Top 10 Superheroes Who Have Worn the Venom Symbiote

After Eddie Brock, Mac Gargan is probably the man who has spent the most time bonded with the Venom symbiote. And when wearing it, he was downright vicious, making heroes desperate to separate him from the powerful alien. During the Siege storyline, Spider-Man distracted Venom, while Ms.Marvel forcibly ripped Gargan from the symbiote. The problem was, she was left holding the host-hungry parasite, which promptly attached itself to her. Given her awe-inspiring powers, the symbiote was downright giddy, and Ms. Marvel immediately lost control. Thankfully, with a little help from Spidey, she was able to free herself from the symbiote and its influence - but it was one hell of a ride while it lasted.

While Red Hulk isn’t exactly a hero in the classic sense, more often than not, he’s on the right side of a fight. But more importantly, considering the circumstances under which he bonded with the Venom symbiote, we simply couldn’t leave him off our list. Seriously, this is overkill even by comic book standards. In the Circle of Four storyline, Agent Venom, Ghost Rider, X-23 and Red Hulk work together to take down the villainous Blackheart. In a losing battle that has seen them go through literal hell, Red Hulk is granted the venom symbiote and the spirit of vengeance to sway the battle in the heroes’ favor. Yes… that really happened.

During this story arc, the Venom symbiote got a chance to try out a whole menagerie of alternative hosts. The first course in Venom’s Guardians buffet is Groot. Though Drax manages to free his teammate, the symbiote evades recapture, lurking on the ship until it can claim another host - Rocket Raccoon. Talking big and embracing firearms, the symbiote attempts to seize control of the ship. When Drax tries wrestling the Venom-Rocket, the symbiote promptly trades up, to become Venom-Drax, a form it settles on to pilot the ship to its ultimate destination - the home planet of the symbiotes. For fans of the symbiote takeovers, this plotline was like Christmas.

Of all the various spin-off characters that Spider-Man has given birth to over the years, few have found success or been more unlikely to do so than Spider-Gwen. For those of you who haven’t heard of her… it’s time to catch up because she’s freaking awesome. In this universe, Gwen Stacy, not Peter Parker, was bitten by the radioactive spider. And just like Parker in the main continuity, she eventually came in contact with the symbiote. Though the setup is different, Gwen similarly struggles with the symbiote, loving the powers that it gives her while trying to deal with its violent influence. For both Gwen and the Venom Symbiote, it’s a great story arc.

Angry, violence-loving alien symbiote… meet your human soulmate. Seriously, is there a character in the Marvel universe better suited to the symbiote’s desires than Frank Castle? Sadly, Punisher’s time with the symbiote has been limited to one of Marvel’s “What If?” stories, a series in which alternate possibilities are explored. But hey, for the duration of this one issue in 1992, we got to see Venom-Punisher in all his glory, and boy oh boy, was it something. The character combines Punisher’s penchant for guns with Venom’s more hands-on approach - to lethal results. At first Frank struggles to control the alien, but in the end, he tames the beast and opts to keep it!

Venom and Wolverine are both savage and vicious, but once you’ve seen them combine, they both (separately) feel downright cuddly by comparison. In the 5 issue alternate reality miniseries “Edge of Venomverse”, symbiotes are popping up all over the place. At this point in time, the Wolverine we know and love is gone, but Old Man Logan is alive and drinking himself into oblivion, that is until he’s forced to “get involved”, at which point he becomes an unwilling host for Venom. It’s a really creepy look, to be honest, but there’s no arguing with the results; the combination is deadly. Of course, this wasn’t Old Man Logan’s first time playing host!

Wolverine isn’t the only living weapon with claws to bond with the Venom symbiote in “Edge of Venomverse”, and quite frankly, his clone progeny, X-23, makes for arguably an even more badass and memorable host. In the miniseries’ inaugural issue, things kick off with Laura getting Venomized while trying to escape from the facility where she’s being held captive. Flash forward two months, and Venom X-23 is living in New York City as some sort of urban legend - a monster. And when you see her cut loose and let the symbiote do its thing… well, it’s hard to argue to the contrary. Even scarier, this Venom is willing to share the love, spreading to Laura’s friends.

Honestly, we’re not sure how the symbiote can put up with a motormouth like Wade Wilson, but we suspect that it toughed it out in the name of the insane healing factor. In the ridiculously meta Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars, which retroactively inserts Deadpool into the iconic Secret Wars storyline, we learn that even before Peter Parker merged with the Venom symbiote, Wade Wilson got up close and personal with the parasitic alien. In fact, it’s heavily suggested that this brief encounter likely drove the symbiote insane and made it into the kill-crazy entity it is today. In Deadpool: Back in Black, the two old acquaintances were reunited, and this time around, they really painted the town.

When we said “superheroes who have worn the Venom symbiote” you may not have thought that there would be anyone on the list who actually became a superhero as a result of bonding with the Venom suit. After high school, Flash Thompson became a soldier and eventually lost his legs in Iraq. It was this injury that ultimately led him to sign up for the government-run Project: Rebirth 2.0. Having been recently removed from Mac Gargan, the symbiote was bonded with Thompson to create Agent Venom, a covert operative in the service on the United States, and who would eventually become a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy! It’s a unique take on the character and one that brought new depth to both the symbiote and Flash Thompson.

Though he may no longer technically be the first host chronologically speaking, Spider-Man was the character who introduced us to the symbiote, and as far as heroes go, his history with the parasitic alien is by far the richest. Spider-Man first bonded with the symbiote during Secret Wars to replace his damaged suit and was under the impression that it was just that - a technologically-advanced costume. Continuing to wear it when he returned home, Spider-man soon found that this outfit had a mind of its own, and in retrospect, seemingly made him more aggressive. Eventually, he would discover that it was actually a manipulative alien life form and the rest, as they say, is comic book history!