Venom Fact — November 6, 2026

Today's Fact

Eddie Brock was not the only Venom, and Flash Thompson was not the strangest successor — for years the suit belonged to a Spider-Man villain who already had a tail.

THE SCORPION BECAME VENOM — MAC GARGAN WORE THE SYMBIOTE AS NORMAN OSBORN'S FAKE SPIDER-MAN!

The Featured Fact

Mac Gargan spent decades as the Scorpion, a private investigator J. Jonah Jameson paid to have bonded to a mechanical tail and a grudge. When Eddie Brock auctioned the symbiote off, the buyer who mattered stepped forward: Gargan took the alien in Marvel Knights Spider-Man #10 (2005), trading the Scorpion suit for something that did not need batteries.

The pairing was a bad chemical marriage. The symbiote found a host whose appetites matched its own, and Gargan's Venom grew bigger, meaner and notably more willing to eat people than Brock's had been. He served in the Thunderbolts, then graduated to the highest-profile job a fake can get.

In Dark Avengers #1 (2009), Norman Osborn put Gargan on his public Avengers roster as that team's Spider-Man — the symbiote slimmed down into a black-suited wall-crawler for the cameras, while the monster underneath waited for the cameras to leave. The government's beloved new Spider-Man was a cannibal in a costume, and Osborn knew it.

Why It's Obscure

Brock's Venom had a code, however bent. Gargan's chapter is what the symbiote looks like with a host who never asked it to behave.

2005

The purchase — after Brock's $100 million auction and Angelo Fortunato's brief, fatal turn, the symbiote settled on Gargan in Marvel Knights Spider-Man #10.

The appetite

Dinner — Gargan's Venom ate opponents in a way Brock's rarely did; teammates in the Thunderbolts era learned to give the suit a wide berth at close quarters.

2009

The promotion — Dark Avengers #1 (2009) lists Gargan as the team's Spider-Man, with the symbiote reshaping itself into a leaner Spider-Man silhouette for public appearances.

Norman Osborn

The handler — Osborn kept his Venom on chemical leashes and public-relations duty in equal measure, a monster rebranded as a national hero.

Gallery

Gargan's hulking Venom at full size, the slimmer shape he wore for Osborn's cameras, and Norman Osborn himself.

Mac Gargan Venom huge symbiote lunging at Iron Man, comic art — **Full size** Gargan's Venom at his natural scale — noticeably bulkier than Brock's, bursting through a wall at Iron Man with every intention of eating the armour's occupant.

Mac Gargan Venom symbiote portrait, comic art — **The other Venom** the Scorpion inside the suit. Gargan brought his own tail, his own grudges and none of Brock's restraint to the partnership.

Norman Osborn comic art — **Norman Osborn** the man who put a monster on the Avengers' public roster and called him Spider-Man. The rebrand was the crime; Gargan was just the evidence.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

Mac Gargan (Earth-616) — Marvel Database Full history: the Scorpion years, bonding with the symbiote, Thunderbolts service and the Dark Avengers Spider-Man role.
How Punisher Turned an Iron Man Armor Into a REAL War Machine — CBR Background on the Venom succession line, including Mac Gargan's tenure with the symbiote.
Mac Gargan — Wikipedia Reference entry confirming Gargan as Venom from Marvel Knights Spider-Man (2005) and as the Dark Avengers' Spider-Man under Norman Osborn.