Venom

About

Venom is a Marvel Comics character and longtime Spider-Man villain. The character is an alien known as a symbiote (Kyn'tar) that takes on a host and gives the user super powers at the cost of their sanity, forcing the host to commit evil deeds.

History

Comics

In 1982, Marvel comics fan Randy Schueller sent a letter to Marvel Comics editor Jim Shooter about an original idea for a new Spider-man costume. Shooter responded to the letter by buying the idea of a black-and-white costume, which would eventually become Venom for $220.^[1]

in December 1984, the new costume debuted in Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars #8. First worn by Spider-Man, the costume was all black except for white eyes and a white spider on the chest (shown below, left).

The suit was later revealed to be the symbiote Venom and provided Spider-Man with unlimited organic webbing, the ability to shapeshift his clothing and enhanced his other abilities. Spider-Man later finds out that symbiote fights crime with his body while he sleeps leaving him exhausted. To removed the symbiote he repels it off him with one of its weaknesses, sonic energy, by hitting a Cathedral bell.

The Venom symbiote then lands on Eddie Brock, an ex-colleague and someone who hated both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. In April 1988, Venom made his first appearance on Amazing Spider-Man #299 (shown below, center).^[2]

From that point Venom became an active Spider-Man enemy who often beat him. Eddie Brock as Venom frequently appeared in Amazing Spider-Man and other Spider-Man titles, as well as getting his own miniseries called "Venom: Lethal Protector" in January 1993 (shown below, right).^[3] The character also appeared in other Marvel comics and during its time hosting Brock it spawned an offspring called Carnage.

The Venom symbiote later went on to gain a new host, Mac Gargan, who is also the Spider-Man villain Scorpion. Gargan became Venom during the storyline Marvel Knights Spider-Man in issue #10 (2005) and continued through multiple Marvel events such as becoming one of the Thunderbolts and one of the Dark Avengers. In 2010 he was seperated from the symbiote and became Scorpion again.

Shortly after Gargan had lost Venom, it was eventually captured by the US government and was offered to former bully but later friend to Spider-Man, Flash Thompson, who had lost the use of his legs during the Iraq war. With special medication and chemicals Flash keeps the symbiote under control and becomes "Agent Venom" and is now a superhero and Guardian of the Galaxy.

Film Adaptations

Spider-Man 3

In 2007, Venom was played by the actor Topher Grace in the film Spider-Man 3, directed by "Sam Raimi":memes/raimiposting Reactions to Grace's portrayal and the film's interpretation of Venom were widely criticized with critics believing the film had too many villains.

Grace's co-star Thomas Hayden Church, who played Sandman in the film, later defended the performance. He said:

"The studio felt like they had me, they had Franco's story continuing, and they were like, we need one more that's more of a millennial. And that's how Venom and Topher Grace came into the picture. And by the way, I thought Topher was great in the movie and Venom is a pretty scary animal. And that was the evolution of that. I was thrilled, man."

Venom (2018)

Since the release of Spider-Man 3, Sony Pictures, the film's studio has been attempting to make a Venom standalone film.

After nearly a decade of false starts, Sony announced a Venom film in March 2016, which would launch a series of films.^[4] The following year, they announced that the film would be released on October 5th, 2018.

On May 19th, 2017, Deadline^[5] reported that the film would star Tom Hardy, who portrayed Bane in the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, and be directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland).

On February 8th, Sony released an official teaster trailer for the film. Within two months, the video (shown below, left) received more than 18 million views.

Two months later, on April 23rd, Sony released a full trailer for the Venom film. The video (shown below, right) received more than 19 million views in 24 hours and became the #1 trending video on YouTube.

Following the trailer, people online made jokes about the appearance of Venom, primarily his tongue, which many found "pornographic."

Tumblr ^[6] user darthdpool posted an image with various comments about the tongue photoshopped around the image. The post (shown below) received more than 1,200 notes in 24 hours.

That day, Twitter ^[7] user @helen posted the image of Venom with the caption, "how i'm tryna get my pussy ate." The post (shown below, left) received more than 90 retweets and 725 likes in 24 hours.

Film reporter Scott Wampler tweeted^[8] an image of Venom next to Willem Dafoe's nervous look from the 2018 Golden Globes. The post (shown below, center) received more than 80 retweets and 530 likes in 24 hours.

Others compared the character to the 2007, Topher Grace version. Tumblr^[9] user royalysl posted a side-by-side photo of both Venoms with the caption "BEST GLOW UP I'VE EVER SEEN !" The post (shown below, right) received more than 3,600 notes in 24 hours.

Googly Eyes Photoshop

Following the release of the first trailer, on April 14th, Twitter^[14] user @WH_Woolhat posted a GIF of Eddy Brock transforming into Venom, who in the GIF has large googly eyes. The post (shown below) received more than 14,000 retweets and 31,000 likes in four months.

On August 1st, 2018, Twitter^[12] user @MatthewGaydos posted images from a trailer for the film and photoshopped eyes onto Venom's face. They captioned the tweet, "But what if Venom had eyes?" The post (shown below, left) received more than 60,000 retweets and 160,000 likes in two days.

Following the post, people responded to the tweet by captioning the images. Twitter^[13] user @IceSnipe caption one of the images, "Me looking at food after an exhausting day." The post (shown below, center) received more than 400 retweets and 1,900 likes in two days. Twitter^[15] user @ captioned the image, "Mom said it's my turn to play the Nintendo." The post (shown below, right) recived more than 720 retweets and 3,800 likes in two days.

On August 2nd, Twitter^[16] published a Moments page about the googly eye Venom images.

Several media outlets have published articles about the images, including ComicBook.com,^[17] The Daily Dot ^[18] and more.

2018 Release

On September 27th, 2018, about one week before the release of Venom, Tom Hardy said in an interview that his favorite parts, roughly 30 to 40 minutes of the film were cut. He said, "There are, like, 30 to 40 minutes’ worth of scenes that aren’t in this movie… all of them. Mad puppeteering scenes, dark comedy scenes. You know what I mean? They just never made it in."

Several days later, IGN asked him about the cut footage, and Hardy clarified, "Everything I want is in it. And more." The video received more than 1,100 retweets and 4,700 likes in five days (shown below).

In the week leading up to the film's theatrical October 5th release, critics began posting reactions to the film online. Many gave the film poor marks, despite saying that it was entertaining. However, some praised Hardy's performance and realization of Eddie Brock and Venom's relationship (examples below).

The movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes ^[19] rated the film a 31% rotten (based on 150 review). In their critics consensus, they wrote, "Venom's first standalone movie turns out to be like the comics character in all the wrong ways – chaotic, noisy, and in desperate need of a stronger attachment to Spider-Man." Similarly, the review aggregate Metacritic^[20] rated the film a 35 (based on 44 reviews).

In Other Media

Venom has appeared in the film "Spider-Man 3" as one of the main antagonists as well as the Spider-Man cartoons Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spectacular Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man as well as many Spider-Man video games since 1993.

Fandom

On May 19th 2017, the Venom movie Twitter^[10] account launched. Within one year, the account had more than 74,000 views. That day, the Venom movie Facebook^[11] account launched as well, garnering more than 300,000 likes and followers in one year.

Search Interest

External References