#GiveAndiBentonBackHerSymbiote

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‘New’ Andi Benton Mania

Reworking an old art piece, this one took me a while because I started it before Venom Inc. rolled out and then felt too depressed to finish it. Well, i want to finish it now, because I like Andi, I want more Andi in my Marvel, and I want her back in her symbiote.

I’ll work on the colors later. Let’s get the hash tag trending.

#GiveAndiBentonBackHerSymbiote

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What annoys me the most about Andi not having a symbiote anymore, and the fact that her getting one again is looking more and more unlikely, is that it took away one of the things that made her unique as a character.

Not to say that Andi with fire powers isn’t cool, I mean, I’m at least grateful they didn’t completely de-power her, but what’s supposed to make Andi any different from all the other characters who have fire powers, (Firestar, Magma, Sunspot, Pyro, Human Torch, Hellstrom, etc) besides her Hellmark?

I mean, we have so many Spider-women and Spider-girls. Jessica, Mayday, Anya, Gwen, Silk, Ashley, hell, even Mary Jane Watson is a spider in another continuity.

When it comes to symbiote women, the list is limited, some of the notable ones were Scream, the two She-Venoms (Patricia Robertson and Anne Weying), and Scorn (I’m sure there was probably more). Doesn’t help that most of the women who wore a symbiote either wound up dead, or forgotten (does anyone know what happened to Scorn?).

What made Andi/Mania different was that, up until now, we never had a ‘symbiote girl’ before, we had several Spider-Girls but never a Venom Girl. 

What was one thing that stood out to me most about Agent Venom and Mania was that, for people who wore Venom suits, they had their own unique looks (Flash with his special ops outfit and Andi with all her spiked accessories and hair), rather than just being generic blacksuit spider-man duplicates. 

Andi had, essentially, lost everything when she became Mania, her dad, her home (yeah she did move in with her Aunt, but the point still stands), she used the symbiote as a way to cope with that loss. Flash even notes that Andi is a natural with it, and bonded much faster than other hosts. She had so much potential, she was something new, she IS something new, and Marvel squandered her. 

Since her first appearance back in Venom Vol.2 back in 2013, Andi’s only had three other appearances as Mania, one in Venom Space Knight (where she’s a plot device to motivate Flash back to Earth), Venomverse (where she actually got treated with a modicum of decency, thank you Mr. Bunn), and the recently concluded Venom inc. (where she’s once again used as a plot device, comes back and gets beaten up by Spider-man, gets pushed into the background, and then doesn’t get her symbiote back for literally no reason).

There is so much wasted potential with just leaving Andi on the shelf until it’s convenient to bring her back. So much wasted potential by leaving her symbiote with a character that no one asked for and who doesn’t deserve it. 

Marvel, you seriously need to stop wasting Andi and stop letting her fade into obscurity. Either give her symbiote back, give her another symbiote (either give her a piece of Anti-Venom or a new one), or, if you’re going to push the Hellfire thing, use her in a comic with the Ghost Rider or monster teams. Quit sidelining her until it’s convenient for you, quit taking away the things that make her stand out!

#GiveAndiBentonBackHerSymbiote

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Supposedly it’s ‘World Goth Day’, so what better way to celebrate than with my favorite Goth girl ^^

Pretty much just a spam of all my Mania pics on my hard drive.