This fight has actually taken place a couple of times throughout comic book history and has been seen briefly in the movies, since in Spider-Man 3 Venom, played by Topher Grace, sought to use Flint Marko, aka Sandman, played by Thomas Haden Church, in his bid to eliminate Spider-Man, since in this universe the Venom symbiote actually did encounter Peter Parker first and followed the comic book timeline. That fight didn’t take long however and was a case of mistaken identity since Sandman believed that he was attacking Spider-Man, who he’d already seen in the black outfit. But pitting a man that can manipulate every part of his body against an enemy that’s capable of doing just as many strange and terrible things with his form would be a fight that might look awesome on the screen, but would no doubt be a nightmare when it came to the CGI. Practical effects don’t sound as though they would be a huge factor in something like this, but for those that love a challenge, this would be great to see.
The combatants are fairly close in terms of what they can do and how effective they would be against each other, since they each have glaring weaknesses that the other could exploit quite easily, and on top of that, there are only a few weaknesses that both of them have that would are similar. Fire is a big weakness of both since for Sandman a great enough temperature can turn his body into glass considering that he’s composed of sand that can and has been baked by intense heat before. On the other side, Venom is definitely weak against fire as it’s been shown over the years, and would have a serious issue with it as well. Apart from that, soundwaves wouldn’t do much to Sandman unless they were of such insane intensity that they could blow him apart or act as a physical barrier, while that level of noise would come close to killing Venom.
On the other hand, if the fight took place close to a body of water large enough to be a problem, Sandman would be at a distinct disadvantage since his body could very easily dissolve into the water, and it doesn’t feel as though it would take Venom long to find a way to immerse Marko entirely. But again, it’s about the location, the situation, and whether or not the weaknesses of either combatant were present in any shape or form. Toe to toe, in their strongest forms, Sandman could put a hurting on Venom without question since the symbiote tends to need a human host to become truly dangerous, but even in its regular form, Venom is nothing to laugh at. The thing about this fight is that the only thing that Venom can do, apart from tossing Sandman in a river, a lake, or an ocean, or even a large enough pond, is to keep ripping at him over and over to try and do enough damage to overcome Marko’s senses and scatter parts of him all over the place. The downfall of that however is the fact that Sandman can control every part of his body and unless something else catastrophic happens, he can reassemble himself and, as Spider-Man 3 showed, he can grow even larger if he has other material around to enact this ability.
One thing about that however is the question of whether those new particles are under his full control or if it’s like putting on another article of clothing, meaning that he can use it and manipulate it, but perhaps can’t incorporate it into his attacks quite as easily. Venom can control every part of his body as well, but can’t grow larger unless he absorbs another symbiote. His other talents are considerable though, and would easily keep Sandman busy. The interesting thing is that both Venom and Sandman have the ability to smother and could use this if they were getting desperate at some point. It feels as though it would be a desperation tactic, but it’s also something that might not favor either one of them in the short term, since the ability to manipulate and control their forms would keep this fight going for a while. In the end, it might actually come down to stamina, which would likely favor Sandman, unless his mental acuity became his weakness since Flint Marko isn’t renowned for being a genius.
On a personal note, I do enjoy both characters, but I might have to give this to Sandman since his ability to turn his body into rock-hard objects and the possibility that he’d be smart enough to recognize Venom’s weaknesses would be a slight edge, even if Venom figured out Marko’s as well. It’s a tough fight to call, and Sandman might win several fights, but Venom would win his fair share as well.
Follow Us
