User Name/Nick: Ros
User LJ: N/A
AIM/IM: pyrocornflakes
E-mail: rosloops at gmail
Other Characters: Rex, Arthur,
Talbot Leezar
Character Name: Edward "Eddie" Allan Charles Brock, Jr. AKA Venom
Series: Spider-Man (MOVIEVERSE)
Age: 24
From When?: At the end of Spider-Man 3, when he tries to re-bond with the symbiote and gets blown up by one of the Green Goblin bombs. Way to fail, Eddie.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Even when he's not under the influence of the symbiote, he's an unethical creep-- plus, it's difficult to say just how much the symbiote
really affected him, since it likely just amplified his already-present desires to kill Peter Parker (where before, he would just pray to God to do it :V). Besides, he admits that he likes being bad. It makes him happy.
Item: N/A
Abilities/Powers: Eddie's a talented photographer, and he knows how to work Photoshop well enough to passably doctor photos (although they don't stand up to a lot of scrutiny).
...
Oh yeah, and he's bonded with the Venom symbiote. I GUESS THAT'S IMPORTANT. So let's get some background. [Additional info on the symbiote's abilities taken from
here. I'm only going with the ones inferred in the film.]
The symbiote is an extraterrestrial, amorphous life-form that basically finds a host, bonds with it, and becomes a "living costume." Not only does the creature grant its host massively increased strength, durability, agility, speed and healing (it can even halt, but not cure, the progression of terminal illnesses), but it also has a genetic memory that allows it to gain characteristics and abilities from its host. Because this particular symbiote first bonded with Peter Parker, it shoots webbing and allows its host to stick to walls-- plus, it bypasses the Spidey Sense. And it grants its host some capacity to sense the presence of others nearby.
The symbiote is also capable of shape-shifting, appearing as normal clothing when it wants to, mimicking Spider-Man's costume, and even altering its host's appearance (in Eddie's case, he gets some delightful fangs even when the "mask" is off). It can also weaponize itself-- in the comics, it can shape shift into blades and tendrils, but in the film, it just sticks with its iconic MOUTH FULL OF HUGE FANGS. And claws. The symbiote can alter its size, growing up to over 7 ft. tall at one point and taking on a humanoid form, and shrinking to a small, squid-like blob of goo at another. It also makes an adorable screeching sound, like a baby dinosaur.
The symbiote doesn't change its host's personality completely, nor does it compel the host to do anything it doesn't want to. Instead, it amplifies the feelings and impulses that are already present-- particularly aggression. Prior to bonding with the symbiote, Eddie already hates Peter Parker and wants to see him suffer; bonding with it only makes him act on the impulse. The symbiote is similar to a drug in that it can become addictive and produce feelings of happiness/euphoria in the host. Possible side-effects may include dancing around like a total douche, aggressively playing the piano, accidentally hitting ex-girlfriends and a sudden onset of emo hair. If you're Peter Parker, anyway.
The symbiote is weak to intense fire and loud noises. When confronted with intense noises, it freaks out and tries to escape from it, even going so far as to release its host. It can be trapped in a "cage" of sound, and it can be destroyed with explosives, fire, etc.
ON THE BARGE: I'd prefer it if Eddie did keep the symbiote, as I feel his dependency on it is a critical component to his path to redemption. While he would still be inmate material without its influence over him (albeit a very lame inmate), he's largely autonomous and appears to have greater control over the symbiote than Spider-Man did, so while it's not the REASON he's an inmate, it's still a very important factor, as he's addicted to its POWERRRR.
So, with that said, I figure that since Eddie's a normal human, the symbiote is the one that will be restricted by the Barge, as it's technically an inmate, too, I guess.
If possible, I'd like to keep the wall crawling and the shape-shifting (all that really means is the symbiote will spend most of its time "dormant" under Eddie's clothes, then sometimes he'll be full on Venom'd in terms of appearance) at normal levels, minus any ability of the symbiote to use the shape shifting to create weapons (like blades). While bonded with the symbiote, Eddie will retain some nerfed strength, agility, healing and endurance, but nothing like on inmate-vampire levels. Instead, it's more heightened "for a guy his size" (and he's not very big). So, he can't compete with a human in peak physical condition-- Perry or Dick, for example, could easily kick his face in, but otherwise, he's stronger/faster than he looks.
Also, the webbing produced by the symbiote will be weaker, and it won't be able to produce very much at a time before needing to take a break. BASICALLY: a stronger-than-average human could easily break any webbing he makes. I really just want to keep this ability so that he can constantly fail with it.
Don't judge me.If Eddie's ever separated from the symbiote, he loses all abilities granted by it immediately. Although it's difficult to remove, loud noises will make it try to flee, even if it means detaching from the host.
IF, for whatever reason, the symbiote detaches from Eddie and attaches itself to a new host on the Barge (which I would only allow to happen for specific plot purposes, with mod approval), all Barge/inmate restrictions will remain in place even if it's bonded with a warden (after all, if attaching to a warden meant that it would be fully powered again, I doubt the symbiote would stay on Eddie, and that would cause all kinds of problems). The symbiote will not pick up new abilities from other hosts on the Barge (again, there's a big IF as to whether it'll even attach itself to anybody else), so if it bonds with a telepath, for example, Eddie will not suddenly gain telepathy when it returns to him.
Personality: Eddie Brock is something of a tremendous failure of a human being. Although he comes across as nice, polite and eager-to-please when he wants to, he's basically an obnoxious creep who thinks he's a lot cooler and more likable than he really is. He's essentially Peter Parker's foil-- where Pete's a bit awkward but lovable, Eddie tries too hard to impress and comes across as both awkward and worthy of a punch in the face. Likely, this comes from a genuine desire for acceptance and respect, but Eddie's so good at shooting himself in the foot that he rarely wins either. He's ambitious, and he's willing to put himself out there to get ahead, even if he's not always willing to put in the work for it (but more on that later). The problem is that although he's certainly talented (his genuine photos of Spider-Man are regarded as being better shots than Peter's) and intelligent and could easily go far in life, he maintains such a phony exterior that he tends to puts people off.
Eddie is a smarmy bastard, and he seems to consider himself a lot more important and likable than he comes across. Around his superiors-- older men, basically-- he's an unabashed sycophant. He'll "casually" drop compliments and transparently suck up in order to get what he wants. He will also be very polite and try to fashion himself as a wholesome boy who just wants to please his superiors and get ahead and-- gosh-- settle down with the right girl and start a family. When it comes to women, he thinks he's some kind of awesome Lothario, and he tries waaaaay too hard to "casually" flirt with them and thinks that walking up to a woman and going HAY BEAUTIFUL C: in the workplace is totally respectable. This tends to put women off almost entirely because he just comes across as desperate and immature-- not to mention a little misogynistic. Thanks to his massive ego, he doesn't really realize that he's more of a pest with the ladies than anything else, and he just assumes that they like him just as much as he seems to like them. All that aside, however, when he sets his mind to it, he can be very manipulative, and he knows which emotional strings to pull to get what he wants-- especially after he bonds with the symbiote and loses a lot of his inhibitions along with his last semblances of morality. As Venom, he retains this trait, telling Sandman exactly what he wants to hear in order to get a team-up going (he pulls the "OHHH Spidey won't let you help your poor daughter :cccc Let's kill him :V" strings).
Coupled with his charming smarm, Eddie's got a massively inflated sense of self and ego-- which is another reason why he has such a deluded perception when it comes to, well, himself and how cool he is. On the plus side, it makes him come across as very confident in himself and his abilities. However, it also makes him pretty much outright dismissive of his competitors and rivals. Like many (budding) supervillains, he frequently has the fatal flaw of underestimating his enemies, assuming that he's better/stronger/smarter than them-- and this trait only gets worse after the symbiote bonds with him. Prior to that, however, he's still a dismissive jerk with regards to competitors, and he doesn't really try to hide it. When he first encounters Spider-Man, he outright criticizes Peter's pictures of him, revealing (all buddy-buddy BECAUSE THEY'RE TOTALLY FRIENDS NOW, RIGHT?) that they make Spidey look, y'know, just a little chunky-- BUT NOT TO WORRY, because now Eddie's here and he can correct all of that. When he first meets Peter (well, AS Peter, anyway), he's superficially friendly, but totally condescending. He openly scoffs at Peter's techniques, writing him off as a total amateur (AND WHY WOULDN'T HE? EDDIE'S THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER IN TOWN) and putting Peter down in order to prop himself up in J. Jonah Jameson's eyes. An opportunist, Eddie will take whatever opportunities he can get to make himself look better than everybody else. He's sort of a walking "LOVE EDDIE BROCK" PR campaign.
Eddie is ambitious, which isn't a bad trait in and of itself; however, this ambition is coupled with a very "ME FIRST" attitude, which leads to disastrous effects. While Eddie does try to legitimately get ahead-- granted, with smarm and sucking up, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that-- he also has no problems resorting to lying and cheating to get what he wants. When he realizes that he can't get the picture JJ wants (exposing Spidey for the crook JJ figures he is), he resorts to doctoring a picture to make it LOOK like Spidey's robbing a bank. However, it's worth noting that he does this only after Spidey acts like a total dick to him and breaks his camera for no reason (well, no reason that Eddie knows of), so it could also be his way of getting revenge. In any case, it doesn't say a lot for his professional credibility. Once he's bonded with the symbiote, he goes to even greater extremes to achieve his goals, such as... putting MJ in a ridiculous death trap just to draw Spider-Man out and make him suffer publicly. He couldn't just string her up in webbing, nope. It had to be webbing PLUS a ridiculous death trap.
Beneath his smarmy and overconfident exterior, however, Eddie is a pretty vulnerable and sensitive person. This isn't to say that he's even remotely empathetic towards others, so much as he's wounded easily, emotionally. He seems to want approval and respect, but he never achieves it. Eventually, this builds up into a bit of a breakdown, as he loses his job, his credibility and his (perceived) girlfriend to one man: PETER PARKER. Once his projected demeanor is cracked, he reveals himself to be pretty spineless, quickly resorting to begging Peter to keep quiet about his fake photo. He also drops his charming nice guy act pretty much immediately after Peter calls him trash, shooting between anger and humility. He takes humiliation very badly, clinging to it and holding grudges when he sees himself as being wronged. It's something he fixates on to the point where it causes him to nearly cry a few times, and to him, humiliation is worth retaliating against with uhhhh... murder.
He's also cut deeply by rejection. For the majority of the film, Eddie considers Gwen Stacy his girlfriend. According to Gwen, it was "just coffee," but to Eddie it seems to be something more. Likely, he knew her before their coffee "date" as a friend (as it really doesn't make sense for him to be THAT attached to her if she was just some chick he had coffee with once)-- after all, if he's Peter Parker's foil, Gwen would be sort of like his Mary Jane. It's Gwen's ultimate rejection of him-- choosing instead to go out with Peter Parker-- that causes Eddie to snap. As Venom, he targets Mary Jane, specifically so that Peter would know what it feels like to lose his girl. Likely, this has less to do with Gwen herself, as a person, and more to do with the fact that Eddie's spent most of his life ignored or rejected (if we go by his comics backstory, anyway, which, since he doesn't have one in the films, I am). Growing up in a household devoid of a mother, with a cold, emotionally distant father who never supported him, Eddie's desperate to have somebody to accept him. His daddy issues (spending his entire childhood trying to impress his father) are the most likely roots of his terrible handling of rejection and his approval-seeking tendencies.
Once he's exposed to the symbiote, Eddie takes to it easily. Where Peter was ultimately horrified by the aggression and nastiness the symbiote brought out in him, Eddie revels in it. He derives genuine enjoyment out of being bad, and as a result, he seems to have more control over the symbiote than Peter did-- acting as a vicious "equal partner" with the symbiote, rather than a decent guy who just got on the wrong side of some alien space drugs. When Peter tries to appeal to his better nature, explaining that Eddie will lose himself to the symbiote, he doesn't even have one moment of regret or concern. He just smiles and says that he likes being bad because it makes him happy. THEN HE TRIES TO KILL PETER SOME MORE. Thanks to the symbiote's addictive properties, Eddie is, well, an addict. Having had its power, he doesn't want to go back to life without it. He feels dependent on the symbiote, and he throws himself back at it despite his best interests. Even though the symbiote's about to get blown up at the end, Eddie can't bear parting with it, and so he flings himself in harm's way so that they die together.
As Venom, Eddie's sadistic, cruel and merciless. He's driven by the desire to make Peter experience what he experienced... to the 100th degree. And so, rather than simply humiliate him, rather than even kill him, Eddie plays with his food. He sets up ridiculous death traps to keep Mary Jane in constant peril while he and Sandman brutally torture Spider-Man. He also enjoys snarking, calling Peter ~Tiger~ in a mockery of MJ and making snide references to Spider Senses. Also, he pretty much entirely lacks empathy. Not only does he attack Mary Jane, an innocent woman just to get to Peter, he also regards her screaming with exasperation, pausing and throwing a slightly irritated look back whenever it interrupts his VILLAINOUS GLOATING.
Oh yeah, and Eddie's a Roman Catholic. He's an idle practitioner of his religion, rather than a devout believer. He probably went to Mass for those SUPER IMPORTANT ones-- you know, Easter, Christmas, Palm Sunday. And when he's upset, he likes to pray to God to smite his enemies. As you do.
Once he's on the Barge, Eddie could go one of two ways, and it really depends on who he talks to first and what his initial interactions are. Eddie will either hide the symbiote and pretend to be an innocent photographer, while trying to ingratiate himself to wardens and inmates alike, seeking out the most powerful and influential to cling to...
OR. If he's rejected/hurt/abused/humiliated first (and this is the Barge, soooo, it's pretty likely), then he'll probably out himself as Venom really quickly and try to make himself out to be THE BIGGEST, BADDEST MOTHERFUCKER HERE. And take down his enemies. And then, y'know, cry when he realizes how badly the symbiote's been nerfed by the Barge and he gets the crap kicked out of him. And then he'll try to weasel and smarm his way into people's good books. He will also try to do some AWESOME INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALING on the Barge. And maybe start a tabloid for inmates. Or something.
It should be noted that since he'll be under the influence of the symbiote pretty much all the time, Eddie will always have a slightly creepy/sadistic/sarcastic edge to him, even when he's trying to appear normal. THAT'S WHAT ALIEN DRUGS DO TO YOU.
Path to Redemption: Eddie's got two paths he needs to go down for redemption: one dealing with pretty standard issues (inferiority complex, grudge holding, being a liar and a cheat) and one dealing with his addiction. Eddie has a total lack of ethics, and he generally doesn't feel much concern for others (he's pretty dismissive of Gwen's near-death experience), but he's not a total sociopath, and a good, persistent warden who doesn't reject him the way his daddy did will likely have a good shot at getting through to him. A warden would have to work with his major issues with humiliation and not... make them worse by exploiting them (because that'll make him flip out and vow VENGENNNNNNCE). That is, if you want to be a productive warden. BEING A PRODUCTIVE WARDEN IS TOTALLY OPTIONAL.
A warden will also have to help Eddie realize his DADDY ISSUESSSSSS, as he's pretty unaware of them and doesn't attribute any of his behavior to the rejection he always received from his father.
As for the addiction, Eddie needs to get to the point where he WILLINGLY parts with the symbiote. He likes its effects a lot more than Peter did, and he's quick to try to re-bond with it, EVEN WHEN IT'S ABOUT TO SWALLOW EXPLOSIVES. This is the main reason why I think it's very important to bring him on the Barge WITH the symbiote, rather than remove it. If he has it forcibly removed, or if it's not even in the picture at all, then he can't be redeemed. It's a major issue that will just go unresolved if he doesn't have the symbiote. It's not recommended for a warden to just take the symbiote away from him, as it'll put his progress at a stand-still... for the reason already mentioned.
Oh, and a warden should probably teach him that he can't ask God to kill people for him.
History: [No history in the film, so I'm going to infer what I can from
here and
here.]
Eddie was born in San Francisco to two awesome, loving parents-- or, at least, that was the life he could have had. Instead, his mother died from complications due to his birth, leaving his once warm, loving father a cold, closed-off shell of a man. While not physically abusive, his father was emotionally negligent and a difficult person to live with. As a result, Eddie had a rough childhood. He always tried to win his father's support and approval, but he never did, leaving him mostly on his own. Still, he ended up excelling in school against the odds, and developed a passion for journalism after studying Watergate as a kid. Once he graduated from high school, he went off to the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU with the intent of getting into investigative journalism, but ultimately found himself more invested in photojournalism, which he proved to be quite talented at.
Once he graduated, he decided he was going to strike it big with the major NY newspapers. He landed a freelance gig with
The Daily Bugle, snagged some awesome pictures of Spider-Man and MAN, things were starting to look up!
And then Peter Parker destroyed his life.Sample Journal Entry: [Eddie turns on the camera and leans really close to it, inspecting the communicator. He tries his hand at a charming smile, but it just comes across as kind of sleazy.]
Hi. It's Brock. Edward Brock, Jr. How's it going?
[Then he looks around the room and talks, his voice slightly deadpan and sarcastic.]
Soooo. This is a nice boat. Really, I mean, the cabins? The whole [Yeah, he's BUSTING OUT THE AIR QUOTES, along with a slightly creepy giggle-grin combo. Blame the symbiote.] "personal touch" theme you've got going? I like it. I mean, it's creepy, but I like it. [He puts a hand to his heart, looking "solemn."] You really know how to make a guy feel at home. Unfortunately, I'm not really a... [He pulls a thoughtful expression, tilting his head from one side to the other as he thinks of, oh, how to break the news that he doesn't belong here?]
nautical person.
In The Navy? Never really spoke to me. So, you know, if you could just park this thing at closest tropical island, I'll let myself out.
Sample RP: So, this was the CES? Huh. Interesting. It would've been nice to take some pictures of all the different environments this place could turn into, but that would have to come later, if he could get another warden to let him again. For now, it was time to stretch his legs and let the symbiote come out and play. Eddie threw a quick look behind him to make sure the warden had really left to give him some unsupervised "me" time, then grinned as the symbiote began to creep over his skin, expanding to cover every inch of him.
The transformation was incredible-- like something out of a werewolf movie, only he never screamed like the actors always did. Not after the first time, anyway. Now that he and the creature were one, it was a change he welcomed. Teeth elongating, claws emerging from the blackness that enveloped his fingers, his muscles going taut with a barely restrained urge to find something and tear it apart... And then, the symbiote covered him completely, head to toe, allowing him to see the world through sharper, clearer eyes. He was powerful,
invincible, a destructive force of nature.
Venom.
Letting out an inhuman screech, he leaped up into a nearby tree, a dark streak in an otherwise bright and idyllic environment. He jumped from one to another with ease, the whole "wall crawling" thing keeping him from falling on his ass in the grass below. Gathering more and more momentum, he moved along the trees until he had enough to start swinging. A black web shot out from one tree to another, and he swung in a rapid arc and then...
Then the web snapped and he landed flat on his back as the symbiote let out a shriek of startled rage. It retreated back away from his face, and Eddie looked up at the branches, the snapped webbing, rubbing his hand along the back of his skull.
Owww.
"The hell...?"
Special Notes: He likes to wear a fancy cologne called "Nice and Easy." Stay classy, Eddie.
Although Eddie wasn't on the Barge long in his last stint (only a few months), it's worth noting that he did sort of progress... backwards. He's largely dropped the "nice guy" act while on the Barge, since he accidentally outed himself as Venom during the nanomites incident, and has succumbed to the symbiote's aggression and general douchery further. He's been perma-power tripping, enjoys intimidating others and has further embraced his badness, because it makes him happy.
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