Is Sony Missing the Point of 'Venom?'

The upcoming Venom movie has been something of a head-scratcher for fans since it was announced. First, fans wondered if this movie could even work without Spider-Man in the film, but then it was hinted at that the film was going to part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe... only to be redacted a week later.

Even after the first teaser trailer came out, people didn't really know what to make of it. It looked fine enough. Tom Hardy was giving a decent performance and it looked dark and gritty enough to fit the tone of the character, but nothing about really stood out either. But then the second trailer released, finally showing Venom in all his terrifying glory, and fans finally got on board with the film.

Granted, Venom looks a million times better in this trailer than he did back in 2007 in Spider-Man 3, but that doesn't really excuse the fact that the movie seems to be missing the narrative of what the symbiote represents.

The trailer seems to suggest that the title character, Eddie Brock, is a straight-arrow reporter who develops a puppet/puppeteer relationship with the symbiote. We see this in a moment in the trailer when Brock states that if the suit stays, they will only hurt bad people, and the symbiote retaliates by saying that they can do whatever they want and even controlling his movements.

While this could be an interesting idea to do for the movie, it sucks out what made the symbiote storyline special in the comic books. When Peter Parker is exposed to the suit, it's like a drug to him. He becomes a different person; stronger, more confident, and arrogant, which he likes very much, which leads him to become more aggressive and eventually become toxic to the ones he loves. A fitting metaphor to drug abuse.

After seeing that the suit is causing him more harm than good, he tries his best to ditch the suit, only to find that he can't get rid of it and that it's literally stuck to him. He does eventually get free of it, but it becomes a long battle, and he even misses the power sometimes in later stories.

After Parker is ridded of the suit, the symbiote finds a new host in Eddie Brock, a man who hates Spider-Man and blames him for ruining his career. Brock was never meant to be a bad person, just a guy who has hit bad times and wanted anything to bring him back on top.

That's what made Venom such a great villain. The symbiote was attaching to Brock's innermost desires and making them a reality again. This led to Brock becoming addicted to the suit. His relationship to suit would drift in and out in the comics.

He started as a villain trying to kill Spider-Man out of revenge, but was then forced into the hero act when Carnage, a common enemy, was brought into the scene. But then the symbiote got to Brock again, making him evil, but then Brock regained total control of the symbiote, which made him good again.

But then the power went to Brock's head, which made him evil again, but then Brock saw the errors of his ways and eventually went back to being a hero. That's what made the symbiote storyline so intriguing and the character of Eddie Brock so relatable.

Addiction is a problem that a lot people face every day, and that addiction can sometimes make you a better person in your eyes, but maybe not to everyone else. Eddie Brock is not a bad guy, he's a just a man who fell into harsh times and wanted any way out of his misery. He's exactly what a relatable anti-hero should be; complex yet simple and flawed yet redeemable.

Maybe the new Venom movie can bring in a new spin to the story. We'll just have to wait and see on October 8th.