Venom

With the appearance of Venom, and the expansion of the Spider-verse, I think it’s appropriate we talk about the future of the character. Even though this part of the Spider-verse is separate from our favorite web-slinger, at least for now.

Venom’s first appearance took place as Spidey’s black, living alien costume in issue #252 of TheAmazing Spiderman in 1984 and he didn’t reappear with an actual storyline as a symbiote until issue #258, when the symbiote bonded with Spiderman and was eventually rejected by him. Venom and his original host were re-bonded in the first issue of Web of Spiderman.

The longest host to Venom was, of course, Eddie Brock, which is the version of Venom that we see in the movie, even though its origin is different than the comics, as they were trying to have Venom stand alone without ties to Spiderman.

In the comics, the bond between Eddie Brock and Venom began in the same church that Spiderman rejected him. Venom was able to sense suicidal Eddie Brock’s hatred for Spiderman, whom he blamed for the downfall of his reporting career, making him the perfect host for the symbiote.

Though they spend most of their collective comic book appearances at odds with each other, Spidey and Venom are forced to work together against Carnage and his murderous rampage. Carnage’s first appearance was in The Amazing Spiderman issue #360, whose most notable hosts were Cletus Kasady and Norman Osborn (better known as the Red Goblin).

The task of taking down Carnage proves difficult for a simple reason, (although Carnage’s powers and abilities are vast including have physical strength stronger than Spiderman and Venom combined, shape shifting, and the ability to plant thoughts into people minds), what saves his life over and over again is his relationship with his host. The bond between Cletus Kasady and Carnage is much stronger than that of Brock and Venom. This bond has, on numerous occasions, kept Carnage alive and in true comic book fashion, kept him from dying.

Now though the first Venom movie would suggest no intention of tying into the existing and expanding Spider-verse (setting Venom out of New York made a future “cross-over” unlikely), the possibility is still there. We have seen Peter travel and Eddie has the ability to do so as well, so the possibility of the two crossing paths does exist. Now that we have the introduction of Carnage, there are several ways the writers can go with future storylines... Are we going to see Spiderman? Is Carnage going to have his own storyline, independent of Venom? If that ends up being the case I would really love to see Deadpool vs Carnage. Also if we do see that storyline that does introduce Deadpool into an aspect of the Spider verse, I would really love to see a team up movie. Deadpool and Spidey’s relationship is one of my favorites to explore in the comics. Moreover I think Deadpool’s storyline with Carnage would be interesting because of the introduction of the other symbiotes (namely Phage, Riot, Lasher, and Agony in regards to the symbiotes that bond with Deadpool)—we would see the other powers, abilities and personalities of this alien planet.

It is early in Venom’s cinematic life and there are many directions that the writers could take, and much source material to draw from. But I am hoping with the expansion of the Spider-verse with the very introduction of Venom and Carnage and the newest Spidey related movie, Into the Spider-verse, that sometime in the future of Venom, our current Spiderman will make an appearance.