Over 80 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Wildest Powers That Venom Has In The Comics
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Vote up the powers you didn't know Venom had.
Venom is one of Marvel's most popular running characters and the star of its own successful film franchise - but how well do you know Venom's numerous powers and abilities? Of course, everyone knows it swings around like Spider-Man and can bite the head off of pretty much anyone it comes into contact with - but what about the weirder skills writers have concocted for the symbiote over the years?
Were you aware that Venom can use its symbiotic tendrils to travel through the internet, somehow? Or that it can give birth to other symbiotes? What about the wild ability that lets it create dimensional portals inside itself? If it was weird seeing Venom grow wings in recent comics, buckle up for the wildest super-skills waiting to be unleashed at a moment's notice.
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43 VOTES
It Can Use Telepathic Powers Outside Of Bonding With Its Host
It goes without saying that the symbiote communicates telepathically with its host when they are bonded together. That is a fundamental facet of Venom comic books. But, over the years, there have been times when the symbiote's telepathic powers have been seen outside of its relationship with its host at the time.
For example, in 2013's Venom #30, the symbiote takes mental control of an army of mercenaries that is fighting Venom. This turns the tide quite quickly, with one mercenary shouting, "It... it's in my head!" If this power were used by more writers, Venom could be even more powerful than it already is.
One of the most bonkers powers that Venom has is the ability to create dimensional portals inside itself. It first popped up as an aside during Spider-Man's first black suit stint where he conveniently stowed his camera equipment in the new suit without a need for bulky pockets. Over the years, writers came up with an explanation that the symbiote had an inter-dimensional connection to a sort of living abyss that could produce, store, and consume matter at will. Dimension-hopping is supposed to be the realm of Doctor Strange or the Scarlet Witch or even Magik, but Venom has been creating portals inside its body all this time!
How powerful is this ability? Well, in 2011's Venom #1, Marvel's favorite antihero squared off against Jack O'Lantern (yep, that's a real villain) and ended up putting a live grenade inside one of its internal suit portals. Flash Thompson, who was bonded with the symbiote at the time, didn't even hesitate and kept saving civilians while a grenade went off somewhere inside the symbiote.
Yes, Venom is responsible for spawning the Carnage symbiote, and other symbiotes as well, but there is something especially weird about seeing Eddie Brock and his symbiote struggling through childbirth like it is a scene from the Alien franchise. It is more than a little bit unnerving, but we are talking about Venom here, so a little bit of body horror isn't that abnormal.
Eddie actually ends up bonding with one of his symbiote progeny named Sleeper in Venom: First Host, and its power set is a bit different than the elder Venom. Sleeper doesn't appear to have any sight, relying on sensing its enemies via different pheromone-based abilities as opposed to seeing them. After Venom and Eddie reconnected, Sleeper went on to protect Eddie Brock's human son Dylan.
Sure, everyone and their mother knows the Venom symbiote has bonded with people like Peter Parker, Eddie Brock, and Flash Thompson - among many others - but Venom doesn't need a living host to bond to, as it is already a living being. It could bond with a dinner table or a reading lamp or... a car?
If you're looking for the craziest car with a mouth this side of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, then 2013's Venom #36 has you covered. It is unclear what happened to the engine of the car - but when your hood houses a giant mouth and tongue, do you really even need an engine to begin with?
As if being a super-strong alien monster with extreme durability and all the powers of Spider-Man weren't enough to begin with, the Venom symbiote also has camouflage powers that allow it to blend in with whatever it wants, wherever it wants. That kind of ability could get very dangerous, very quickly.
Most of the time, this power is used in boring ways, like when the symbiote morphs into Eddie Brock's traditional black T-shirt and jeans combo, but it also gives Venom the type of infiltration abilities that would make the most elite super-spies jealous. Outside of sneaking into secure settings, the savage symbiote could put it to use in more devious ways. The symbiote could pretend to be a floor while stalking its prey before swallowing it whole. The possibilities are endless.
42 votes
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23 VOTES
It Can Trick Its Host Into Believing They Have Cancer
While the Venom symbiote is played as an antihero struggling to toe the line between good and evil nowadays, it has done plenty of horrific things since its introduction in the 1980s. It may pale in comparison to the number of lives the symbiote has consumed over the years, but gaslighting Eddie Brock into believing he had terminal cancer isn't exactly high up on the symbiote's good deeds list. The symbiote altered Brock's body chemistry to appear that he was in a dire condition so the host wouldn't get rid of Venom for good.
When Eddie discovers this deception in 2019's Venom #11, he feels understandably betrayed. "You made me think I was rotting every time I wanted to leave," he screams at the symbiote. "Altered my body to make the tests read that I was dying! So I would need you!" Talk about a fractured relationship.
