One of the most controversial characters in Spider-man, and the first of the "big 3" villains I'm covering in full detail, it's Venom, who has come along way, sorry if I use villain but it's hard not to, the evil mirror of Spider-man will get a focus from me.

Now Spider-man before Venom did have some attempts at evil counterparts. All kind of failing in some way, the Scorpion and the Tarantula are the ones who spring to mind, not really filling that role in any major way.

but let's skip ahead to the 80's, Venom's genesis began when a fan sent in an idea for a new Spider-man costume, it was later modified into the classic black costume, it was a controversial but still rather well liked costume at the time.

The costume FIRST showed up in Marvel Team Up, beating out the official debut by a week in Amazing 252. The origin of the suit was in Secret wars 8, but keep in mind these comics showed up first.

The suit would go on to be established as a alien being but we were not given much else besides Spider-man found it in a machine. Besides that the costume might also be the first use of Organic webbing in Spider-man comics, introducing the concept.

After finding out it was alive and slightly messing with him(it would take his body out on joyrides, which was enough for Spider-man to want it gone) in Web of Spider-man he went to a bell tower to get rid of it once and for all and that was that for...a bit.

Small detour here but when this plot was adapted to the 90's animated series, more adaptions would take it Que from the show then this, except for the Shocker bit. It introduced the idea that it made Peter a darker character and was ACTIVELY trying to take him over.

Anyway Spider-man switched over to a black costume that was cloth and this became the official look. Spider-man would switch on and off for about 3-4 years, and in the last year of it just had the black. But things change and now well get...to the Todd.

Todd McFarlane is one of the most IMPORTANT and INFAMOUS creators in comics. Some call him the devil, others call him the kind of Statues that say they are action figures(he got better), others call him the greatest Spider-man artist of all time.

Todd had a preference for the red and blues, and while messing around drew Spider-man with a mouth, alongside David Michlinie they would go on to create Venom together. This is also where we get into the issues with his initial premise.

The Initial concept for Venom called for him or... her, Venom was originally going to be a woman who was after Spider-man. See she was pregnant and as her husband was driving her to the Hospital, he was distracted by Spider-man and he and the baby died.

This was deemed too much, and so they HAD to remake in quick fashion, using the Sin Eater storyline that happened a year or two back they said he was instead Eddie Brock, a reporter who HATED Spider-man...for finding the real killer.

This is where I have to talk about Venom biggest hurdle for some fans, his initial motivation see some fans thought it was really WEAK, since he HATED Spider-man for doing his job, and in his first appearances Eddie is a scumbag.

His first appearance also comes out of nowhere, Spider-man had a minor stalker subplot of someone messing with him and Eddie was not established, still he struck a chord for VERY GOOD reasons.

Eddie being this BIG scary dude, the art of McFarlane, his backstory, and honestly he provides a good mirror to Peter, he's a man who REFUSES to take responsibility for his life and lashes out with his power. Venom is also a rare case of a new character becoming iconic with fans.

After the story Venom proved really popular and this changed some plans, for one Venom was going to move from HOST to HOST, at one point it was even planed for JJ to get it but this never got past a concept stage. Eddie was too popular.

and this gets into some OTHER controversies about him, some old school Spider-man fans don't like him so Venom is often a kind of weird generation gap character, if you grew up with him you tend to be more accepting of him, while more OLD school fans tend to loath him.

the biggest CONTROVERSIAL story with Venom in the old days, is Amazing 375, this one is a fucking controversial one you don't hear about often but to sum up Venom was popular enough it was thought to make him an anti hero and so to set that up, this was the story.

To explain it, it set up Venom as MORE powerful and Spider-man and him half to have a truce, this is controversial because it means Peter is letting Venom get away, and so Venom would set up shop in his own series...oh god....

Venom at the time was huge and Marvel knew it. When it came time to give Venom a series though Bob Harris wanted to keep him a villain who could be used later, so instead of an ONGOING series, Venom would only get miniseries.

Yeah when I looked this up I figured it was because of the whole NUMBER one thing, but it's not it was because Bob didn't think villains should get ongoings. To be fair before this series most villain titles FLOPPED hard.

Anyway Venom would instead get mini followed by another mini...this lasted throughout the 90's. The series though did try to fix Eddie up initially by revealing what made him so bad(abusive father), it would also introduce his family and other plots.

Carnage would late be introduced...but he is his own can of worms, basically they wanted to have ANOTHER symbiote villain to use and Carnage became that. There are other sybiote characters but were just going to do Venom. Maximum Carnage alone...

Anyway one problem with the "miniseries" era of Venom is the frequent changes in creators, and also Eddie being all over the place as a character, one story he might be a goof ball(BRAINS) others a more series anti hero, or just a villain. Venom was inconsistent.

Venom would also inspire other characters at Marvel, Sabbertooth was an already established character but he took on more Venom traits alone with his original traits and Vengeance...the dark and gritty Ghost Rider..

Still like I Said not everything was perfect.
Venom had some duds in this era, from him being able to travel the internet, from how crazy he is, and some other stories. It still have it's fans and is fun but there are many odd bits.

Venom would wrap up in Finale, there were some good stories, the trial exploring how Eddie killed an innocent guard, planet of the symbiotes explored the origin of them, and he had minimal involvement with the clone saga besides getting his ass kicked by Ben.

Now we get to the LOW POINT of Eddie Brock. the John Bryne years. John Bryne is one of the old school fans who hated Venom and made him a joke in his time on the title. This also led to a story where his ex wife committed suicide.

This is the era I call the old school backlash era, many writer coming into write Spider-man HATED Venom because they did not grow up with him and HE WAS FROM the 90's, there was a serious backlash to 90's concepts in the early 2000's and Venom was a victim of this.

One example is Ultimate Green Goblin, Bendis HATED Venom himself and did not want to write him till he had a good idea, so to avoid it initially he Made Norman more like Venom to avoid having to write him in. Venom would later get adapted anyway.

Ultimate Venom was created to provide a more grounded Venom concept with him being a creation of Peter's father, Eddie's father also helped, I'm covering him mostly because some ideas made it into later adaptions, the video game.

Still Venom was EXTREMELY popular so even after everyone tried to sabotage him, he would show up later. Marvel even tried to move him away from Eddie Brock, with...his first real ongoing.

This attempt to turn Venom into a horror didn't work, for one it was called a rip off of the Thing, didn't have Eddie Brock till the final arc, and leave on a cliffhangar most of Marvel ignored. This was part of an initiative meant to make more Manga friendly titles.

*Exalted Explain?
Okay Marvel wanted to make more manga like titles so hired a bunch of artists with that style to make books. This is also where Runaways comes from. These were meant to be low continuity books but this proved to be bad for Venom despite lasting the longest.

Anyway this lead us to Paul Jenkins, his run introduce a major change to Eddie, Eddie had cancer. You see this change was meant to explain why Eddie needed the symbiote and was so erratic over the years. He also got a reworked origin in a mini called Dark Origin.

with all this going on with Eddie, it was decided to give the sybiote a new home, after selling it in auction to a mobster son who died in his first battle with Spider-man Mac Gargan the Scorpion got it.

Now it's hard to think about it now but Eddie was not Venom for a real long time after this, first Mac then Flash taking it away meant that well he was out as a character. Not to say he didn't do anything but he became very minor.

After a bit he became Anti Venom, the sybiote mixed in with his blood giving him this new form that could take Spider-man powers away, and Eddie was this reverse color version for a couple years, even showed up in a game.

after that Eddie was bonded to the Toxin symbiote....oh god Pat I miss you, you were never kill off on screen so maybe one day you can come back. Man you were cool. WHY CAN'T MARVEL SEE HOW COOL YOU WERE.

Venom would get some retcons, from Bendis which we will not mention because fuck Klyntars. After Flash the sybiote was given to Lee Price a character so unlikable to salvage the title they brought Eddie back.

and Eddie has been Venom since and this brings us to the modern day and the Donny Cates series.

The Donny Cates series is good despite some issues with the villain it does a good job at humanizing Brock, It gives him a lot of Pathos and drive. Venom deals with his secret son and the symbiote is more of a character then ever. It's not done yet either.

it might not be your cup of tea but it's definitely one of the high points of Eddie as Venom. Venom is a title that is ongoing now and it's hard to judge the overall since it's not done. But still it's a monthly I've been liking a lot.

Venom since he showed up has been one of the most important Spider-man characters often contrasting Peter in very many different ways. In fact he is very direct in this way then most others.

he's fallen on hard times and some more controversial adaptions. The Topher Grace one is a really close version of him in some ways except for the muscle. It's not the best but it has some charm.

Tom Hardy as Venom is weird for me, I enjoy the movie, but I see his Venom as Tom Hardy playing Travis Bickle, but the script of the movie says he more Peter Parker, like his performance goes against the story but I like it because of that.

the animated series is kind of the standard of what I see Venom as, hell even the 3rd movie was mostly adapting the story of the 90's show. He provides a good balance plus he's voiced by Homer Simpson himself(Hank Azaria)

whatever you think of Venom this is more of an introduction to him since he is a huge character, with many spiff off and great stories. He's a personal fave of many and he grown beyond just being a spider-man villain.

Still I imagine that there is always a villain story ready for him, Venom was one of the first villains who could take out the spider-sense since it can't detect him and he's made to mostly counter Peter.

Will he slide back to his old ways? Time will tell, but Venom now is one of Marvel major anti heroes, him and Peter go a long way, now if only Mary Jane could forgive him. I doubt will happen but Venom is on a long road to redemption.