Venom Should Be A Super [SPOILER], Thanks to Spider-Man

The Venom symbiote grants Eddie Brock, Flash Thompson, and all of its other hosts incredible abilities. Thanks to the time it spent with Spider-Man, the living costume can replicate almost all of Spidey’s abilities, from his wall-crawling power to his spider strength. It can even produce its own webbing and simulate a spider-sense by literally seeing in all directions at once. To top it off, the symbiote comes with several of its own unique powers, including its ability to replicate clothing and breathe underwater.

One ability that isn’t touched on in many of Venom’s stories, however, is the symbiote’s ability to share information from its previous hosts with its current host. Those who wear the symbiote basically get to know its previous hosts’ secrets – which is how Eddie Brock knows Spider-Man is really Peter Parker. Some stories, like the Marvel Adventures Spider-Man tale “Sidekick,” indicate the costume grants Brock a full copy of Peter Parker’s memories – which means all the Venom hosts who came after Spider-Man should be super-geniuses like Peter.

“Sidekick” touches on this by indicating that Peter Parker is also an expert on the works of Lewis Carroll (the author of Alice in Wonderland) which consequently made Eddie Brock an expert on Carroll’s works. If this is true, however, then Eddie Brock, Flash Thompson, Mac Gargan, and all of Venom’s other hosts should have access to Peter’s knowledge of biochemistry, engineering, physics, and even arachnids thanks to the same shared memories.

There have actually been a few instances in Venom and Spider-Man’s fights that indicate Eddie Brock can now use Peter’s genius-level intellect. In one of their fights, Venom tricks Spider-Man into going into a cryogenic chamber and freezes him into a state of suspended animation (the better to transport him to a desert island for a no-holds-barred fight). While Brock is an intelligent man (having once been an investigative journalist), his ability to immediately grasp the complex controls of the machine indicates his expertise now extends to advanced sciences as well.

In another instance, Brock does research on his symbiote and works out the chemicals the suit needs to survive (which turn out to be chemicals in the human brain). Again, while Brock may have been able to deduce all of this with his regular intelligence, Peter’s own brainpower could have aided in his investigation. Notably, Brock was separated from his symbiote at the time, indicating that he retains the knowledge the suit supplied (like Spider-Man’s secret identity) even when he’s not wearing the symbiote.

Of course, Venom is often portrayed as such a savage and bloodthirsty monster that his intelligence usually gets downplayed. And while Eddie Brock used the symbiote to play sadistic cat-and-mouse games with Spider-Man that required him to develop complex strategies and tactics, not all of Venom’s hosts have displayed his type of patience. This could mean that while they all had access to Peter Parker’s intelligence, not all of them had the motivation or desire to use it – similar to the explanation given for why Bruce Banner’s gray “Joe Fixit” Hulk persona seemed so brutish even though he had access to Banner’s full intelligence – he simply didn’t see the point to using it.

One host that likely could benefit from Peter Parker’s intelligence is Flash Thompson during his time as Agent Venom. Flash was an intelligent man with a military background while the symbiote was arguably in its calmest and most reasonable state when he wore it. Given that Agent Venom spent a lot of his time on alien worlds, it’s very possible that he used Peter Parker’s intelligence to help him get through some challenges (which is probably the weirdest way Flash Thompson ever cheated off of “Puny Parker”). On the other hand, Flash limited his time in the suit to keep it from taking over his mind and body, which could have limited the amount of extra brainpower the suit offered.

Another thing to consider is that the suit may provide its hosts with a copy of the previous hosts’ memories, but not necessarily their problem-solving abilities or creativity. Intelligence is determined by more than just knowledge, after all, so just because Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson now have access to Peter Parker’s memories doesn’t necessarily mean they can accomplish everything he could do as a graduate student or superhero. Moreover, Peter continued studying and refining his intelligence long after he wore the Venom suit, meaning the suit might not be as smart as Spider-Man currently is now. (For instance, while Venom might know Spider-Man’s original web fluid formula, he might not be able to comprehend any new versions Peter developed since then).

Finally, the symbiote has been established to have its own consciousness – even talking directly to Eddie Brock in the comics and in the Venom movie. This could indicate the suit shares its knowledge differently with each host, offering some a greater boost in brainpower than others. Perhaps it does this because some hosts simply can’t handle the massive amounts of information the symbiote has – or maybe the suit only doles out the information its current host needs to accomplish its current mission. Notably, Deadpool bonded with the symbiote before Peter Parker did – but Spider-Man did not display the kind of military expertise that Wade Wilson has.

This actually leads to some additional interesting speculation – namely, if the Venom symbiote can absorb and copy the memories of all of its hosts, could a host learn subjects quickly by simply having the symbiote temporarily bond with someone with the required knowledge and then share that information with the main host? If that’s so, Peter Parker, Eddie Brock, Flash Thompson, and others could become the ultimate interrogator by simply having the symbiote copy the memories of a difficult informant or criminal mastermind and providing the necessary knowledge to its host.

Notably, in a comic book detailing what could have happened to Venom in an alternate future, the symbiote goes on to absorb so much knowledge and power for multiple hosts that it essentially becomes an organic computer containing a record of all life in the universe. While this takes the symbiote’s powers to the ultimate extreme if it can do that, then turning a host into a super-genius using shared memories should be a fairly easy feat. Strangely, while Venom often tells people, “We want to eat your brain!” his powers may do more good for brains than bad.