Is Venom a Hero or Villain in Marvel's Universe? | Screen Rant
Venom is one of Marvel's most famous characters and part of his appeal is his moral ambiguity - but is Spider-Man's greatest foe more hero or villain?
Ever since his debut in 1988, Venom has been an iconic part of the Spider-Man franchise. Venom proved so popular that it didn't take long for the character to become a franchise in his own right. But from the very start, Venom's moral ambiguity became a trademark of the character.
While characters like the Punisher are famous for being violent antiheroes who are sometimes villains, Venom is unique in that he isn't just sometimes a villain, he is often Spider-Man's archnemesis. Still, his beginning as a dark mirror of Spider-Man doesn't invalidate Venom's legitimate heroics. The answer to whether Venom is more hero or villain lies in the distinction between Venom's two halves. While the Venom symbiote is often a villain, Eddie Brock is an antihero.
One of the most unique aspects of Venom is that his powers are sentient. While heroes like Superman have dual identities, Clark Kent and Superman are not literally two different people. Even the Hulk, while different than Bruce Banner, is still an aspect of Banner's personality. In contrast, Venom and his host often have very different opinions on how to handle any given situation. These differences are revealing when trying to understand the morality of Venom. Hosts such as Peter Parker have often attempted to steer the Symbiote away from killing while someone like Mac Gargan has been much more receptive to the symbiote's innate bloodlust. The most revealing interactions between symbiote and host though undoubtedly comes when Eddie Brock is Venom.
Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote often feed each other's worst tendencies. When Venom first fused with Eddie, it amplified his jealousy of Peter and twisted him into becoming a full-blown villain. Together, the duo fought Spider-Man for no reason other than a personal vendetta, going so far as kidnapping Mary Jane to spite Peter. During their initial time together, the Venom symbiote also repeatedly told Eddie he was inferior to Peter and even altered Eddie's memory to make them to convince him to stay bonded. It is only when Eddie's ex-wife convinces him that Spider-Man is a force for good that he stops his warpath and decides to try being a hero. Even his time playing hero in San Francisco was defined by the symbiote's insistence on using extreme violence. The clearest example of Venom pushing Eddie towards a darker path came in its repeated attempts to make Eddie a cannibal. This became so bad that Eddie as Venom once took a bite out of Sandman and nearly killed him.
The symbiote and Eddie would proceed to drift in and out of each other's lives. Eddie isn't the only host who the symbiote hurt though. When a mob boss' son became the second Venom, the symbiote infamously unfused with him mid-jump, letting him fall to his death. After Eddie attempted to get back together with his ex-wife, Anne (a brief Venom host herself), she was so traumatized at the thought of Venom returning to her life that she committed suicide. The symbiote also turned the Scorpion, Mac Gargan, into a much more ruthless villain. Meanwhile, after auctioning off the symbiote for charity, Eddie attempted to become a hero as Anti-Venom.
One problem with analyzing whether Venom is a hero or villain is that different writers have different interpretations of both Venom and Eddie Brock. While Eddie is usually depicted as a good person who is goaded into doing bad things by the symbiote, this isn't always the case. Eddie Brock was a much more spiteful and villainous character in first appearances. There have even been contradictory hints about whether the symbiote fueled Eddie's hatred of Peter or the other way around. Depending on the writer, the Venom symbiote has been everything from a murderous cannibal to a morally complex hero.
The most consistent aspect of Venom throughout all of his incarnations though is the toxic relationship between the symbiote and its hosts. Looking at the symbiote's history with just Eddie Brock, it is difficult not to see themes about addiction and abusive relationships. Telling a partner that they'll never compare to a past partner, then lying to them about past events so they'll stay in their current relationship is classic abusive behavior. Throughout their relationship, Eddie is often forced to make sacrifices for the symbiote. It's telling that both Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson, two of the most prominent Venom hosts, were raised by abusive fathers.
Even this element of abuse depends on the writer. Alternate universe characters such as Ngozi and the movie version of Eddie Brock only show small signs of the symbiote's inherent blood lust and never display any of the symbiote's most abusive elements. Looking at the entire history of Venom paints a complex picture. Though the Venom symbiote has had its heroic moments, the fact that it and Eddie keep on bonding is much more tragic than it might initially seem.