Marvel: 5 Scenes Where Spider-Man & Venom's Rivalry Verged On Flirtation (& 5 Where It Verged on Hate)
Since he first donned the black costume in Secret Wars #8, Spider-Man has had a long and mostly violent relationship with the alien symbiote that would eventually become Venom.
Over the years, Spider-Man’s once antagonistic relationship has transformed into something deeper and more complex. As frequently uneasy allies, Spider-Man and Venom have shown mutual admiration and even love that is matched only by their hatred for one another.
10 Flirtation: Web Of Spider-Man (1985) #1
After quickly realizing the black costume he acquired in Battleworld is a living alien trying to take over his body, Spider-Man eventually succeeds in Web of Spider-Man (1985) #1 by deducing the symbiote’s vulnerability to loud noises. Weakened by chiming church bells, the symbiote at last leaves Peter’s now comatose body.
Sensing its former host’s endangered predicament, the symbiote drags Peter away from the loud bells and to the church’s quiet basement. The symbiote realizes that because it was paired with an an emotional being, it too has learned how to feel and love. It’s this newly discovered capacity for emotion that leads the symbiote to show affection for Peter by sparing his life.
9 Hatred: Venom: Dark Origin #1-5
The depths of Venom’s hatred are fully plumbed in Venom: Dark Origin, which retells Eddie Brock’s rise and fall as a disgraced newspaper reporter and his eventual transformation into Venom.
After Venom terrorizes his wife, Spider-Man confronts Venom and asks why he is trying to wreck his life. “I’m the innocent you ruined,” he hisses. Fueled by both Brock’s hatred for Peter and the symbiote’s rage at Spider-Man for having rejected him, Venom almost succeeds in destroying the webslinger before being overwhelmed by his arachnid foe’s superior fighting skills.
8 Flirtation: Amazing Spider-Man #316-317
As the symbiote bonds with Eddie Brock, it eventually feeds off of Brock’s hatred for both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. In an early encounter between the two, Venom attacks Spider-Man by beating Black Cat to a pulp, threatening Aunt May in front of Peter, and stalking Mary Jane.
Overwhelmed physically by his new foe, Spider-Man tries an unorthodox method to defeating Venom: psychology. Peter enlists the help Dr. Charles Jefferson, who tells him that Venom shows “signs of a classic love-hate relationship” with his foe. Armed with this knowledge, Spider-Man defeats Venom by teasing the symbiote to take over his body once more. When the symbiote tries to leave Eddie, the alien realizes it’s too bonded with him to go elsewhere. The symbiote exhausts itself, rendering Eddie harmless and Spider-Man victorious.
7 Hatred: Amazing Spider-Man #300
Spider-Man’s first encounter with Venom was his most brutal. After terrorizing Mary Jane and stalking Peter from afar, Venom steps out of the shadows in Amazing Spider-Man #300 and quickly asserts himself as one of Spider-Man’s deadliest foes.
What makes this fight so vicious is the depth of hatred both Eddie and the symbiote have for Peter. As Eddie relates how he discovered the weakened alien, he confesses to Peter that he was drawn to the symbiote because “it’s hatred for you matched my own.” Armed with super strength and alien agility, Venom uses his hatred of Spider-Man to become a thorn in the wallcrawler’s side for years to come.
6 Flirtation: Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History #2
Love appears in the oddest of places. For Spider-Man and Venom, it’s in Montauk, New York. As Venom tries to drown Spider-Man in a nearly empty lake, Peter does the only thing to distract his foe: he strips down to his underwear.
In a humorous callback to Amazing Spider-Man #317, a nearly nude Peter again urges the symbiote to take over his body: “You wanted to be a part of me! Well, now I want you! Come and get me!” With subtlety and subtext fully abandoned, Venom, now also almost naked due to the symbiote crawling toward Peter, responds by proclaiming “I’m going to pound you so hard for this, Spider-Man!” An exasperated fisherman nearby witnesses this exchange, wryly asking them both if they can recognize how absurd, and flirtatious, their exchange is.
5 Hatred: What If? (1989) #4
In the Marvel Universe, there are infinite possibilities. In What If? (1989) #4, Uatu the Watcher ponders this intriguing possibility: what would have happened if the Venom symbiote had never left Peter Parker’s body?
The answer is brutal as Peter is quickly taken over by the symbiote. When the Incredible Hulk attempts to stop him, the symbiote, recognizing a superior host, jumps from Peter to the Hulk. What’s left behind is a prematurely aged Peter Parker, who quickly succumbs to old age due to the symbiote having drained the life force from him. In this reality, the symbiote doesn’t care for Peter at all; he’s just a husk to use and throw away when the alien finds someone bigger and more powerful to possess.
4 Flirtation: Amazing Spider-Man #800
One of Spider-Man’s deadliest foes, Green Goblin, decides to get an upgrade by fusing his Goblin formula with Carnage symbiote genetics. Now calling himself the Red Goblin, Norman brings New York City to its knees and forces Spider-Man and Venom to team up to save the city.
After the Red Goblin proves too deadly for Eddie Brock, he willingly gives the symbiote to Spider-Man. Peter agrees and fights the Red Goblin to a standstill. As a fire rages around them, Peter expels the symbiote from his body so it doesn’t get hurt: “Get clear, okay? All this flame can’t be doing you any favors.” Peter shows he cares enough for the symbiote to push it away from the fire that could destroy them both.
3 Hatred: Amazing Spider-Man #347
After countless clashes, Venom realizes he can’t defeat Spider-Man in the crowded streets of New York City. He decides the only way he can slay his old foe is to take him out of the city and onto a territory that will favor a psychotic symbiote.
After successfully kidnapping Spider-Man and transporting him to a deserted island, Venom nearly gets his wish as Spider-Man is helpless without the city to distract his foe. Spider-Man tricks Venom into believing he perishes in a car explosion. For a moment, Venom feels perfect bliss as he thinks he has achieved the impossible: he’s killed Spider-Man. “Alas, Spider-Man, bane of our existence, you’re dead,” he cheers, unaware that Peter is quietly making his escape on a passing boat.
2 Flirtation: Spectacular Spider-Man (2003) #1-5
At the beginning of “The Hunger,” a 5-part storyline in Spectacular Spider-Man (2003) #1-5, Venom and Eddie Brock have separated. Stricken with inoperable cancer, Eddie Brock is no longer a viable host for the Venom symbiote. Seemingly in desperation for any host, the symbiote tries once again to bond with Spider-Man.
Yet as Eddie hauntingly tells him, all the symbiote has ever wanted is to bond only with Peter. “Do not want Brock. Never did. Only you. I know your mind and I know your heart,” the symbiote declares. Spider-Man eventually defeats the symbiote and saves Eddie at the same time by tricking the alien to take over Eddie’s diseased body. “You have given us pain,” the symbiote cries as it merges once again with Eddie, “(and) in pain we will exist forever.”
1 Hatred: Venom: Space Knight #11-12
It’s not just Eddie Brock who hates Peter Parker. Flash Thompson has intermittently despised Peter, first as a high school bully and later as a romantic rival for Black Cat’s affections. After losing his legs in the Iraq War, Flash enlisted in Project Rebirth 2.0, a government program that bonded Flash with the alien symbiote.
As Agent Venom, Flash inevitably clashes with Spider-Man, yet while their fights are still fueled by hate, it’s not from the symbiote. Much to Peter’s surprise, the symbiote reveals to him that it’s Peter’s rage that is still causing them to clash, not the symbiote’s. With Eddie Brock’s anger gone, and Flash’s calming influence now dominant, Venom no longer wishes to kill Spider-Man. “Now I follow Flash’s example,” he confesses, “…(and) I will not feed on your rage.”
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