World An In-Depth Look at Eddie Brock: Behind the Fall from Grace

[WolfCypher]

I'm getting really sick and tired of people saying that Venom is a bad character because of his origins. "So what? He got fired and decided to kill Spider-Man!" Well, when you say it like that, OF COURSE it sounds lame! "So the Green Goblin killed some chick, so what?" That makes the death of Gwen Stacey sound so hoo-hum, doesn't it?

"So an old guy gets shot and Spider-Man decides to become a hero...pfftttt..." No, Spidey's beloved uncle was killed by a criminal Spider-Man could have stopped beforehand and had to learn the hard way that with great power comes great responsibilty. Now, it sounds good.

"Eddie Brock gets fired, now he hates Spider-Man." That is NOT the true story, and in reality, if what this character had gone through actually were to happen (in a realisitic way) to someone in real life, they'd go through a major breakdown. Eddie didn't lose a job, he lost his career (a major difference), and he lost everything. I'm about to explain the history of Eddie that would lead up to his hatred for our favorite (sometimes, when he's handled right) neighborhood Spider-Man.

Eddie Brock never had a close relationship to his father, Carl Brock, despite his wishes and efforts. This is because when Eddie was born, his mother, Jamie, died while giving birth, and whatever love his father had for anyone was lost forever. As Eddie grew, he tried his best to impress his father and win his love and respect. During his college years, Brock took up an interest for journalism, and managed to land a job (and future career) at the Daily Globe.

After working for the Daily Globe for a number of years, at some point, Eddie (possibly even before becoming a journalist, as I believe, but no backstory clearly states this) befrineds, falls in love with, and marries a woman named Ann Weying. Eddie seemed to have had it all: a beautiful woman who was a lawyer no less, a home, and a great job. And then, an opportunity appeared that would soar his career...

Many innocent people were being murdered by an unprdictible serial killer known as the Sin-Eater, and after the death of NY's beloved police captain Jean DeWolfe, the city was in an uproar for results. Even Spider-Man himself found it very difficult to catch this wanted multi-murderer. The Sin-Eater was the hot topic of the city, and it just so happened that one day, our Mr. Brock would recieve a phone call from a man claiming to be the Sin-Eater himself and needed to confess his sins to someone, anyone. Again, no backstory clearly states whether or not Eddie and the "Sin-Eater" met face-to-face or not, but nonetheless Eddie took notes from this man who revealed he was Greg Emil and wrote stories for the public, sans the Sin-Eater's "real" name. This greatly helped his career. Eventually he would write his final article, revealing the Sin-Eater to be Greg, and Eddie became famous...for about 15 minutes.

Teaming up with Daredevil, Spider-Man discovered that it was not Greg Emil who was the Sin-Eater, but was the partner of Jean DeWolfe, the murdered police cpatian and one of the Sin-Eater's victims; Stan Carter. Spider-Man captured the villain and the public learned soon enough who the real maniac was...and that the Daily Globe's sources were wrong! Now, with a scandal like this, whether unintentional or not, the Daily Globe was in hot water, and Eddie was at fault.

He was fired...

...And the rest of the dominos would quickly start falling from here.

His loveless father disowned him completely. The one and only man in the world Eddie wanted to make happy had disowned him and wanted nothing more to do with him. The public considered him a disgrace...he could no longer be seened without feeling like a loser. And he lost his beloved. Ann, his wife, left him. Some Venom stories state that she left him because after losing almost everything, Eddie stated to transform into a bitter, depressed, slightly mad man, and Ann left out of fear, while others state that Ann left before Eddie even lost his job, but if you want my opinion, most signs point to the former.

Publically ridiculed, with no family or real life, Eddie was crushed. And like most humans, instead of realizing that he was at fault, or maybe he was just a victim of circumstance, Brock just had to place the blame on somebody. That somebody was Spider-Man, the man who interfered and exposed his biggest story as being a lie. He developed an intense hate for Spider-Man, which would later result into a form of psychosis. After losing everything he worked so hard for, he finally lost his grip on reality.

Then the symbiote plays a role, but that's not important.

If you read all of that, and you still think Eddie's reasons for hating Spider-Man are weak, then that's that. I mean, most of Spidey's villains are actually worse. The Green Goblin becomes a bad guy and tries to rule all criminal activity in NY, but Spider-Man stops him, now GG hates him...that's it! Doc Ock became insane and wants to rule the world, but Spider-Man foiled his plans, now he wants to kill Spider-Man. Is that any better than Eddie's hatred for Spider-Man? Lets not forget, venom is made up of two seperate intities, each being having reasons for hating Spidey. I'm not knocking GG or Doc Ock, btw, just making a point.

There ARE reasons to not like Venom (the over-exposure, the abusing of his character, then later destruction of his character...), but his "origins" are fine. Hell, noticed I didn't use the "Brock has cancer" angle? That angle was created just to have fans accept Brock's reason for hating Spidey, but it wasn't neccessary at all, and could have been used differently anyway.

That's my 2-cents. I'd like to get opinions from other folks, Venom fans and Venom haters alike.

 

[The Joker]

I'm getting really sick and tired of people saying that Venom is a bad character because of his origins.

It's not just his origins, it's his subsequent stories too that make him a bad character. Instead of getting better, they actually got worse. The cancer, the anti hero stuff etc. It was all terribly executed. Can anyone even name a classic/legendary Spidey story that centres around Venom?? I know he's considered part of the big three with Ock and GG. We all know the classic Ock and GG stories. What are Venom's??

How has he contributed to Spider-Man as a hero?? If anything, he's made Peter look like a wimp. A hero is supposed to rise to the challenge and overcome the odds against his opponents. Peter faking death, and running from Venom etc just goes to show how Venom became popular. With Peter acting like a wuss, who else would people cheer for??

Marvel actually had to create more and more symbiote related characters just as a reason to keep Venom around. Carnage, Scream, Toxin, the cancer story.......all cheap gimmicks to keep Brock around. Even the current Scorpom debacle is a testament to just how bad anything Venom related usually is.

As for his origins, bottom line is this. Criminals are usually born criminals, or made criminals thru tragic losses, accidents, harsh childhoods etc. Eddie Brock lost a job, and had nobody to blame for it but himself. But in true cliche fashion, he blamed the hero who exposed him as a fraud.

It's a poor motivation to turn into a murderous beast.

I don't mean to sound like a Venom basher, because his first few stories were actually very enjoyable reads. But that's the problem. He's a one trick pony. How many times can Peter run from Venom?? How many times can they play the psychotic stalker bit??

They can't, so they turned to cheap gimmicks to try and justify keeping him around.

My 2 cents on Venom.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

venoms origins are great, especially the amazing spiderman venom origin.

 

[WolfCypher]

It's not just his origins, it's his subsequent stories too that make him a bad character. Instead of getting better, they actually got worse. The cancer, the anti hero stuff etc. It was all terribly executed. Can anyone even name a classic/legendary Spidey story that centres around Venom?? I know he's considered part of the big three with Ock and GG. We all know the classic Ock and GG stories. What are Venom's??

How has he contributed to Spider-Man as a hero?? If anything, he's made Peter look like a wimp. A hero is supposed to rise to the challenge and overcome the odds against his opponents. Peter faking death, and running from Venom etc just goes to show how Venom became popular. With Peter acting like a wuss, who else would people cheer for??

Marvel actually had to create more and more symbiote related characters just as a reason to keep Venom around. Carnage, Scream, Toxin, the cancer story.......all cheap gimmicks to keep Brock around. Even the current Scorpom debacle is a testament to just how bad anything Venom related usually is.

As for his origins, bottom line is this. Criminals are usually born criminals, or made criminals thru tragic losses, accidents, harsh childhoods etc. Eddie Brock lost a job, and had nobody to blame for it but himself. But in true cliche fashion, he blamed the hero who exposed him as a fraud.

It's a poor motivation to turn into a murderous beast.

I don't mean to sound like a Venom basher, because his first few stories were actually very enjoyable reads. But that's the problem. He's a one trick pony. How many times can Peter run from Venom?? How many times can they play the psychotic stalker bit??

They can't, so they turned to cheap gimmicks to try and justify keeping him around.

My 2 cents on Venom.

That's all fine a good, I've known all this for years and Venom fan or not I wont deny it, Venom has become gimmicky over the years, yeah I agree and I wont hate you over your opinion. But the point was that Venom's origins were not as bad as everyone claims. I find it funny how you mentioned everything else wrong about Venom (and I can't entirely disagree with you as I said), but the point was his origins.

This topic isn't defending Venom as far as trying to make him seem like the ultimate bad guy, this topic is to defend/debate his reasons for being a villain.

 

[The Joker]

I find it funny how you mentioned everything else wrong about Venom (and I can't entirely disagree with you as I said), but the point was his origins.

This topic isn't defending Venom as far as trying to make him seem like the ultimate bad guy, this topic is to defend/debate his reasons for being a villain.

But that is exactly the point I was trying to make. Venom's origins are the root of his motivations. And therefore have a subsequent effect on his stories.

There's only so much you can do with that. And it doesn't help that the basis for his hatred of Spidey is very weak. Anyone with half a brain can see Brock's problems are entirely his own doing.

Gwen Stacy had better motivation for hating Spider-Man, because he was essentially responsible for her dad's death.

 

[WolfCypher]

There's only so much you can do with that. And it doesn't help that the basis for his hatred of Spidey is very weak. Anyone with half a brain can see Brock's problems are entirely his own doing.

That's easy to explain, though I can't speak for Marvel or David Micheline, like I said in my explaination, the guy wants to blame anyone he can, and not accept the fact that his downfall was in part his fault. Can you honestly tell me you've never at least once wanted to, or have, blamed someone else for something you did or for misfortune that has befallen you? Its human nature, but you can say "IR, u're just making up excuses for your character." Maybe. Plus, after having his life taken away, it drove him mad, and mad people usually don't see the truth.

And I'm no journalist, but how could one have known whether Greg Emil really was who he claims he is? If Brock had done a background chech on Emil (as he should have done), he would have found that Greg is unstable, which the Sin-Eater was anyway.

But that is exactly the point I was trying to make. Venom's origins are the root of his motivations. And therefore have a subsequent effect on his stories.

Well, maybe your right and I'm wrong (above), but deciding to give him cancer as his new motivation to hate Spidey are not only weak, but a ploy and a cheap one. If peopl couldn't feel sorry for him when he lost everything, why feel sorry for him with he reveals all of a sudden he's terminal? Even I have to agree that was weak, which is why I omitted that from my "report".

 

[The Joker]

That's easy to explain, though I can't speak for Marvel or David Micheline, like I said in my explaination, the guy wants to blame anyone he can, and not accept the fact that his downfall was in part his fault.

And that's why it's a weak reason for hating Spidey. And a cheesy, contrived reason too.

He knows it's his own fault, everyone does. But he's just being weak by blaming someone else.

How does one justify hating someone for exposing a lie?? Like I said, it's weak. Contrived, cheesy, and weak. The consequences for what happened are all Brock's fault. You'd have to be really stupid to justify to yourself that you're not to blame for something like that happening.

Can you honestly tell me you've never at least once wanted to, or have, blamed someone else for something you did or for misfortune that has befallen you?

Honestly, no.

Believe that or not, but it's the truth. I don't try and blame someone else for mistakes I've made. Especially not as big a screw up as the one Brock made. Not that I've ever made one that big

Its human nature, but you can say "IR, u're just making up excuses for your character." Maybe. Plus, after having his life taken away, it drove him mad, and mad people usually don't see the truth.

I'm not saying it's not human nature for someone to blame someone else for their own short comings.

I'm saying it's Brock's situation in blaming someone else that's weak. His motivation to become what he did was as shallow as a puddle in the Sahara.

And I'm no journalist, but how could one have known whether Greg Emil really was who he claims he is? If Brock had done a background chech on Emil (as he should have done), he would have found that Greg is unstable, which the Sin-Eater was anyway.

Yep, Brock's own mistake. Not Spider-Man's.

Well, maybe your right and I'm wrong (above)

It's just my opinion. I prefer the big name villains to have stronger motivations/reasons for being who they are. Osborn has it. Octavius has it. Heck even Kraven the Hunter has it.

but deciding to give him cancer as his new motivation to hate Spidey are not only weak, but a ploy and a cheap one. If peopl couldn't feel sorry for him when he lost everything, why feel sorry for him with he reveals all of a sudden he's terminal? Even I have to agree that was weak, which is why I omitted that from my "report".

There's nothing wrong with feeling sympathy for a villain. Some of the nastiest villains in the comic book world have been shown in tragic/sad circumstances.

Even the Joker from Batman was shown to have lost his wife and unborn child.

But as you say, it's how it's done that's the trick to making it work. And all the cheap gimmicks they've done with Venom over the years don't hold up well.

God knows what they'll do with him next once this Scorpom thing is over.

 

[Shockdingo]

I've written on this subject many a time dude, heh I don't think anyone really will change their opinion.

Edit: Wrote this ages ago:
Brock loved his dad but his dad was pretty cold; he did everything to gain his dad's approval and he was coming around until spidey ruined him. That drove away his dad and made things worse.

Think about this: Ok you're happy in what you do, it's your dream job, after losing your mom before you knew her you only have your dad. You're fianlly getting him to acknowldege your very existence and actually like you, be proud of you, call you "son". Then you lose your job, your crediblilty (all he could write for were crap mags and things like weekly world news) he lost his wife at some point also and bam all the hard work he had done to get his father's love out the window. What would any of you do if you lost absolutely everything dear to you? Wouldn't you be medievally pissed off? "

Now I know he's not perfect, but you have to at least see how this is about more than just his job, the job was the surface, it was the glue that held all is dreams together.