The Untold Truth Of She-Venom

Most fans of 2018's "Venom" probably knew going into the theater that Eddie Brock would be the main person beneath the alien symbiote. What they might not have known was that another famous character from Venom lore would be making a surprise appearance: She-Venom. A small sliver of comics-savvy viewers were likely already aware that She-Venom's human identity, Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), would appear fairly prominently in the film. But few of even those savvy folks expected her to transform into her fan-favorite symbiote persona on screen.

Though she hasn't appeared too often in the comics, She-Venom and Anne Weying (also known as Annie) have been an important part of the Venom mythos ever since their debut in the 1990s. Since Weying returns in 2021's "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," she's poised to remain part of the public consciousness for a long time. Curious for more information about this vicious villain, residing in the body of a kind-hearted lawyer? We're here to uncover the untold truth of She-Venom, from her dark origins to her life on the silver screen.

Anne Weying debuted in 1993's "The Amazing Spider-Man" #375. A lawyer once married to Eddie Brock, Weying is approached by Spider-Man to help track down her ex-husband, who's kidnapped Peter Parker's seemingly-resurrected parents. With Weying's help, Spider-Man manages to trace Venom to an old haunt of Brock's, the Thrill World amusement park. Weying secretly tags along and tries to appeal to Venom's sense of reason, but she's interrupted when Brock is attacked by Silver Sable's Wild Pack. 

While Venom and Spider-Man fight the Pack together, Weying helps Peter's parents (who turn out to be robots built by the fiendish Chameleon) escape. She then returns to rescue Brock from being killed. Things take a dire turn when a damaged Ferris wheel almost falls on Weying, but Venom, with Spider-Man's help, manages to rescue her in time. She proceeds to point out that Spider-Man wouldn't have tried to rescue her if he were a bad person, which finally convinces Venom to stop terrorizing his longtime foe ... for a while, anyway.

Weying next appears in the 1995 miniseries "Venom: Sinner Takes All." In this story, she gets shot by a new version of the villainous Sin-Eater, who has a deep dislike of lawyers. Weying ends up hospitalized, but is soon whisked away by Venom when the Sin-Eater tracks her down to finish the job. The trip to Venom's underground hideout reopens Weying's stitched-up wounds, which leads Brock to try healing her by sharing his symbiote. When that isn't enough, Brock tells the alien suit to separate from him for the time being, so it can bond with Anne completely. Thus, She-Venom is born.

As She-Venom, Weying manages to save Brock from two criminals who find his lair. She does this by violently killing them, however, prompting a horrified Brock to blackmail the alien being into releasing Weying and merging with him again. By that point, Weying is fully healed, but she is horrified by her actions as She-Venom, especially once Brock reveals that the symbiote can't actually force a person to act against their will. Disgusted by both the symbiote and what it's revealed about herself, Weying shuns Brock for making the alien suit bond with her in their first place. Despite this, in the series' final issue, Weying briefly becomes She-Venom once again to rescue Brock from a sticky situation.

Despite her mixed feelings toward her ex-husband and his symbiote "friend," Anne Weying isn't interested in getting Eddie Brock arrested. Unfortunately, she still ends up being forced to cooperate with the police when they attempt to capture her ex in 1996's "Venom: Along Came A Spider." Weying gives Brock a subtle heads-up when he tries to call her, leading Brock's symbiote to travel through her phone receiver and temporarily turn Weying into She-Venom once again. This time, however, the symbiote remains partially attached to Eddie, leading to a euphoric experience in which Brock and Weying experience each other's memories. 

Venom rescues Weying from police headquarters, but she is eventually arrested for acting as his accomplice. Brock's symbiote travels to Weying by telephone once more, this time bonding with her fully. She-Venom proceeds to go to Thrill World, in the hopes of meeting Brock, but she finds it's become a hideout for crime boss L.D. 50 and his associates. A showdown between She-Venom, Spider-Man (the Ben Reilly version), the police, and L.D. 50's gang breaks out, during which Weying gives Brock the symbiote to heal him from injuries ... but not before getting her fair share of punches and kicks (not to mention green slobber) in as She-Venom.

After L.D. 50's defeat, Brock admits he still loves Weying, who states she'd only consider letting him back into her life if he put his hatred for Spider-Man and reliance on symbiotes behind him.

Since her debut, Anne Weying has always made it clear that she cares about Eddie, even if they're on the outs. The details of how and when they broke up, however, seem to vary from comic to comic. 1997's "Uncanny Origins" #7 suggests that Brock's narcissism is what ended their marriage, and that they broke up before Brock was fired from the Daily Globe newspaper for mistaking an imposter for the Sin-Eater. It also makes minor changes to how Venom was reformed, having him and Spider-Man save Weying from a falling wall in the city, rather than a Ferris wheel at a theme park.

2008's "Venom: Dark Origin" suggests things happened even more differently. It depicts Weying and Brock as still being married when his inaccurate story about the Sin-Eater was published. It also implies that it was Brock's obsession with success that drove a wedge between him and Weying, eventually leading to their divorce. Brock's constant blaming of Spider-Man for his problems, including his firing, didn't help either. These aren't the only continuity changes "Dark Origin" makes, though, which renders its version of events a little questionable. Basically, everything about Weying and Brock's break-up should be taken with a grain of salt, because it might just change once more in another 10 years.

Anne Weying's always liked being She-Venom a little too much, and that terrifies her. By the time her story reaches 1999's "Amazing Spider-Man" #19, Weying has become afraid to even leave her home, in case the symbiote appears and tries to bond with her once more. A poorly-timed visit from Eddie Brock, who wants to get back together with her so he can regain some sense of normalcy, makes things even worse. Weying's panic flares to further heights when she sees Spider-Man swing by her apartment window in his black costume. 

Yet what truly ends up being the last straw for Weying is seeing Eddie transform into Venom to pursue the wall-crawler. This makes Anne realize that the symbiote isn't with Spider-Man, despite his all-black look — it's right in front of her. After Venom leaves, Weying, mortified by the whole experience, leaps from her apartment to her death. When Venom returns and sees what's happened, he swears revenge, thinking Weying's earlier glimpse of Spider-Man is to blame.

Though Weying has passed away, her legacy lives on in a son with Eddie Brock's DNA that the symbiote impregnated her with during one of her stints as She-Venom. Believing she won't be able to raise the child due to her growing paranoia over the symbiote, Weying forces herself to leave her apartment and give the baby to her father-in-law, Carl Brock, in 2019's "Venom" #12. Though Weying vows she'll return for her son, she dies before she can make good on her promise, leading Carl to name the boy Dylan and raise him as his own. 

Neither Weying nor Carl tells Brock about the boy. Brock doesn't manage to meet him until he arrives wounded (and mind-controlled by the Venom symbiote) at his father's home. Consequently, Dylan and Brock are initially completely ignorant of their true connection, nor are they aware that Weying unknowingly transferred the piece of the Venom symbiote still in her genes to Dylan, granting him unique powers. Eventually, however, they learn the truth. Brock begins taking care of his and Weying's son after Dylan leaves home to escape his grandfather's physical abuse. 

Anne Weying and Eddie Brock are two very different people. Yet for some reason, the Venom symbiote seems to like merging with Weying almost as much as it likes bonding with Brock. An answer, of sorts, to this confounding riddle is finally given in 2020's "Venom: The End," which states that Anne Weying is one of the universe's most suitable beings for bonding with the symbiote, outside of Eddie Brock. Not only that, her compatibility's right on par with that of Tel-Kar, a warrior from the Kree Empire who served as the Venom symbiote's first host, long before the alien suit ever met Weying or Brock. Unlike Tel-Kar, however, who had to rely on scientific enhancement, Weying's high compatibility level is completely natural.

It's never exactly explained why Weying meshes so well with the symbiote, although it might be because, as "Venom: Sinner Takes All" shows, she can be just as bloodthirsty as Brock when pushed. That said, most of Marvel's "The End" stories aren't canon — or at least not yet, in some cases — so any revelations made within these comics should be understood as flexibly canonical, at best. Still, we can't ignore the fact that this "reveal" does make a lot of sense.

In one reality, Anne Weying becomes She-Venom under very different circumstances. As detailed in 2020's "Venom" #27 and #28, this Weying is the one who bonds with Venom in a dark cathedral, rather than Eddie Brock, who is already dead in this universe. What's more, She-Venom eventually transforms into Agent Venom, the identity Spider-Man's longtime friend and ex-bully Flash Thompson assumes in the main Marvel Universe. Not long after Weying becomes Agent Venom, her suit produces several other symbiotes. This is possibly to prepare for this Earth's conquest by Codex, a corrupted version of Weying's son, Dylan, and his symbiote armada. 

This version of Weying meets the main Marvel Universe versions of Eddie and Dylan Brock when they're accidentally teleported into her universe. The three team up with Weying's underground group of symbiote resistance soldiers to defeat Codex and free the Earth. Eddie and Dylan then spend more than a year with Weying in her universe, allowing the three to finally (if briefly) live together as a family. 

Sadly, some time after the two Brocks return to their native reality, Weying is betrayed and killed by her universe's Carnage symbiote, who has separated from her reformed ally, Cletus Kasady, and possessed Codex. Carnage-Codex then goes to the main Marvel Universe disguised as Weying, but is easily defeated by Dylan, who by that point has bonded with the Venom symbiote.

Resurrections are pretty commonplace in comics. So, after the Marvel Universe blows up in 2015's "Secret Wars" #1, it's not so surprising that it comes back an issue later. The twist, however, is that it's been remade into a new version of the planet Battleworld, from the original 1984 "Secret Wars" series, with this version being created by Doctor Doom, rather than the Beyonder.

Since this Battleworld is made from the remains of Marvel's merry multiverse, many killed-off characters return to the stage, albeit in surprising ways. One of them is Anne Weying, who appears in "1602 Witch Hunter Angela" #2, which is set in an area of Battleworld based on Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert's "Marvel 1602" series. This Weying is the bride-to-be of one Edwin Brocc. Unfortunately, this version of Weying isn't marrying Brocc for his personality, but because Brocc has used the Enchantress' magical elixir to hypnotize her. Luckily, Witch Hunter Angela and Serah Anchorton save Weying from marrying Brocc, who soon loses his head to Angela's sword when he tries fighting her and Serah as a red, four-legged creature that, unsurprisingly, looks kind of like Venom. 

Venom has appeared in all kinds of Spider-Man adaptations over the years, including multiple cartoons and three live-action movies. Yet somehow, She-Venom, who has a strong connection to Eddie Brock and his symbiote, hadn't appeared in any Spider-Man movies or television series until 2018's "Venom." Admittedly, she came somewhat close in 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man," as Weying is said to be Curt Connors' lawyer, but she's never shown. Thankfully, the live-action "Venom" movie corrects that oversight with style.

Overall, Weying isn't changed too much in her on-screen debut: She practices law and has a romantic history with Brock. Unlike the comics, however, the two break up before they have the chance to marry, as Eddie's snooping as a journalist unintentionally torpedoes Weying's legal career. When the Venom symbiote possesses Brock, Weying becomes one of his staunchest allies, even becoming She-Venom to save Brock's life. The two share a kiss while Weying is She-Venom, though they don't fully rekindle their relationship, as she has moved on and is dating Dr. Dan Lewis. Weying and Brock's paths cross again in "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," however, as any Venom fan might have guessed they would. These two can't escape each other that easily.

For a relatively obscure comic imprint that hasn't been around in decades, the Ultraverse takes up a surprising amount of space within the Marvel Universe. The Ultraverse was originally part of Malibu Comics, before Marvel bought the company in 1994 (via UPI). From that point on, Ultraverse and Marvel characters began interacting with each other fairly extensively: Famous X-Men villain Juggernaut even leads an Ultraverse superhero team in 1995's "The All New Exiles."

Where does Anne Weying factor into all of this? She comes into contact with Rune, one of the most infamous Ultraverse villains, when he gets possessed by a symbiote in 1995's "Rune vs. Venom." Completely under the symbiote's control, Rune kidnaps Weying as part of a revenge plot against Venom, whom Rune's alien suit blames for the massacre of its species. Weying is rescued by the combined might of Venom and S.H.I.E.L.D., who defeat Rune and send him back to the Ultraverse. While Weying never becomes She-Venom in this story, she does have a disturbing dream in which she bonds with the symbiote once again. Things quickly turn nightmarish when she, as She-Venom, digs her teeth into Brock's head in an attempt to eat his brain.

It's hard to say to what extent "Venom: Dark Origin" is canon to the Marvel Universe, as it doesn't always 100% square with past events. If the parts that don't contradict anything are in continuity, though, then Anne Weying and Eddie Brock both went to a very famous college in Marvel lore: Empire State University.

Though it only exists in the comics (unlike the very real SUNY Empire State College in Saratoga Springs, New York, with which it's sometimes confused), ESU counts many famed Marvel characters among its alumni and faculty. Luminaries including Norman Osborn, the Human Torch, Curt Connors, and Emma Frost have all walked its hallowed halls at one point or another. The character most associated with Empire State University, however, is Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. Though Anne Weying is never shown meeting Peter at ESU, she does meet Eddie there in "Venom: Dark Origin." She starts a relationship with him some time after Eddie takes credit for stopping a gang who attacked them both on the street. Who really rescued Anne Weying and Eddie Brock, you might ask? Why, none other than Spider-Man, of course.