The Black Suit is one of the primary suits used by Peter Parker in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. The suit was created as a result of the extraterrestrial Venom symbiote, previously under the possession of Oscorp following its arrival on Earth, finding its way to Peter and bonding to his Advanced Suit 2.0, thereby making Peter its next host after Harry Osborn. Its direct rage form is the Symbiote Suit when entering Symbiote Surge transformation.
History[]
A failed attempt to rescue Curt Connors from Kraven leads to the former being forcibly turned into The Lizard by the latter's special serum. This leads to a confrontation between Kraven, Peter, Mary Jane Watson, and a newly superpowered Harry Osborn. Peter is quickly overpowered by Kraven who fatally stabs him in the stomach, leading an enraged Harry to beat Kraven severely. On noticing his best friend's near-death, a distraught Harry leaves Kraven and kneels at Peter's side. Harry's suit leaves him and bonds to Peter, enveloping the new Advanced Suit, giving it a sleek, mostly-black appearance with the exception of white eyes, a white spider emblem, and white web shooters. Peter is also completely healed and resurrected with a new slew of abilities and enhanced strength.
Peter wears the suit for an undercover mission at a mansion which serves as a Hunter stronghold as well as Kraven's main base of operations. Later, he also wears the suit when tracking down the Lizard, who he eventually succeeds in injecting with an antidote.
Once Connors returns to normal he realizes that Peter is wearing a similar suit to Harry's, which Peter confirms. Connors explains that the suit is a sentient extraterrestrial symbiote that arrived on Earth several years prior on a meteorite that crashed just outside of New York City, and proceeds to show him a piece of it. This angers the symbiote and the suit's appearance permanently changes to the Symbiote Suit. This also resulted in Peter's mind being significantly corrupted, making him believe that he needs the suit to be a better Spider-Man. Peter also becomes more irrational and aggressive towards his friends and more brutal against enemies.
Meanwhile, Harry's health worsens significantly without the suit. Feeling weak, useless, and growing increasingly jealous and angry at Peter for earning his father Norman Osborn’s praise as well as refusing to give up the suit results in the two’s friendship becoming more and more strained.
This change in Harry’s behavior, as Connors feared, is the result of the symbiote leaving fragments of itself within its previous hosts' bodies so that it may re-bond with them again, which causes a feeling of addiction within previous hosts. The suit takes a significant hold on Peter, who becomes violent to the point of wanting to kill Kraven after discovering that he’d captured Miles Morales. He nearly does so, until Miles intervenes and manages to get through to Peter, who finally manages to tear the symbiote off of himself, allowing Miles to contain it in a special Oscorp container.
Peter brings the symbiote back to Oscorp with the intent of giving it to Connors so that it can be destroyed. However, Harry confronts Peter at the lab, shattering the container whilst swinging his cane at Peter in rage. This allows the symbiote to break free in a violent explosion, and subsequently re-bond with Harry, who becomes the hulking alien beast Venom. As Venom, the symbiote exerts near-complete control and influence over Harry, and proceeds to go on a violent rampage that culminates in Kraven’s death at his hands. The symbiote further corrupts Harry’s mind, convincing him that they are going to achieve his dream of “healing the world” by converting everyone into symbiotes.
Some time later, the symbiotes attack City Hall and both Peter and Miles are overwhelmed. The latter is rescued by Martin Li, and the two discover that the attack triggered a response from traces of the symbiote that are still inside Peter. In order to prevent the symbiote from regaining control over him into the suit's rageful state, Li uses his powers to transport himself and Miles into Peter's mind so that they can find and destroy the lingering symbiote. Miles and Li find the source of Peter's pain, in which there is a heavy presence of symbiotes. They combine their powers, with Li sacrificing all of his own power, to fully free Peter from its control. In doing so, the Anti-Venom symbiote is created, which grants Peter all of the strength and enhancements first given to him by the Venom symbiote, whist keeping him completely free from the symbiote hivemind.
Characteristics[]
The suit is an organic lifeform originating from another planet. It has a rough, body armor-like, plated texture of the black parts and prominent white features, including the eyes, spider emblem, and web shooters. When not in use, it can morph into normal clothing, which is also prominently black.
As seen with both Harry and Peter, the suit provides the user with multiple enhanced abilities to aid them in combat. It can extend the user's striking range with its large, powerful tendrils, which can be used to strike, grab, slam, and throw multiple enemies at once. The Anti-Venom suit, sharing many of the same physical capabilities as the original Black suit, also possesses these abilities.
Regeneration is a remarkable ability of the symbiote. It can repair itself when damaged by sound or electricity, and this regenerative capacity extends to the host as well, leaving them in near-perfect physical condition. This is seen when it seemingly cures Harry's illness, as well as when it resurrects Peter and expels Kraven's knife from his body.
The symbiote significantly enhances the physical abilities of its host. This empowerment equips the host, such as Harry, with extraordinary strength to combat both criminals and other symbiotes. It also enhances speed, allowing for gliding through the air, essentially granting the ability to "fly."
- Unique Feature
As it is a Venom symbiote alien suit, it sports the symbiote's signature black web colors. It also uses the symbiote tendrils for the Spider-Dash and Spider-Jump moves. However, it does not affect the changes on between two Symbiote Surge transformation suits.
Suit Styles[]
- Color 1: The default color scheme.
- Color 2: Resembles the original concept art of the Black Suit, with the spider being red designed by Randy Schueller. It also matches the color scheme of Knull, the deity creator of Symbiotes.
- Color 3: Resembles the Anti-Venom Suit.
- Color 4: The vein-like parts of the suit are red, resembling Zombie Venom.
Original appearance[]
For more background of the Symbiote Suit throughout comic book history, see all appearances of Venom and the original appearance of Venom on the Marvel Database
The earliest instance of Spider-Man wearing a "Black Suit" came about due to a fan contest hosted by Marvel Comics in 1982, where the costume idea for the character was submitted by a fan named Randy Schueller, with the initial intent being that the suit would function as a costume for stealth purposes. Marvel's chief editor Jim Shooter, impressed with the pitch, bought the rights to the black costume from Schuller for $220.00. It made its first official appearance in a publication during the crossover event Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars (1984–85), which united the heroes of the wider Marvel Universe against a multiversal entity known as the Beyonder. During the events of issue #8 (Dec. 1984), Spider-Man's classic costume was damaged amidst his displacement on Battleworld with the other heroes, and Bruce Banner / Hulk informs Parker of a device that can generate any type of fabric from thought, leading him to test the machine for himself. The device generated a black sphere which began to wrap around Parker, creating the Black Suit. The machine would be retroactively established as a containment chamber for the symbiote created by the symbiote Hive on the planet Klyntar, who sought to outcast it for not consciously aligning with their morals to overtake hosts and instead vowing to protect them instead.
The Black Suit would be expanded upon in The Amazing Spider-Man #252 (Jan. 1984), now being established as an alien, symbiotic substance that would bond to Parker while sleeping and take him for joyrides while he remained unconscious, physically overexerting Peter beyond his natural limits. Knowing of the symbiote's desire to completely overtake him, Parker would visit the Baxter Building in issue #258 (Jul. 1984) to have it examined by Reed Richards and Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, who deduced its weakness to fire and sound waves. Richards promptly used a sonic gun to force the symbiote off Peter, while Parker himself would have to resort to a makeshift costume in lieu of being unable to repair his original suit. He would repurpose a Fantastic Four uniform with a paper bag on his head, garnering the public nickname of "The Bombastic Bag-Man".
Unknowingly to Parker, the symbiote would resurface in Web of Spider-Man #1 (Jan. 1985) after escaping the Fantastic Four's custody and bond to his red/blue costume, causing him to travel to a nearby church and use its rooftop bell to expose the symbiote to the same sound waves that amplify its vulnerability. As established later in The Amazing Spider-Man #300, disgraced journalist Edward Charles Allan "Eddie" Brock, who was previously humiliated by Parker's expose of his fraudulent reporting at the Daily Bugle, was present at the church as Peter was removing the symbiote from his body, seeking repentance for his suicidal tendencies. Upon removal, the symbiote would find its way onto Brock himself and leverage a combination of his self-loathing along with the substance's desire for taking revenge on Spider-Man, becoming the monstrous Venom in the process, and retroactively establishing the symbiote's name.