Origin

Once upon a time, in the great, busy city of New York, there lived a man named Eddie Brock.

Now, Eddie had a secret, and it was not a happy one. A long time ago, Eddie had been Venom — the enormous black creature made of living goo, with giant white eyes and a very grumpy heart. Venom had chased Spider-Man across the rooftops. Venom had frightened people. And for a long time, Eddie had let the black symbiote wrap all the way around him and speak for him.

But deep down, Eddie was tired of being feared. So one day, he said goodbye to the black symbiote and let it slither away. He wanted a quiet life. He wanted to be good.

And that, dear one, is where our story truly begins.

Because being good is not always easy, and quiet does not always come.

Eddie fell ill. It was a serious sickness, the kind that made him feel tired all the way to his bones. He went to doctors. He went to hospitals. He rested and he waited. But the sickness would not go away, and slowly Eddie began to think that his story might be nearly over.

Then one gray afternoon, Eddie met a kind man named Martin Li.

Martin ran a warm little place in Chinatown called the F.E.A.S.T. shelter. It was a soup kitchen, where anybody who was cold or hungry or lonely could come in, sit down, and be given a hot bowl of soup and a gentle word. Martin had spent his whole life helping people no one else stopped to help.

And Martin carried a secret of his own — but his was a lovely one. Deep inside him glowed a soft white light. He called it the Lightforce. It was a healing light, warm as sunshine on a windowsill.

Martin looked at Eddie, so tired and so sick, and he did what he always did. He reached out his hand.

He touched Eddie's shoulder.

And the warm white Lightforce flowed into Eddie like sunshine filling a dark room.

Can you imagine how that felt? The sickness melted away. Eddie stood up tall. He took a deep, deep breath — the first easy breath he had taken in a very long time. He was well again. He was healed.

But something else was happening, too, something no one expected.

You see, deep, deep down in Eddie's blood, tiny leftover traces of the old Venom symbiote were still hiding — too small to see, too small to feel. And when Martin's healing Lightforce touched those tiny traces, the light and the goo swirled together and became something brand new.

White goo bloomed across Eddie's body. Not black — white! Shining, gleaming, pearly white, with swirling black tendrils curling along his arms and a black spider shape spread across his chest. Two enormous white eyes opened wide.

This was Anti-Venom. And he was the mirror-opposite of Venom in every single way.

The old black symbiote had been hungry and angry. This white one was made of something else entirely. It was made of healing. Its white antibodies could wash sickness and poison right out of a person's body, gentle as a warm bath. And its touch could dissolve any other black symbiote goo, soft and quick, the way warm water melts a spoonful of sugar.

Eddie walked to a cracked old mirror and looked at the white figure standing there.

He remembered every mistake he had ever made. He remembered all the years he had been feared. And a quiet thought settled over him like a warm blanket.

This was a second chance. And Eddie Brock was not going to waste it.

"This time," he whispered to the white hero in the mirror, "I will protect people. I will guard the ones nobody else is guarding."

And so the man who had once been a villain became a Lethal Protector — a hero who watched over the innocent people of New York City.

And do you know what his greatest power was? Not his strength. Not his webs. It was his kindness — the power to heal.

So close your eyes now, little one, and remember: no matter what came before, tomorrow can always begin again. Everyone, even a monster, can have a second chance.

Goodnight, Eddie. Goodnight, Anti-Venom. Sleep well.