Venom

Vanguard None

Vanguard · 650 HP · First appeared 1988 · Symbiote

Origin

The Venom symbiote first bonded to Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #252 in 1984, but the character we know as Venom — the symbiote bonded with Eddie Brock — debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #300 in May 1988, by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. McFarlane's Venom is the silhouette every adaptation reaches for: oversized, predatory, all teeth and tongue.

Comic history

Venom has shifted between villain and antihero across decades of comics. The Lethal Protector arc of the 1990s briefly turned him into a vigilante. Donny Cates' 2018 run reframed the symbiote species through a cosmic-horror lens, introducing Knull and the symbiote dragon mythology that has informed every major Venom appearance since. The Marvel Rivals Venom is the Eddie Brock version, designed against the McFarlane silhouette.

Venom in Marvel Rivals

Venom is a 650 HP Vanguard who plays as a dive tank. He is one of the few Vanguards whose primary role is to disrupt the back line rather than hold the front. Frenzied Arrival is the gap-closer; Symbiotic Resilience is the survivability button that lets him commit and disengage. He punishes teams that do not bring a peeling Vanguard or a strong CC Strategist, and he is comparatively underwhelming against compositions that can lock him down on entry.

Abilities

Dark Predation is the basic tendril attack. Cellular Corrosion is the area-denial DOT. Feast of the Abyss, the ultimate, is one of the most thematic ults in the game — Venom literally devours an enemy hero. It is also a high-skill ult because catching the wrong target wastes the cooldown entirely.

Spotting Venom in Rivaldle

Venom's silhouette is one of the most recognizable in the entire Marvel catalog: the oversized head, the long tongue, the clawed hands. In Pixelation Mode the black-with-white-spider-emblem palette is unmistakable. In Emoji Mode the spider plus tongue plus black heart is essentially a literal description. In Classic Mode his Symbiote species cell is unique — only Venom has it, so a green species column on a Symbiote guess is the answer.

Try the puzzle

Venom is a possible answer in every Rivaldle mode. The fastest way to spot them is usually a combination of two columns in Classic Mode plus a quick read of the silhouette or pixelation. Once you get a feel for the database fingerprints — the unique species cell, the unique origin year, the unique HP value — most heroes can be solved in two or three guesses.

Play Classic Silhouette Emoji