The symbiosis of Venom and Rick Remender

When it comes to Marvel (and occasionally in DC), I have noticed a trend in my favorite characters: they all tend to be secondary versions of core Marvel heroes. Thor is fun, but Simonson's origins for Beta Ray Bill are the pinnacle of high-concept storytelling. She-Hulk stories may not have the same anguish and angst as her cousin Bruce, but she works great as standard character and even better when she used to break the fourth wall (well before Deadpool became the poster child). And personal favorite Man-Thing is, of course, the result of a failed attempt at recreating Cap's super-soldier serum (that one, admittedly, a more substantial deviation than the rest). However, growing up with Spider-Man in the late 80s and early 90s there is one who will always have a special place in my heart: Venom.

Well, not specifically Venom, and that's why I'm writing this post. Conceptually, I am a huge fan of the Black Costume/Symbiote, but the stories the character has been used in over the past 20 years have mostly been weak or laughable, a victim of the Extreme '90s dark ages. We're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, though, as Rick Remender takes over the character and gives him a chance at redemption.

Design-wise, I love the look of the Black Costume, I have the symbol on a hell of a lot of things around the house and my favorite iteration has always been Peter's original sleek, simple look over any of the Venoms who've come through over the years. Even more than that, the original Black Costume saga was maybe the first story that really got me into comics, spun down from the '90s animated series I grew up with, and definitely the source of my Marvel fanboyism. It's been redone in some form in nearly every iteration of Spider-Man; from the Ultimate and Marvel Adventure comics, the games, the TV series and, regrettably, that third movie, but those have always been decompressed to the extreme, always more about getting to Venom than the effect the suit had on Peter. Back in '84 (Amazing Spider-Man #252), Spider-Man was given a new costume and a new, or at least somewhat-altered, set of powers. This wasn't the first time a character had been revamped, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, and for a year this is established as the status quo. We see the effects the suit is having on Peter, and as far as the reader knew this was changing Spider-Man, not building to some fresh new villain. After the truth of the Symbiote is revealed and Spider-Man goes through the messiest break-up of his life that doesn't involve the literal devil, the creature, bitter from rejection, bonds to who will be revealed as the equally-bitter Eddie Brock. Though at the time it was undecided by the creative team who would be the mysterious aggressor working in the shadows, seemingly immune to Peter's Spider-Sense. Subtle hints are dropped, but no answers given until Amazing Spider-Man #299.

Almost four years after the Symbiote was initially introduced, we get our first real look at Venom. Todd McFarlane's initial design not to far removed from Peter in the costume, only larger and more imposing, more monstrous and with the obvious addition of the big fangly mouth, which would become as synonymous with the character as the white-spider symbol. This was before the standard became a hulking, dripping tar-beast, all splayed fangs and drippy, drooly tongue. The Symbiote isn't a twisted mirror-version of Spider-Man he's sometimes presented as (for a great version of that, see Phil Urich in Dan Slott's current run on Amazing), Venom is a mess of psychological issues and defense mechanisms given form, an obsessed stalker with misplaced rage. This was the culmination of a story of revenge, the Symbiote jilted and Brock's career in tatters, both blaming Spider-Man. Venom was never really more than just two people with an extreme (mostly misguided) grudge, and the relationship between the two could otherwise have been a great story of co-dependence and dysfunction if it wasn't between a man and his wardrobe. Unlike some of the Symbiote's progeny and despite the eventual moniker "Lethal Protector", Venom was never particularly about killing beyond Spider-Man, and anyone who got in his way reaching that goal. A bad guy, undoubtedly, but never a full-on super-villain, earning his '90s anti-hero badge (which I might join Foursquare for if they had one) teaming up with the "real heroes" to take down a greater evil, more often than not the Symbiote's various spawn. Unfortunately, being mostly in the '90s, a lot of these stories were pretty mediocre.

Throughout the decade, we saw Venom fighting a lot of his kids and kinsmen, that nigh-caricature of extreme violence Carnage being the only one with any real staying power (although on a  note parallel to the rest of this article, I am actually enjoying the Carnage mini currently being put out). Often times he was presented as a Punisher-type antihero, but he had just as many shakes as a villain. With each subsequent appearance, Venom himself became more monstrous, seemingly each artist trying to outdo the other one with bulk and teeth and dripping tendrils. But while the artists are ramping him up, the writers seem to stop caring. He slowly stops referring to himself as "we", possibly it can be argued as the Symbiote is singularly becoming more in control, but I have my suspicions it's because of laziness. Brock had a whole slew of Spider and alien powers but it feels like for years some of these were overlooked, ignored or forgotten. I'm probably wrong, but I don't know if the camouflage aspects of the suit had been used for at least 10 years before Remender's run. There was little to no consistency in appearances, and it seemed simply the writers had no idea what to do with the character. And so they instead decided to do everything.

The 2000's became the Symbiote's sleeping-around phase. After having one more kid that I think is still around, the chaotic-good policeman-Symbiote Toxin (a character I absolutely hate from a series I absolutely loathed), the Symbiote had another messy break-up and Brock was out as the host. His cancer, that the Symbiote had been keeping in check, came back and left him emaciated and dying in a hospital bed. In a series of wacky events involving Mr. Negative and one last late-night booty call from the Symbiote, Brock ended up cured of the cancer and, once again, became an anti-hero; this time the spindly, gangly white beast known as Antivenom, as opposite physically from the old Venom as it was otherwise seemingly the same damn thing. I will say this: I have never actually read an Antivenom story, so I can't really comment on the quality of the specific issues, but premise-wise it seems roughly the same as ever, although, according to Wikipedia, it has a "seemingly increased religious emphasis". He will be coming back in current Amazing Spider-Man issues before Infestation kicks off this summer so I'll see then.

Meanwhile, the Symbiote and its cuttings were bouncing from host to host with abandon. While it never quite hit the saturation of Zombies or Deadpool as a fad, "Venomizing" characters and things seemed to crop up pretty often in Marvel books for a while there. Doctor Doom dropped a "Venom bomb" on New York City in an Avengers title crossover, there were several issues with Symbiote-dinosaurs running around (the Venomsaurus in Old Man Logan mostly looking like someone tried to make a Cinnabon out of a T-Rex), and most mainstream heroes have been Venomed up at some point, with the game Web Of Shadows devoted entirely to the concept.
The main Symbiote, however, eventually found its rebound host in former and future Scorpion Mac Gargan. I don't think there was a single use of Gargan in the Venom suit I've read that I actually enjoyed. It was neither Gargan or Venom as we know them, but rather presented the Symbiote in charge as kind of a mindless murdermonster, very similar to the decharacterization Killer Croc has gone through post-Crisis. In the wake of Siege after Norman Osborn's plans are foiled and the Dark Avengers taken down, the Symbiote is stripped from Mac Gargan and, after a brief stint covering up Ms. Marvel, found itself in government custody, which leads us to today and what may be the first solid, clever premise for the character since the '80s.

Rick Remender, writer of Fear Agent and Uncanny X-Force, has proven he can take a character pretty well cemented in their wheelhouse, shove them in a completely foreign situation and make it not only work, but put out a brilliant book, either because of or in spite of the absurdity of it all. I speak, of course, of last year's Punisher storyline, Frankencastle. The series saw Remender killing Frank Castle at the hands of Wolverine's son Daken, dumping him in the middle of the remnants of Marvel's horror books hanging around New York's sewers and rebuilding him as a steampunk nightmare, sending one of Marvel's more reality-grounded characters off to fight Nazi zombies and samurai while riding a dragon. The series was a great albeit in no way traditional Punisher story and this provided a much-needed break away from the norm. It adds variety to the setting without straying too far from the character (and on a personal note it had what may have been the greatest Man-Thing scene to date: A giant Frankenstein's-Monster Punisher fastball-specialing Man-Thing at a dude in a helicopter who very clearly felt fear). When I heard he was taking on a Venom ongoing, both the kid in me and the modern, discerning comic reader in me got excited over the prospect, and the potential.
I gleaned that this was going to be a more heroic Venom, and from the first teaser image, still showing the giant, hulking Venom with a new host riding the Symbiote, I had originally guessed it was going to be Aleksei Sytsevich, the Rhino, taking on the role. Rhino had in his history more than few attempts at making him a sympathetic villain, not unlike similar attempts with Sandman that seemed to stick better, and recently been featured in a few excellent stories showing him in a more noble light. This Venom story could be his real go at redemption, and, after that scene in Origin Of The Species where Spider-Man actually talks his way out of a fight with Rhino (probably my favorite scene in that entire arc), it seemed entirely possible that Spidey and Rhino could have an uneasy understanding if not alliance. I was, as we now know, way off.

Remender's Venom, it came to be known, was a soldier's story; a black-ops, government-run Venom program. We saw the first concept art, the typical elements were there, black suit, bug-eyes, a new white-spider symbol reaching around the body, a sleek look harkening back to not Venom but the original Black Costume Spider-Man. This new Venom was also loaded down with body armor and firearms, however; in many ways this was something wholly new. And as such, the question of who was in the suit remained. It was eventually revealed to be Flash Thompson, and that was the final piece clicking into place, what made this concept genius. Flash Thompson's history is riddled with as many missteps, strange turns and retcons as any other comic book character, but in short, the one constant is that Flash is Spider-Man's biggest fan. A one-time antagonist of Peter Parker in high school, there had been ups and downs and amnesias but in the current post-Mephisto, Brand New Day era of Spider-Man he was one of Peter's best friends. As a soldier in Iraq (joining the army after being inspired by Spider-Man and looking to do his part), Flash loses both his legs. Following this, he has his share of demons, including alcoholism and anger issues, but still remains a stalwart Spider-Man fan. With echoes of Avatar, he is offered the use of legs once again if he's willing to do a few more missions with the military for a top-secret, experimental project, which of course involves donning the Symbiote and taking it on various high-risk missions. Flash accepts, jumping not only at the promise of getting to walk again but just as much having the chance to emulate his hero. Put through an extreme training regiment and even more extreme fail-safes if the Symbiote begins to take over (not-so-subtly hinting at the fate of the first soldier to participate in the program), Flash is made ready to be sent into active combat. The series combines classic elements of Venom, with a wholly new type of host for it, and thrust this perhaps-not-so-odd-couple pairing into relatively real-world (at least, in terms of Marvel comics) combat situations. It's a fairly fresh take on the Symbiote, with a more-than-competent team to make it work (in addition to Remender's writing, the new series sees frequent collaborator Tony Moore (Punisher, Walking Dead) on art).

As of this writing, we've seen the first two outings of Flash's expected twenty missions; first tracking down and rescuing a hostage in Amazing Spider-Man 654.1 (by current Spider-Man scribe Dan Slott and artist Humberto Ramos) and attempting to capture a scientist and keep his newly-weaponized Antarctic Vibranium out of enemy hands in Venom #1, respectively. In both we see how the Venom symbiote could be uniquely used in these situations, ranging from stealth to espionage to combat and so far only a few glimpses at how the pairing of Flash and the suit are affecting each other. Specifically, the suit's mostly just a suit as it once was with Peter, but when Flash's rage flares up and he loses control, we get a glimpse of the hulking, fangly monster still waiting underneath the surface. "We" instead of "I". Like what he did with Punisher, this is Remender handpicking elements from Venom's storied history that actually can work, jumbling them up and dumping them in unfamiliar but still somehow logical territory. A collision of fantastical and reality, this book is exactly the kick in the ass the Venom character needed to become interesting again.