Hello Internet - and welcome back to the nerdiest channel on YouTube - Top 10 Nerd - that marvelous
place where symbiotic relationships aren’t just encouraged - they’re highly valued.
What’s going on guys - today I’ll be your humble host Jack Finch - as we dive back into
that rollercoaster of an Eddie Brock life, fuse up our white blood cells - and take a
look at the Top 10 Anti-Venom Shocking Facts.
Roll the clip.
Remember that time that Peter Parker sold his soul to the Devil, so he could give Aunt
May a nice retirement?
Yeah, good job if you don’t - because that particular blip caused a lot of shit - and
pretty much had Marvel writers scrambling to give a much needed literary boost to Spidey’s
world.
Throughout the Spider-Man comics, Eddie Brock gets shuffled around quite a lot - reinventing
him in several ways to keep in line with the perception of the fandom.
One of the most awesome ways - was as Anti-Venom, which we’re gonna jump into.
Before we do that though - you know the drill by now, if you’re a fan of this video or
just Top 10 Nerd in general - go ahead and give this video a thumbs up, and while you’re
down there - make sure to hit that subscribe bell so you can stay up to date with our latest
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Throughout Amazing-Spider Man Vol 2 - New Ways To Die - we were blessed with an absolutely
awesome storyline that reinvented the boy Eddie Brock and changed up his Venom relationship
from its traditional 90s ways - eventually leading him on the path to Anti-Venom.
Kicking off at Number 10 - Anti-Venom Isn’t Sentient.
And that’s a pretty unique stance for a symbiote to take - considering that generally,
the Klyntar bad-boys usually like to completely consume their human hosts and pull the ropes
- to do the driving, so to speak.
However - due to the nature of this symbiotes spawning into existence - which we’ll get
to in our next point - it became more of a pseudo symbiote compared to the likes of Venom,
Carnage, Toxin, Scorn and the wider brood.
This kind of led Eddie Brock to actually show us his true colours, without the influence
of his usual adrenaline pumped symbiote, and it made for a pretty awesome storyline.
I always did like that Eddie Brock fella.
9 - Eddie Brock’s Cancer
Yeah - let’s get into the meat and bones of Anti-Venom’s origin.
During New Ways To Die, the Venom storyline is turned on its head a little bit - and Eddie
at this point has parted ways with the symbiote - although, a trace amount of it still lingers
unknowingly to him.
Also - Eddie has cancer, and in an attempt to cleanse his mortal soul - so to speak - he
decides to volunteer at F.E.A.S.T.
- Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter, Training - a charity organisation for the homeless and
underprivileged, heading by Mr. Li - AKA Mr. Negative - as a front for his criminal operations.
Also - Aunt May works there, which is nice.
It turns out that Martin Li cures Eddie’s cancer with a simple touch of the Lightforce
- but in the process, he accidently infused the Venom symbiote to his white blood cells
- creating a hybrid symbiote that remained dormant in his body.
That’s until - our next point.
Number 8 - Scorpion is Venom
In this run of the symbiote story, after the Venom symbiote has left Eddie high and dry
- the black mantle is taken up by Mac Gargan AKA Scorpion - as part of Norman Osborne’s
criminal organisation, the Thunderbolts.
As well as having a pretty awesome suit to boot - Mac’s version of Venom lacks the
comfortable, roguish charm of Eddie Brock - and the symbiote is hellbent on tracking
down his former host.
He finds him at F.E.A.S.T - and as he attacks Eddie, the symbiote fuses with the new hybrid
symbiote in Brock’s white blood cells - creating Anti-Venom.
We then get treated to an absolutely awesome showdown, where Spider-Man swings in to defend
his beloved Aunt May against the ruckus, and he quickly realises that the enemy of my enemy
is my friend and teams up with Eddie Brock in a three way showdown between Spidey, Scorpion’s
Venom - and the newly created Anti-Venom.
It quickly poses the question around Eddie’s morality, and whether he really is a bad guy
after all.
Coming in at Number 7 - He’s Got Webs
I mean, this is a Spider-Man symbiote story after all, so what do you expect?
Just like Venom and his symbiotic brood, Anti-Venom possesses the power to shoot strands of his
alien substance across the cityscape to travel with as much ease as your friendly neighbourhood
Spider-Man.
This substance is made up of tough, flexible organic polymers - which regenerate after
shedding from the symbiote body.
However - it takes its toll - and during Anti-Venom’s second bout with Spider-Man, excessive web
slinging led to the symbiote being considerably weakened and open to attack, considering that
the substance is what comprises the symbiotic suit.
It’s like pulling the thread off a woolen sweatshirt, really.
6 - He’s Pretty Damn Tough
Anti-Venom possesses some pretty intense durability - capable of withstanding high-caliber weaponry,
as well as physical attacks from superheroes.
If that’s not hardy enough for you, yeah - the usual vulnerabilities of symbiotes,
fire and sonic attacks - are pretty much negated by Anti-Venom.
He demonstrated a proficient immunity to extreme heat after withstanding the full blaze of
the Punisher’s flamethrower, as well as a blast from Radioactive Man that was intended
to immobilize the venom symbiote if it went out of control.
For the most part - he’s nigh unkillable.
On top of this - as well, we’ll get into his symbiote healing abilities in the next
point - but at one point in New Ways To Die, Anti-Venom withstood a shotgun blast to the
head, regenerating himself in mere seconds.
However - his cellular regeneration did get negated by Mr. Negative’s Muramasa blade
during the events of The Return of Anti-Venom, but don’t worry - Spidey saved him.
5 - Jenna Cole
Anti-Venom’s most uniquely awesome feature is his ability to heal those afflicted with
disease or injury.
He can sense any impurity - such as toxins, drugs or other malignant substances - and
use the symbiote to forcefully cure the substance by producing antibodies to attack it.
Well - during the events of New Ways to Live - where Eddie teams up with The Punisher stalking
a group of drug dealers - he comes across a girl named Jenna Cole, or Jenna the Junkie
- a homeless teenager addicted to heroin.
Eddie uses his powers to purge the drugs from Jenna’s body - and she heads to the F.E.A.S.T.
shelter with a new sober life.
Later on, after falling back into her addiction and breaking Eddie’s little symbiotic heart
- they drive off into the sunset after Eddie throws a car, killing a drug lord - and it’s
pretty cute.
4 - Spider-Man Nearly Lost His Powers.
As well as being immune to Spidey’s spider-sense - and possessing a much more efficient ESP
of his own - Anti-Venom is kind of Spider-Man’s deadliest enemy, for one simple reason - the
Anti-Venom symbiote negates most of Peter Parker’s powers.
After an attempt to cleanse Spidey of his symbiote remnants - Eddie nearly accidently
purges the radiation from his blood, the source of Spider-Man’s power, effectively cancelling
it whenever he’s in a close vicinity.
During the events of The Return of Anti-Venom - where Eddie Brock effectively wants to be
a good guy and help Spidey out, he takes him back to his newly acquired hideout that used
to serve as a Meth Lab before Eddie drove the drug dealers out.
He pins him to the wall with his symbiote web, and Spider-Man is effectively powerless
- being kept captive for an entire day while Eddie tracks down Mr. Negative.
It makes for a dynamic storyline, where Spider-Man has to trust Eddie Brock’s intentions, not
as a villain - but as an ally.
3 - He Can Shapeshift
Talking of Eddie Brock as an ally - he also plays a key role in keeping Spider-Man alive
during the events of New Ways To Die.
As part of his Anti-Venom based symbiote powers - Eddie Brock also possesses the capability
to camouflage his own flesh.
In other words - he doesn’t always have to be the great hulking white-on-black tentacle
giant - but the stylish Eddie Brock that we all know and love.
During the events of New Ways To Die, Norman Osborne discovers a way to track Spider-Man
throughout the city through an advanced version of motion tracking centred on his spider sigil.
Eddie becomes aware of this, and decides to keep watch over Spidey by camouflaging himself
as a Thunderbolt employee and keep tabs from the inside - before letting Spider-Man know
that he’s being tailed by Osborne’s goons.
He even camouflage himself as Spider-Man as a decoy before the whole showdown kicked off.
They then team up together to take them down - and work surprisingly well together, filling
in the gaps of their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
Essentially, Peter Parker and Eddie Brock were always two sides of the same coin, and
it was a breath of fresh air to see them team up and kick some arse during the Anti-Venom
arc.
2 - Anti-Venom II.
We can’t really mention a Venom based character without mentioning Flash Thompson as well.
And although we’re going to be jumping forward a few years in regard to the original Anti-Venom
storyline, we have to mention Agent Venom’s involvement with the white-on-black Klyntar.
It’s going to be difficult without spoiling our number one point on this list - but during
the events of Venom Inc. - an astrobiologist called Dr. Steve was tasked by the Alchemax
corporation to develop a treatment for the toxic shock syndrome caused by the Venom symbiote.
Well - jealous of his favourite symbiote leaving him for Eddie Brock, Flash Thompson heads
to the Alchemax lab to reclaim his Agent Venom title.
There’s a bit of a kerfuffle, and Flash ends up covered in a vat full of the Anti-Venom
serum - bonding with him and created Anti-Venom II AKA Agent Anti-Venom.
It didn’t last long though - and the Red Goblin ended up killing Flash in cold blood,
along with the helpful healing symbiote.
Which leaves us with our final point - at Number 1 - Anti-Venom Saves The Day.
Yes he does - because if the Anti-Venom arc serves any purpose at all - it’s to remind
us as viewers that when we boil it all down, Eddie Brock is a tragic anti-hero - and essentially,
a pretty good guy.
Eddie Brock got a second chance demonstrating his Anti-Venom healing powers during the events
of The Amazing Spider-Man’s Spider Island - where the entire planet was under threat
of the Spider Virus - which had mutated into a highly contagious airborne form, turning
those afflicted into spider-monsters under the control of Adriana Soria the Spider-Queen.
The only known cure?
You guessed it.
Anti-Venom - and although the cure involved the symbiote being drained of all it’s antibodies
- meaning Anti-Venom would essentially cease to exist - Eddie agreed to do it anyway.
Anti-Venom was proud to make the sacrifice - believing it was what he was put onto the
Earth to do - and inevitably - he saved the day.
Well unfortunately that’s all we’ve got time for in today’s list - did we miss anything
in the Anti-Venom canon?
Let us know in the comment box down below.
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with your beloved nerd herd.
Cheers for sticking around guys - as always I’ve been your host Jack Finch - you’ve
been watching Top 10 Nerd - and until next time, you take it easy.