A “Venom” Filum?

I’m an apologist for “Spider-Man 3.” Having gotten into comics in the early-’90s, I found it to be a fairly faithful adaptation — either intentional or not — of the types of comics that came out during that period, during the speculator boom that nearly tanked the industry. Characters became dark for darkness’ sake, origin stories were retconned for retcon’s sake, and Venom was in absolutely everything.

So who — or what — is Venom? Well, in the comics, Venom started out as an alien symbiote costume that Spider-Man happened upon during the first “Secret Wars” mini-series. Spidey’s outfit had been badly damaged, so he traded up for a midnight black outfit with a super-stylized, wraparound spider-symbol. That it was alive and sentient didn’t matter so much to him…at first anyway. It could imitate regular clothes! After returning to Earth — always a person’s first mistake — the costume tried to become Spidey’s BFF for life and bond with him permanently. He managed to rid himself of it with the help of Mr. Fantastic, but it escaped containment and came back angry. Spidey ultimately removed it from his person with the help of some noisy church bells. Unfortunately, the costume then bonded with Eddie Brock, a Catholic and a sociopath. Together, the symbiote and this Brock fellow became Venom — a beastie with Spidey’s powers and Beavis’ underbite.

“Spider-Man 3″ jettisons all the “Secret Wars” stuff and simply brings the alien costume to Earth via a meteor shower. In the film, it seems to augment Spidey’s superhuman strength and makes him more aggressive and gives him emo hair. It also makes him quite the dancer. But after he unintentionally pimp-slaps his ex-girlfriend, Spidey decides the costume has to go. What follows is straight from the comics.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sony’s developing a standalone “Venom” movie. Maybe the studio executives missed “Spider-Man 3″ or collectively went to the bathroom during the scene in which Spidey vaporizes Venom with a pumpkin bomb. Even for a comic book character, it’s hard to survive something like that.

Now, in the comics, I believe Eddie Brock is dead or something, and Mac Gargan — formerly the Scorpion –is currently wearing the symbiote costume. Alien parasites’ bereavement periods are surprisingly short, it seems. But in the flick, Brock and the symbiote die.

I guess another one of the meteors that crashes to Earth at the top of the “Spider-Man 3″ could have a symbiote in it. Maybe they all do. Whoa…that’s a lot of symbiotes. At any rate, I suppose it’s possible to have another guy — Gargan, perhaps — stumble upon one and become all Venom-y. I remember when I found out that the comics’ Venom isn’t Brock anymore. I was kinda disappointed. Then the Gargan Venom bit a dude’s arm off, and I was happy again.

I’m not sure what direction the film will go. Venom — the Brock one — sorta made peace with Spider-Man in the comics, and they teamed up to fight Venom’s psychopathic offspring, Carnage. Marvel had a mad on for symbiotes in the mid-’90s like you wouldn’t believe. I’d like to see Venom as a super-villain, not some dark hero, and the movie to be like a comic book take on “Scarface.” What if the thief who had shot Uncle Ben got spider-powers? I’m pretty sure something like that wouldn’t be box office poison.

-Brad Lohan

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