Everyone loves Venom -- he’s one of the most iconic Marvel characters out there. As an alien symbiote, he’s also one of the most creative characters we’ve ever seen come to life. Who would have thought about a powerful blob of black goo turning into one of the most versatile suits would become so popular? The character has been, traditionally, more of a villain due to the symbiote’s nefarious nature, but that doesn’t mean the suit hasn’t been used for good on occasion. After all, this is an alien we’re talking about, how is it supposed to know what’s good and evil from a human’s standpoint?

The most iconic part about Venom is that it takes over a living host, if you couldn’t tell from the name “symbiote”. At times, the creature will enhance the host it takes over and gives them some deadly and dangerous powers. We know a long range of Venom’s powers, but often it’s the creepy look and ability to morph that gets the spotlight. We’ve seen it protrude its iconic pointed teeth, produce tendrils from its body and utilize super strength to crush its opponents. But all of that is pretty generic when it comes to such a diverse and flexible character. There are so many things about Venom that even the mass amount of stories can cover. With a new movie coming out this fall, we’ve decided to go over some of the cool powers Venom has that seem to go under the radar.

20 NO SPIDEY SENSE, NO PROBLEM

Spider-Man will literally never see it coming. We all know that the spider-themed super hero is infamous for his Spidey Sense, which allows him to feel when something has gone wrong -- it’s one of the Spider-Man powers we all wish we could have. But you may want to reconsider, because Venom is the golden exception when it comes to this foresight.

The reason Venom can do this is because he’s been worn by Spider-Man before. Since it knows how Peter's Spidey Sense operates, it can safely avoid them. The best part? All users after Spider-Man are also granted this immunity.

19 HEALING FACTOR

If you wear the symbiote and you’re injured or sick, Venom can help maintain your health and one of the many illnesses Venom can rid you of is cancer. The same also goes for massive, normally fatal, injuries. The host can take damage while in Venom because he can pretty much hold the person together. In fact, the healing rate is faster than that of an average human.

In addition to this, hosts of the suit can also have a lengthened life while wearing it. This isn’t just because Venom is healing any wounds or illnesses, but also because it can naturally ensure their life.

18 VENOM BABIES?

In some versions, we actually see that Venom can reproduce. We know that there is more than one symbiote out there and that all of them are genderless, so that means there has to be some way that more and more versions of them are popping out of the woodwork. We finally got an answer to this when Venom "gives birth" to several offspring.

The interesting thing about how the symbiote reproduces is that we’ve seen they have the potential to have a finite number of “children” but can only really produce one per generation. Maybe this is a good thing, considering Venom isn’t always with the most cheerful hosts. It can also detect when its offspring is nearby -- it must suck to be Venom's kid.

17 SUPER POWER IMMUNITY

We have a lot of superhumans in the Marvel Universe, but just because they have superpowers doesn’t mean they’re immune to other people’s abilities -- how else would our favorite heroes take down the bad guys? Well, it can be a little difficult when it comes to Venom because it, and its host, is actually immune to the supernatural.

If you’re not familiar with the Penance Stare from Ghost Rider, it’s an ability where he can incapacitate his victim. Usually, this will work on every living creature, but it apparently doesn’t work on Venom. We can only imagine what other kinds of powers the symbiote is immune to!

16 GENETIC LIBRARY

Venom has had a number of hosts over the years, but one thing that it always makes sure to do it remember everything about past hosts -- especially their genetics. This can definitely come in handy when Venom wants to update the kind of powers it’s able to offer hosts.

We talked a little bit about how it can avoid spidey senses, and a big part of that is because it remembered how Peter used it. The same goes for copying any of Spider-Man’s, or any other host’s, powers. If you’re looking to defeat Venom, it’s best if you don’t let him get on you!

15 THE MORE NEGATIVE, THE BETTER

This may not come as a huge surprise to fans, but Venom is clearly feeding off the negative emotions of its hosts. We see this most with Eddie Brock who hates Spider-Man with every fiber of his being. Venom feeds off the energy and hatred that Brock gives, actually making the symbiote stronger in a lot of ways.

Part of this also has to do with the fact that Parker actually decided to ditch the symbiote in the first place. Venom doesn’t really take a break up well, so Brock seemed like a perfect match since they both hate the same person.

14 THE WATER’S WARM

Venom surrounded by flames in Marvel Comics

He might not look like a swimmer, although he could if he really wanted to, but Venom is actually the best suit you could ask for when it comes to taking a dive. This symbiote can actually breathe under water. A little bit of this goes into the need to keep the host alive. If the host is human, naturally they can’t breathe under water so Venom has to make it so they can.

Venom does this by extracting the oxygen out of the water. The cool part? It can do this with any hostile environment that isn’t water! In a way, we guess it literally has got your back.

13 GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE

There is a version of Venom that actually has hive mind capabilities. During the time when Venom was bonded with Flash Thompson, we see that there’s a couple new powers it displays in addition to all of the known capabilities it had before. After being connected to the Klyntar hive mind, we actually saw it take over the ability altogether.

But what would Venom do with this kind of capability? Well, that part is a little scary. Venom can actually reach out to other symbiotes and gain access to new information. It’s a little unnerving to think Venom could ever have that kind of power, but we’re trying hard to forget we knew this fact.

12 THE NEVER-ENDING GROWTH SPURT

Venom actually has the potential to grow extremely large, which is something you might have seen a few times, considering that Venom can bulk up as much as it wants in order to crush its enemies. However, there is a catch: Venom can only grow as long as there is something to grow off of.

This means that the symbiote absolutely needs the host in order to really showcase its talents. Without a host, there’s no way it can access the power potential it has. With a host, it’s able to expand and stretch as much as it needs. This includes getting very large, to even getting exceptionally tiny to fit in hard places.

11 WARDROBE CHANGE

If you watched those original Spider-Man movies growing up, you probably saw how Peter coming into contact with Venom changed his whole look. Suddenly, the goofy, fun-loving Parker we knew was a little darker in both dress and personality. This is because, even in the comics, Venom has the ability to change a person’s appearance.

This appearance shift includes clothing and even personal style. As ridiculous as the third movie got at times, it wasn’t exactly exaggerating about how Venom changes the physical appearance of a person -- maybe they just want to look a little more edgy to fit the Venom look.

10 MIND BLOCK

Venom actually has the capability to block part of a host’s mind. This seems to be a generic power that most other symbiotes, not just Venom, have in common and it makes sense because a lot of what a symbiote does is react and feed on what a host is feeling or thinking. Blocking off certain parts of a host’s mind would certainly help the symbiote achieve certain goals if it feels there’s something that could potentially get in the way.

An important thing to keep in mind about Venom, and symbiotes in general, is that they can go as so far as to tamper with the genetic code of their hosts. There’s almost no limit to what they can accomplish with the people they take over.

9 IT’S NAMED VENOM FOR A REASON

You may have already suspected this, because the name definitely gives it away, but Venom is absolutely capable of creating toxins and venoms in its body. The most notable way to inject this venom is usually done through the sharp teeth that it likes to flash. We don’t often get to see enough of this power, despite it being so obvious, but it’s certainly a threat any hero should take into consideration before getting in a fight with the symbiote.

Originally, Eddie Brock had Venom produce the iconic smile so that people could tell him apart from Spider-Man, but those teeth have a very dangerous ability attached to them.

8 VENOM SPIDEY SENSES?

Venom has something very similar to Spider-Man’s Spidey Sense, although it isn’t really the same thing. It’s definitely a type of ESP that allows the symbiote to detect danger that's coming towards it. The cool thing about this ability is that it isn’t nearly as complicated as the Spidey's but it certainly is more effective.

Venom’s response time to detect the threat is actually a lot faster than Peter’s, meaning he actually has more time to respond to it. Despite Brock’s natural slowness to Parker’s enhanced capabilities, the symbiote makes up for it by ensuring his reflexes are boosted significantly.

7 IT HAS EMPATHY… SORT OF

Venom has empathic abilities, meaning it can understand emotions as well as share them. This sounds super sweet, but we know that Venom enjoys feeding off of negative emotions primarily, which takes the innocence out of it. Venom primarily feeds off of negative emotions and some of the chemicals they produce in a human -- adrenaline being one of the biggest ones. However, Venom can also share its feelings.

The symbiote is able to impress its own wants on the host, which might explain why normal people have a personality change after a run in with the creatures. This is so Venom can achieve its host's own personal desires.

6 CAMOUFLAGE AND SHAPE SHIFTING EXPERT

Venom is particularly tricky to catch, and it doesn’t take a lot of smarts to see why -- the symbiote has always been exceptionally good at camouflage. Venom can actually shapeshift itself and match the colors of its environment, in order to not be spotted. We know that it can help with your looks, but the same thing applies to helping it stay out of sight.

This also includes elements like water and wood. In some instances, it looks like Venom has just up and disappeared. It’s one thing to mimic your surroundings, but another to take on the entire texture of it.

5 SUIT VARIANTS

The Venom suit is iconic of both the character and the story -- you could never mistake the iconic black and white version of the Spider-Man suit for just any variant. But this doesn’t mean that the suit doesn’t change on its own. In fact, the suit’s design does change depending on the host of the symbiote!

This should kind of go without saying, because everyone has different physical looks so the suit would have to accommodate. However, a lot of the look is based on personality and what the host desires. Sometimes, we even see the symbiote clash with the character’s original suit.

4 ABILITIES MEMORIZED!

One thing that has always been interesting about Venom is its ability to mimic or utilize a character’s original powers. We know that it can store the genetics of its previous hosts in its memory and that it can also kind of take the powers of those around it, but often times that doesn’t mean the power will be exact.

A good example of this is how Venom “took” Spider-Man’s web-shooting ability. Venom can’t really shoot webs like Spider-Man can, but he can certainly use the material its made out of to reenact a copy of the ability in order for its next host to use.

3 IT SEES YOU

Symbiotes have a particular function and it’s found in almost all versions, Venom included. Venom doesn’t have a real form because it generally takes the shape of whatever its host is -- we’ve seen it be everything from a human to a T-rex. That being said, its senses seem to work in a very 360 manner.

All of its senses are splayed throughout its surface. This means that it can allow its user to sense or “see” things that are all around it. You would think that it’s a sensory overload for the human host, but it certainly seems more useful than harmful.

2 IT DOESN’T REALLY NEED A HOST

While hosts are certainly useful to Venom, they aren’t a complete necessity. Venom can still fend for itself, even without a host. The reason Venom, and most symbiotes, would prefer to have a host is because it allows them to have far more power and feed off of the energy and emotions that hosts give them.

However, we have seen a version of Venom that can produce a humanoid shape independent of a host. This was after being “cleansed” and the humanoid form would last for about 12 hours before the symbiote would get exhausted.

1 NO TELEPATHY HERE

While Venom can most certainly connect to its host through telepathy, it is actually immune to other people using telepathy. The reason for this is because Venom itself is already combined with another mind, technically speaking. This sounds like it should be super useful for the symbiote, but unfortunately, it’s not entirely impervious.

Because there are already two separate minds in the mix, it certainly makes telepathy hard to get through, but not impossible. However, if someone was trying to use telepathy on the host to stop Venom, this wouldn’t work. Even with telepathy being used on the host, Venom is still able to fight back!