VAMPIDER
Real Name: Edward "Eddie" Charles Brock
Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Earth-96201) human mutate bonded to alien symbiote mutate
Occupation: Living vampire, possibly professional criminal or vigilante
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Dr Michael Morbius
Known Relatives: Carl Brock (father), Jamie Brock (mother), Ann Weying (She-Venom, ex-wife, deceased)
Aliases: Venom, the Venom Vampire
Base of Operations: Unrevealed
First Appearance: Spider-Man Arachniphobia toyline (1996)
Powers/Abilities: Vampider is extremely large and powerful. He possesses clawed hands and feet, webbed fingers, elongated canine fangs, and a pair of wings, each with its own tiny head. Although the exact effects of Morbius' altered blood on the human-symbiote pair are unknown, it seems likely that he retains all those abilities associated with the normal symbiote (including superhumkan strength, color and shape-changing abilities, self-generated "webbing" similar to Spider-Man's, and an extrasensory perception of danger) as well as gaining the abilities of Morbius himself (such as the ability to increase his own strength through draining the blood of others, heightened senses and an accelerated healing factor). He also appears to be capable of flight by means of his large wings. (Whether he also has hollow bones like Morbius is unrevealed.)
Whether or not Vampider also possesses the weaknesses of Venom and Morbius (susceptibility to ultrasonics and fire, uncontrollable thirst for blood) is also unrevealed.
History: (Spider-Man Arachniphobia toyline) - Venom fought Morbius and was bitten during the battle. The symbiotic relationship between Venom's human and alien halves caused him to react in a radically different way from any previous victim of the Living Vampire. Consequently, as Venom rested after the fight, he discovered that he had been transformed into a living vampiric monster himself, becoming more powerful than ever.Comments: Created by unknown Toy Biz employees.
The Arachniphobia (sic) line was less an attempt to make toys of any particular Marvel characters as it was to introduce a larger price point and take advantage of children's enthusiasm for monsters. (The corresponding X-Men line, Mutant Monsters, meanwhile, took advantage of the ensemble nature of that property, and thus consisted of Dark Beast, Sugar Man, and...Wolverine as a giant werewolf. Well, two out of three ain't bad.) A possible inspiration for the line can be found in Fleer's 1995 Spider-Man trading cards, which featured a subset called Arachnophobias (spelled correctly) that depicted a number of merged Spider-Man enemies.
Did this story happen on Earth-616? Probably not, but who knows? All kinds of crazy stuff happened in the '90s. Especially involving symbiotes. And it's not outside the bounds of reason to think the transformation could have been reversed, especially since it's not clear whether Morbius infected Brock, the symbiote, or both simultaneously. It's also not impossible that all the Arachniphobia/Arachnaphobias characters share a single alternate continuity.
Vampider appears to have bony ant skulls on his chest. No part of that makes sense.
For a few notes on Vampider's preproduction color change, see the profile for Spider-Goblin.
The photo of Vampider was taken by David Willis.
Profile by LV!
Clarifications: Vampider, the Venom Vampire, has no known connections to:
Images:
Original photography of Vampider figure
Appearances:
Spider-Man Arachniphobia toyline (1996)
First Posted: 01/03/2005
Last Updated: 02/21/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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