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A number of figures in the Pop! Marvel line fall into the ‘venomized’ category. These are figures that are designed under the premise that they have been infected with a similar alien symbiote to that which gives Eddie Brock his Venom powers. Here I’ll cover the basic concept, the origin of the Venom character and a comprehensive breakdown of the entire venomized funko pop collection as it currently exists.
A bunch of these are available on Amazon still, even if some are marked up drastically.
Wanna jump straight to the lists?
Contents
The Origin of Venom
Venom is one of the great Marvel characters of the nineties. If you’ve made it here, you probably know that already. Let’s get a refresh on the details anyway.
It all started in Amazing Spider-Man #252. Well, kinda… Actually it all started with Secret Wars. Alright, it gets a little complicated.
So there was this 12-issue sub-series in the mid eighties called Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars. The whole thing is pretty cheesy and it was all concocted as a marketing blitz revolving around a toy series with Mattell. If you were born in the eighties, these will probably trigger some memories. This isn’t the whole line, btw.
In the series, this guy called The Beyonder goes out and collects a bunch of marvel heroes and brings them to some distant dimension/planet to host a weird gladiator-style battle royale. As it goes, Spider-Man gets in a tussle and (as is the way of Spider-Man) his suit gets all torn up. This alien parasite thing comes in and bonds with him, forming a new self-regenerating black suit.
Spidey gets back to New York, but he keeps the suit for awhile. Except, the suit is a little creepy. So Spider-Man ends up having Mr. Fantastic take a look at it. They determine that it is in fact a sentient alien “symbiote”, and Spidey realizes he’s got to get rid of it. Ultimately, he ends up having to blast the thing off with some ringing church bells (sonic vibrations are symbiote kryptonite apparently).
While Spider-Man is convinced he’s destroyed the symbiote, it is definitely still alive and now out for revenge. It manages to track down Eddie Brock, a former reporter who also caries a vendetta against Spidey. It bonds with Eddie in Amazing Spider-Man issue #300 and convinces Brock to work out a lot. Thus, Venom is born.
The Venomized Funko Pop Line
The Venomized Funko Pop line is a subset of the Pop! Marvel line. It’s basically a reimagining of popular Marvel characters if they were claimed as host by an alien symbiote. This concept mostly revolves around the 2017 Edge of Venomverse run where a special breed of symbiotes is rounding up other symbiotes and Dr. Strange rounds up a bunch of venomized Marvel heroes to save them.
It can be a little challenging to pin down which figures to include under the official ‘Venomized’ tag. Do we include every appearance of any symbiote? Does that include the Carnage symbiote, a separate but related entity? Do we focus on just the “venomized” label? If that’s the case, there’s also a “poison” label that includes 2 figures derived from the same run of comics.
Spidey appears in the Marvel Pop! line wearing that initial Secret War symbiote suit as early as 2015 at #79. In 2017, there was a Deadpool/Venom figure at #237 which definitely fits the ‘venomized’ framework in a lot of ways, just without the label. The official ‘venomized’ tag first appears in 2018, coinciding with the release of the first Venom film. But this run includes both Venom and Carnage who understandably do not bare the proper label.
I’m gonna stick to the officially labeled ‘venomized’ figures for the most part. I’ll toss in the ‘poison’ figures at the end. That is certainly enough to keep us occupied. Maybe I’ll throw in a couple of honorable mentions.
The Complete ‘Venomized’ Funko Pop List
The First Wave
That initial run of “Venomized” figures led with Venomized Captain America at #364. You can quickly see why these are some of the most popular Pops out there. This first run includes some very cool and intricate art work, reimagining some of the greatest characters in the Marvel Universe. The Iron Man and Hulk figures are super cool.
#364 Venomized Captain America
#365 Venomized Iron Man
#366 Venomized Hulk
#367 Venomized Loki
#368 Venomized Ghost Rider
#369 Venomized Black Panther
The Second Wave
There was a second run of ‘venomized’ figures, covering Pop! Marvel #510-515 in 2019. Although, it looks like #510 actually came out in 2020. The second wave is a little weaker than the first, IMHO. The detail and concept fell off slightly. Still, some cool figures.
#510 Venomized Thanos
#511 Venomized Groot
#512 Venomized Storm
#513 Venomized Daredevil
#514 Venomized X-23
#515 Venomized Rocket
The Third Wave
In 2020 came the third and most extensive run of 8 ‘venomized’ figures, covering Pop! Marvel #595-602. It also included a 10″ Venomized Groot at #613. The art in this run really picked back up with the first wave in terms of color variation and detail. The Groot is one of my favorites, and in comparison to his appearance in wave 2, he’s just way cooler, and actually looks like Groot.
#595 Venomized Punisher
#596 Venomized UItron
#597 Venomized Green Goblin
#598 Venomized Spider-Man
#599 Venomized Captain Marvel
#600 Venomized Miles Morales
#601 Venomized Groot
#515 Venomized Dr. Strange
And so on…
These figures begin to come in smaller spurts after the 3rd wave. At this point, the venomized concept has become a staple of the line and as a character takes focus in film or series releases, they are often given a ‘venomized’ figure along the way.
#683 Venomized Magneto
#689 Venomized M. Fantastic
#683 Venomized Invisible Girl
#683 Venomized Human Torch
#683 Venomized The Thing
#703 Venomized Thor
#703 Venomized Dr. Strange (Standing)
#837 Venomized Gwenpool
#843 Venomized Ironheart
#883 Venomized Kingpin
#916 Venomized Dr. Doom
#922 Venomized Jack O´Lantern
The Poison Funko Pop List
Two more figures related to the ‘venomized’ line came out under the ‘poison’ tagline in 2021 and 2022. These figures, both Captain America and Spider-Man are also pretty slick.
#856 Poison Captain America
#966 Poison Spider-Man
Venomized Funko Pop Collection Variants
I was able to spot 12 variants spread across the ‘venomized’ and ‘poison’ categorized characters. There are 8 Glow-In-The-Dark variants, 2 metallic variants, a transparent variant, and a Venomized Ghost Rider with blue flames instead of the standard orange.
Most Valuable Venomized Funko Pops
This line presents some great opportunities for Pop hunting because there are a few very interesting figures and some subtle variations that can send valuations into the retail multiples. I’ll mention 4 specific pieces to look out for.
Freddy Funko as Venom
While this is not technically a ‘venomized’ figure, I think it’s worth noting because it is among the rarest Pops in existence, and one that somehow doesn’t make it onto a lot of the ‘rarest funko pops’ lists.
Venom Freddy was a Funko Friday giveaway at the 2019 San Diego Comic Con. A limited production run of only 24 pieces means that this piece rarely comes up for sale, and when it does, it easily runs into the 4-5 figures. The end of 2022 has seen the going rate for this Pop jump up very near the 20k$ range.
If you’re a Freddy fan, this is a pretty crazy find.
Glow-In-The Dark Venomized Dr. Doom
Both Doom figures were offered as FYE exclusives, but the GITD Doom was the rarer chase variant. It’s a cool looking version of a great figure. The detail is fantastic. While there are probably plenty in the wild, they tend to stay in collections, probably because they are so fun.
Venomized Ghost Rider in Blue
Ghost Rider came in blue. And the blue flame, is definitely way cooler than the standard flame. Both Ghost Riders were produced as Walmart exclusives. So, presumably, you would have had to hit Walmart at the right time to spot this variant. But it’s tough to figure out exactly how many of these were produced, and there’s also a version of the blue flame labeled with a Special Edition sticker. It’s equally unclear what this means. Nonetheless, there’s enough demand for the blue variant to push it into the 90$-120$ range on the regular, and that’s where it hangs on amazon.
Honorable Mentions
The Target exclusive Venomized Loki, as well as the Glow-In-The-Dark Venomized Ironheart appear to be among the most popular of the non-variant ‘venomized’ figures, hovering around the 50$ range on the secondary market. Beyond simple supply vs. demand, it’s tough to say why exactly these 2 pops reach higher prices than the average.
Conclusion
I’m sure these characters will continue to pepper the Pop! Marvel lineup. Even though we’ve probably covered most of the characters from the comic run and then some, the concept is fun enough that I don’t see why it wouldn’t continue to be applied to future characters.