Anti-Venom
Anti-Venom is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #569, and was created by Dan Slott and John Romita Jr. The creature belongs to a race of amorphous extraterrestrial parasites known as the Symbiotes and is regarded as Venom's symbiotic brother.
Hosts
Eddie Brock
The 2008 story "New Ways to Die" features the first appearance of Anti-Venom. Eddie Brock gets a job at a soup kitchen under Martin Li. Brock is unknowingly cured of his cancer by Li, who possesses the Lightforce abilities, and Brock believes it to be a miracle. After Brock is attacked by Mac Gargan, the Venom symbiote attempts to reunite with Brock, at which point Brock's skin becomes caustic to the Venom symbiote. Brock is enveloped in a new white “Anti-Venom” symbiote when remnants of the Venom symbiote in his body merge with special antibodies due to Li's Lightforce energy. Eddie later sacrificed his Anti-Venom symbiote to cure people from the Spider Queen's spider-virus during the Spider-Island event.Second host
During the "AXIS" storyline, a new Anti-Venom is seen in the crowd of new heroes attending a "self help" style seminar being held by Roderick Kingsley. All the new heroes have been given heroic personas by Kingsley that already exist, but are no longer used. It is not shown whether the new Anti-Venom is indeed a symbiote or just a man in a suit designed to look like the original Anti-Venom symbiote. However, the speech bubble used for the character is stylized in a way to suggest a distortion of the character's voice similar to the way Eddie Brock spoke when bonded with the Anti-Venom symbiote.Flash Thompson
During the "Venom Inc." arc, Dr. Steven used elements of the Anti-Venom symbiote to create a new cure for the Venom symbiote's toxic shock syndrome that could adapt alongside it. When high concentrations of this serum was exposed to the Venom symbiote's biomass bonded to Flash Thompson, the Anti-Venom symbiote was recreated.Powers and abilities
Anyone possessed by the Anti-Venom symbiote possesses superhuman strength, durability, and stamina, an accelerated healing factor, genetic memory, detection of its Symbiote offspring, wall-crawling, web-generating abilities, spider-senses, immunity to Spider-Man's spider-senses, and camouflage.Unlike the other Symbiotes, the original Anti-Venom symbiote used by Eddie Brock is immune to fire, heat, and sound-based attacks. In addition, the Anti-Venom symbiote can produce antibodies that can "cure" a person afflicted by things like radioactivity, parasites, diseases, and drugs. The new Anti-Venom symbiote used by Flash Thompson has the ability to heal physical injuries as well. Due to its failed attempt at curing Spider-Man's radiation-based powers, Anti-Venom causes Spider-Man's powers to cancel out when he is too close to him.
However, Anti-Venom does possess a few weaknesses of its own. It is vulnerable to high concentrations of Norman Osborn's super-venom via Freak's DNA. Additionally since Martin Li's Lightforce touch created the Anti-Venom symbiote, Mister Negative's Darkforce touch can interfere or halt Anti-Venom's healing abilities. Also as seen during the Spider-Island event, overusing his healing powers can cause Anti-Venom's powers to weaken.
Other versions
In What If? Peter Parker became Kraven the Hunter where Peter Parker killed Kraven the Hunter and replaced Kraven as the new hunter, Madame Web hired Anti-Venom, Spider-Woman and Mac Gargan in order to stop Peter, however, despite being successful in mortally injuring him, they were all defeated.In other media
Television
- The Anti-Venom symbiote's animated debut is seen on Ultimate Spider-Man vs the Sinister Six, voiced by Matt Lanter. This version is created by Doctor Octopus and Michael Morbius from a sample of the Venom symbiote, and Harry Osborn is its host. In its self-titled episode "Anti-Venom", this symbiote is created as a candidate for the Sinister Six. Anti-Venom nearly kills Agent Venom only to be stopped by an ion inhibitor used by Spider-Man and the Iron Patriot which leaves Anti-Venom inactive, and its host in a coma. The Anti-Venom symbiote returns in "The Symbiote Saga" three-part episode. During the Carnage symbiote's infestation of New York, Anti-Venom awakens and neutralizes Carnage's various hosts. Anti-Venom almost gets consumed by Carnage's 'heart' until Spider-Man's secret identity is revealed to get through to Anti-Venom's host. Anti-Venom is sacrificed to cure New York of Carnage's infestation. Anti-Venom's abilities are later acclimated by the Carnage Queen.
- The Anti-Venom symbiote appears in Spider-Man: Maximum Venom. In the episode "Vengeance of Venom", Max Modell created the Anti-Venom symbiote using a sonic device that Peter Parker gave to May Parker with a Symbiote-possessed Groot in order to get into his pollination abilities. The Anti-Venom symbiote was created and started to cure everyone of the Symbiote invasion force.
Video games
- The Eddie Brock iteration of Anti-Venom appears in ', voiced by Steven Blum. In this incarnation, Brock is a reformed anti-hero, but he is turned into a villain due to a mind-controlling device implanted by Alchemax scientist Walker Sloan, who uses Anti-Venom to try and kill Spider-Man. In the opening scene, he kills Spider-Man, but this is later revealed to be an alternate timeline, which Spider-Man 2099 witnesses while in a time portal chasing after Walker Sloan, who travels back in time to establish Alchemax long before its time, causing Peter Parker, the present-day Spider-Man, to become an employee at Alchemax instead of the Daily Bugle. Through a connection, Spider-Man 2099 is able to warn Spider-Man about his future death, but instead of trying to avoid it, he does everything he can to get to the room where he would supposedly be killed, as it is his duty as a superhero to stop this potential killer. There, Spider-Man fights Anti-Venom, who nearly kills him, before Spider-Man 2099 arrives and defeats Anti-Venom, freeing him from the mind control. Enraged at Sloan for his abuse, Anti-Venom attacks him, sending both of them, as well as Doctor Octopus, through a time portal. They end up fused into the monstrous Atrocity equipped with Doctor Octopus's tentacles and Anti-Venom's ability to negate Spider-Man's powers. The present day Spider-Man ultimately defeats Atrocity, throwing it back into the time portal, and he and Spider-Man 2099 manage to undo Sloan's changes, restoring history.
- The Eddie Brock iteration of Anti-Venom appears as a playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited.
- The Eddie Brock iteration of Anti-Venom is a playable character in the defunct Facebook game '.
- The Anti-Venom symbiote is an available uniform for Venom in .
- Several variations of the Anti-Venom costume appear in Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.
- The Anti-Venom symbiote is an available uniform for Venom in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3.