Dr. Venom


 * Dr. Venom is a Cobra character from the A Real American Hero comics continuity.

Filecard continuity
After being banned from working for the US government, Dr. Venom retreated to his remote jungle laboratory and began extracting plant toxins for use in mind-control experiments on the natives. When his funds ran out, he accepted an offer to work for Cobra

A Real American Hero comics continuity - Marvel
Dr. Venom first appeared when the Joes Zap, Scarlett and Snake-Eyes were kidnapped during a siege of a Cobra stronghold and taken to the town of Springfield. Dr. Venom used his Brainwave Scanner machine to interrogate Snake-Eyes in hopes of reading his mind to learn the location of G.I. Joe's headquarters. Snake-Eyes was able to resist the machine and fake his own death in order to get Dr. Venom to release him. Snake-Eyes later hit Dr. Venom in the face with a stolen rifle and escaped.

This would not be the last time Dr. Venom and Snake-Eyes would cross paths however. Shortly afterward, Snake-Eyes, Stalker, Breaker and Gung-Ho traveled to Sierra Gordo where they were captured by Cobra agents led by the Baroness and Dr. Venom. As a measure of revenge, Dr. Venom viciously pistol-whipped and beat Snake-Eyes for attacking him in Springfield. Venom left Snake-Eyes in a burning warehouse, believing the commando was dead. By the time Venom realized Snake-Eyes had tricked him again, it was too late. Snake-Eyes escaped and rescued his teammates.

Venom gave Scarface and the Baroness a deadly virus, the purpose of which was unknown. When Snake-Eyes made his presence known, Baroness and Scarface leaving Kwinn the Eskimo and Venom behind to deal with Snake-Eyes. Snake-Eyes confronted Kwinn and Venom, but before they could fight, the Baroness bombed the island, trying to kill Kwinn and Venom because they knew too much.

The three men survived and escaped the bunker, but soon Venom betrayed Kwinn and Snake-Eyes, saving himself, not caring that the others had helped save his life. Kwinn knew Venom was nothing but a traitorous coward and vowed to exact his revenge on the Venom.

Venom returned to Cobra and helped plan a scheme to poison the people of the United States with his deadly virus. When the first plan failed, Venom infected Scar-Face, hoping to infect the Joes and discover their secret base. Kwinn and Snake-Eyes tracked down Venom just before a major Cobra attack on G.I. Joe headquarters. When Cobra arrived, using Venom's private lab on Brooklyn's waterfront as a staging area for the assault, Snake-Eyes and Kwinn where captured and placed them in mind-controlling S.N.A.K.E. battle armor. During the assault on Joe headquarters, Snake-Eyes and Kwinn broke free of the armor's control, surprising Venom who arrogantly believed his devices where unbeatable. Venom was horrified when Kwinn came after him and planned to kill him with a hand grenade. The Eskimo was about to kill the scientist when he realized that he had been fooling himself as he sought his revenge. His life as a mercenary had been just as dishonorable as Venom's life. He let the scientist live, but the cowardly Venom shot Kwinn in the back, taunting him as he died. But Venom had once again underestimated him opponent and overestimated himself. As Kwinn's lifeless body fell to the ground, the grenade he had intended to kill Venom with fell from his hand. It exploded and killed the scientist. A short time later, Dr. Venom was buried in a potter's field, his body claimed by no one.

A Real American Hero comics continuity - IDW
A hidden program in the Brainwave Scanner imprinted Dr. Venom's personality onto Billy's mind, and Dr. Mindbender struggled to reverse this fact before Cobra Commander learned what had happened.

Trivia

 * The character Dr. Lucifer from the cartoon episode "Cobra's Creatures" seems to be somewhat a homage to/inspired by Dr. Venom. The characters serve a similar purpose and aside from hair color look very similar.
 * Dr. Venom was an accomplished pilot.
 * The head on the Dr. Venom toy comes from Hasbro's 1994 Mortal Kombat line, where it originally belonged to Liu Kang.