostly.

S-Z

• Sanity Slippage:
  • The Venom symbiote's growing influence over Eddie is one of the reasons he parts ways with it, and as Anti-Venom he suffers relapses into his Lethal Protector mindset following the revelation that Martin Li is Mr. Negative or if Jenna Cole is in danger.
  • The Madness miniseries had Eddie dealing with the symbiote, a sapient insanity-inducing virus they had accidentally merged with, and extra dimensional demons that had taken to tormenting them. He ends up exploding (figuratively) and nearly rapes and kills Beck Underwood while screaming incoherently and shapeshifting uncontrollably.
• The Scourge of God: As Anti-Venom and as a human before being bonded to Toxin, Eddie's fundamentalist Catholic worldview coupled with his tenuous hold on sanity to convince him that God had chosen him as a holy warrior to purge the world of sinners, starting with anyone bonded to a symbiote.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: During his tenure as a government operative he had a thermite bomb equipped with communications gear implanted in his chest. He eventually removed it (a failsafe prevented the symbiote from expelling it or tampering with it) via painful Self-Surgery.
• Serial-Killer Killer: Eddie's most frequent targets were street-level criminals, thugs, and killers - people deserving of being turned into symbiote chow.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: David Michelinie almost always wrote Eddie as speaking in a very verbose way, something which no other writer ever really did, kind of making it Early Instalment Weirdness and rather jarring whenever Michelinie returned to write the character in modern stories like the backup ones in Venom #150 and Venom #25.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Played with. AXIS: Carnage has a demonic Sin-Eater, claiming to be the ghost of Emil Gregg, repeatedly declare that he was the original Sin-Eater and that Stan Carter was the copycat. Upon hearing this, unscrupulous reporter Alice Gleason contemplates the notion that Eddie Brock had been right all along before scoffing at it, but the demonic Sin-Eater's claim and identity were never officially confirmed. Though Emil's reappearance in Donny's run at the very least implies he and the demonic Sin-Eater are indeed one and the same and he still claims to be the orginal.
• Ship Tease:
  • Despite his obsession with his ex-wife Ann Weying, in the '90s series Eddie had a crush on Beck Underwood, a lawyer fighting to protect the homeless people living in the underground city beneath San Francisco. However, she broke up with him when he assaulted her under the influence of the Mercury Virus.
  • In Daniel Way's Venom Vol 1, Eddie constantly flirted with Venom (Patricia Robertson), even though she wanted nothing more than to kill him.
  • As Anti-Venom, his relationship with Jenna Cole was very possessive, with Eddie calling her his angel and flying into a rage whenever her past as a drug addict is brought up.
  • In Carnage Vol. 2, Eddie has a number of moments with Manuela Calderon, who ultimately passed him over for Victoria Montesi.
  • After reuniting with the Venom symbiote in Venom (Mike Costa), Eddie begins calling it "my love" and "dear".
  • The Venom symbiote notes that while Eddie says that he dislikes Liz Allan, he also thinks about her a lot and experiences "strange feelings" whenever they visit her at Alchemax.
  • In Venom, Inc. Black Cat calls Eddie her "lucky guy" and the Venom symbiote suggests Eddie and Felicia would make a good couple, though Eddie reminds it that they almost killed her during their supervillain days and Felicia isn't known for being the forgiving sort. Indeed, subsequent comics confirm that Felicia very much still holds a grudge against Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote, sneers at the possibility of them ever redeeming themselves, and even fantasizes about killing them.
• Signature Move: Eddie's preferred method of killing people as Venom was to envelop their heads with the symbiote, using it to either suffocate them or cave their skulls in.
• Slasher Smile: While all Venom hosts have this type of grin, Eddie's version was not only the first, but by far the most sinister.◊
• Smarter Than You Look: Despite looking like a heavyweight professional wrestler even when not in monster-mode, Eddie is smarter than he looks and often puts the investigative skills he developed as a reporter to good use.
• Sociopathic Hero: During his first outing as the Lethal Protector and Toxin, Eddie thought nothing of killing those he deems guilty, although he has been persuaded to call truces with Spider-Man and Agent Venom.
• Spikes of Villainy: As Anti-Venom, Eddie had spikes protruding from his shoulders.
• Start of Darkness: Chronicled in Uncanny Origins #7, Seed of Darkness, and Dark Origin, the latter of which contradicts the first two on a lot of points and is non canon.
• Story-Breaker Power: As Anti-Venom, the fact that he was a walking cure-all, and at one point STARTED CLEANSING SPIDER-MAN OF HIS POWERS meant that the character had to be short-lived because of it.
• Stranger Behind the Mask: During Venom's first appearance his identity was treated as a mystery, only for the enigmatic supervillain to be revealed as... a completely original, never before seen character. Although Peter knew who he was, even if the readers didn't.
• Straw Hypocrite: During their second rematch, Flash accuses Eddie of being one for claiming that all symbiotes are demons that need to be exterminated and then getting "chummy" with the Toxin symbiote.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Marvel's official handbook has variously ranked Eddie, both as Venom and Anti-Venom, as being able to lift either 11 tons, putting him just over Peter's 10 tons; or 25 tons, making him a little more than twice as strong as Spidey but weaker than Carnage. However, there have been occasions where he duked it out with the Juggernaut^note albeit while enhanced by a sentient virus that amplified all of his abilities - whose strength is technically limitless, and Mac Gargan - who was able to lift 15 tons even without the Venom symbiote, which boosted his strength to 60 tons - and came out on top.^note Although the Anti-Venom symbiote's ability to corrode the Venom symbiote factored in as well. Possibly the best/worst instance of this occurred in All-Access #1, which had him almost effortlessly smack around Spidey and Superman... at the same time◊.
• Super Window Jump: Invoked in The Enemy Within.
  Morbius: I still don't understand — why not the front door, Venom?
  Venom: Something about dramatic entrances, Morbie — we'll explain later.
• Symbiotic Possession: Eddie and the Venom symbiote got along perfectly until its growing bloodlust clashed with his growing conscience. He tells Agent Venom that he and the Toxin symbiote have reached an understanding that they'll try to kill each other after killing Venom, but Flash believes he's in denial about enjoying being bonded to a symbiote. Eddie later accepts this and sets out to follow Flash's example, working with Toxin as part of the FBI's Anti-Carnage Taskforce.
• Take Me Instead: Horrifically inverted when Eddie and his future wife Anne are attacked by a gang in the prequel series Dark Origin. Needless to say, many writers prefer to ignore it.
  Eddie: P-please... just leave me alone. Take the girl... I won't say anything...
• Tears of Fear: During the Spider-Island series, Eddie is reduced to sobbing in terror when the Venom symbiote takes advantage of him overusing his healing powers to ditch Flash Thompson and rebond with him.
  Anti-Venom: [as the symbiote engulfs him] No! Not again! The demon... get it off! [reverts to Eddie Brock] Not again! No! Please, God!
  Venom: Wee arre returnedd! Hhoome, sssweet ssymbiosisss!
• Terror Hero: As Venom, Eddie used his Lovecraftian Superpowers, monstrous appearance, and threats of cannibalism to intimidate people, making him a combination of Types I and III. As Anti-Venom, he thinks of himself as a Type V and is insulted when he finds that is not the case.
• Tombstone Teeth: When originally drawn by Todd McFarlane, Venom had a too-wide mouth full of too-many too-long (but otherwise human-looking) teeth before quickly transitioning into fangs, and some artists go back to this look for the sheer creepiness factor.
• That Man Is Dead: He seems to do this whenever he develops a new identity.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: His to-do list in Spider-Man Vol. 2, #10.
  • 1. Kill my landlord
  • 2. Kill Spider-Man
  • 3. Get symbiote back from Carnage
  • 4. Kill Spider-Man
  • 5. Destroy The Daily Bugle
  • 6. Kill Spider-Man
  • 7. Kill Spider-Man
• Token Evil Teammate: He's considered as such whenever he's teamed up with more scrupulous heroes to fight other villains, both as Venom and as Toxin.
• Token Good Teammate: However, when teamed up with other anti-heroes like the Punisher Eddie usually was the most moral member of the team up, especially in his orginal "run". He also served this role to the Sinster Six during his laspe back into villainy in the early 2000s, which was one of the factors that led him to betray the team and instead try to kill them.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After accepting his bond with Toxin, Eddie has displayed a shocking (to his comrades) degree of compassion towards Jubulile van Scotter, who is infested by the Carnage symbiote's spawn. It helps that she's an innocent teenaged girl being forced to suffer through unimaginable horrors, but at his worst he would have likely mercy killed her to prevent her from being taken over.
• Trauma Conga Line: Regardless of how much blame he put on Spider-Man, it can't be said that his life didn't take a colossal downturn for the worst prior to him meeting the symbiote. Writers tend to go back on forth on how traumatizing his time as Venom also was to him afterwards.
• Unscrupulous Hero: While Eddie considered himself to be a hero, during his first outing as Venom and later Toxin he had no qualms about brutally murdering and as Toxin even eating those he considered guilty.
• The Unsmile: In Dark Origin, Eddie is shown with an unnaturally wide, creepy grin.
  Eddie: It was easy.
• Villain Team-Up: He, under the control of the symbiote, briefly allies with Carnage to kill the original Toxin in Venom/Carnage, and was a member of one incarnation of the Sinister Six. Both alliances were only temporarily since the other bad guys (especially the Sandman) didn't like him very much. The only reason he was allowed to join the Sinister Six in the first place is because Daniel Berkhart (the second Mysterio) weakly vouched for him.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: The Lethal Protector series revealed that Eddie's father was a wealthy millionaire who hated his son due to his wife's death in childbirth. Out of a desire for acknowledgement, Eddie got straight As in school, won numerous sports trophies, and became a successful journalist with a famous lawyer as a wife. The Sin Eater incident gave Eddie's father the excuse he needed to disown him, and Eddie's life went downhill from there. Dark Origin makes it more explicit, while Retconing most of the above to make Eddie less sympathetic.
  Eddie: Shut up, Mary!
  Mary: You shut up! We used to have a mom, before you came along!
  Carl: Mary. I've told you, your mother died from complications during childbirth. It wasn't Eddie's fault. We can't blame him for everything.
  Mary: Oh, what are you pouting about now?!
  Eddie: I can tell... he's lying.
• What Do You Mean, It's Phlebotinum?: Eddie satiated the symbiote's appetite for a chemical found primarily within brains by feeding it chocolate, which contains trace amounts of what it needed. This became ineffective as the symbiote's hunger grew out of control and its tastes expanded to include human flesh in general.
• Winged Humanoid: As Venom, Eddie once sprouted wings to glide away from Nova following their fight. After the symbiote is augmented by Knull, it sprouts a pair of bat-like wings reminiscent of Grendel's.
• The Worf Effect: Suffered this at the hands of Carnage, Shriek and Senator Ward (who curbstomped him entirely off-panel).
• Yandere: For a while, Eddie was this towards his ex-wife Anne Weying, and when she committed suicide he blamed Spider-Man, called off their truce and devolved back into a villain. During the New Ways To Live miniseries, Eddie displays yandere tendencies towards Jenna Cole, inwardly admitting she's all that's keeping him from reverting back to his Lethal Protector persona and going utterly berserk when he learns she has been forced back into drug use.
• You Fight Like a Cow: During his Lethal Protector days, Venom was constantly spouting wisecracks and bad jokes.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: After they rescue Jenna Cole from the Quintas, Punisher takes aim at Eddie with a sniper rifle. Eddie looks right at him through the scope, smiles, and says "Can't do it, can you? I'm a good guy like you." Castle puts the rifle away and tells his assistant he's bleeding out and ran out of bullets.
• Younger Than They Look: According to "The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock", Eddie was only 22 when he was fired from the Daily Globe and first bonded to the Venom symbiote... but he looked to at least be in his 30s.
• Your Head A-Splode: When the Punisher realizes Anti-Venom is Eddie Brock, he promptly shoots him point-blank in the head with a shotgun. When Castle is about to shoot through Jenna Cole to kill a random thug, the Anti-Venom symbiote gathers up the scattered pieces of Eddie's head, puts them back together, and reforms, leaving him none the worse for wear and severely pissed off.

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