One of the most iconic villains in the considerable rogues gallery belonging to the superhero Spider-Man, Venom has seemed to grow insanely popular instantly. First appearing in a cameo in Amazing Spider-Man 299 with the first full appearance in the landmark 300th issue in 1988 the history of the character and their creation is much more complex than first glance.
Officially, Venom is credited as being co-created by writer David Michelinie and artist Todd McFarlane, the alien costume goes back a few years earlier. For those that don’t know, Venom is a combination of an alien symbiote (later revealed to belong to a race called the Klyntar) and Eddie Brock, a human reporter who originally really, really hated Spider-Man. The costume though first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man 252 in 1984 by writers Tom Defalco/Roger Stern and artist Ron Frenz. The all new/all different black with a white spider living costume got a backstory in Secret Wars 8 published later the same year by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck. For those that don’t know, Secret Wars had the heroes depart for the event in one issue (for Spidey it was Amazing 251) then return afterwards their next issue all changed and different. The intermitting changes were then explained during the events of the Secret Wars mini.
For a modern equivalent, think what DC did with ‘One Year Later’ and publishing 52 to show us the year we ‘missed’. Its an interesting storytelling device but the effectiveness of it is of course, up to debate. In any case, this is where Venom’s story begins…or does it?! Yes, it even gets even more convoluted than that as apparently the concept of the alien costume for Spider-Man which became a villain was concucted by fan Randy Schueller. Editor-In-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter bought the idea for $220 which given how much money Venom has made for the company puts this case alongside the Superman creators, Kirby family, Moore Watchmen controversy and more in terms of ‘creators getting rolled over by big corporations’ cause moneyyyyy’.
It does seem Schueller’s version was vastly different and Marvel even published a version of HIS version of the story in the one shot by Sensational Spider-Man: Self-Improvement by Peter David and Rick Leonardi in 2019 for Marvel’s 80th anniversary. It was okay from what I recall but even before we talk about Venom properly, the origin of the character seems to set up a lot of oddness and convolution that has followed the character since their proper introduction.
From what I understand, Venom was originally supposed to be a female villain who blamed Spider-Man for the death of her child. It was switched to Eddie Brock, a journalist who wrote a story exposing the identity of a serial killer known as the ‘Sin Eater’. He got the story wrong though which ruined his reputation, leaving him to write only for gossip papers. Elvis is my alien baby daddy and some such. He considered these beneath him and named himself ‘Venom’ because the work on the ‘lesser’ publications was like ‘poison’ to him.
So yes, Venom’s entire motivation is cause he didn’t double check his sources. Interestingly the Sin Eater story took place in the classic Death of Jean DeWolf arc that took place in Peter Parker: Spider-Man by Peter David and Rich Buckler in 1985 adding yet more ingredients in terms of creators to the Venom creation soup. Once Spider-Man abandoned the alien costume it found Eddie and they formed a mutual hatred of Spider-Man and set out for revenge.
Whether it was because of the long build, the great look, how threatening he was (incredibly sold by a nearly on the verge of a breakdown MJ) or when he appeared, Venom became an instant hit. Fans provided more and the company was more than willing to provide. When McFarlane left Amazing, Venom stayed but supposedly new artist Erik Larson found the character dull to draw. To entertain himself, Larson exaggerated Venom’s look with a long tongue, large teeth and an extended jaw. Even though McFarlane is more associated with Venom’s design, when people think Venom and how he looks, how thy picture the character is likely more influenced by these additions brought by Larson’s tenure on Amazing.
Never to miss a chance to milk something (often to the detriment of the quality of the figurative milk) Marvel went all in on a new hit character. Venom was made less scary, more of a wise cracking multi-layered thread who protected ‘innocents’ through a broken view of morality. These additions to Venom’s character allowed Marvel to move Venom from villain to anti-hero. He was able to have his own stories where he could fight his own villains/threats seperate from Spider-Man. In an attempt to further capitalise on Venom’s popularity and replace this new addition to Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, we saw the creation of Carnage…but that is a story for another day.
Venom kept his anti-hero or ‘Lethal Protector’ persona for the majority of the 90’s. There would only be brief tussles with Spider-Man who at this time was in the thick of the clone saga. The character became a slightly more threatening nuisance more than anything. There was a brief attempt to make Venom a full on antagonist again in the relaunch in the late 90’s by having Eddie/Venom blame Spider-Man for the death of his wife. Even then, Venom was more of a wisecracking threat who Spider-Man could dispatch with relative ease with a fire or loud noise.
I personally think the first real effort to make Venom scary and a true threat again came from the pages of the relaunched Spectacular Spider-Man in 2003 courtesy of Paul Jenkins and Humberto Ramos. The storyline ‘The hunger’ saw Eddie discovering he had developed cancer and the symbiote was keeping him alive. The nightmarish/parasitic way Ramos drew scene’s between Eddie and the Symbiote were effective in portraying the human host as a victim in a problematic pairing.
Shortly after, Eddie sold the Symbiote at auction (no really) and it ended up eventually on the body of Mac Gargan, the Scorpion. Devastated that his actions had caused the symbiote to fall into the wrong hands (not exactly a stretch given he was selling it an underground auction but Eddie was never the brightest) Eddie attempted suicide but survived. This resulted in a brief period where Marvel had a pure villain in a new Venom and also made Eddie a vindictive, creepy non-powered threat when he tried to kill Aunt May when she was in the hospital following the gunshot that resulted from the Spider-Man unmasking.
I felt the turn of a more grounded, sinister non-Venom Eddie was areally effective and interesting. However, Marvel saw their chance to have their cake and eat it too by having Mac Gargen Venom (who was now on the Norman Osborn Thunderbolts and would later masquerade as a new Spider-Man on the Avengers) as a villain and have Eddie be a new anti-hero called anti-Venom. This new form of the character took form during the Brand New Day period of Amazing Spider-Man involving creators Dan Slott and John Romita JR.
I don’t think Anti-Venom really took off like Marvel hoped. Once again, Venom was placed in the role of anti-hero with the emphasis on the hero part more than ever with a new host in Flash Thompson. Working for the government and a new version of Project Rebirth (the one that created Captain America), disabled veteran Flash Thompson volunteered to be a new black ops Venom working on convert missions. During this period, the symbiote would battle for control with Flash in the ‘Agent Venom’ era which lasted a considerable amount of time.
There was also a brief Venom run with a new host, Lee Price who I’m sure you forgot you existed until I reminded you and you will then forget again shortly. The original Eddie/Symbiote team was reunited leading to the extended run by Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman and others. This run led to a considerable amount of lore being added to the Symbiote race including their origins and their mythology.
In terms of my experiences with the character, I was first introduced to Venom and a lot of the Spider-Man anthology through the 90’s animated show. As a young boy, seeing a cool as hell looking evil Spider-Man with a sharp teeth and long tongue appear right before the name of the show appears makes you go ‘Ooooo who’s that.’ Indeed, for a large part of Venom’s existence and success has been due to a great look and how instantly appealing he is to non comic fans. What is it about that character that makes him more appealing that villains that are older or arguably better? Its hard to say.
Most of it is the look, if you saw Venom on a badass cover to a Metallica album as opposed to a comic cover you wouldn’t blink. He has a huge appeal to the majority of male readers as someone who can do anything Spider-Man can do but without the pesky morals that saddles Marvel’s top character. Where Spidey might ask you to put down the piece of fruit you just stole, Venom will eat you, the fruit and likely the owner of the store too, just cause. This was something I think Marvel was smart to play into to by making Venom more ‘ha ha’ and less ‘Oh dear lord, he’s gonna kill me.’ The more comedic, silly, doesn’t give a damn’ pure ‘badass’ version of Venom is the one most people think of due to to him being portrayed like this in the majority of his appearances in cartoons, video games and soon to be three big screen movie. He’s a funner version of the Punisher who I’ve spoken about before in terms of how and why he appeals to an audience outside of comics.
Personally I prefer the legitimate threat Venom or the heroic version Cates and Stegman crafted. Largely as an anti-hero, I felt that Venom became deleted, replaced by villains who never seemed as interesting because they were one dimensional (Carnage) or forgettable(nearly every other Symbiote character). The characters mainstream popularity and how much value he has brought to Marvel since his debut in 40 years or so of existence is probably much better money wise for the company than he ever could have meant as a villain to be protected as a true threat but we’ll never know what could have been.
As new aspects to the character are introduced, more hosts and the current run ending and this years Venom movie seemingly being the last, we’ll see where Venom’s more complex than first appearance story takes the character next. Given that I believe the characters projector is somewhat unpredictable, maybe he’ll end up as a game show host for ‘Eat Your Brains: Live’.
I admit, I’d watch it.
More soon.
Glenn's Grumblings 