Some super villains capture the public imagination like no one else. For every Paste Pot Pete or Stilt Man, you get a Doctor Doom or a Joker. In Marvel comics, one of those who has generated massive amounts of excitement is Venom. And with his debut film, starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a look at what might be possible on screen when it hits the screen in October. Here are six of the strangest powers Venom possesses.
1. He’s Freakazoid
When people didn’t know how the internet worked, it led to some wonderful, ludicrous ideas. Warner Bros. Freakazoid was a blue-skinned Creeper clone who gained his powers from entering the internet. In a mini series, Venom was a vehicle for a ridiculous climax in the Carnage Unleashed series. Carnage, the most notable symbiote aside from Venom transforms itself into electricity and disappears into the internet to fulfill its final plan of murdering everyone who plays a game featuring it. They fight on a big screen in Times Square, but the internet grows too hot for Carnage, who has to leave the internet.
And we all know how that feels, don’t we?
Ah, simpler times.
2. He’s A Transformer
During Flash Thompson’s relationship with the symbiote, he was chasing after a crime boss when he came across an abandoned car. In one bizarre and delightful panel, Flash wraps the symbiote around it and becomes a car with a grille of sharp teeth and its trademark tongue lolling out of the front. He then gives chase in it before catching his target.
3. It Cures Cancer
Eddie Brock, the first host for Venom outside Peter Parker, had hit bottom when the symbiote swiped right on him. It didn’t give him a makeover or redecorate for him, but it cured a terminal case of adrenal cancer, which was nice.
I can’t get my symbiote to return my calls, but hey, we can’t have it all.
4. By Black Klyntar’s Light
Flash Thompson took the Venom symbiote to serve with Guardians of the Galaxy. It responded to his will and generated shields and weapons from its mass. These flourishes have always been part of the character, but Thompson brought a pragmatic sensibility, See, if you’re nice to the symbiote, it will be nice back.
5. Magic Legs
In [easyazon_link identifier=”B002QVZ71I” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Forrest Gump[/easyazon_link], Gary Sinise’s taciturn Lieutenant Dan loses his legs in Vietnam. Later in the film, we see he has resolved his issues and has a set of prosthetic limbs to signify his acceptance of his fate. Flash Thompson happened upon an alternative solution.
Flash Thompson transcended his origins as a force of antagonism in the life of Peter Parker, a high school football jock who made Parker’s life hell. Later on, they revealed his antagonism was the result of his jealousy of Peter Parker. Thompson would go on to become a special forces soldier, and in one of the more startling reinventions of the character, became a host for the symbiote. This proved handy as Thompson was a double amputee, due to injuries sustained during his time in the Special Forces. Venom did its part for the disabled Thompson and generated limbs for him. However due to the parasitical nature of the symbiote, Thompson could only use it for 48 hours at a time and had a regimen of drugs to prevent permanent bonding.
6. Wings (Not The Band)
This is a more recent development, thanks to the feral skill and invention of Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman on the latest run of Venom. In [easyazon_link identifier=”B07D9W9V7N” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Venom #5[/easyazon_link] as part of a powerful reconstruction of the symbiote’s history, the symbiote grows wings from its back. It is a startling image, hearkening to the title’s heavy metal album cover sensibilities. Wings can be a ludicrous atavism but Venom makes them cool.
I’ve got my fingers crossed for a keytar or a double necked guitar in a future issue.
Venom’s powers enable him to serve as a deadly antagonist to the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe. It has became a cultural icon, thanks in part to the ideas of a young reader who received $220 for his idea. Venom would then make his first appearance in [easyazon_link identifier=”B018T5V32Q” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Spider-Man #299[/easyazon_link]. The thrill of the character is in what the artists and writers who work on it will come up with next!