Characters / Spider-Man Trilogy: Supervillains

Main Character Index
Main Characters (Spider-Man) | Supervillains (Green Goblin | Otto Octavius) | Others | Extracanonical

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Supervillains

Dr. Norman Osborn / Green Goblin

Has his own page.

Dr. Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus / "Doc Ock"

Has his own page.

Harry Osborn / New Goblin

See Spider-Man Trilogy: Main Characters

Edward "Eddie" Brock, Jr. / Venom

Edward "Eddie" Brock, Jr. / Venom

"Never wound what you can't kill!"

^{Click here to see Venom} "I like being bad. It makes me happy."

Played by: Topher Grace

Voiced by: Gerardo García (Latin American Spanish), Cédric Dumond (European French dub), Patrice Dubois (Canadian French dub)

Appearances: Spider-Man 3 | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ^note symbiote

"I'm thinking humiliation... kinda like how you humiliated me. Do you remember? Do you remember what you did to me? You made me lose my girl... now I'm gonna make you lose yours. How's that sound, Tiger?"

Peter's rival photographer and Spider-Man's Evil Counterpart, Eddie Brock started out as an arrogant, self-centered, and insufferable Jerkass. After bonding with the alien symbiote, he becomes Venom and swears to destroy Peter's life just like he destroyed his.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: Is one to both Gwen Stacy and Betty Brant. Becomes a much more terrifying one to Mary Jane Watson after he kidnaps her after gaining access to Peter's memories from Venom.
• Adaptation Expansion: Mark Bagley himself drew a bonus tie-in comic, Spider-Man 3: The Black, portraying the events of the last third of the movie from Eddie's perspective.
• Adaptational Achilles Heel: The novelization states that the symbiote is weakened by direct light, a weakness no other version of it has ever suffered from.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: His Venom form doesn't look quite as beastly as it does in other media — his teeth are more shapely and his tongue is smaller, which means he doesn't salivate as much. And as Eddie Brock, he is a good deal younger and better-looking than his comic self, who, around the same time he was a villain, was drawn as a very rough-faced man looking in his late 30's to early 40's.
• Adaptational Curves: Inverted. He doesn't have his comic book counterpart's exaggerated build, instead having a slender, if still muscular, body similar to Peter's.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the comics, Venom appeared late into Spider-Man's career when Gwen was long dead and Spider-Man had an already-established Rogues Gallery, particularly with the Sinister Six. In this film trilogy, Eddie and his symbiote appear after Peter had only fought two supervillains in Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus, appearing in the same movie with Sandman and co-existing alongside Gwen.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the comics, Eddie's grudge against Spider-Man was caused when he published an article incriminating a man he thought was a serial killer, only for Spider-Man to catch the real culprit. This publicly shamed Eddie, causing his company to fire him, his father to disown him, and his wife to leave him. Here, Eddie pretty much digs his own grave by forging a fake photograph, making his grudge against Peter Parker pettier as a result. Furthermore, in the game, he kidnaps Penny to force Flint to help him. This even extends to his actual supervillain origin — in the comics, Eddie went to the Our Lady Of Saints Church to pray to God for forgiveness, as he was planning to commit suicide after his life fell apart, but here, Eddie prays for God to kill Peter Parker. In all these respects he's much closer to the Ultimate Universe version of Brock, who only debuted a couple years before Spider-Man 3 was written; down to being a sleazy Casanova Wannabe and horribly jealous of Peter's success. However, Ultimate Eddie still has a Dark and Troubled Past that never gets overlooked despite his crimes - this iteration of Brock lacks even that, simply remaining a scumbucket from start to finish.
• Adaptational Nonsapience: In the comics, the Venom symbiote is very much capable of communicating with others even when separated from its hosts. That doesn't appear to be the case here, and how it influences its hosts is more akin to an addictive hard drug than something like Doc Ock's tentacle AI.
  • In the novelization, it's ambiguous whether the symbiote has a higher form of thought process or only animalistic instincts. While it doesn't directly communicate with Peter, he can sense its feelings and desires, which is a far cry from the comics.
• Adaptational Villainy: In a startling contrast to Green Goblin and Doc Ock who are made more redeemable in the films compared to the comic books, this Venom is simply vile compared to his origin. In the comics, Venom is something of an Anti-Hero, as he would try to protect innocents and stop other criminals, even teaming up with Spider-Man on occasion to stop worse villains like Carnage. Here, Eddie fully admits to Peter that he enjoys being a villain. Even before the merge, Eddie was a self-centered jerk who felt the world revolved around him. He also kidnaps and tries to murder Mary Jane to use her as leverage against Peter, where even at his worst in the comics he only broke into her and Peter's home to threaten and interrogate her about Peter, leaving her frightened but unharmed.
• Adaptational Wimp: Most of Venom's natural symbiote powers such as shape shifting are Adapted Out, making Venom's power set restricted to those of Spider-Man's. In addition, Venom is easily killed by one of the New Goblin's pumpkin bombs while in the comics, it has survived all kinds of explosions and regenerated from worse injuries.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the comics, Eddie worked for the Daily Globe, a rival of the Daily Bugle, and for that doesn't know Peter personally. That's changed for the movie where Eddie and Peter now work for the same newspaper and are job rivals.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: A minor one. As in the comics, Eddie and the symbiote bond over their shared hatred of Spider-Man. However, in the comics it really is Spider-Man Eddie hates for revealing his interview partner was lying - in the movie, it is Peter Parker who he hates for revealing he doctored some pictures of Spider-Man. The outcome is the same.
• Admiring the Abomination: After the symbiote separates from him and turns into a huge monster, Eddie looks at it with an awestruck smile.
• Age Lift: Eddie is portrayed as being older than Peter in the comics by a significant margin but the two are around the same age here and if we go by their actors' ages, Eddie is slightly younger than Peter.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Peter confronts him about how he forged his photo of Spider-Man robbing a bank, he begs Peter not to expose him.
• All There in the Script: He is referred to as Venom in virtually everything related to the film... except for the film itself.
• Alternate Self:
  • Eddie and the symbiote have nicer and more heroic counterparts on Earth-688B, with Venom: Let There Be Carnage revealing that the symbiote hive mind spans universes and the Venom symbiote on that Earth subconsciously has Past-Life Memories of this version of itself.
  • The Venom symbiote makes a small cameo appearance in Across the Spider-Verse along with the version from Earth-751263.
  • The symbiote has a more sapient and villainous counterpart looking to create a Hive Mind in Earth-1048.
• Ax-Crazy: The symbiote is sadistic, aggressive and bloodthirsty, and transfers similar behavioral patterns onto its hosts. Most notably Brock.
• Badass Boast: Delivers one to Peter during the climax:
  Eddie: Never wound what you can't kill!
• Big Bad: The Venom symbiote is this in the third film — of the other major villains, Harry is a Big Bad Wannabe while Sandman is a less malevolent Tragic Villain. Upon bonding to Brock, Venom convinces Sandman to join forces and becomes the Final Boss.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Sandman during second half of the third film. In a sense, the symbiote and Brock are one as well.
• Big "NO!": His Last Words, in fact. When the symbiote has been separated from him in the climax and is about to be destroyed with one of the New Goblin's pumpkin bombs, Brock runs toward it while loudly screaming "NOOO!", resulting in him being killed by the explosion alongside the symbiote.
• Body Horror: Just like in the comics, his mouth is distorted when he becomes Venom. Also, while bonded with the symbiote, his teeth are replaced with jagged, yellow fangs when the symbiote isn’t covering his face.
• The Bully: Cheats and uses intimidation to get ahead, only to fold when his targets prove they aren't going to back down. And of course, he utterly relishes the power the Symbiote gives him to lord over and victimize others.
• Butter Face: Unlike other depictions of Venom, he has a very similar height and build to Peter, but still keeps the fangs and Slasher Smile provided by the symbiote.
• The Cameo: The symbiote makes a brief appearance in Across the Spider-Verse, where the moment when Peter removes it at the church being shown along with other examples of the symbiote across The Multiverse.
• Camera Fiend: He is also a photographer for the Daily Bugle and is Peter's professional rival.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Eddie is proud to be a supervillain, claiming that being bad makes him happy.
• Casanova Wannabe: His attempts to woo Betty Brant at the Daily Bugle totally fail. Likewise, Gwen didn't seem to enjoy their single date as much as Eddie is convinced.
• Character Catchphrase: "It's Brock, Sir. Edward Brock, Jr."
• Chekhov's Gunman: Jameson mentions a photographer named Eddie in the first film. The novelization confirms it was Brock.
• Churchgoing Villain: A twisted example. After being exposed and fired from the Bugle, Eddie goes to church... to pray for Peter Parker's death.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Even after bonding to the symbiote, Eddie isn't called "Venom" except in the end credits.
• Composite Character: This version of Venom is a mixture of the mainstream and Ultimate versions, with a touch of the animated series version thrown in for good measure. This version even has some elements of Venom's offspring, Carnage, such as having bonded with the symbiote so completely that he refers to himself with singular pronouns rather than the plural pronouns his comic book counterpart uses, and being a completely psychotic villain with no redeeming qualities as opposed to his comic book counterpart who, outside of his innate hatred of Spider-Man, is a classic Noble Demon-style Anti-Hero. He's also similar to Lance Bannon, who was a rival photographer at the Daily Bugle in the comics.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • Unlike the previous Big Bad Doctor Octopus, a Tragic Villain who utilized his own inventions, Eddie is a fairly straightforward and unlikable villain who found the symbiote by complete chance. Furthermore, while Octavius was greatly pragmatic and genuinely cared for his wife, Venom is petty to the core; wanting to kill Peter for exposing his scummy practices and "making [him] lose [his] girl". Lastly, when he ends up fatally wounding Harry instead of Spider-Man, Venom just throws him aside like garbage because he got in the way.
  • He is even this to the other Big Bad Green Goblin, while both villains may be petty in their actions against Spider-Man, Norman is more of a Tragic Villain as he was put under duress of a dangerous serum in an attempt to save his own company and that he genuinely cares for his son Harry; even Spider-Man shows sympathy for Norman when he died. Eddie, on the the hand, is more despicable as he personally kills Harry the same way how the Green Goblin died.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Eddie has a high-pitched voice, which comes off as creepy when he says villainous lines. His voice gets deeper when he's speaking as Venom, unless he’s screaming. As Venom, he lets out some truly terrifying shrieks of rage.
• Death from Above: The junior novelization has the symbiote killed when Peter pulls down a load of pipes which hit everything and the resulting din wipes the symbiote from existence.
• Decomposite Character: His symbiotic relationship with something and usual trait from the comics and most versions of referring to himself as "We" are given to Doc Ock.
• Didn't Think This Through: His fake picture is incredibly easily exposed as such, which leaves him fired and unable to get work as a photographer. Even pointed out by Peter that he should have thought of that earlier. The novelization explains he was banking on Peter not recognizing his own picture just because the original photograph was archived and never published by the Daily Bugle. If Peter did find out, Eddie planned to bribe him to keep quiet. Needless to say, it quickly backfires.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • The novelization has him technically killed by Venom consuming his body after bonding with the symbiote.
  • The junior novelization has Eddie killed by Peter before the symbiote rather than getting blown up along with it.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Wants Peter to die for exposing him as a fraud and “stealing” his girl (who never had any interest in him whatsoever).
• Entitled Bastard: He believes he is destined for greatness at the expense of others' lives. Eddie begs Peter to show mercy and not expose his false photograph to Jameson, even though he stole Peter's photo, doctored it and rubbed it in his face moments before.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Peter. He is a photographer like him but tries to earn his money through framing rather than honest work, tries to get a girl through imposing himself on her, gains Spidey-esque powers but chooses to become a villain rather than a hero and embraces the symbiote's negative influence rather than rejecting it.
  • Also to Harry. Both are Peter's contemporaries who are Legacy Characters (Harry as the New Goblin, Eddie as Peter's successor as the symbiote host). But while Harry ultimately chooses to become a Redeeming Replacement to his father, Eddie chooses to become a straight-up murderous supervillain upon gaining the symbiote unlike Peter, who only slipped into Anti-Hero territory.
• Evil Feels Good: While the other villains in the franchise usually have their reasons for turning evil and aren't that evil after all, Eddie really, really loves being a supervillain and the powers the symbiote grants him.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: In Spider-Man 3: The Black, Eddie states that the symbiote feels cold, lifted directly from the Ultimate comic.
• Evil Is Hammy: The symbiote truly made Eddie chew the scenery after bonding with him.
• Evil Is Petty: His entire beef with Peter and Spider-Man is because he was fired from the Daily Bugle... for taking Peter's own photos and doctoring them to make them look bad.
• Fangs Are Evil: After bonding to the symbiote, he has fangs even with his mask retracted.
• Faux Affably Evil: Even before being taken over by the Symbiote, Eddie Brock acts chummy and friendly with Peter, when he’s actively trying to steal his job.
• Final Boss: He's the last opponent Spider-Man has to fight in the trilogy.
• Flat Character: The symbiote. In the comics, it was a very much alive parasitic organism with a fully fleshed out origin and has clear motivations. It also tells Eddie who Spider-Man really is (in the movie, Eddie sees Peter unmasked before the symbiote lands on him). But due to juggling so many characters in the movie, the trilogy not fitting with the sci-fi style origin of the symbiote, or having the rights to characters in his debut story, it's simply an alien parasite. The most it really shows is a lack of hostility toward Eddie — once they are separated and the symbiote grows into a giant, it's staring, roaring at, and even trying to attack Peter, and when Eddie desperately tries to rebond with it, the symbiote only briefly looks at him screeching before they're blown up.
• Freudian Excuse: His actor, Topher Grace, once said that he thinks Eddie turned out the way he did because he had a bad childhood.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from being a disgraced jerk of a photographer to a legitimate threat to Spider-Man simply by virtue of being in the right place at the right time.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The symbiote literally just came out of nowhere in the third movie by riding on a random meteorite and just so happens to crash near Peter and MJ. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, an Older and Wiser Peter Parker mentions it in a way that one would see a random, unexplained thing happening in their daily life.
• Glass Cannon: An odd selective example. The Symbiote itself required significant effort from Peter to remove from his body even when it was weakened by the sound of a large bell, and once it bonded with Eddie Brock, they both easily overpower Peter. Despite all that, a Pumpkin Bomb can completely vaporize it along with Eddie, the same kind of Pumpkin Bomb that both Peter and Harry took to the face and came out not much worse for wear. And while the Venom Symbiote does have a weakness to fire in the comics, that is not implied or shown anywhere else in the movie. The novelization also reveals the symbiote can be hurt by direct light, yet Peter has no problem using the black suit during the day.
• Hate Sink: Unlike other main villains in the series, Eddie has no tragic or redeeming aspects and is a lying, self-centered Jerkass right out of the gate.
• Hated by All: The novelization implies that none of Eddie’s colleagues at the Bugle really like him, and only celebrate his promotion to the new staff photographer out of professional courtesy and/or to get on his good side. Betty Brant and Robbie Robertson (who don't even attend) in particular are put off by his ego and smugness, much preferring Peter over him. Even Jameson doesn't care enough to remember Eddie's name.
• Hell Is That Noise: As Venom, he can let out a loud high-pitched screech. It seems to be a cross between a bird and raptor.
• Hero Killer: Unintentionally kills Harry Osborn, one of the trilogy's main protagonists, due to his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Forging photographs for a professional news outlet practically guaranteed that Eddie was going to get caught in the act and eventually fired.
• Humiliation Conga: He's turned down by Spider-Man (who smashes his camera to boot), slammed into a wall by a pissed-off Peter, exposed as a fraud, fired, rejected for good by his crush, and then sees his crush going on a date with Peter. The symbiote takes all that resentment and anger and cranks it up... then they get blown up.
• Hypocrite: In the novelization, he berates the bystanders watching Gwen dangling from the collapsing building because they seem excited about her imminent death. Meanwhile, he awaits for Gwen to fall with his camera ready because it's okay for him to enjoy something so gruesome since he's profiting from it.
• If It Bleeds, It Leads: Fits this trope to a T. In the novelization, Eddie actively hopes to find dead bodies and disasters to take photos of to the point of displaying a stunning Lack of Empathy towards his subjects, not even seeing them as actual people in his desire to become an award-winning journalist. During the crane incident, Eddie eagerly captures pictures of Gwen nearly falling to her death despite his supposed love for her, believing he is doing Gwen a favor by "immortalizing" her through his "Pulitzer Prize"-worthy photography.
• Immoral Journalist: Eager to get a leg up at the Bugle, Eddie takes pictures of Spider-Man and heavily doctors them to make them look as though he's engaged in criminal activity. When he's caught, his entire career is ruined and he's sent down the path to becoming Venom.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The junior novelization has him impaled on a pipe.
• The Irredeemable Exception: Unlike Osborn, who had a Moment of Lucidity before his death, and Ock, who died making up for his mistakes, Eddie dies an irredeemable bastard whose last action was trying to regain the symbiote. He doesn't even get a second chance at life like the other villains did in No Way Home.
• It's All About Me: His purpose in the film is to show someone (unlike Peter, MJ, and Harry) whose descent into selfish behavior is irreversible and who can't forgive others for their selfishness toward him.
• Jerkass: He's as unpleasant as Peter is nice.
• Killed Off for Real: Unlike the multiversal villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home, he doesn't get a second chance at life.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Sandman thinks he's Spider-Man and attacks him, but quickly realizes his mistake.
• Lightning Bruiser: Faster and stronger than Spider-Man thanks to the symbiote.
• Moral Myopia: Eddie wants revenge on Peter for getting him fired, even though he got fired because he forged a photo, framing Spider-Man (Peter’s secret identity) for a crime he didn’t commit. He still sees himself as the victim and wants revenge after he finds out Peter is Spider-Man.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Eddie has the classic gaping maw full of fangs, but unlike most other versions, the symbiote's mask acts as lips so they're not visible when his mouth is closed.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: Although the Venom of the comics also had a pitch-black suit, he had a huge white spider stretched across it. This one still does have a spider symbol, although it is smaller and darker than tradition.
• Mythology Gag: To both the animated series and Venom's original appearance in the comics, in a deleted scene Peter has a vision of himself as Venom when looking in a mirror, although his Venom form didn't have fangs.
• Never My Fault: True to his comic self, he blames Peter/Spider-Man for his mistakes rather than take responsibility for them. It's even worse in this case, as while his comic book counterpart made an honest mistake, this version of him knowingly submitted a fake picture for publication, framing Spider-Man for robbing a bank.
• One-Winged Angel: After Peter tears Eddie from the symbiote, it becomes a hulking titan. It takes one of Harry's pumpkin bombs to kill it off, though Eddie dies along with it.
• Outside-Context Problem: The symbiote is an alien creature in a take on the Spider-Man mythos that's relatively grounded in reality. One common origin of Venom is that it was found on a space expedition, but here it just came to Earth on a meteorite.
• Paparazzi: He harasses Spider-Man, trying to take pictures of him to win the Bugle contest, and when Spider-Man smashes his camera out of frustration, Eddie photoshops a fake image to incriminate him in a bank robbery. He's also this towards Gwen, trying to take photos of her during and right after her near-death experience.
• Photographic Memory: He has this due to his cameraman's eye, according to the novelization.
• Pipe Pain: Peter separates Eddie from the symbiote by trapping them in a ring of metal pipes and hitting them to create a ring of loud sounds.
• Playing the Victim Card: A glaring example in the novelization at the church. Eddie is so incapable of accepting that he brought his troubles upon himself that he claims in his Prayer of Malice that he is the victim of the situation and even compares himself to Jesus Christ — a good person who lived his life by the rules and is being unfairly persecuted because of other people's "imperfections".
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Venom, and by extension Eddie Brock, serves little to the trilogy's storyline other than a Generic Doomsday Villain. The symbiote is a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere that wouldn't fit in the film's setting that's relatively grounded in reality, while Eddie Brock would, at best, serve as narcissistic workplace rival who would threaten Peter's position as the Daily Bugle's photographer and could hurt Spider-Man's reputation ^note Even then, that's relatively minor compare to Peter's other greater problems. Furthermore, the Big Bads of the trilogy (including New Goblin who's a Big Bad Wannabe and Sandman as the secondary antagonist) all have sympathetic aspects to their character as well as a personal connection to Peter Parker, which would arguably make their conflicts with Spider-Man view in a Grey-and-Gray Morality, or potentially White and Gray Morality, lens, while the conflict with Venom/Eddie Brock is more black-and-white. The fact that Venom's character wasn't even planned by Sam Raimi to be included in the trilogy in the first place, and only did due to Executive Meddling, says it all.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: His voice becomes noticeably deeper while his face is covered by the symbiote.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: He tries cozying up to J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, and Spider-Man in order to get ahead, with limited success.
• Puppeteer Parasite:
  • In Spider-Man 3: The Black, Eddie realizes "the Black" is influencing his thoughts... and decides that being able to do anything Spider-Man can is worth it.
  • In the novelization, which was based on an early script, the symbiote can only live off of regular people for a few hours and wants Spider-Man as its true host because he's a superhuman who can sustain it indefinitely. All of this is discovered when Peter forces the symbiote off of Eddie, who is revealed to be nothing but an emaciated corpse that the symbiote had made look healthy while moving it around and mimicking Eddie's voice.
• Redemption Rejection: Peter tries to convince Eddie to give up the symbiote and let go of his hatred, but Eddie just tells Peter he likes being bad.
• Rival Turned Evil: Started off as The Rival of Peter professionally in the Daily Bugle and ended as his Evil Counterpart and Arch-Enemy.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: In-Universe example. Creating fake pictures of Spider-Man and using an already existing shot without proper credit from the source (Peter) to do so got him fired from the Daily Bugle and blacklisted from other media companies.
• Sanity Slippage: He realizes the symbiote is feeding him Peter's memories◊ and goes insane... er with the power. Even before that in the novelization, his behavior when he visits Gwen after being fired makes her wonder if he suffered a psychotic break, with his mannerisms akin to The Joker; he acts carefree and jovial with the Stacy family even as his whole body is trembling as they tell him off, and after he's forced to leave, he bizarrely hops/skips away.
• Satanic Archetype: An irredeemable villain whose superpower is acquired from Peter's literal and figurative manifestation of darkness. It even happened in a church, with the symbiote falling off from atop onto Eddie.
• Shadow Archetype: He represents what Peter could have become if the latter gave in to the symbiote's power trip and let his power go to his head.
• Slasher Smile: As the symbiote covers him, Eddie goes from screaming in terror to grinning maniacally before eating the camera. After becoming Venom, his teeth become yellow and deformed even when he's not wearing his Venom-cowl.
• Slimeball: Underneath his "ladies man" facade and quirky exterior, this is Eddie's defining characteristic - disingenuous, opting to wreck Spider-Man's reputation for the sole purpose of netting in some big fame with regards only to himself. This falls off over time however, and by the time he's Venom, his scumminess has shifted into vengeful hatred towards Peter and a taste for picking off civilians and heroes whenever he likes.
• Smug Snake: Eddie is, at least initially, a slimy, unctuous creep who sucks up to Jameson to advance his own career prospects, is creepy-stalkerish with Gwen Stacy, the 'girl he intends to marry' (although Gwen is quick to point out that they've only ever been out for a coffee once) and ends up manufacturing a photo of Spider-Man robbing a bank to frame the superhero and secure a staff job at the Bugle. Then Peter exposes his fake, he loses his job, and Gwen breaks up with him — and then he meets the Venom symbiote...
• Stalker with a Crush: After Gwen rejects him. This is much more emphasized in the original script, which also had Jameson hiring Brock to spy on MJ after she jilted his son at the altar, and novelization. He keeps "running into" Gwen and takes her headshots whenever he can, keeps her images on his desk, and frequently refers to her as "[his] Gwen".
• Stripped to the Bone:
  • Original plans (still present in the novelization) involved Eddie being reduced to a smoking skeleton by Venom — all that remained of him was a bunch of bones Venom used as an endoskeleton.
  • Once the pumpkin bomb that kills Venom/Eddie goes off, you can briefly see a skeleton in the explosion.
• Stupid Evil: In all honestly, Eddie is not a very smart man, having attempted to forge a photograph using a pre-existing one. It clearly never occurred to him that the photographer who works in the same business as him would take notice of his work being plagiarized. As Venom, he takes his time monologing to Spider-Man and giving into his sadism, allowing Harry to save him, and his foolishness sees him leap into the Symbiote after a bomb had been thrown into it. It gets him killed.
• Super-Strength: Getting possessed by the symbiote has given him the strength to match Spider-Man blow for blow. He can easily Neck Lift Mary Jane and later lift Spidey by his head and throw him into the ceiling.
• Tainted Veins: When he retracts his mask, tendrils of the symbiote remain stuck to his face and neck, thus giving him this appearance. In addition, the silvery webbing motif the symbiote manifested when bonded to Spider-Man becomes distorted and vein-like when bonded to Eddie.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Eddie proclaims, "I like being bad. It makes me happy!" after Peter tries to warn him about the symbiote's corrupting influence.
• This Is Your Brain on Evil: This version of the symbiote enhances id-based emotions like anger and libido.
• Too Dumb to Live: He attempts to reunite with the symbiote, even though Peter just threw a bomb at it.
• Two First Names: Brock is commonly used as a first name. The trope also applies to his actor.
• Uncertain Doom: While Peter destroyed most of the symbiote with one of Harry's pumpkin bombs, Curt Connors still has a very tiny remnant of it in his lab and it's unknown if it's still alive or not.
• Unskilled, but Strong: As Venom, he can overpower Spider-Man and comes the closest to killing him out of all the villains, but he's also relatively new to the symbiote's powers while Peter is more skilled and resourceful as a result of having years of experience crimefighting and being much smarter than him. Peter's superior fighting ability and far greater intellect allows him to prevail over Eddie in the end.
• Villains Want Mercy: Implores Peter, who he's just cheated out of a promotion, not to expose his fake Spider-Man photo.
  Eddie: Look, I'm begging you. If you do this, I will lose everything. There's not a paper in town that will hire me.
  Peter: You should've thought of that earlier.
• Villain Team-Up: Convinces Sandman to help him try to kill Spider-Man.
• Villainous Breakdown: Eddie ends the film pathetically leaping into the symbiote, not caring that Peter has thrown a pumpkin bomb at it; it drives home that he's neither willing to work on himself nor compromise with his opposition to better his life.
• Voice of the Legion: Eddie's voice becomes distorted after bonding to the symbiote in the video game adaptation.
• Wall Crawl: Thanks to the symbiote, he can crawl on walls just like Spider-Man.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: He was already a self-important jackass beforehand, but gaining the symbiote turns him into a sadistic psychopath who enjoys being evil.
• Would Hit a Girl: He has no qualms kidnapping Mary Jane and using her as a hostage to lure Peter out.
• You Don't Look Like You: In the first teaser trailers revealing his presence in the film, Venom looked a lot closer to his classic comic book appearance before his design was revamped to include the webbing motif present in Peter's black suit.

Flint Marko / Sandman

For tropes applying to his appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, see MCU: Multiversal Villains

Flint Marko / Sandman

"I didn't choose to be this. The only thing left of me now... is my daughter."

Played by: Thomas Haden Church

Voiced by: Raúl Anaya (Latin American Spanish), Hervé Furic (European French dub), Benoît Rousseau (Canadian French dub)

Appearances: Spider-Man 3 | Spider-Man: No Way Home

"I'm not a bad person. Just had bad luck."

Flint Marko is a crook who escaped jail for robbery. He continues to rob when his now genetically altered body made from sand gives him the extra boost.

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• Accidental Murder: He didn't intentionally kill Ben Parker.
• Action Dad: Father to Penny and part of the Big Bad Ensemble of the third film.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Downplayed. While one of the more noble villains in Spidey's Rogues Gallery, who actually spent some time as a hero, comic book Sandman is a crook for selfish reasons. This one was pushed into crime because his daughter was sick and he couldn't afford medicine^note Though the prequel comic reveals he was a career criminal before trying to save Penny.
  • Played straight in the official game. Instead of working together with Venom willingly like in the movie, he is forced to cooperate due to Venom holding his daughter hostage.
• Adaptational Name Change: In the comics, Sandman's real name is William Baker, with "Flint Marko" only used as an alias. As was the case with Ultimate Spider-Man, the latter is his real name here.
• Adaptational Jerkass: He's more ruthless in the novelization, being a bit of a Blood Knight and developing a God complex that makes him apathetic to the collateral damage he causes in his crusade. Unlike his movie self who mainly fought defensively against Spider-Man in the subway, Sandman in the book is more eager to face the web-crawler and even attempts to suffocate him by encasing him in sand, making Spider-Man unleashing a burst of water on his foe more justified. He's also less reluctant in teaming up with Venom to kill Spider-Man as payback for foiling his last robbery and nearly killing him in the subway.
• Alas, Poor Villain: All the way. His motive for his crimes was only to get enough money to pay for his daughter's treatment. His last interaction with Spider-Man isn't some final battle, but him explaining himself to Peter about his reasons and how Uncle Ben's death was an accident. Peter forgives him and Marko simply dusts away with his fate being left ambiguous, but for all we know he may not be able to help his daughter.
  • Even more so in the original script/novelization where he learns that her illness is terminal.
• All for Nothing: The novelization and originally filmed ending reveal that his daughter's illness is incurable. However, his comments in Spider-Man: No Way Home make it clear that Penny is still alive.
• Anti-Villain: Well-Intentioned Anti-Villain. He only wanted to get money to pay for his daughter's medical treatment. It turns out he was the one who really shot Uncle Ben but it was all an accident. He always regretted what he had done even if it wasn't his fault and never meant to hurt Peter or his family.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Harry Osborn and Venom for the third film. The latter convinces him to join in a Big Bad Duumvirate, though it's clear that the symbiote is the primary threat.
  • Later with Doctor Octopus, Electro, Lizard and Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: The novelization reveals Marko's own father was abusive, which drives him to be the best parent possible for Penny.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: He's a thug and a hardened criminal, but he's very loving towards his estranged daughter. Emma even comments in the novelization that Flint was the more sensitive of the couple. He also feels genuine guilt about killing Peter's uncle.
• The Brute: More than all of the other villains, Flint muscles his way through most of his problems; this is especially noticeable when he teams up with Venom in Spider-Man 3's last act.
• Composite Character: In addition to being based on his comic book counterpart, he shares some similarities with the Burglar through the fact that he has a daughter and is the criminal who unintentionally killed Ben Parker through shooting him.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Being a petty thief with no background in science, it wasn't Marko's own scientific breakthrough that gave him superpowers like the previous films' villains, and unlike them, he has an arguably more powerful ability. In regards to the villain preceding him, both Marko and Octavius are ultimately good people who made a mistake that ruined their lives, and have a wife who is a Canon Foreigner. However, Octavius used mechanical arms to fight Spider-Man while his only goal was to rebuild his machine and prior to the accident had a loving relationship with his wife, while Marko had actual superpowers which he uses to get money for his sick daughter and has a distant relationship with his wife.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: As noted on the main page, there were many ways he could've earned just as much, if not far more money legally than from a life of crime — in the comics, it's justified since he's somewhat selfish (but even he eventually started leaning more towards the heroic aspect), so it's more a matter of how desperate he is to fund his daughter's medical treatments with what little time she has left before her illness worsens to incurable here.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Supplementary materials reveal he grew up poor in an abusive household and wasn't able to escape his circumstances through legitimate means, having no one to guide him. He became a criminal under Johnny O until he was fired due to his recklessness, after which he turned to smaller crime out of desperation to provide for Emma and Penny. This led to him being in and out of prison, and accidentally killing an innocent man.
• Demoted to Dragon: Joins forces with Venom in the climax, but is less of an active threat and mostly relegated to muscle for his plan.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Thanks to the particle accelerator incident, he becomes a being composed entirely of sand.
• Elemental Shape Shifter: Sandman can become sand and change his shape so he can fit through small gaps or become a sand giant.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A loving father at his core who’s trying to help his daughter the best he can.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a desperate criminal who wants to save his daughter, but he doesn't want to hurt anyone in the process. He only tried using his gun to scare Ben Parker into getting out of his car and is horrified when he inadvertently kills Ben. After resuming his robbery spree as Sandman, he tries to avoid putting innocent civilians in harm's way and prefers to deal with any police and security guards he encounters non-lethally by simply knocking them unconscious rather than inflicting any permanent damage.
  • In the tie-in comic The Black, he's fine with holding Mary Jane hostage as bait for Spider-Man, but stops Venom from menacing her and implies he doesn't actually want her to die (directly by his own hand, at least).
• Forced into Evil: He has a daughter with terminal illness, the whole reason he turned to crime. Said decision strained his marriage, resulting in his daughter being kept away from him.
• A God Am I: He gradually develops this in the novelization following his transformation into Sandman; he outright states he has the power of a god and believes himself to be immortal because "human rules and priorities no longer applied to him. He was of the earth now."
• Greater-Scope Villain: Retroactively becomes this in the first film, since it's revealed that he is Uncle Ben's true killer, an act that resulted in Peter becoming Spider-Man and using his powers for the good of the city.
• The Heavy: Brock doesn't get the symbiote until the final act while Harry eventually has a Heel–Face Turn, leaving Marko as the most prominent antagonist throughout the film as Peter (already extra aggressive due to the symbiote's influence) tries to avenge his uncle's murder.
• Heel Realization: Seeing Venom die makes him re-think his supervillain career.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Throughout the film, Flint maintains that his thieving was necessary to care for Penny and he didn't have a choice. As Sandman, he believes his resolve to pay for his daughter's medical treatment justifies all of his actions, and anyone standing in his way is the bad guy, including a grieving Spider-Man. In the end though, he finally apologizes to Peter and owns up to killing Ben in a carjacking gone wrong.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: He is startled by his partner and accidentally discharges his gun at Uncle Ben, whom he was merely trying to carjack.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: Marko was always dismissed by those around him as a Lower-Class Lout and good-for-nothing criminal, and wanted to use his powers to do anything he desired in order to triumph over his struggles and be the father his beloved daughter Penny deserves.
• Instant Expert: It doesn't take very long for Flint to get the hang of his powers, and he was able to shapeshift his body with some effort and The Power of Love.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is a tough guy as well as one of the two villains of the third film, and has robbed and stolen money. However, he is actually a good guy when you get to know him and very much an Anti-Villain, easily being the most sympathetic of all the Spider-Man villains.
• Justified Criminal: He turned to robbery to provide for his family after his daughter became terminally ill.
• Karma Houdini: While he has sympathetic motivations, he still hurts and endangers the lives of several people and law enforcement agents during the course of the movie, and willingly takes part in a plan that endangers the life of Mary Jane, but gets away scot-free at the end. Subverted in the novelization, which indicates he intends to pay for his crimes after Penny talks him down and Peter forgives him.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Yes, he is a tragic character, and he wants to help his daughter, but him willingly teaming up with Venom to attack at least a few dozen cops, helping hold Mary Jane hostage, and brutally beating Peter to near-death is still not justified. Though he at least has a Heel Realization.
    • Subverted in the game, where Sandman only teams up with Venom when the latter reveals he's holding the former's daughter hostage.
  • A played-with and somewhat-literal example during the police chase leading to his inevitable transformation: He smacks an actual (police) dog away, but only in self-defense against it attacking him first.
• Lightning Bruiser: Especially whenever he becomes a sandstorm.
• Love Makes You Evil: All he wanted to do was get the money to help his daughter with her medical bills. He never intended to kill Uncle Ben, he carried the gun for intimidation purposes. Ben was on the verge of successfully convincing him to quit but Marko's partner startled him, causing him to instinctually pull the trigger.
• Mighty Glacier: His speed is greatly reduced while in his "sand giant" mode.
• Momma's Boy: A variant. The novelization states he had a difficult relationship with his parents, especially his father, while his grandmother was the only one who had faith in him during his childhood, to the point that Flint regrets disappointing her with his chosen path in the present.
• My God, What Have I Done?: It turns out that he shot Uncle Ben by accident, tried to help him, and spent years regretting it.
• Not Wearing Tights: As usual, Sandman doesn't wear a typical supervillain costume, but does wear a spot-on recreation of his classic striped green shirt and khaki pants.
• One-Winged Angel: His aforementioned "sand giant" form.
• Only Sane Man: Of all the villains in "No Way Home", Sandman just wants to go back to his universe, a goal that clashes directly with Electro's.
• Papa Wolf: Providing for his daughter is his entire motivation for the film. In the novelization, he even tries threatening a doctor into finding a cure for her illness.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Given how he can become a sandstorm, a Kaiju, etc., he clearly has the largest-scale powers in the entire trilogy.
• Pet the Dog: In the tie-in comic The Black, he stops Eddie from harassing Mary Jane after they use her as bait to lure Spider-Man out.
• The Power of Love: It's heavily implied that a big reason he was able to use his powers so easily is due to the love he has for his daughter and his motivations to save her life.
• Redemption Earns Life: Ultimately, Peter was able to forgive him and Flint is obviously contented to know that. He's the only villain in the trilogy to survive his film.
• Riches to Rags: The prequel comic reveals he and Emma once lived in luxury due to Flint working for a big-time criminal named Johnny O, but fell into poverty after he was let go and subsequently struggled to find honest work.
• Seen It All: He's a sand-based supervillain with a monstrous form, in a world where superpowered people like Spider-Man, the Green Goblin and Doc Ock exists. His reaction upon beating down Venom (under the impression that he's fighting Spider-Man) only to see a snarling, fanged, alien creature with a long tongue?
  "You're not Spiderman..."
  [nonchalantly tosses Venom aside and walks away]
• Tragic Villain: Even more than Norman and Octavius; Marko is the victim of other people's science rather than his own.
• Two First Names: Marko is commonly used as a first name.
• Villain Team-Up: With Venom.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Can change into a sandstorm or a 50-foot tall monstrosity after absorbing enough sand.
  • The novelization reveals he can inflict this on other objects as well, absorbing his stolen loot into his sandy body by breaking down its molecular structure, and later reforming it.
• Who's Laughing Now?: The novelization explains Flint was beaten down throughout his life, both literally and metaphorically, by the police, prison wardens, his ex-wife, his teachers, and his parents. When he became Sandman, part of him saw it as an opportunity to finally prove that he could exceed expectations and be more than what people thought he could be.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His tragic family situation and eventual accident make him this. Even more so when it's ultimately revealed that he didn't actually mean to kill Uncle Ben and has had a My God, What Have I Done? mindset ever since.
• You Killed My Father: Turns out he was the man who shot Uncle Ben. It's later revealed to have been an accident.

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