Venom Snake

Punished "Venom" Snake, also known as V, Ahab, or Big Boss's Phantom, was a medic who worked for the military unit Militaires Sans Frontières in 1975 and a military commander in 1984 and 1995. In 1984, facial surgeries permitted him to act as a double/look-alike for Big Boss, after the former medic passed 9 years in a coma, and further lead the military unit founded by his former boss as a successor to MSF, Diamond Dogs. While commanding the unit, Venom Snake defeated Skull Face and his XOF unit.

Venom Snake's new identity was purposely conceived as means of protecting the true Big Boss while exponentially spreading his legend on a wider scale. He became known as the "phantom" of Big Boss and his goals would deviate from the idea of Big Boss forming a nation without borders inhabited by and made for soldiers, preferring to build a military stronghold instead. Venom Snake, now known as Big Boss, commanded the military fortress of Outer Heaven. He was finally killed by one of Big Boss's clones, Solid Snake, in an operation commanded by Big Boss himself.

XOF Trojan Horse operation
In March 1975, the medic was stationed on board the helicopter sent to extract MSF commander Big Boss and rescued POWs Chico and Paz Ortega Andrade.

During the flight back to Mother Base, Big Boss ordered the medic to look over the unconscious Paz, after Chico noticed surgical scars on her abdomen. Suspecting that a bomb had been concealed inside her, the medic was forced to operate on her immediately, without time to administer anesthesia. During several dire moments, the medic successfully removed the bomb from her gut, as Big Boss and Chico held her down.

Although the bomb was quickly disposed of, their efforts were for naught, as a second bomb had been planted inside her. After coming to, Paz, aware of the impending detonation, jumped from the helicopter to avoid the MSF personnel being killed along with her. As the medic shielded Big Boss, the bomb detonated and his body bore the brunt of the explosion, somewhat shielding Big Boss, before the helicopter was sent into a collision with an enemy chopper.

He ultimately survived, although with extensive injuries, including 108 foreign agents embedded into his body that included human bones and teeth, as well as various metallic shrapnel, one of which was embedded into the right side of his forehead, penetrating the cerebral cortex. It was embedded deeply enough that it could not be removed due to it potentially causing a hemorrhage. He also fell into a coma, alongside Big Boss. Ocelot also inferred that the injuries were such that he was effectively dead. During the coma, at the behest of Zero, Venom Snake was given a makeover to resemble Big Boss to act as a decoy. In order to ensure the ruse worked, he was also given hypnotherapy to have him possess Big Boss's memories and thus have him believe he was the real deal, with Ocelot telling Big Boss that the medic would have wanted this.

The Phantom Pain
On February 26, 1984, Venom Snake would awake from his coma. Another Patient named Ishmael, whom was the true Big Boss in disguise,not only managed to successfully get Venom Snake out of the hospital he was in and fought off the entire unit that was sent to kill "Big Boss" by himself. After escaping in a ambulance Big Boss was knocked unconscious after taking a shot from a helicopter and Venom Snake attempted to drive the ambulance but crashed into a river bank. When Venom regained consciousness, the real Big Boss was gone and he was greeted by and accompanied by Ocelot for a trip to Afghanistan in order to rescue Miller. Unknown to Venom Snake until later, Ocelot is aware of Venom Snake's true identity, and monitors Venom Snake as part of a series of tests to see if the Hypnotherapy to turn the Body Double into Big Boss truly worked, which it ultimately did.

Behind the scenes
Punished "Venom" Snake is the main playable character of ''Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. ''It is heavily implied that Venom Snake himself (and his nondescript identity as a medic) serves as a deliberate player avatar, due to his original appearance being reliant on the player's decisions and how Big Boss addresses him in a manner that breaks the fourth wall.

The unidentified field medic appears during the closing cutscenes of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Because of the cinematic angles during the ending scenes in Ground Zeroes, there is never a clear view of the medic's face. However, the medic's full appearance has been seen in the PC version through the use of mods. A PC user extracted the facial model and textures for the medic and found that he shared identical scars to Big Boss.

On the Command Center menu, if the player look closely at Venom Snake's reflection, it shows the player avatar the player created, hinting at the revelation later of how Venom Snake isn't actually Big Boss. In addition, a leaked Italian version of the Piggyback game guide for The Phantom Pain strongly implied Venom Snake's true identity is separate from Big Boss, although they never explicitly confirmed it due to Konami and at that time Kojima Productions specifically forbade them from giving any statements about Ishmael's identity. The GDC 2013 reveal trailer for The Phantom Pain had first hinted at his existence when Kazuhira Miller, after learning about Big Boss falling into a coma, asks "What about him?" before the scene cut away.

Fulfilling his role as the "Phantom" of Big Boss, he returns as the main antagonist of the original Metal Gear via a retcon established in the ending timeline though the shrapnel in his head was removed and his prosthetic left arm was replaced by the game's events.

Venom Snake's alias as Ahab is a reference to the central character from the novel Moby-Dick; the same way that Big Boss's adopted identity as Ishmael is also derived from the main character of the novel.

According to Hideo Kojima's notes in the Piggyback Collector's Edition Guide's art gallery, Venom Snake (or rather, Big Boss as he is identified in the notes) losing his arm was decided early on in the project, and also implied that he was supposed to lose two fingers from his right hand as well. He also mentioned that the powerful prosthetic arm was implemented to allow players to appreciate the full intended experience, as while Snake could technically still wield weapons, it would have made it difficult to appreciate such.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear (retcon)
 * Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
 * Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain