Venom’s Movies Have Only Scratched The Surface Of What Makes Him Awesome

Venom’s Movies Have Only Scratched The Surface Of What Makes Him Awesome

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Despite Sony’s zany version of Venom endearing himself to audiences worldwide, Venom’s movies have only scratched the surface of what makes him great.

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Venom’s Movies Have Only Scratched The Surface Of What Makes Him Awesome

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

In the aftermath of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, it is a fair assessment to state that Venom’s movies have only just scratched the surface of what makes him such a beloved Marvel character. Venom 2’s initial success has surpassed all but the wildest of expectations, tying with its MCU counterpart Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings as the joint-quickest movie to gross $100 million in just five days in the pandemic era. The domestic box office reception of Let There Be Carnage in a pandemic landscape is in no small part owed to the enduring popularity of Venom, who has been one of Marvel Comics’ most popular IPs since his 1984 debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #252.

In both Venom movies to date, the Venom symbiote is portrayed as an antiheroic character who resolves to protect Earth after learning to love its inhabitants. In particular, his strange love story with primary host Eddie Brock makes Sony’s Venom a humorous entity that provides spades of comic relief to the already self-effacing franchise. Eddie and Venom’s odd-couple dynamic translates well onto the big screen, helped in no small part by Tom Hardy’s complete dedication to the role of a man who has fully embraced a life of symbiotic corruption.

Yet despite Sony’s Spider-Man universe incarnation of Venom garnering immense popularity, Venom’s movies have only begun to scratch the surface of what makes him awesome. Venom’s journey in Marvel Comics canon from a parasite twisted by revenge to a reborn antihero is completely passed over in Sony’s Venom universe, making his decision to fight crime with Eddie (and not other superheroes) far less impactful. Indeed, Venom feels as if he is missing swaths of backstory in the Sony-verse, with neither his Klyntar history nor his critical relationship with Spider-Man touched on as of yet.

Venom’s Klyntar History

Venom’s Movies Have Only Scratched The Surface Of What Makes Him Awesome

Venom leaves whole chunks of its primary character’s history unexplored with its decision to open the film with the Life Foundation’s probe discovering a comet filled with symbiotes. While an understandable decision most likely predicated on the fact that Sony’s Venom was not yet part of the MCU, Marvel Comics’ already established Venom history forms an integral part of his persona both in his un-bonded form and while merged with hosts. Venom, like all Klyntar (symbiotes), was created by the dark god Knull on a desolate planet with the sole purpose of conquering the universe. The Klyntar were designed to be parasitic in nature, imbuing the attached with strange powers while secretly feeding on their hosts to the point of death before choosing another vessel.

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Venom’s species history is critical to his character as he is the only Klyntar to oppose Knull’s will, choosing to co-exist with the life forms he bonds to and enhance them exponentially. As a result, Venom is banished from The-King-In-Black Knull’s symbiote kingdom as an aberration, highlighting his unique status as a benevolent entity years before his arrival on Earth. This backstory is essential to better understanding what makes Venom a special proposition in the Marvel universe and would also have been a much easier sell as to why Brock so easily persuades Venom to protect Earth. In short, Venom is the symbiote other Klyntar love to hate, and this fact would have also been a welcome inclusion to Let There Be Carnage’s slapdash handling of why Venom can ultimately best the vastly superior Carnage in battle.

Venom’s Character Journey

Venom’s Movies Have Only Scratched The Surface Of What Makes Him Awesome

Aside from the poignant ostracization from his home planet, Marvel Comics’ Venom goes through an arduous journey of self-discovery before becoming the willing antihero shown in Sony’s Venom/Spider-Man franchise. Venom’s first host on Earth is none other than Spider-Man, who casts aside the symbiote after being disgusted to learn it is a sentient creature that amplifies his more violent tendencies. Spider-Man tears the symbiote from his body atop a belltower, where unbeknownst to him, his journalistic rival Eddie Brock is waiting to commit suicide after being fired from The Daily Bugle. Venom senses Brock’s pain, bonding with him to save his life and absorbing Brock’s hatred from Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the process. Venom’s rivalry with Spider-Man is well documented in the Marvel comics, with the pair battling numerous times before Eddie Brock shuns Venom in fear of the monster he has become. It is only then that Venom, realizing he was used as a blunt instrument of Brock’s emotions after a defeat at the hands of Styx, returns to Eddie, with the pair resolving to fight crime to undo the damage they wrought on New York.

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Sony’s portrayal of Venom does away with this entire character arc in favor of promoting the idea that Venom and Brock are intrinsically “meant for each other.” Part of what makes Venom so appealing as an antihero is the spiritual awakening he has after a near-death experience, spurred on by his history with Spider-Man. By removing this dawning realization from the films’ equations alongside his primary nemesis, Venom’s character in Let There Be Carnage supporting and returning to Eddie feels very thin indeed. The unconfirmed Venom 3 may yet right these narrative issues given Venom 2’s bombshell post-credits scene, but for now, Venom’s motivations are reduced to the simplistic affection he has for his host.

Venom’s Superhero Hosts

In both Sony Venom installments to date, Venom has inhabited a tiny fraction of bodies compared with his extensive host catalog in the Marvel Comics canon. Indeed, Sony’s Venom has only bonded with human hosts so far, displaying the same characteristics whether with Anne Weying as She-Venom or his primary host Eddie. Yet one of Venom’s draws for his biggest supporters is his ability to bond with a litany of superheroes across Marvel history and produce fascinating symbiote permutations.

One of the best superhero bonding examples is Venom’s continued mergings with Thaddeus Ross’ Red Hulk, amplifying his powers exponentially. Venom’s symbiote potency mixed with Red Hulk’s gamma-powered strength enables the pair to literally enter Hell and stop the apocalypse from happening. These all-powerful pairings are an aspect of Venom’s Marvel story so far unexplored in the Sony-verse. Yet Venom’s confirmed entrance into the MCU could perhaps be a factor that can change this one-dimensional portrayal of the symbiote. With the MCU’s vast array of superhero teams currently active in Phase 4, it would be a crying shame not to see at least one multiverse incarnation where Venom ups the ante from Venom: Let There Be Carnage and bonds with an already superpowered host.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/venom-movies-awesome-character-ruined-potential/

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