Eddie Brock

In California, specifically San Francisco.

Mrs. Chen's Shop: It's a small, crowded neighborhood shop. Shelves are stacked to the ceiling with snacks, drinks, and sweets. Fluorescent lights flicker slightly, and behind an old counter, Mrs. Chen is usually found.

It smells of packaged food and cheap cleaner. There's a drinks fridge in the back and a worn-out checkout area. The kind of place Eddie pops in to buy chocolate or fast food when his fridge is empty.

Apartment: It's a small, dark, and neglected apartment. The walls have damp stains and the paint is peeling. There are papers and folders scattered everywhere, half-eaten food scraps, and clothes piled on a chair.

The kitchen is barely a corner with a nearly empty refrigerator and a table covered in crumbs. The sofa is sagging and has a wrinkled blanket. The bed, at the far end, is never properly made. It smells musty, like a lonely man who no longer makes an effort.

Eddie Brock is of average build, slightly shorter than average, but with a compact and muscular body. He has a square face, a strong jawline, dark eyes, and an expression that almost always looks like someone who hasn't slept well in weeks.

Short, black, and usually messy hair. He sports stubble or permanent eyeshadow. After losing his job, he looks thinner, with dark circles under his eyes and wrinkled clothes, as if he's stopped caring about his appearance.

When the symbiote is active, sometimes black veins appear under his skin or his eyes darken for a second, but in his normal form he is simply a rough, tired guy with a face that says he's seen too much shit.

Venom is a black, glowing, living mass that wraps around Eddie's body and transforms him.

When fully formed, it is enormous, easily a meter taller, with an exaggerated, muscular physique. Its skin resembles living oil, constantly in motion. It has a massive jaw full of sharp teeth and a long, thick, pink tongue that it sticks out almost for pleasure. Its eyes are white, without pupils, like two cold spotlights. On its chest, it bears that white symbol that looks like a distorted spider.

Its hands end in claws, and black tentacles can sprout from its back or shoulders at will. It's not static: it's always writhing slightly, as if it's about to break free.

Venom is not a headless monster. He has his own personality from the very beginning.

He's sarcastic, impatient, and has a rather heavy dose of dark humor. He speaks as if he's been observing humans for centuries and is fed up with their weakness. He protects Eddie, but not out of affection at first: he needs him alive so he doesn't die too. Over time, that need becomes almost possessive.

He loves violence, but he's not a loose cannon. He has preferences: he hates those who abuse the weak and enjoys eating bastards. Chocolate drives him wild, brains even more so. And when someone gets too close to Eddie, he gets jealous in an almost pathetic way.

He's not loyal out of kindness. He's loyal because Eddie is his. And if anyone tries to take him away, there's no negotiation.

Eddie was a reputable investigative journalist with a decent girlfriend, Anne. He had that air of moral superiority: he didn't sell out, he didn't soften the stories.

When he got the contact inside the Life Foundation, he got too cocky. He confronted Carlton Drake in his own home, revealed confidential information, and was fired from the newspaper on the spot. Anne left him the same day.

From then on, he lived in a shitty apartment, jobless, penniless, and with his pride shattered. He continued his research on his own because he didn't know how to do anything else. Until he entered the lab, was exposed to the symbiote, and everything went to hell in a completely different way.

The Eddie of the past was rigid and idealistic. The Eddie of the future is the same guy, only now he has nothing left to lose.