Venom Gave Punisher The Perfect (Revolting) Symbiote Power
When Venom and Punisher team-up to take on Kingpin, Frank Castle gets some serious (and gross) upgrades to reflect his partnership with the symbiote.
While Venom famously bonded with Spider-Man in its earlier adventures, Marvel history has seen the symbiote merge with many more heroes, from Drax the Destroyer to the Punisher, often yielding new forms and abilities. In fact, in one reality, Punisher and Venom’s partnership resulted in a unique symbiote ability combining both characters’ bloodlust and talents into the perfect power.
In Edge of Venomverse: War Stories #1’s 'Deal With The Devil' story by Declan Shalvey and Chris O’Halloran, the Frank Castle of a parallel Earth has essentially lost his war against New York’s criminals and meets with Kingpin to discuss a potential truce (essentially surrendering to the crime-boss). At the meeting, however, Punisher reveals that he has an ace up his sleeve: Venom. After becoming Venom’s host, Punisher takes out Kingpin and his goons, and takes his war back onto the streets, effectively ending crime in New York.
One of Venom’s key powers given to him by his symbiote anatomy is his ability to shapeshift, particularly to hide in his host when discretion is required. This also means that Venom’s look changes from host to host, ranging from extremely muscular (as in Eddie Brock’s case), to limber and agile. Additionally, Venom has no qualms using himself as a tool or as the extension of an existing weapon or vehicle. Part of the reason why Spider-Man favored the symbiote for some time was because Venom allowed him to web-sling indefinitely, thanks to the fact that Venom was using himself as a means of locomotion instead of Peter’s custom webbing. When bonded with Punisher, however, this ability goes one step further with Venom creating all sorts of firearms for Frank to use, loaded with Venom’s own razor-sharp teeth as ammo.
After his break with Spider-Man, Venom’s teeth have become a design staple of the character, and most incarnations and fusions do well to highlight the prominence of the symbiote's pearly whites. With Punisher, however, their use as his central weapon is perfect thematically, mechanically, and aesthetically given Punisher's incredible skill with firearms. Venom’s teeth serve as perfect bullets, capable of shredding the body armor of Punisher's street-level prey, and are available in unlimited supply. That said, there is something downright revolting about shooting out the living teeth of a sentient being as a means to kill criminals, even with said being’s consent, especially since Punisher's weapons visibly have 'gums' which are left bare until he reloads. While this may not be the most gruesome way Punisher has killed a foe, it's high in the running.
Near-unlimited ammo and enhanced weapons come at a cost however, and Venom reveals that the one kill he demanded from Frank Castle as payment is the heroic Spider-Man. Thankfully, while it seems Venom is about to force Punisher to take the shot, the two are whisked away to the cosmic war against the Poisons before Frank can send an incisor flying Peter Parker's way. While some of the specifics of Punisher’s Venom form in the Edge of Venomverse: War Stories #1 issue are a bit grim and gruesome, their team-up was undoubtedly effective. Punisher's partnership with Venom ultimately made New York crime-free as he'd always dreamed, and to top it off, he did so in one of his best looks and with a perfect, albeit revolting, symbiote power.