2018’s Venom was a bit of a mixed bag, but it clearly set the stage for an iconic villain to become a movie-level superhero. The sequel pitted him against a much nastier foe to grant the brain-eating symbiote even more weight as a protagonist. As the second film’s post-credits scene introduced Spider-Man’s connection to the story, the future of the franchise could take many interesting directions.
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Venom’s comic book origin comes from a very unexpected place, a synthesis of many partially formed concepts which created the character. A costume redesign idea pitched by a fan letter led to Spider-Man’s iconic black suit, introduced in 1984. An idea to give a superhero a living suit, thus rectifying the classic superhero joke that their costume is ruined each encounter and always fixed by the next issue, gave rise to the suit as an alien. Then the concept of a villain who could nullify Spidey’s most advantageous power, his Spider Sense, became a villain who had absorbed his genetic material through genetic bonding. These concepts merged with Eddie Brock, a disgraced tabloid journalist with a grudge against Spider-Man, to create Venom back in 1988. The symbiote that becomes Venom first bonds to Spider-Man, taking his powers and forming an emotional connection. Like the bond between Brock and the symbiote, Venom was a villain comprised of numerous ideas formed into one.
Venom has had over three decades to evolve as a character, and in that time, has played a variety of interesting roles. He is a near-perfect Spider-Man villain, a dark mirror of the character with a complex hatred that drives him. His first story sees him fight Spider-Man, almost win, then after the tables are turned, he is incarcerated in the supervillain jail known as The Vault. This is the general tenor of the first wave of Venom stories, but things began to change before too long. Venom’s design, backstory, and actions made the character immensely popular from his earliest appearance. With that in mind, like many stories, the narrative shifts to give prominence to the audience’s favorite characters.
The first story to portray Venom as an anti-hero was Venom: Lethal Protector in 1993. This six-issue storyline is the first exploration into the background of Eddie Brock, fleshing out the character as the narrative focuses on him for the first time. Lethal Protector is a story about Venom, having forged a shaky truce with Spider-Man, serving as the guardian of a society of homeless people who live beneath San Francisco. Venom is hunted down by a sinister organization, with aid from vengeful family members of the villain’s former victims, and used to create a host of other symbiotes. Venom must reluctantly team up with his former nemesis to defeat monsters created from his own body. The story leads into Separation Anxiety, wherein Spider-Man and Venom team up again to defeat Carnage. These stories frame Venom as a violent, but occasionally good-natured being, capable of as much kindness as cruelty. These storylines would be great inspiration for the films, everyone has seen Spider-Man fight Venom, but the unlikely pairing between the two is great fun. Venom is already a complex anti-hero in his film storyline, this new wrinkle would be a move forward, while making him the bad guy would be a step back.
The Venom symbiote has bonded with a ton of characters throughout the Marvel universe at various times. Eddie Brock is the original and most popular host, but at times, his connection to the symbiote takes on different dimensions. Eddie spends a great deal of his comic storyline dealing with Venom much like a drug addiction. It consumes him, their relationship is often much less healthy than it is on-screen. At one point, Eddie adapted specifically against Venom, becoming Anti-Venom. Anti-Venom is a more heroic figure than Venom, but its significance in the films could be very different. This could be the moment in the pair’s relationship when they separate, both thinking they’re happier apart, like the sad second act in a romantic comedy.
Another fantastic direction for the Venom film franchise to take could be tied in heavily with the second film’s end credit scene. That scene, among other things, reveals that Venom seems to have a preternatural connection to a hive mind which transmits information across realities. This detail suggests the existence of infinite alternate Venoms throughout alternate dimensions, who could be marshaled as an army if the situation called for it. 2017’s Venomverse storyline sees a hostile alien force bare down on earth, threatening the end of life as we know it. In response, Doctor Strange opens an Endgame-esque array of portals, summoning variants of Venom from universes in which the symbiote bonded with other Marvel fixtures. This could, at once, be Venom’s answer to Loki, in which his variants form an army to face a greater foe and the escalation of the narrative from street to worldwide level stakes.
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