venom characterization

[The Master Meglomaniac]

What is the best characterization for Venom: anti hero, sympathetic villain, total scuzz ball, etc.

[Rahul]

When I was younger I preferred the Venom with a twisted sense of justice.

When I got older, the all out psycho villain( with the same twisted sens of justice) seems much better....

[BlackToe]

I like a combination. Venom should still be a psuedo-anti hero, but still be a serious Spider-man villain and or rival. But they really dropped the ball with the insane bit and his origin.

[Venom]

The best characterization of Venom is a mix of his twisted sense of justice, anti-hero and a major villain and rival to Spider-Man. The only person that's ever managed to do this was David Michelinie.

[Rev. Calibos]

Sympathetic villain.

The Hero Killers story that ran through Spidey's annuals in '92 showed Venom's FIRST adventure after he got the suit.

His neighbor, and inventor, was killed for his invention. Venom goes after the killers and their employer, the employer destroys the invention telling Venom 'Ha! You got nothing for the cops, I destroyed the evidence!'

Of course Venom kills him.

The story was silly and a complete waste of time, but it shows us just what the problem there is with an 'anti-hero' Venom is that it dilutes his effectiveness as TWO indviduals that are obsessed with Spiderman.

He just HATES Spiderman.....but he hates crime just as much? That never made sense to me. I much prefer a Venom that's a twisted villain who's obsessed with Spiderman.

[littleredhat]

Personally I like it when Venom tries to be a hero and sees himself as a hero but due to the way he looks and behaves comes off as dark and funny and creepy.

Most people forget the dark humor in Venom's first incarnations but I miss it dearly. For example. Venom sang "strangers in the night" during his first team up with spidey against Carnage.

I prefer him as a creepy/funny monster that thinks he is a hero and has a fixation with Spider-man.

I believe Venom's main feature should be his creep factor. His looks and actions should make Peter more unsettled than anything else. His every action should be to shock,startle,freak out,wierd out or gross out those around him.

For an example see the season finale of Spectacular Spider-Man. When Spidey webs up Venom's mouth Venom simply grows a second larger one out of his stomache and continues to taught Spidey. Its scary and funny and gross and pure Venom.

[Venom]

How could I forget Venom's dark and twisted humour? That's one of his best character traits.

[spiderman_rj]

Dead ! that's what work best for him. he doesn't have a purpose at all,if someone with proper motivation became venom,than i could even acept the character.

[Alan2099]

Dead ! that's what work best for him. he doesn't have a purpose at all,if someone with proper motivation became venom,than i could even acept the character.

And what's proper motivation?

A guy that blames Spider-man for something that's in no way his fault mixed with an alien that hates Spider-man for not wanting to merge with it makes a nicely twisted irrational villain, if you ask me.

Better than Scorpion in an alien costume, at least.

[AbdulAziz]

Venom?
He's the annoying evil twin who can't stand seeing something bad happens to the innocents.

a.k.a (psycho antihero)

[Kerny]

I like him as a villain, who blames everything on Peter/Spidey no matter what.

Like in Sensational 38-39 Eddie says something like: "so now I got cancer and I'm dying, I haven't figured out how thats Parker's fault, but it is"

[Assassin Spider]

Anti-villain works well.

For those of you wondering what that is, an anti-villain is the inverse of the anti-hero. Whereas the anti-hero is a protagonist/hero with traits more befitting a villain or generally unheroic, the anti-villain is an antagonist/villain who possesses sympathetic and even somewhat noble qualities. If you mix and match the better elements from all the interpretations of Venom that have appeared, from the 616 comics to 90s TAS to Ultimate to SM3 to Spec TAS, you can conceivably get a Venom that operates like an anti-villain. A character who possesses a desire to do good but is derailed by his insecurities, anger, and general inability to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. In another light, he could be almost a tragic hero, a character who may not be a wholly bad person but who sets himself up for his own downfall.

But that's just my take. Feel free to rip me apart.

[BlackToe]

Sympathetic villain.

The Hero Killers story that ran through Spidey's annuals in '92 showed Venom's FIRST adventure after he got the suit.

His neighbor, and inventor, was killed for his invention. Venom goes after the killers and their employer, the employer destroys the invention telling Venom 'Ha! You got nothing for the cops, I destroyed the evidence!'

Of course Venom kills him.

The story was silly and a complete waste of time, but it shows us just what the problem there is with an 'anti-hero' Venom is that it dilutes his effectiveness as TWO indviduals that are obsessed with Spiderman.

He just HATES Spiderman.....but he hates crime just as much? That never made sense to me. I much prefer a Venom that's a twisted villain who's obsessed with Spiderman.

Yeah, they could've done that way better. And in better fashion, but at least it got the point across, that Venom isnt Spider-man.

I would' like to view Venom as a more saner, darker character with obsessive issues over Spider-man. Since watching the new cartoon, they should print out a letter sheet with; "Hello Venom fans. I know we dont do the revision retcon origins, but we all know that he needs to be repaired, you know it, we at Marvel know it. So we're going to go with *insert better Ultimate origin synopsis for Eddie here*. Sorry for wasting your time in the 90's"

Or they can copy the HUGELY successful cartoon origin which had a mix of Ultimate and 616.

Personally I like it when Venom tries to be a hero and sees himself as a hero but due to the way he looks and behaves comes off as dark and funny and creepy.

Most people forget the dark humor in Venom's first incarnations but I miss it dearly. For example. Venom sang "strangers in the night" during his first team up with spidey against Carnage.

I prefer him as a creepy/funny monster that thinks he is a hero and has a fixation with Spider-man.

I believe Venom's main feature should be his creep factor. His looks and actions should make Peter more unsettled than anything else. His every action should be to shock,startle,freak out,wierd out or gross out those around him.

For an example see the season finale of Spectacular Spider-Man. When Spidey webs up Venom's mouth Venom simply grows a second larger one out of his stomache and continues to taught Spidey. Its scary and funny and gross and pure Venom.

I loved that scene. I thought it might've been too scary/creepy for the younger viewers who are the primary demographic. But scenes like that make them think that its not a kids show. And they want to see more.

But Marvel should definitely try to input that back into the comics. But not with the Gargen Venom. I cant see Scorpion having that kind of twisted Spider-man quip humour.

Anti-villain works well.

For those of you wondering what that is, an anti-villain is the inverse of the anti-hero. Whereas the anti-hero is a protagonist/hero with traits more befitting a villain or generally unheroic, the anti-villain is an antagonist/villain who possesses sympathetic and even somewhat noble qualities. If you mix and match the better elements from all the interpretations of Venom that have appeared, from the 616 comics to 90s TAS to Ultimate to SM3 to Spec TAS, you can conceivably get a Venom that operates like an anti-villain. A character who possesses a desire to do good but is derailed by his insecurities, anger, and general inability to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. In another light, he could be almost a tragic hero, a character who may not be a wholly bad person but who sets himself up for his own downfall.

But that's just my take. Feel free to rip me apart.

Anti-Villain is actually a pretty good classification.

[hunter_peterson]

For him to be an anti-villain, he'd have to intend to do bad things for good reasons, of which he has an epic lack.

Magneto is an anti-villain, Venom is a psycho Spidey.

Psycho villain all the way!

[matthewaos]

Anti-villain works well.

For those of you wondering what that is, an anti-villain is the inverse of the anti-hero. Whereas the anti-hero is a protagonist/hero with traits more befitting a villain or generally unheroic, the anti-villain is an antagonist/villain who possesses sympathetic and even somewhat noble qualities. If you mix and match the better elements from all the interpretations of Venom that have appeared, from the 616 comics to 90s TAS to Ultimate to SM3 to Spec TAS, you can conceivably get a Venom that operates like an anti-villain. A character who possesses a desire to do good but is derailed by his insecurities, anger, and general inability to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. In another light, he could be almost a tragic hero, a character who may not be a wholly bad person but who sets himself up for his own downfall.

But that's just my take. Feel free to rip me apart.

I like that. Though I have been really bored on him. I think Gargan may developed as something interesting.

[ShadowSonic]

I think his problem is that he has no ambitions beyond killing Spidey. Norman and Ock work because they have ambitions beyond that.

So make him into a dark Robin Hood type who steals from bad guys and good guys, though mainly all for himself. Of have him get involved in bigger crime schemes or manipulations or something.

Hell, why not have him declare war on Norman as well so he can be the only one who knows Peter's secrets.

[littleredhat]

I mined my photobucket and found these scans that I think capture Venom best.

They are from his early apearances of course.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l240/littleredhat/venomsing.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l240/littleredhat/AmazingSpider-Man317_02.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l240/littleredhat/eddiecloths.jpg


The real reason for the '90s comic boom.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l240/littleredhat/venompet.jpg

[Nefarius]

I
The real reason for the '90s comic boom.

And ironically,one of the reason why mid-90s comic book sucks(but to be fair,it's more of bad editorial decisions and bad writing).

[ShaggyB]

The real reason for the '90s comic boom.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l240/littleredhat/venompet.jpg

Sorry i cant read this thread anymore, im too busy buying the issue to protect my dog. lol

[Venom]

Sorry i cant read this thread anymore, im too busy buying the issue to protect my dog. lol

Oh my God! That crazy son of a bitch just ate my dog! :biggrin:

[Sir Roman Frost]

Venom actually should of have had his own arc and then died. Really after enough issues he got boring. He fought Spider-Man then went to Jail and escape to fight Spider-Man (again) and go back to jail (again). Process repeats itself about 5 times until readers get board.

Then they tried the 'Lethal Protector' stunt which was extremely lame. It also introduced and even lamer villain: Carnage.

[Maestro]

Venom should be a scary villian, not someone you can root for!

[Sean Whitmore]

I gotta be honest, I'm surprised that so many replies have been favorable towards the "anti-hero/sympathetic villain" angle. I'm not judging, I just thought it was majority opinion that that was when the character started going downhill.

Personally, when I boil Venom down to what I think makes him work, he's a super-powered stalker. Two stalkers, actually; the jilted ex-lover and, perhaps even more frightening, the psychotic complete stranger who you don't even realize you've angered until it's too late.

I think adding to that just waters down the concept. And I'm looking at Paul Jenkins as I say that, who took what was a unique idea (like or dislike Venom, you have to give Micheline that, I think) and tried to turn it into a bog-standard case of alien possession.


SEAN

[Darkhalen]

When I was younger I preferred the Venom with a twisted sense of justice.

When I got older, the all out psycho villain( with the same twisted sens of justice) seems much better....


Same here, i also liked his wit and puns...and the abilitys he could use.

I like him more as a pure psycho villain then an anti-hero though.