Edward Brock, Jr. (Earth-96283)

"It's Brock sir, Edward Brock Jr. I'm here humbled and humiliated to ask you for one thing... I want you to kill Peter Parker."

- Eddie Brock's prayer for revenge Edward "Eddie" Brock Jr. was a photographer who gets hired by the Daily Bugle and tasked with delivering an incriminating photo of Spider-Man. He later bonds with the same alien symbiote that infected Peter Parker.

Spider-Man 3
Edward Brock, Jr. was the new photographer hired by the Daily Bugle a week before he met Spider-Man. He has a crush on the model Gwen Stacy. When Brock and Parker fight over a staff job, J. Jonah Jameson asks for a picture of Spider-Man with his hand in a cookie jar.

One night, he sees Spider-Man in a black suit on his way to fight Sandman. He says that he loves his new outfit and it's exactly what he needs to screw Parker. When He takes a picture of him, Peter uses his web to break the camera and responds with "See you chump!" then continues his search for Sandman. Eddie Then takes out a digital Camera and Photoshop's an old picture of Spider-Man to make him look like a crook. When Peter, under the Symboite's influence see's Eddie's "Photo" has made the front page, he knows that the Picture and information is fraudulent and arrives at work as everyone is celebrating Brock's promotion. Eddie puts up his "Prized Photo" and see's Peter in its reflection. After Eddie Gloats Peter says it looks similar. Brock brushes it off then gets back to work. Peter however insults Eddie and says His picture's fake. Brock gets angry, causing peter to push him up to the wall and cause a scene. Eddie tells everyone he and Peter are just fooling around, then tells Peter not to expose him as he'll lose everything and that there isn't another newspaper in the city that would hire him, only for Peter to tell him that he should've thought of that earlier. Peter then gives Robbie the fake photos and tells him to show it their editor.

Brock's photos are proven to be fake and a furious Jameson fires Brock. Eddie attempts to justify what he did, but Jonah cares more about his newspapers reputation and that Brock ruined it. After being fired, Eddie goes to a church to pray for Peter's death. Peter happens to be in that same church and removes the symbiote from himself, and it bonds with Eddie. As Venom, he drags Spider-Man into a trap with Sandman, using Mary Jane as bait; however, Harry Osborn appears in Green Goblin regalia to fight alongside him, and the two defeat the Sandman. Brock dies attempting to merge with the symbiote after it was removed a second time. Spider-Man throws one of Osborn's grenades at it, Peter attempted to save Eddie from jumping in but Eddie manages and was caught in the explosion and is vaporized along with the symbiote.

Powers

 * Venom Symbiotic Costume: Due to the same alien suit that first bonded to Spider-Man, Eddie Brock possesses the same powers as Peter Parker does. He even has the ability to block Spider-Man's spider-sense which can allow him to grab Spider-Man without warning. These powers include:
 * ESP (Spider-Sense): Brock was also granted an extrasensory ability similar to Spider-Man's Spider-Sense. This response was not as complicated as Spider-Man's inherent sense since the alien costume can detect danger from every direction and conduct Brock in plenty of time. It's a lot more efficient than Spider-Man's Spider-Sense because it takes less time to sense the danger, and Brock's reflexes are faster than Spider-Man's, because they are enhanced by the alien costume for instance Venom can dodge a gunshot or a barrage of bullets.
 * Immunity to Spider-Man's Spider Sense: Due to Spider-Man being a host to the symbiote, Brock was able to bypass Spider-Man's Spider-Sense. As such, Brock was capable of attacking Spider-Man without alerting him, making him a deadly opponent.
 * Superhuman Strength: His strength was great enough to smash a car's roof off by swinging towards it. He was even able to restrain Spider-Man and even overpower him most of the time.
 * Wall Crawling: Much like Spider-Man, Venom has the ability to cling to virtually any surface. He can rapidly crawl, walk, or run across even slick/wet surfaces.
 * Webbing Generation: Venom can project a powerful, organic web-like substance similar to the webbing Spider-Man has. He typically uses this webbing to swing from building to building or as a means of immobilizing someone. The webbing is incredibly strong.
 * Superhuman Speed: Due to having the same super speed as Spider-Man does, Venom is capable of running at speeds faster than normal humans.
 * Accelerated Healing: The Symbiote can regenerate its own biomass as well as heal its host to a certain degree. When Eddie received injuries on his elbows from Harry's pumpkin bats, it healed up instantly.
 * Superhuman Durability: He was barely fazed from having a large brick being thrown at the back of his neck. He even recovered from taking a brutal hit from Harry's glider and smashing through some thick brick walls and even passing out momentarily.
 * Superhuman Agility: Due to the symbiote copying Spider-Man's agility, Venom possesses superior agility and flexibility that is greater than Spider-Man's.
 * Superhuman Reflexes: Due to having the same reflexes as Spider-Man does, Venom has reflexes that allow him to dodge at any attack, even Spider-Man's punches and kicks.
 * Constituent-Matter Manipulation: Venom can manipulate its biological matter to enlarge or stretch his body in order to augment his attacks. He can morph sections of his body, such as his hands or feet, into spikes or a shield.

Weaknesses

 * Sonic Vibrations: The Venom Symbiote was weak to intense sound vibrations such as bell chimes and pipes clanging.

Relationships

 * Gwen Stacy - Ex-Girlfriend.
 * Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Enemy.
 * Harry Osborn/New Goblin - Enemy.
 * Mary Jane Watson - Kidnapped Victim and Enemy.
 * Flint Marko/Sandman - Ally.
 * J. Jonah Jameson - Ex-boss.
 * Venom - Alter-ego.

Appearances/Actors

 * Raimi series (1 film)
 * Spider-Man - (Mentioned only)
 * Spider-Man 3 (First appearance) - Topher Grace

Behind the scenes

 * Topher Grace worked out for six months to prepare for his role as Venom.
 * Eddie's line - "My Spider-Sense is tingling... if you know what I'm talking about!" - when referring to MJ, was Topher Grace's idea.
 * While being in the Venom costume, Topher Grace didn't drink any water during his breaks because he couldn't use the bathroom with his costume on.
 * Topher Grace left That 70s Show to play Venom.
 * Spider-Man 3 director Sam Raimi kept Venom's appearance in the film a secret until he showed unedited version of it at Comic Con.
 * Eddie Brock was mentioned in the first film by Robbie Robertson. He also actually appeared in the novelization of the first film, described as a young man with a "venomous" glare.
 * According to the Spider-Man 3 Two-Disc featurette "Covered in Black" Kirsten Dunst had to fix the webbing make-up on Topher's neck.
 * Venom was not in the original script of Spider-Man 3, with the Vulture playing the role he ended up playing instead.
 * Kevin Feige admitted that it was his idea to include Venom in the film.
 * To keep the look of Venom a surprise, the TV spots and trailers only show the transformation scene and when we see Eddie's face as he says "Hey Parker", Venom's face was blurred out.

Trivia

 * The name Eddie Brock, Jr. was from The Ultimate Spider-Man comics.
 * It is of note that the suit appears slightly different to the comics. Instead of a solid black with a large white spider at the center, here the suit seems like a distorted mold-replica of Peter's original Spider-Man suit, having a faint, disorganized, webbing pattern on it, and not being as large. Also in the movie, the unmasking proccess is different in that it unravels instead of opening up at the mouth and going back. Venom also refers to himself as "I" instead of "We", however, Venom in the comics originally referred to himself as "I". Unlike in the comics, Venom is thin and without muscle tone.
 * Topher Grace is never referred to as "Venom" in the entire movie.
 * Despite the Spider-Sense never verbally explained or mentioned by Spider-Man in the films, Venom says to him "My Spider-Sense is tingling!" to taunt Spider-Man's ineffective Spider-Sense against him. This makes Venom the only character in the film series to ever use that line, which is a phrase used and repeated by Spider-Man in all other media.
 * A movie of Venom was being produced by Gary Ross but it is unknown if Topher Grace will reprise the role or if this Venom will even be from the same universe. The future of this movie is currently uncertain due to the reboot of the series
 * Topher Grace's performance was received mostly negatively by fans. Most of the complaints were that he wasn't big or tough enough and mostly his small amount of screentime.