#eddie's relationship with the symbiote is not the same as peter's. when it does something unexpected it makes him *worry* about it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

anisecandy · 3 years

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Why won’t you just take your time?

Summary: Peter has troubles figuring out how to navigate through a relationship one third of which is an extraterrestrial pile of goo.

Words count: 2.4 k (not proof-readed)

Genre: Romance, Developing relationship

Rating: M/16+ (Sex mentioned and discussed without explict details. Kids, you might want to skip this one!)

Author’s note: Again, this is the first draft. I didn’t intend to do anything for today’s prompt buuuut- well, here we are. The prompt being “BODY”, we’re taking quick a look at how symbiote’s bodies would work in a (sexual) relationship + how does Peter feel about them in such context, and how he feels about feeling the way he feels. Yes, this was a sentence you’ve just read. Anyway, enjoy!

He’s been used to the fact that Eddie and the Symbiote shared minds. It was something he’s been aware of way before they even started considering being on any terms besides hostile. Not that it wasn’t sometimes confusing, when in the middle of a conversation Eddie forgot Peter can’t hear his Other and referred to its words without passing them to him first. Or when sometimes the persons he’s been talking to switched out of nowhere, or merged in one. Still, he’s been getting better at navigating their talks through context based guesswork, and they’ve been getting better at including him too. Sometimes it meant that the Symbiote emerged to personally engage, usually though Eddie just repeated to him whatever it wanted to share. It wasn’t very talkative, after all, preferring to communicate through emotions, images and memories. At first it was quite annoying and tiresome, but with time Peter started to enjoy observing how this part of their bond worked. There was something deeply fascinating in how comfortable they were with all the emotions and sensations freely flowing through one to another, sometimes so much so that it was impossible to separate them as coming from two different beings. And well, it was also funny to listen to only Eddie’s part of conversations, when they were chatting about something unimportant, that didn’t involve him. Peter could never fully understand how he could be so comfortable talking out loud, seemingly to himself, when everyone around could hear him. Then again, Eddie was a bit… specific. Peter wouldn’t be surprised if he actually did talk to himself a lot even prior to becoming a host.

It was sharing the body that he needed the most time to adjust to. Well, in a way, they all did.

Main reason behind this was probably that while he had never exactly granted the Symbiote access to his thoughts, their bond stayed skin deep after all, he did share his body with it. At least, the way he understood it. So he assumed in this aspect things looked similar between the two of them, as they did between the Symbiote and himself. Venom was a strange construct, but it seemed to be just a costume, with extra tongue and teeth and some super power boosts. Except Eddie just casually used Symbiote’s tendrils in daily life, both as limbs and receptors. They “saw” him approach even when Eddie’s eyes were looking somewhere entirely different. And his Other didn’t mind borrowing his body in the same way, whenever it wanted to do something without physically manifesting outside of it. Peter often had late night conversations with it, while Eddie was already asleep, which wouldn’t be too creepy, if not for the fact that it sometimes used his lips for it. Stumbling upon it, going out for a walk in an unconscious body, or using his hands whenever he was preoccupied with something that didn’t require both of them was equally unsettling.

He didn’t expect at all that it would also influence the way they interacted. The first time when while Eddie and he held hands, Symbiote bled between their fingers, Peter startled everybody in the cafe they were in with a high pitched shriek. He didn’t fall off the chair only because they caught him in time. At this point, he was still beginning to learn understanding and accepting it. He was still learning how to love it. And unlike Eddie, he wasn’t exactly… attracted to it. He could finally see it for the kindhearted, intelligent and incredibly sweet creature it always was, but… the part about it also being a blobby alien slime still disturbed him. It was so incredibly different, so very unlike anything else in his whole world. Sharing his everyday life with it and all of the strangeness it brought with itself turned out to take him way longer to get accustomed to than he anticipated. Way longer, then he would ever be willing to admit to them, truth be told.

Nonetheless, with time, he grew fond of being embraced with hundreds of inky threads or being squished into Eddie’s enormous body, as it tried to “cuddle” with them, playing the role of a possessive blanket. Even its, and sometimes Venom’s... “kisses” in the end became something he could go through without wincing, although the amount of green drool those inflicted onto his poor hair and clothes never cease to amaze.

And then they started being intimate with each other. And Eddie had a panic attack after the two of them had gotten too excited and let some tendrils reach for him. At least, Peter thought it was Eddie, since he wasn’t sure if the Symbiote was capable of experiencing one. Either way, they both seemed extremely distressed and for a few days refused talking about what happened at all. When they finally opened up, the incident they told him about was presented without any further details, unclear and only half-explained. What he managed to gather was that the last time they were together with another human, she was terrified and disgusted with them when the Other got itself involved. For some reason, they seemed to feel deeply guilty about it and insistently emphasized that they were very sick at the time. Whatever exactly happened, apparently left them quite traumatized. Peter spent the better part of the afternoon running fingers through their hair, convincing he loves both of them and has no intention of running away screaming.

So from then on, he had a new thing to getting used to, namely at first slow and uncertain, then excited and eager incorporation of tentacles in their bedroom activities. Looking back, it was very tame, with only a couple present at time, and Eddie looking fully human. Even so, Peter thought it was a deeply sweet phase of their relationship, experimentary and vulnerable. And awkward, oh so very awkward. They were testing the water, setting boundaries, exploring each other’s likes and dislikes. Exploring each other’s physique as well. The first time the Symbiote fully joined them for the night, Peter ended up alarmed to the core, certain that something went wrong, when near the end of their love-making its tendrils began losing shape and reaching almost liquid state. Only after Eddie’s reassurance, that it simply gets overwhelmed with stimuli, not being naturally made for sexual pleasure, he could breath a sigh of relief. Peter couldn’t help, but found it curious how, despite being asexual, it still seeked this type of experience. When he shared his thoughts with Eddie though, he was mostly amused by them.

“It likes the chemicals the brain releases”, he explained. “Besides, sex is as much about emotions as it is about anything else, you know that Peter, right? Even without having the physical needs, it still can make you feel close to your partner. Or you might want to do it, because pleasing the other person makes you happy. You are aware people can work like this too, aren’t you?”

Peter escaped the conversation feeling embarassed and stupid.

There were so many things Eddie understood or accepted as simply natural, that confused Peter. Peter was supposed to be the smart one here, he had a goddamn doctorate in biochemistry! And way more experience with relationships. And yet, here they were, Eddie enjoying being infuriating and he feeling small-minded and frustrated.

Well, we would still take it over the apprehension that overtook him when soon after that conversation he had walked in on them enjoying each other. It took his brain a while to make sense of all the grotesque shapes he accidentally stumbled upon. The construct of black, rippling and changing, with multiple mouths sprouting at random, cocooned around Eddie’s body. Teeth brushing over his flushed skin, claws, way too many claws, tucked away in his hair, clenching his neck. Honestly, it was body horror more than anything else he could compare it to. The only part that didn’t fit this picture was Eddie’s blissful expression, eyes foggy with lust and love, god, so much love for it, and quiet sighs and moans colored with the same emotions.

As soon as his reflexes kicked in, Peter screamed an apology and shut the door so fiercely, that he most likely broke its frame. He didn’t look back to check. His whole body was trembling, as he ran, out of the apartment, out of the building, just out, just away. Embarrassment, disgust and-

God.

He loved it. He loved it. He loved it too! And yet, and yet…

He stopped a couple of blocks away, leaning over a wall to catch a breath, waiting for the nausea to pass. It was himself he should be disgusted with. And he was. He couldn’t believe that this was his reaction upon seeing them… Upon seeing it. How could he be scared of it? It was… no matter how it looked, it was still dear to him. That’s right, this shouldn’t matter. It didn’t.

Sometimes he was jealous about how Eddie managed to make things work with it, so easily, while he never could.

“It wasn’t easy”, it reminded him, at that time, when a week or so later, they had been strolling through the night, taking advantage of the fact that the streets were too empty for anybody to notice how Eddie’s eyes were lacking pupils. “Took a lot of work.”

“I don’t know, I think you’ve hit it off pretty quickly”, he noticed, as he was marching forward, barely looking up from his feets.

“At first, yes,” it hummed softly. “Didn’t last. Were happy at first, and worked well together, true. But were bad for each other. Hurt Eddie a lot. Eddie hurt me, too. Had to change. Had to do better. Move past hatred.” It looked at him, placing their hand on his shoulder with gentleness contrasting the blankness of their face. “Learned this from you.”

Peter’s head snapped up, as his cheeks were dyed with pink.

“Me? You- Do you mean it?”

It made a sound that came out all gargled up and wrong, making him flinch in spite of himself.

“And Flash. Mostly Flash, to think about it more.”

Peter opened his mouth and then huffed in disbelief. This bastard was laughing!

“Now that’s just-”

“Joking. Flash helped too, but you were the first one to show what’s important. Wasn’t for you, might get nowhere.”

Their arm made its way around his waist and it pulled him a bit closer, till it could clumsily press their mouth and nose to his forehead. He giggled, like a lovestruck high schooler. But that honestly was its fault, not his, for being this endearing.

“So… you don’t think I’m… I dunno…”, he scratched the back of his neck, unable to stop nervous grin from contorting his lips. “...bad boyfriend? Although I need to- I mean- Although I can’t- Goddamn it!”

He took a deep breath and ran hands over his face. The Symbiote patiently waited for him to continue.

“Look, you deserve somebody who would just take you as you are, okay? Somebody who would get you. And not… get weirded out and confused about everything.”

“New situation for you. You need time, it’s normal”, it pointed out.

“Well, so it was for Eddie, and he… he was just a normal guy. I’m dealing with all kinds of-”, he bit his tongue, before “strange” could escape him, ”-paranormal stuff everyday. But he was able to get in sync with you right away and I… I can’t.”

It stopped in its tracks, making him lose balance for a moment, since their arm was still on mis waist. Its free hand raised up slowly, to brush over his cheek and then to cup his face.

“You’re not Eddie, Peter.”

His breath hitched and he had to blink a few times, to chase away sudden tingling in his eyes.

“Yeah, well- Thanks God for that, right? World can’t barely deal with one jerk of this caliber, with two of them, their egos would fill about all the possible space!” He tried to smile, but the joke he cracked came out weakly.

It “laughed” again, shaking their head.

“You’re you, Peter. I love you for you. No need to be like Eddie.”

With a poorly hidden sniff, he leaned his head on their chest, letting himself be hugged and rocked softly, as the Symbiote purred quietly into his ear. After a few minutes, he gave it a firm squeeze and smile, this time sincere and with warmth dancing all over his eyes.

“Let’s go home. I want to make love to you,” he said, ghosting with fingers over their lips.

“Eddie won’t be happy about being woken up”, it warned, but let itself be pulled away on the way back to their flat.

“Let him sleep.” He gave it a wide grin, blushing with deep red. “I said I want to make love to you, didn’t I?”

Their eyes widened, for the first time tonight bringing any visible emotions to their face.

“Just me?” It seemed to not believe what it heard.

Peter nodded.

“Yeah. Just you. I think… Yeah, I’m ready for this. Sorry for keeping you waiting.”

It stayed silent for a moment, but then, when he was the least suspecting it, it lifted him up in the air. They didn’t look very human anymore, flesh distorted with patches of black and teeth way too sharp in a smile that had no right stretching this much. To Peter’s credit, it made his heart skip only a few beats.

“No reason to say sorry.”

He took their face into his palms, which were slightly too cold and too sweaty right now. His eyes nervously took the sight in for a moment, before he slowly nodded to himself.

“...Let’s hurry up and get him to bed, so we can have our fun.”

And he kissed its maw.

“Better idea,” it dragged its tongue over his jaw and then pressed their foreheads together. “Place Eddie on the couch. He can sleep no problem anywhere. Get the bed for ourselves, more comfortable this way.”

He hummed in agreement.

Anxiety bagan to bubble in his chest but for some reason, it didn’t bother him much this time. Maybe it was okay, if he was a bit scared. More than a bit. But maybe it was okay, if they didn’t always click easily.

As long as they loved each other and he worked through his prejudices- Well, who knows? They might just be perfectly happy together. And that was something he was willing to take risks for.

#spidervenom #spideyvenom #symbruary #venom #spider-man #venom symbiote #peter parker #eddie brock #marvel comics #my writing #fanfiction

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years

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PARTY FAVOURS I CHAPTER 34

💖 first time reader click here 💖

A little bit of plot, but mostly ironstrange x reader filthy porn. Bukkake stuff. Stephen finally opening up a lil bit, I mean... I've slept through a 1/3 of a hospital and lemme tell you, doctors are kinky bastards. On the same note, there's definitely going to be a chapter where all three men are involved after the plot shit is resolved.

There was something big brewing. I had a hunch... which was more like a strong sense of doom... hanging over me and the rest of the world. Peter also had noticed the sudden spike in anxiety, quoting the sudden disappearance of many low-tier mutants from the streets. Usually, Peter dealt with at least a few enhanced enemies during his patrols but the closer it got to Christmas, the less enhanced bothered with small-time crimes, the more intense the buzzing of his Spidey sense became.

Now that my immediate lack of income wasn't a problem anymore, I set business onto that damn mercenary. I was no spy, I was no SHIELD operative but... I could be very clever.

First things first, I had to make sure I would stay alive no matter what. A subdermal tracker was a good guarantee of security and I spent many hours making one - having to keep it a secret was incredibly hard, I hated lying to my loves and I hated avoiding Wanda even more - I was constantly on the edge around the telepath, hyperfocused on keeping up the pretense of normalcy.

I wouldn't be me if I couldn't successfully pull off a whole ass façade. Unfortunately, the continued failures of the people searching left and right for the mercenary only fueled my strength for the inevitable fuck-fest that I would have to create in order to make sure my people get the peace they fucking deserve. The web of lies grew in size every damn day.

Subdermal tracker, an implant that reports directly to Friday upon activation. It hurt like a bitch - I had cut myself open, an inch wide gash on the inside of my forearm - and put it in without any anesthesia in my own bathroom, not even thinking twice before making up a lie that I had been careless in the lab and hurt myself.

An antidote to common tranquilizers, creating it gave me a headache the size of Moscow but I'd been successful; Tony assembled the whole team when he found it out, offering me a ridiculous amount of money for the formula. It was weird. SHIELD was interested, too, and I had to witness Tony and Coulson argue. Apparently, the agency wanted to recruit me and Tony was adamantly against it, totally forgetting the promise Natasha had given me. In the end, the spy and Coulson shared a quiet conversation and the man left, respectfully complimenting my skills.

I sold the formula to Stark Industries, unable to get rid of the weirdness of the situation. I had to shake hands with my own boyfriend and his ex-girlfriend... In a business setting. What. Just what. Bucky and Stephen couldn't stop laughing at the face I made all throughout that day - and Clint even went as far as to bake me a gag cake, a cartooney handshake drawn in frosting on top of it. I hit him with a spatula, Loki smiled in his direction for the first time in, like, ever. It was a trip and Tony had way too much fun with the incident.

Perhaps, turning myself into a cyborg stew wasn't the best plan that was possible to think up in a few weeks' time but I've never claimed to be exceptionally intelligent; if anything, I've always considered myself to be a moderately educated idiot. It is common knowledge that there are two halves of a whole idiot: my second half was on his way from California, having had received my very detailed e-mail about the whole cursed box fiasco and the consequences that followed. I could barely contain my excitement at the prospect of seeing uncle Eddie and his symbiote again.

Tony wasn't even half as excited; if anything, he bordered on outright hostile, bickering, and sassing everybody left and right. It could have been the situation at hand finally getting on his last nerves. It could have been his jealousy, the same that appeared every time I paid extra attention to someone that wasn't him, Bruce or Stephen. Either way, Bruce was sighing all the time now and Stephen's remarks began to fill with poison once again.

Just like the good old times, I guess. I was forced to pull a Me over and over, interrupting their petty arguments with increasingly absurd remarks. I felt like everybody was laughing at me these days, which ended in only one way it could have...

"Brat," Stephen's patience was paper-thin and, being forcefully distracted from yelling at Tony, he directed his angst at the nearest person - me. "I oughta put you over my knee. I swear to Cosmos..."

"Blah, blah, blah. Don't you ever get tired of listening to yourself talk?" I raised my eyebrows, tone deceptively calm. "You're talking too much for someone who can't even..." I didn't get to finish my sentence, suddenly finding my mouth firmly glued shut. It was magic - the sensation was pulling, but not unpleasant. Reminded me of a ball gag Tony had used on me in the early days of our relationship.

"Now, Dumbledore, hold your horses..." Tony interjected looking none-too-happy. The engineer placed a warning arm on the sorcerer's bicep, their little spat seemingly forgotten.

"What, Tony? She's been nothing but a mouthy urchin the past few days, I can't stand it anymore," They shared a meaningful look; no matter how much Tony wanted to argue, he knew Stephen was right. What he didn't know was that there probably have been a magic versus science altercation... Or worse. Humiliation was a small price to pay for some (relative) peace.

I did what I do best. I annoyed them further, throwing up a juicy middle finger to the two men and turned around with a huff, mind set on finding Loki to undo the mute ban Stephen gave me. Needless to say, I didn't make it very far.

In mere seconds, I was sandwiched between the two men, Stephen's finger delicately holding my chin to force me to look into his eyes. Tony was holding onto my shoulders from behind me - I could feel the tension, my engineer was almost buzzing with it. I was pretty sure my eyes were laughing anyway because Stephen's frown slowly transformed into a coy smirk once his stormy blues focused on my face.

"Brat," He repeated once again. "She's doing this on purpose."

"I can't say I'm surprised," Tony's breath tickled the nape of my neck. "That does sound like our little Princess," Apparently, it took all of a 0.1 second for Tony to switch from annoyed to horny. Men, they were so easy to play. "Baby, if you wanted our attention you could have just said so," He chastised me, hands sliding down to my waist.

I hummed, and then aggressively hummed some more until Stephen removed the magical gag. "Not like you'd notice it, being occupied with tearing each other's hair out," I pouted.

The sorcerer briefly averted his eyes, leaning down to softly kiss my pout. It was very unlikely I'd get an actual apology but a kiss I won't be complaining about either. "So, your best tactic was to annoy us even more? How does that work out for you?"

I pulled on the tied fabric around his waist, bringing him closer to me. "Pretty good, if I'm being honest. You're exactly where I wanted you to be," Carelessly, I began untying the layers of silks and cotton I had become intimately familiar with over the course of the past few weeks. Most of the time Steph wore his wizard garbs and while figuring out how to undo them was a trip at first, I had gotten him desperate enough a few times, for him to show me a few tips and tricks for easier access.

Tony snorted somewhere behind me. "You just want us for our bodies," His hands wormed their way under my shirt, brushing the underside of my breasts. Bra? Hardly know her. "Our beautiful, sexy bodies." Yes Tony, very humble.

"When will you learn, people?" I asked rhetorically, simultaneously leaning into both Tony's and Stephen's touch. "Why fight each other when you could be fucking me into oblivion instead?"

Stephen snorted, still not completely used to the at times crude things that left my (and occasionally Tony's) mouth. I had a hunch the sorcerer was holding back somewhat - for whatever reason - and I was eagerly waiting for him to get comfortable enough to reveal that special part of himself. Whatever it was, I just knew it was delicious and sinful and-

"Do you really think I will be giving you what you want after your little... Stunt?" Steph went balls out; his voice dropped and the intensity of his stare left me breathless. The hand that was stroking my face wrapped around my throat as he had some sort of a silent conversation with Tony.

"Yeah," I emphasized the word with an inaudible 'duh' behind it but obediently trotted along as Stephen backed up towards the couch, leading me by the throat like a pet on a leash. I was steadily going into 'no thoughts, head empty' territory.

"I like it when you get all bossy," Tony remarked casually but he was close enough for me to hear the strain in his voice. Every time we fucked, Tony eagerly gave up the control to Stephen. I definitely saw the appeal. Stephen Strange demanded authority effortlessly, his stern but fair attitude simply demanded to kneel.

That's just what I did. As soon as Stephen made himself comfortable on the Italian leather couch, I dropped to my knees, looking up at the man with big round eyes. Just like Tony and Bruce, Stephen had his own weaknesses when it came to moi and I wasn't ashamed to exploit them. Steph's stroked my hair, carding careful fingers through it, slowly unbuttoning his pants with his other hand.

"If you insist on being mouthy, I have a better task for you," He husked, pulling me closer towards him. I called it his doctor voice. Honestly, I don't have a clue how his surgical team could be around him with their pants on back in the day... The man was a snack on a silver platter.

Steph's erection sprang free. I didn't hesitate to wrap my hand around it, stroking the underside of his glans just like he liked it, looking to the side where Tony landed on the couch next to Stephen, a curious look on his face. Yeah, Tony liked to watch. Me and Stephen or me and Bruce... Me and Stephen and Bruce? That's an idea for later.

"Don't mind little old me," Tony smirked his trademark Stark mischief, getting comfortable, ditching his oil-stained shirt and unbuttoning his pants to lazily palm himself through his boxers. "Carry on," The smirk only grew when Tony noticed both me and Steph eyeing him with amusement.

I hid my grin, nodding my head, before wrapping my lips around the tip of Stephen's cock, relaxing my throat to prepare for the intrusion. Sweet and salty, the slit on his cockhead was mercilessly teased by the tip of my tongue.

Stephen murmured encouragements under his breath as I began to bob up and down, him controlling the pace with a hand in my hair, just the right balance between cruel and gentle. The sorcerer was always too good to me, bringing me to the point of overstimulation and instantly soothing the ache afterward; "Fuck, darling, your mouth feels like heaven," He groaned as I snuck a look upwards to see his lips parted and a steady flush crawling up his neck.

"She knows how to work a man, doesn't she?" Tony's lust had him panting, hips moving into his own hand. He leaned closer to Stephen, brushing my hair behind my ear with a tender hand. "Merlin needs to share," Tony began pulling me in his direction. I reluctantly let go of Stephen's cock, keeping up the pace with my hand as I scooted closer to Tony to be able to mouth at his stiff erection.

Watching me suck cock always got Tony hard enough to pound nails with. I couldn't blame him, I knew what I could do and did well; by the time I made my way down his thick flesh, drool was dripping down my chin and the make-up around my eyes was surely smeared by tears. My engineer was much less gentle than Steph, pounding my face without reservations.

"I know you can take it, baby girl, fuck," My face was held in his strong grip, thumbs digging into my jaw. "Such a good girl," The two words went straight down to my pussy and I had to squirm and clench my thighs together, whining at the lack of friction.

The air was pierced by a low moan - Stephen was fisting his erection almost desperately now, almost as desperately as I was humping the air, whining like a bitch in heat at the taste of Tony's cock in my mouth. I knew neither of the men would last long, not with all that pent up tension running through their minds and bodies.

"Fuck, come here, baby girl," The engineer yanked me off his cock, gripping the base of it so forcefully his knuckles turned white. I was all but dragged into the space between them; still kneeling, barely seeing with snot and tears smeared all over my face, I couldn't hold in the broken moan as the realization set in.

"Keep your eyes open!" Steph instructed furiously, scooting to tower over me. Tony followed in his steps as I obediently lifted my eyes to their cocks and then their faces; nearly identical furrowed brow expressions stared back at me, lips moist and eyes wide. Both men stroked themselves with renewed vigor.

I hummed softly before sticking out my tongue; their reaction didn't let me wait long. Strings of pearly white cum landed in my hair, on my face; I felt the warmth on my skin and tasted their salt and musk on the tip of my tongue, reflexively swallowing each and every drop that landed in my mouth, savoring it just like I savored the sinful groans that left their mouths.

"Fuck, you're so good to us," Tony panted, gracelessly falling backward onto the couch.

Stephen, however, didn't hurry to catch his breath, giving me a thoughtful look. His fingers shook more than ever but he paid no mind to the discomfort, gathering the cum dripping down my face with two fingers and offering it to me, holding them up to my lips as I gently cleaned them off. And he did it again, and again, until Tony gave a weak moan of recognition, throwing an arm under his head.

"Be polite, Princess," Stephen's voice hadn't lost the lust in it just yet.

"Thank you, sir," I mumbled, utterly captivated by the way he was looking at me. Stormy blues radiated a strong sense of intensity, devotion perhaps, that I wasn't ready for.

Stephen smiled at me, almost coyly, before kneeling right next to me and bringing me over the edge with a few sharp, clever movements of his hand. I held onto his shoulders for dear life, barely noticing Tony's reaction - if there was one - my other lover seemed to be as surprised as I was, choosing to hang back and observe the unusual situation.

I had a feeling that whatever it was, it would make another appearance during our playtime. It wasn't just sex, it wasn't making love - it was... Something. I loved every second of it.

@another-stark-sub @mostly-marvel-musings @vozit @littlegasps @pilloclock @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads @hermione-grangers-wife @individualistfem @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby @romeo-the-cactus @jelly-fishy-babie @mikariell95 @gladiosamicitias @toomanyrobins @i-cant-hangout-im-drumming

#bun writes #party favours #tony stark x reader x stephen strange #Tony Stark x reader #bruce banner x reader #stephen strange x reader #tony stark x you #bruce banner x you #stephen strange x you #tony stark x y/n #bruce banner x y/n #stephen strange x y/n #tony stark smut #stephen strange smut

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technopold · 3 years

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Venom: Let there be Carnage (2021

I was not that acquainted with Venom before the 2018 movie. I only knew that he was a character from Marvel Comics and that he’s one of Spider-man’s enemies. Spider-man is a character that I love. That said, I enjoyed the first movie, but there was no Peter Parker on sight. Of course, by me being on the internet, some aspects of the relationship between Eddie Brock and Venom resonated a lot. When I watched Hannibal (2013) it did not take long before I took into consideration the LGBTQ+ subtext of the show and the toxic aspect of the main characters' relationship. Will Graham and Hannibal duo plays with the elements of the toxic love interest that manipulates an unstable character, that abuse of one's situation and power is interesting in movies and tv shows. I’m sure there are other instances of such a relationship in fiction but it’s the example that came to my mind quickly. The "coming-out" scene when Venom stumbles in a LGBTQ+ club was amazing, the movie gave us Venom feeling out and proud and accepted as he is. Which was heart-warming in a way that I cannot really explain.

From what I gathered, Tom Hardy wanted to co-write the sequel to enhance the parts he enjoyed about the first movie, thus making his character and Venom’s relationship central to the story. Apparently, Hardy used his note app that was on his phone to write his ideas, bits of dialogues and so on. It’s an interesting process, enabling him to instantly write his ideas and thoughts. Another element that comes from Hardy’s writing process is that he wanted the movie to be short and rushed. As he commented on this question: it’s “meant to be a ride”. As previously mentioned, that was an issue for me, some points were not coherent.

From time to time, the dialogue is a bit hard to listen to. The jokes do not flow correctly. Yet, I believe that some of these were like that on purpose. To elaborate on that, I would argue that in the interviews the cast did to promote the movie, you can see that it’s part of what Hardy wanted to do. When it comes to comedy, it’s not just about cringy jokes. The way they created Eddie makes him human, real, and almost relatable. Let me elaborate on that. First, he’s sweaty, tired, broke. He’s fit, we know it, but he wears the same clothes all the time because he just doesn’t care about that. His apartment is messy because of his terrible roommate who likes way too much his chickens. Eddie tries to accommodate Venom in their shared space, which is more explored that in the first movie. For instance, there’s a tire that hangs from the ceiling so Venom can munch on it from time to time, Eddie stuck a pizza box on the wall and wrote “Rules! No eating People!”

Eddie and Venom’s dynamic is venomous, but they care about each other, even if they don’t want to talk about it. To me, it felt like a rom-com, with its ups and downs, its small sentimental fights in the kitchen. This is a major plot point as the alien symbiote as to “fit” with its host. In the first movie, Venom argues that he chose Eddie as a host, and that’s why they are so good together. That is something that is a bit more explored in the sequel as the audience encounters Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) and its symbiote, born via blood and rage, Carnage. There, the symbiote does not comes from space, it is the “son” of Venom, that comes to be because Kasady bites Eddie’s hand. Kasady does not even question Carnage’s abilities, what he is or what his motivations are. He’s just a villain, blinded by his goal: he wants to find his long-lost lover, and kill Eddie. That said, it is interesting how the movie was able to quickly introduce a three new villains dynamic. But as a viewer, you feel that characters teleport from one place to another due to the fast-pasted editing and rhythm. Talking about relationships in the movie, the rest felt rushed. Cletus and Frances Harrison did not connect. To me, they were just bad guys doing bag guys’ stuff. The cryptic poems Cletus recited in jail, the not-so-deep comments during the Cathedral fight did not fit in to me. I would say that three villains were too much for the chaotic duo. Carnage and Kasady’s relationship is a stark difference with the one that of Eddie and Venom. They have issues merging with one another during the final act and that is why Eddie and Venom win the big fight. It’s all about the power of friendship, and to be honest, it was easy, but it made me smile.

Overall, I am more than exited to see more of these two chaotic besties/lovers/friends or whatever they are. I’m sure that what’s coming will make them closer than ever, with maybe an exploration of the MCU and everything it entails.

#venom spoilers #venom #let there be carnage #movie reviews #technopold #eddie brock #venom 2 #marvel

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mattelektras · 3 years

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Since u ranked ur fav spider ladies can we get a ranking of the spider guys and why for each of em, im curious

i like all of the spider dudes tbh but

kaine. honey sweetie baby. the only spiderman legally allowed to say fuck. his relationship with aracely is quite literally unparalled. she saw him one day and thought you are mean!! you are my dad!!! you are my big brother!!! and he had no say in the matter. his powers are very unique in a world where pretty much every spider character has the same abilities but. MAYBE has an extra additional one. he’s traumatised to fuck and does NOT handle it well which i love. he has to deal with not only being a clone but not even being the best clone like. he’s got issues. and u all know i like a little murder in my superheroes. what of it

miguel. from the future but still feels like he’s from the 70s. sharp teeth and red eyes are sexy this is a fact. says stupid shit like what the shock and i let him!!! because i love him!!!! his stories are super interesting because he has ties to alchemax and that place is just an office full of supervillains and spider adjacent people. he’s businessy n smart and he’s kind of what they tried to do with peter with parker industries but it never fit because that’s not who peter is

ben and miles are probably tied????? i’ve loved ben longer but miles has such a great origin and stories and powers and everything. ben because i love the clone saga. he genuinely thought he WAS peter parker and when he found out he wasn’t there was such a sense of betrayal both for him and for everyone he unknowingly lied to. he’s a sweet character so that sinister kind of plot was very cool to see him in. AS FOR MILES. he saw peter die and knew he wanted to carry on the good that he’d been doing. of his own volition!!! at age like 15!!!! he’s so young but so smart and has such a huge heart. he’s also like. realistically a kid. he loves his mom and dad and baby sister etc. he reminds me of super early peter but written with a more modern awareness and relatability. makes me experience emotion which i do not like to do. legally cannot say fuck. his mom would wash his mouth out w soap

flash. UNDERRATED!!! the idea of his symbiote being able to help him with his disability but also not fix all of his problems surrounding it is very interesting n like. not necessarily something i would expect considering how symbiotes have been used in the past. and also to see how he’s changed from a high school bully to someone that genuinely tries to be better and kinder is super nice. like. we moved away from the loser nerd trope with peter and we moved away from jock bully with flash

eddie/venom. they’re in love. they be fuckin. if people think they’re in love in the movie then in the comics they’re quite literally soulmates

#q & a #anonymous

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 4 years

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 10: MJ has too much faith in the POSSIBILITY of redemption

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Last time I examined how MJ was repeating Peter’s ‘original sin’ in allowing Beck to not face justice. However I also raised the idea that the situation is different as Beck/his crew are arguably seeking redemption. Does that hold up to scrutiny? Well that’s what this instalment is all about.

At face value the crooks in the story certainly seem like they are seeking redemption.

Beck in particular is trying to make some form of amends and produce something good before he dies. It’s an opportunity he wants to extend to his fellow criminals (along with former felons).

Is shutting down this opportunity really something Mary Jane would do?

Yep.

Let’s ignore for a moment how MJ’s efforts to help her friend Lorraine failed and she was totally tricked by her. After all Lorraine might’ve been doing something illegal but she was the real victim in that situation.

Instead let’s look at some examples from Spider History where Peter encountered seemingly reforming criminals.

Black Cat

The most significant is perhaps that of the Black Cat; a.k.a. Felicia Hardy. Mary Jane doesn’t necessarily have an in depth knowledge of the ups and downs of Peter and Felicia’s relationship. But she would know that for a time Felicia was a criminal who reformed into a fellow crime fighter and then betrayed Peter by framing him for a crime. This all came to light in Spec #129.

Felicia reformed again after that and, after a very rough (somewhat violent) start, befriended MJ and became an ally to Peter. One of the key events that led to the thawing of Felicia’s relationship with the Parker family was her aiding a temporarily depowered Spidey. This occurred in ASM #342-343.

In these issues she helped the powerless Spidey defend innocents, protected him personally and bought time for him to regain his powers. These events entailed risking her life, enduring several injuries, losing her own powers (again temporarily) in the process. Specifically she had to single handedly battle a group of villains most of whom were beyond her weight class.

During and after these events Felicia showed signs of sincerely learning to love the Parkers’ friend Flash Thompson and wanting to start a new (costume free) chapter of her life with him. This was particularly notable because she had previously been dating Flash as a way to get back at Peter for marrying Mary Jane.

However, over consequent years though Felicia vacillated between anti-hero and outright criminal. Many people regard some of these takes out of character for Felicia post-OMD.

However, even before OMD Felicia was still vacillating in her moral alignment. Case in point, in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #5, Felicia reveals she is working for the gang lord known as the Owl. Although she claims she has boundaries she won’t cross whilst in his employ, Peter is still unhappy with her new job.

The facts are Felica was never consistently on the straight and narrow, a fact Peter and MJ were all too aware of.

Sandman

Perhaps a more apt example can be found in the case of the Sandman; a.k.a. Flint Marko. In Marvel Team-Up #138 Sandman was trying to go straight. In the course of the story he defended his neighbours from the Enforcers and actively saved Spider-Man’s life in the process. After the battle Spidey presumes there are outstanding warrants for Sandman’s arrest and tries to bring him in.

Sandman calmly explains he’s trying to reform and requests Spidey let him go. Spidey contemplates the idea because Sandman seems sincere but also considers that he’d be repeating the same mistake he made with Uncle Ben. As such he apologetically explains he can’t take the risk and prepares to apprehend Marko.

Unbeknownst to Spider-Man the last crook standing tosses a grenade his way. Sandman warns Spidey and intercepts the blast, both actions saving Peter’s life.

Spidey leaves the scene uncertain if Sandman survived and how to feel about his alleged attempts to reform.

Spidey and Sandman encountered one another again in ASM #280-281. By chance Marko came across Spidey and mercenary Silver Sable at the mercy of several super villains. He once again saved Spidey’s life.

Soon after this Silver Sable officially hired him. It should be bared in mind that Sable has access to advanced weapons and highly trained soldiers. Perhaps more importantly though, as the ruler of Symkaria she was international political resources. As such it’s likely that Spidey figured Sandman’s outstanding crimes were either pardoned or he was working off his debt to society. And were he to hypothetically get out of line Sable had the resources to reign him in. Later Sandman would join the Avengers, which would be enough for most people to give him the benefit of the doubt, including Spidey or MJ.

Sandman’s alignment with both Silver Sable and the Avengers was a matter of public record. MJ would’ve heard about it just via osmosis; Avengers activities are normally big news after all. Even if she hadn’t, Peter would’ve talked about it because (as discussed in prior instalments) he usually clues her into his super hero life. Sandman being one of the few villains of his to have reformed? That’d not be a topic that’d go undiscussed.

However, for reasons we need not cover extensively, Sandman returned to crime. This too was a matter of public record and MJ was very aware of it since Sandman tussled with Spidey during this time. If nothing else she’d have known he was a villain again from his alliance with Doc Ock in ‘Ends of the Earth’.

Venom

Another Spidey villain who flirted with reform was of course Venom. There have been many ups and downs in Peter’s relationship with both the Venom symbiote itself and its most famous host Eddie Brock. For the purposes of this essay though we’re just going to be focussing upon events that transpired in the 1990s.

The first of these occurred in ASM #362 where Peter controversially formed an alliance with Venom to stop his sadistic spawn Carnage. Peter banked upon Venom’s sense of justice and desire to protect innocents as a way to gain his aid, but he also had to promise to allow Venom to walk free when their mission was complete.

As it turned out though that was a risk Peter wasn’t willing to take. This was he had secretly plotted for the Fantastic Four to capture Venom once Carnage had been dealt with.

It’s worth remembering that Mary Jane had had a particularly bad experience when Venom first showed up and dealing with him was as much for her protection as for the world’s at large.

At the conclusion of their next encounter (ASM #375), Spidey and Venom made another arrangement. This controversial deal amounted to Spidey allowing Venom to walk free in exchange for Venom staying away from him. Peter’s rationale for this deal was born from a ‘live to fight another day’ mentality as he was exhausted and would’ve likely died had he continued to fight Venom. Mere moments after agreeing to this though Peter tried to tag Venom with a spider tracer.

The very next story though (Venom: Lethal Protector) a recovered Peter tracks Venom down all the way to San Francisco and attempts to bring him in. Peter even acknowledges Venom being a disturbed killer and that his talk of ‘protecting innocents’ is bull.

During the course of the story Venom at times helped Spidey. But more importantly he refrained from killing Spidey (his life’s ambition) and asked for his help in saving countless innocents at the story’s climax. This was enough for Peter to temporarily help Brock again.

During the final battle Venom had no choice but to go through flames; fire being one of the things symbiotes are especially vulnerable to. Spidey is shocked by Venom’s selflessness, especially when Venom commented that Spidey himself would’ve done no different.

At the end of the story Peter tells MJ that he now believes in Venom’s change of heart, but qualifies that he’s returning to NYC in part because he can’t hunt Venom forever.

Essentially these experiences convinced Peter that Venom was sincere in his desire to turn over a new leaf, but that he should still be brought to justice nevertheless.

Inevitably Venom returned to his old ways and from there vacilated wildly in his moral alignment. As one of Peter’s most famous foes Venom’s activities were heavily covered in the news. Peter and MJ would’ve also kept an ear out and kept one another informed due to how personal Venom’s vendetta against them was and how dangerous he was. Basically MJ would’ve been aware Venom was rarely consistently on the side of the angels.

Boomerang

Next up we have a much more recent example, Spidey’s roommate Fred Myers, a.k.a. Boomerang. I would ask you to bear in mind that at the time of writing this I have only read up to ASM v5 #36 so events after that issue might further support or undermine my arguments.

One might argue that MJ giving Mysterio and his crew a chance at redemption is no different to Peter doing the same for Boomerang in very recent stories. However, there are very important nuances that differentiate the Peter/Fred situation to the MJ/Beck situation.*

The most important of these was that Myers got a full pardon for all his past crimes following H.Y.D.R.A.’s defeat in Secret Empire.

Boomerang committed crimes after his pardoning, notably robbing a museum. However, for reasons that baffled and concerned Spidey the mayor (Wilson Fisk, the ‘former’ Kingpin of Crime) allowed Myers to escape and even spun his crimes in such a way to exonerate him.

Spidey did let Boomerang initially escape but his rationale was purely because he didn’t know what Fisk wanted. This might seem contentious but it adds up when you think about it. If Fisk were the mayor then apprehending Boomerang would be tantamount to delivering him directly to Fisk, who is a far more powerful and dangerous threat. This logic would then extend to when Myers became Peter’s roommate.

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, especially when bringing them in could potentially help a much worse enemy. In the meantime Myers living with Peter could allow him to monitor him (using a spider tracer) and gather valuable information about what he (and Fisk) were up to.

Peter remains sceptical and lays out his concerns directly to his other roommate Randy Robertson.

In ASM v5 #6-7 Boomerang took Peter (out of costume) to ‘The Bar-with-no-name’ (a hang out for super villains) for a trivia night. One might argue this situation echoes MJ being surrounded by super villains on her film set. But what distinguishes this situation from that one is the safety Peter’s abilities afford. He’s taken on groups of baddies before and most of the ones here are B-listers at best. More importantly though is that this presents an opportunity for Peter to gather valuable information, a fact that is framed as the reason he sticks around.

True, he also begins to enjoy himself but he also begins to empathise with them through spending time with them. Nevertheless he acknowledges that tomorrow he will be back to trying to catch them.

Peter’s reluctance to turn them in immediately can be viewed as a human flaw on his part. He empathises with the villains up to a point and begins to genuinely enjoy himself. Isn’t Mary Jane allowed to be flawed as well?

Sure she is, except MJ’s ‘flaw’ in AMJ is markedly worse than Peter’s here. In AMJ Mary Jane is complicit in several crimes via her silence and is allowing dangerous crooks with outstanding warrants for arrest to operate freely. Peter might be somewhat in the wrong for not turning them in then and there, but he at least intends on apprehending them eventually and in the interim uses the opportunity to gain information that will over all help combat more crimes. In theory he could simply put a call through to the cops or the Avengers that night. MJ on the other hand seemingly has no plan to apprehend the criminals she’s working with at all.

As the story progresses the Kingpin puts a bounty on Boomerang’s head prompting the assembled crooks to turn on him and Peter. The pair are forced to fight their way to freedom, during the course of which Boomerang provides some cover for Pete and a weapon to defend himself with.

At a critical point in the battle Boomerang selflessly takes a nasty hit meant for Peter; which leaves the latter shocked and baffled.

After Pete buys a little time Fred follows this up with an exploding boomerang and shoves Peter to safety.

Fred reveals he refrained from using his explosive earlier because he genuinely loved the bar; further exemplifying his sincere desire for companionship. In spite of this Peter still doesn’t regard Fred as redeemed nor reformed. Fred then confesses that he created robot duplicates of his old gang members (known to readers as the Superior Foes) due to missing their companionship and recognizing that his betrayals of them left him lonely. Moving in with Peter and Randy seemed like a second chance to him and Peter, in spite of his better judgment decides to give Fred that second chance.

What differentiates this from what MJ is doing (besides Boomerang not being half as bad as Mysterio and not backed up by a whole crew of crooks) is that Peter is giving Fred this chance after he has actively demonstrated redeeming qualities.

Fred might be lying about his desire for companionship (just Mysterio might be lying to MJ about everything else) but Fred didn’t and couldn’t have faked saving Peter’s life at risk to himself.

Actions speak louder than words and in AMJ all Mary Jane has is the word of a notorious deceiver that neither he nor his crew are up to no good and will behave themselves…you know apart from all the crimes he already fessed up to like identity theft.

In fact all of the instances listed above involve the criminals actively demonstrating redeeming behaviour. Typically these have taken the form of risking their lives to protect innocents and/or their enemy Spider-Man.**

However Peter has also not trusted them blindly.

In Felicia’s case she lost her powers so her ability to commit crimes was reduced and she had saved his life and been a crime fighter enough that it’s likely he felt she deserved yet another chance.*** In Sandman’s case he began working for someone who could arrange for his legal situation to be straightened out and had the means to keep him under control too. In Venom’s case Peter recognized his change for the better but never fully trusted him, merely letting him go because he was physically unable to find him. And in Fred’s case turning him over the authorities could prove worse than temporarily allowing him to walk free whilst Peter kept a close eye on him.

Mary Jane was either a witness to these incidents or at least would’ve likely heard about them from Peter. As I demonstrated in parts 3-5 Peter shares most of his experiences with Mary Jane. Additionally, her own sense of justice and responsibility is clearly shaped by Peter’s (to some extent).

So in the case of a guy she has no means or monitoring, can’t be sure she’s keeping an eye on because he’s a master illusionist (who literally has highly convincing holograms/robot duplicates), has no reliable means of restraining and has never demonstrated any redeeming actions to her she should NOT be trusting him to go straight; let alone a whole crew of villains…

…But if you are reeaaaaaaaaaalllly still unconvinced…let’s talk about the Black Fox.

The Black Fox

The Black Fox is an elderly gentlemen thief/cat burglar that Peter had an encounter with back in ASM #265. The story ended with Peter learning that the Black Fox’s latest scheme was merely his last after which he hoped to retire and be with his family. In response to this Peter helped the Fox escape, although he recovered the stolen goods first.

Years later in ASM #305 Spidey again encountered the Fox who in fact hadn’t retired. And yet Spidey once again let him go again out of pity.

In ASM #349 he once more found the Fox in mid-crime and let him go again. Afterwards Peter confessed to MJ that this cycle of behaviour with the Fox was deeply upsetting him.

Spidey allowing the Fox to go free once again actually resulted in a major incident involving Doctor Doom of all people!

After a concussion induced conversation with Uncle Ben (a creation of his subconscious) Peter realized his leniency on the Fox was born from a general sympathy for older men (who naturally reminded him of his uncle).

Having resolved his issues Peter was then capable of bringing the Fox to justice.

Mary Jane was obviously aware of this adventure as Peter actively talked to her about her hang ups with the Fox during the course of it, and it would be baffling to believe that he wouldn’t have then told her he brought him in eventually.

If MJ is aware of how Peter’s morality played out here, the repercussions of his leniency on the Fox and the internal strife caused by letting him go there is no way in Hell she’d make the same mistakes with Mysterio. She doesn’t even have the same excuse as there is no huge trauma from her youth inclining her to be unreasonably sympathetic to Beck or his crew.

The Black Fox is honestly nowhere near as dangerous, manipulative or as unethical as Mysterio. If the Black Fox deserves to face justice for his far less damaging crimes, then Mysterio and his cohorts ethically shouldn’t be given a free pass by MJ or even the chance to do something good before they’ve paid their debts to society either.

The situation with the Fox proves the dangers of simply giving criminals the benefit of the doubt blindly, whilst every other reforming or reformed criminal has either proven themselves somehow or done so within some kind of controlled environment.

That wasn’t the case for the Fox, and it certainly isn’t the case for Mysterio from MJ’s point of view.

Finally let’s talk about one very significant instance that some might bring up to counter all I’ve said above.

Let’s talk about Mary Jane’s father.

Phillip Watson

You will recall in the last instalment I examined how MJ ultimately turned him into the cops for his crimes for the greater good and even at the risk of her sister’s freedom.

Well in the Clone Saga they met again. MJ felt compelled to settle some unfinished family business and thus confronted her sister and then (separately) her father.

For some context not only had her father committed a crime, not only had he exploited MJ’s sister Gayle and thereby caused her to wind up arrested, but in her childhood he had routinely verbally abused both girls along with their mother and physically assaulted Gayle once.

MJ had major beef with her father over this and hadn’t let it go by the time she met up with him again in ASM #292. In said issue she even referred to him as ‘Phillip’ rather than ‘Dad’, father, etc.

It could be speculated that her decision to turn him in might’ve been influenced by this bad baggage. Although she was also uncertain of that due to her attachment to him and possibly perceived guilt over her parents’ break up.

In Spec #219 MJ nervously confronts her father. After making some small talk she is enraged when she sees he’s kept a picture of her mother. She feels that after how he treated her he doesn’t have that right.

However her surprises her when he breaks down in tears admitting he’s ashamed of how he acted and that he’s haunted by how he hurt and abandoned MJ’s mother. MJ connects with this, drawing a comparison with how she abandoned her sister Gayle in her time of need. She even states this to her father.

Spec #119

She manages to emotionally connect with her father and even forgive him. Whilst it’s only a start she feels complete and like in some way she has her family back, which fills her with joy.

You could take this situation and make a strong case for MJ being willing to forgive Mysterio right?

She did it for someone who had been a criminal and personally hurt her and her family in a very serious way. So why wouldn’t she extend that so someone who had also harmed her and her family. Harmed them in ways that might be argued to be not as bad as her father?

The problem with such a comparison is that it’s not exactly a fair equivalency at all.

To begin with, though he had been a criminal, MJ’s father had served his time and faced the legal repercussions for his crimes. MJ had no hint that he was in the midst of committing any other crimes when she reunited with him, nor that he’d be likely to go on to commit any crimes.

Even the crimes h had committed were far less numerous and far less bad than those in Mysterio’s criminal career. MJ’s father for instance never drugged and sexually violated a teenaged girl or attempted murder. And given his age, health, intelligence and history the chances of him committing further crimes if

Now there was a lot of emotional baggage and pain MJ carried in relation to her father but as evidenced in ASM #292 her feelings towards him were not black and white. A part of her felt some combination of guilt and loyalty towards him. Furthermore, when we learned of MJ’s past in ASM #259, she also revealed that following their separation, she tried to write to her father a few times.

Why would MJ as a tween/teen do such a thing? Why try to connect with someone who abused her and her loved ones, someone she intellectually knew was bad for everyone concerned?

The sad truth is such things are often happen in real life in similar situations. It is born from an immensely strong natural and innate need within all human beings to form bonds with our parental figures.****

MJ’s earliest (and therefore some of her most formative) memories involve her father, about how (in her mind at least) she loved him and he loved her. How he was the one man in her life who was supposed to always love her no matter what.

So even if he wound up far from that ideal, there is still a yearning within MJ on some level for that. Hence her attempts to reconnect with him both in ASM #259 and Spec #219, along with her uncertainty in ASM #292.

And that’s the single most critical difference between this situation and the one with Beck.

Beck is not her father.

She hasn’t got any positive emotional attachment to him (imagined or otherwise) nor is there a potent need within her to have one.

From her point of view he is simply a very bad and very dangerous person who has done horrible things, has hurt her and hurt the people she cares about. Someone who is doing something very bad right now and who stands a very strong chance of consequently doing further bad things that might harm other people (including herself and her loved ones).

Not to mention her father was not a slick professional liar like Mysterio was. MJ has no reason to believe his emotional breakdown is a performance whereas with Beck it’s extremely possible that he is just acting.

There is one other aspect of this example to explore though. Namely how MJ saw herself and her father as kindred spirits. Is it possible she sees herself and Beck in a similar light and thereby affords him the benefit of the doubt? Well, that’s a topic for another time.

Suffice it to say that all the experiences we’ve looked at would give Mary Jane a belief in redemption…but not a blind faith. For her there would have to be particular factors in play to justify such faith in the first place and neither Beck nor his crew fit those factors whatsoever.

Thus MJ would not give them a chance, at least not under these circumstances. In fact, in Mysterio’s case, she wouldn’t give him a chance under pretty much any circumstance. This is because, however much sympathy MJ might hold for the death of a fellow human being, her sympathy would only go so far for Mysterio. It would most certainly not stretch to believing him capable of redemption.

That’s a subject more for next time though.

*There are certain obvious physical differences in these two dynamics, but we’ll discuss those another time. Right now we’re strictly looking at MJ giving Beck and his crew a chance to make good.

**One could argue in saving Peter’s life he owes them at least the chance to prove they can turn over a new leaf.

***Of course we could just say his old feelings for her were affecting his judgement, but obviously that wouldn’t be a factor for MJ and Beck.

****There are countless examples of this within real life and fiction, a particularly poignant example can be found in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Will Smith’s character is presented the chance to reconnect with his father who abandoned him as a child and ultimately takes up the opportunity. When his father abandons him again he tries to shrug it off but his anger and grief is immense.

P.S. I shouldn’t have to spell this out but I will. Beck claims in AMJ #1 that he is trying to do something good by making his movie and giving fellow crooks a chance to help him. Despite the issue’s framing this absolutely would not count as a good deed. Not to MJ and according to just common sense.

Making a movie or a piece of art is not inherently a good thing. Even if it was as good deeds go it’s not the most meaningful or helpful. Certainly not the most actively helpful thing Beck personally could do.

It certainly doesn’t constitute a good deed when you consider the subject matter of the movie is himself. This is just a criminal’s vanity project which he is making with the aid of other criminals. Nothing more.

It is hardly equivalent to protecting innocent people or risking your life as many of the above characters did.

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#Leah Williams #Amazing Mary Jane #Mysterio #Quentin Beck #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #mjwatsonedit #spider-man #peter parker #Black Cat #Felicia Hardy #Sandman #William Baker #flint marko

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frogoat · 4 years

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The Venom/TASM Shared Universe

I realize that the MCU Spider-Man films are popular and that Sony definitely wants to try and tie their other Spidey-related films such as Venom into that cash-cow. And judging by the Morbius trailer, it’s apparent they want you to believe those films are all interconnected. But I’m not here to debate that, because I’m a little more interested in the idea of the Venom film fitting far better within the now seeminly-defunct Amazing Spider-Man film universe.

Initially, I thought the Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Venom weren’t internally consistent with one another due to the symbiote (or science-goo, if the TASM films had continued to borrow from the Ultimate Comics, I suppose) appearing in the OSCORP vault at the conclusion of TASM2. But, no. Turns out that was only in the trailer. If you go and watch the theatrically released film itself, the moving-goo-in-a-jar is replaced by the Rhino exo-suit. Just wanted to clear that point up.

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There isn’t a whole heap of actual evidence to support the idea that the Venom film and the Amazing Spider-Man films are set within the same universe, but there is a whole heap of points to consider regarding why it *could* fit, at least at this point in time. First, the Venom film was something Sony had in the works in various shapes and forms for an extremely long time, certainly overlapping with the production of the two Amazing films and being a pet project of Avi Arad well before the films were rebooted. It’s not inconceivable that early plans were for the films to interconnect, especially when looking at the various plot threads the second Amazing Spider-Man film was loaded with, all intended to expand and spin-off into a fully-fledge film universe for Sony.

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With that in mind, the decision to change the Sinister Six teaser in Amazing Spider-Man 2 to remove the previously rendered suspicious black goo seen in the trailer might even strengthen the idea of the Venom movie being originally intended to tie-in to a TASM universe. Removing the symbiote from TASM2 means the origin of the character can remain consistent with his other worldly origins later seen in Venom without further explanation. Or maybe they had the Venom script locked and didn’t want to have to rework things too much. Either way, it provided the studio flexibility in storytelling potential.

Next, Amazing Spider-Man 2 establishes that Peter Parker does in fact work for the Daily Bugle via dialogue and messages back and forth with J Jonah Jameson. We don’t get a physical appearance of the character, but the acknowledgement of JJJ’s existence provides a nice piece of connective tissue to the Venom movie’s brief John Jameson appearance. John Jameson is an astronaut and the son of the Bugle’s famous brush-topped boss. For anyone who saw the Spider-Man: The Animated Series’ adaption of the Black Suit and Venom Saga, the Venom movie’s integration of John into the symbiote’s arrival on Earth will have come as no surprise. On a side note, I’ve always felt it was a missed opportunity for Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 not to have used a similar concept especially considering they had introduced John Jameson in the previous film. But I digress.

The familial link isn’t the only piece of circumstantial evidence either, as Eddie Brock mentions an incident that occurred in New York connected to his journalism career. While it’s not explicitly stated, if like me you like to speculate, you could easily connect this to Eddie’s comic origin of misidentifying the serial killer known as the Sin Eater which led to his career going down the drain. In fact, if you accept the viral marketing material for Amazing Spider-Man 2 as canon, Eddie worked for Jameson at the Daily Bugle around 2013 and 2014, even reporting on the capture of a certain Cletus Kassady. The viral Daily Bugle page also makes mention of Anne Weying defending Curt Connors, which unless I’m mistaken, also doesn’t contradict the events of Venom. Notably, Anne refers to the this event as ‘the Daily Globe Incident’ and implies Eddie was ‘run out of New York,’ which appears to be true despite Eddie’s protests to the contrary. That said, there are around 4 years between TASM2′s setting of 2014 and Venom’s setting which seems to be 2018, at least after a few narrative time jumps.

Moving away from canon and continuity, let’s take a detour into style and presentation. As an experiment, I want you to watch the two Amazing films and the Venom movie one after the other. Now, tell me they don’t seem to have more in common in terms of visual language, narrative direction and tone. No, they aren’t identical, the 3 films are admittedly very different but in my opinion they hold much more in common with each other than they do when compared to something like the Raimi trilogy and the current MCU Spider-Man films. A good friend of mine has called the Venom movie a great 90′s superhero/antihero film and I think that’s probably the best way to describe the approach Sony took when producing the flick. By the same token, you could see broadly different visuals to the two Amazing films, despite both having the same director, and they work mostly as character pieces (or at least were intended to be before studio interference) focused on Peter and Gwen’s relationship. Heck, even Venom is arguably a character film focusing on Eddie and the Venom symbiote’s relationship! Look at goofball Eddie’s comedic moments and compare it to Peter’s physical comedy in the scene in Oscorp form TASM2 and tell me you don’t get a similar vibe.

So, even without an actual Amazing Spider-Man 3 film, maybe we did kind of get a third entry set within the same fictional universe. Or not! You decide! Unless Sony actually decides to take a risk and make their new shared universe a little more interesting by trying to bring together these and other past films, I think this is the closest we might get. It’d be a pleasant surprise if Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man showed up at the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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The lonliness of Eddie Brock

I’ve said in the past that Venom: Lethal Protector provided a not so great origin story for Eddie Brock regarding his father. I’ve also dived deep into Brock’s presentation in ASM #300 to talk about how it’s a lot better than people think.

But today something clicked and I’m going to try and present a take upon the character that uses his original origin in Lethal Protector and in ASM #300.

Before I start though, I’ll never concede that the origin given to Brock in lethal Protector wasn’t designed to make him sympathetic and jive with readers as an anti-hero. If you read that at face value and as intended, it doesn’t really line up with who Brock was in ASM #300, wherein he was clearly evil.

With that said let’s provide some context.

So in ASM #300, Brock details his origin. He was a reporter for the Daily Globe and (according to him anyway) a respected one at that. One day he was contacted by Emil Gregg, man of faith (who like Brock seemed to be Catholic) who claimed to be the then recent religiously motivated serial killer known as the Sin-Eater.

In reality, Gregg was a mentally ill person who had the misfortune of living next door to the real Sin-Eater, Stan Carter. Carter recorded a voice journal and so when Gregg heard Carter through his bedroom wall he believed the ‘voices’ to be inside his head, becoming convinced that HE was in fact the real Sin-Eater.

Gregg confessed his believed guilt to Brock who wrote up a sympathetic article (or maybe more) which became incredibly attention grabbing. Initially refusing to give his source Brock eventually became pressured into doing so, writing a sensational article unveiling ‘the truth’. Mere hours later though the real Sin-Eater was apprehended by Spider-Man leading Brock to be fired and reduced to eking out a meagre lonely living by writing ‘venomous’ articles about scandals, alien abductions, etc, for rag publications.

Brock blamed Spider-Man for his misfortune and whilst obsessively exercising to relieve his stress, he envisioned murdering the wall-crawler. Things got so bad for Brock he seriously considered suicide, but his Catholic upbringing meant he couldn’t go through with it. Instead he prayed for salvation in a church, coincidentally the very same church that a while before Spider-Man had rid himself of the alien symbiote that had been his black costume. The symbiote sensed Brock’s feelings, and bonded with him. To Brock this was a form of salvation and the two became Venom, dedicated to avenging themselves on Spider-Man.

Much later, after several encounters with Venom, Peter Parker encountered Brock’s ex-wife Ann Weying who elaborated further on Brock’s life. As she explains it Brock worked so hard to be a star reporter because his father, Carl Brock, seemed to have little use for him. When Brock’s career blew up it was the final nail in his already bad relationship with his father. Ann claims that this in turn drove Brock to madness. They divorced after that.

We get similar, yet deeper information in Venom Lethal Protector #3, when Carl Brock’s elderly housekeeper relays the story of Brock’s life. As she tells the story, Carl Brock was an already emotionally repressed man, but his wife (Jamie) was his world. When Jamie died giving birth to Eddie whatever ability to love existed within Carl died. Thus young Eddie Brock grew up with no affection and little attention from his father.

This drove Eddie to excel in education and sports but each achievement failed to garner the affection and attention he craved from his father. His quest for his father’s love led to him becoming a crusading reporter. But even when his sensational Sin Eater articles were being published, his father gave him little attention. Then when Gregg was exposed as fake, that ended Eddie’s relationship with his father altogether.

ASM #375 and Lethal Protector definitely frame the story with the intent of garnering sympathy for Brock, of trying to make you LIKE him. This makes sense as both were laying the foundation for Venom’s solo-stories where he was to be an anti-hero.

In this sense they seriously contradict the decidedly unsympathetic backstory given to Brock in ASM #300, where e is framed as a clear cut villain.

I’ve come around to the idea though that whilst there is 100% a cognitive dissonance between the framing of the two stories, they don’t actually contradict one another in the details.

That is to say nothing established in ASM #300 makes the events of ASM #375 and LP #3 impossible.

More importantly those events can I think be viewed as better explaining just Brock’s actions as relayed by ASM #300, and of Venom in general.

The stories already make it clear the defining motivation for Brock before he became Venom was all about his father. He was fruitlessly chasing his father’s affections and had grown up totally devoid of them.

On the one hand, when you are the child of a single parent and that single parent, whilst providing for you, is nevertheless neglecting you, it’s likely to screw up anyone.

But for Brock he practically hinged his whole career path on something that would impress his father. This is an idea expanded upon in Venom: Dark Origin #1 when Eddie’s father suggests he be a reporter expresses respect towards seeking the truth.*

The stories do not confirm this but, does it not make an awful lot sense that Brock’s desire for affection is what led to his actions with Emil Gregg?

Brock was highly unethical in protecting Gregg if he believed him to truly be the Sin Eater and his lack of fact checking was just plain sloppy.

But in the context of his relationship with his father it makes a lot of sense.

Gregg’s confessions were obviously going to be attention grabbing (especially if he wrote sympathetically of him) and his role in apprehending him would (in his mind) have earned his father’s affections. Additionally, it’s not uncommon for people in Brock’s situation to desire attention generally as well as from specific individuals so the Sin Eater story was great fuel for Brock’s self-esteem regardless.

It’s not hard to believe he was in fact so emotionally desperate for attention and affection he didn’t care about ignoring ethics or common sense practices.

If he was that desperate, his descent into madness also makes a lot of sense.

He wanted affectionate attention, and he wanted it specifically from his father.

But his actions resulted in him being isolated from the career he liked, reduced to work that garnered little-no attention/affection** and forever ended any hope of getting what he wanted from his father.

Then on top of that he lost his wife. Divorce is often a horrible experience in general, but when you are already at that low point it’d hit all the harder. And harder still if you are someone who’s grown up neglected and lonely, craving affection.

It’s easy to argue Brock’s fixation upon Spider-Man was simply a mental reflex against the hard fact that he’d so thoroughly ruined his own life. That his actions forever destroyed any hope he had of getting the one thing he wanted, and then also wrecked the other good things he did have.

But why Spider-Man particularly?

I think this again comes back to the issue of being attention grabbing.

Brock WANTED to be noticed, and more than this loved.

Spider-Man might have had a questionable public reputation but he was undeniably attention grabbing, he was frequently in the news (the field Brock used to be a part of and loved) and unless Brock cut himself off from all news sources, it’d had been impossible for him to avoid seeing Spider-Man.

Not only would this have reminded him of his own downfall (much as seeing Daredevil would have, as he was also involved in bringing in Carter) but there might’ve been resentment over the fact that Spider-Man was getting so much attention now he Brock was getting next to none.

Compounding things is the fact that Spider-Man wasn’t universally hated, he was talked about as being a hero. I think that’s why in the above pages from ASM #300 there is that scene where Spider-Man’s on the TV with the word ‘hero’ under it and a clearly unhappy Brock in the room.

Spidey was getting attention and some affection from thousands or millions of people whilst Brock was getting none.

This resentment might’ve then grown into a hatred, a hatred Brock rationalized as the result of Spidey being responsible for ruining him, an appealing lie to tell himself and it absolves him of all blame.*** Also Brock’s religious background might also have fuelled his delusions. He was accustomed to taking things ‘on faith’ and ignoring contradictions to arrive at a truth he was comfortable with. Thus knowing the facts (that he ruined himself) became easy for his fragile mind to reframe as ‘I made a mistake but Spider-Man is at fault’.

Finally, growing up without a mother and little affection/attention from his father would naturally mean Brock had a certain sense of loneliness ingrained into him. This would’ve been seriously exacerbated when Ann left.

This can then explain the kinship he felt with the symbiote and the deep emotional bond they forged.

The symbiote is a life form who literally relies upon being with others. Loneliness will eventually kill it. And like Brock it craved affection, which rendered it a pariah amongst it’s own kind. Thus like Brock in the field of journalism, the symbiote was cast out for ‘unethical practices’ if you will. And like Brock it had recently been rejected by someone it loved and wanted to be with. For Brock that was Ann and Carl, for the symbiote it was Spider-Man/Peter Parker.

In one another they found kindred spirits. Two lonely wayward individuals, desperate for affection, but rejected by specific individuals they craved it from and by ‘their people’ more generally. Their health falling apart as a result of these circumstances they found a form of toxic salvation in one another.

I’ll be honest, I still don’t like Venom’s 1990s origin or Donny Cates’ new one for him. I stand firm that Venom should be a villain and his origin geared towards that end.

But I will say that I’ve now grown an appreciation of Lethal Protector’s take. I think it does develop the character and make him deeper, just not necessarily in a great direction.

*Dark Origin is a story that overwrites and contradicts older Venom stories but also plays with many concepts from them. As such, it’s at least food for thought going forward.

**Although ironically they were designed with that intent as they were scandal rags. Maybe ‘attention’ was a baked in theme for Brock’s character?

***Let’s also consider that as a journalist spinning a certain story would come naturally to Brock.

#Venom #Eddie Brock #venom symbiote #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Daredevil #david michelinie #Donny Cates

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hellyeahheroes · 5 years

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...So Cates, I have questions?

I am waiting until the event is finished to do a super post on Donny Cates Absolute Garbage. Until then, Cates continues to show that he cannot form sequence of events and just throws scenes in for no reason.

In AC #2 and MM: AC #1, we were left with Miles becoming a symbiote host. Cates doesn’t use his pieces well because for one Eddie and Mac were safely away from the Carnage horde at the end of both issues. As soon as this issue picks up, Miles transformation is complete and he is suddenly attacking Eddie and the Carnage Cult is surrounding both again.

This sounds like a nitpick but as I pointed out in that there is a right way to chart action scenes in comics and I refuse to lay the blame at Stegman because he is simply providing the art to Cates’ script. Also it continues to be a problem in the book and it involves a major scene.

Why couldn’t Venom just do this earlier? Why bother with the several page melodrama of Eddie angering over letting Miles down when it was his fault that he got captured in the first place since you want to demand Scorpion to man up for no reason? Why is the Symbiote getting bold and basically putting himself in danger to just kill Osborn or is it Cletus...who the fuck knows anymore.

So Venom takes Carnage back to the warehouse and to safety to find this.

Now Spider-Man explains to Eddie that the Avengers know that he is helping which is okay. But I have questions because it obvious why a certain character is there. If Ben Grimm is there, why not bring in Reed Richards instead of Bruce Banner? Yes, Banner is a genius too but Mr. Fantastic has familiarity with symbiotes and alien biology. Banner’s field has to do with Nuclear Physics, Physics, and energy transference. This is just the writer assuming all geniuses are the same in order to display a pivotal scene that is complete macho bait.

Oh hey, remember when I mentioned Cates lack of sequence of events?

...How did Carnage find their hideout? How did Carnage sneak into the hideout and become a copy of Eddie and how did no one think to realize why there are two Eddies in the same building?

That is the sequence of events, fam. There are no missing pages. Carnage just finds Eddie and Peter(Eddie casually dropping Peter’s name and alias to a serial killer god wannabe) and there is no explanation at all as to how 2 geniuses and Eddie got caught so fucking off guard by something so simple to realize. It makes people look stupid.

And the edgy ass dialogue? “I am sex and violence?” Cringe as fuck(I am aware he is quoting a book but whatever).

I am not a Venom fan. I was roped in this shit show because it involved Miles and Andi. So dealing with Cates, who is being hailed for his ‘writing’, is like one massive disappointment after another.

The issue is that he is desperately trying to exonerate Eddie while making the Symbiote look evil. The Symbiote is bringing the worst of Eddie and it’s never Eddie’s fault ever. Like you see the scene where the Symbiote is trying to relieve Peter of the responsibility of bringing Symbiotes on Earth(a retcon that Cates made btw) only for Eddie to make the same mistake and manipulate Peter’s guilt for his sake. But does the writing ever call Eddie out? No.

The Symbiote is the wild one for wanting to kill Carnage while Eddie wants to protect his own kin as if those two ideas are at odds. All of the sudden, Eddie values human life because he has a kid now? And it’s not even human. Null/Carnage is literally killing swathes of people and taking over people’s bodies while infecting them with a codex. At this point, Null is a parasitic disease.

But Eddie doesn’t trust the Symbiote and feels like it’s trying to control him and manipulate his life so he just does stupid things due to this creator forced drama. And it is creator forced because it was Cates that made the relationship between the two abusive when there was no such tension earlier. You erased the one sole motivator of Eddie, his sister, and claimed that she never existed. You made it seem like it was the Symbiote that was giving Eddie cancer intentionally so Eddie would always need it. You made the Symbiote use Eddie’s DNA and rape and force impregnate his ex-wife because women in this series are only good when they are sex slaves to an alien cult, raped to have children of dubious consent, and just a lie of a manipulation. Honestly, Cates’ Venom run should be held in the same regard as One More Day and I say this as an avid Spider-Man fan.

@ubernegro

#miles morales #dylan brock #absolute carnage #marvel #donny cates #venom

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symbean · 5 years

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ok WOW do i have about a MILLION mixed feelings about this reveal

it’s nice that they acknowledge the nuance of the symbiote being naive and insecure in the past as reasoning for it doing this, but still, it’s just so jarring. why would it need to manipulate him into staying in the first place, their relationship was FINE, they genuinely understood and cared about each other, and that made them strong, the love and trust they had in each other made them strong

something like this just doesn't make sense with that at all, like, eddie was separated from the symbiote multiple times, but it was made very clear that every time he came back to reunite with it, it was because he genuinely cared for the symbiote and wanted to be with and protect the one he loved, not because he was insecure about being alone.

the same thing applies to why he gets so mad when he's ripped from it. it’s because he cares about it, so why would the symbiote ever be insecure about eddie leaving it, especially immediately after the costa run where those themes of love and trust came back full swing? this is just so irreconcilable with what’s already been established about their relationship.

and the thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way. i actually really really like twist this as a concept, the idea that the symbiote was insecure in its relationship with eddie, which made it desperate and afraid, so it manipulated him into staying? that’s actually really heartbreaking, it’s an interesting action for the symbiote to take that makes it quite sympathetic and actually treats it as a character in the story, and, it’d be really nice to see it work through those insecurities to repair its relationship with eddie so they could truly trust each other.

but the thing is, if you’re going to do such a game changing plot twist that completely redefines venom lore, you’ve still got to make it sense within the surrounding context of the lore. and the way this is right now, it just doesn’t make sense at all.

it doesn’t make sense for the symbiote to have been insecure in their relationship when they first met. if anything, it should be the other way around, considering the symbiote tried to LEAVE eddie for peter during the battle on the beach, and eddie was the one who was like “WHY WOULD YOU BETRAY ME I LOVED YOU DIDN’T I GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEEDED”. and after the fact, their relationship was pretty chill and stable.

and it especially doesn’t make sense right after the costa run where, once again, eddie and the symbiote worked on rebuilding that love and trust in each other, and succeeded in doing so. a huge betrayal like this just doesn’t make sense for the symbiote to be holding being its back the whole time that was happening.

i think this could be fixed if it was explicitly established that, rather than having had manipulated eddie’s memories the whole time, we esbalish that it only started trying to manipulate his memories during the mk:sm era.

it doesn’t make sense for it to have done so prior, since their relationship was (again) completely fine, but it does make sense for the symbiote to do so during this era, since that’s the time when their relationship started falling apart, and that's when it would make the most sense for the symbiote to be insecure about eddie leaving it and wanting to manipulate him into staying.

the overall story would be:

80s/90s: everything is fine!

2000s: everything starts to go to shit and the relationship between eddie and the symbiote starts growing strained as eddie starts going back on their love and instead hating and scorning the symbiote (god knows why but hey comics never made too much sense anyways.

the symbiote starts growing afraid of these new developments and starts manipulating eddie’s memories with mary, dan, cancer, etc. in order to get him to stay, but it ultimately ends up failing because they split up anyways

so now eddie’s just been out there for years with these fabricated memories, and when they get back together in costa, the symbiote regrets what it did in the past to his memories, but is too anxious to admit to eddie what it did, so it avoids bringing it up even though it feels really guilty and really wants to

there’s still a few continuity issues, like the glaring fact that the cancer was very real, (the symbiote tried to LEAVE eddie in 03 hunger because of his cancer, and he was definitely a real cancer patient during last temptation) or mary being deleted from the canon, but retconning those don’t really bother me because those stories were weird and relatively unimportant anyways.

what DOES bother me is retconning all of the 80s and 90s and saying that the symbiote was insecure about eddie leaving it during that time to the point that it would do this, because, that just doesn't make sense at all.

eddie totally fell for the symbiote during that time, there was no doubt that he would lay his life on the line for it, and would never even entertain the thought of abandoning it.

and even with this rewrite, there's still the question of "why wouldn't the symbiote admit what it did during the costa run when they were rebuilding their relationship" but i guess i can excuse that because of "anxietyyyyyyy it wanted to tell him eventually it just didn't have the strength to yet" even if it is kinda weird

but yeah as it stands this plot twist is just a huge mess that ends up fundamentally fucking up everything about venom despite the fact that it could in theory actually be really good if there were a few tweaks to actually make it make sense.

#venom #venom vol 4 11 #oh god i really did just write all that holy shit #i had alot of thoughts about this okay #there was alot to unpack #it was all very very messy #cates run #the abyss

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arcanelucario · 5 years

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I’ve said it before (not on here, mind you) and I’ll say it again, Into The Spider-Verse is not the best Spider-Man film.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved it and think it deserves a lot of praise, but at the same time it is massively over-hyped/rated. And the same goes for the Raimi trilogy, especially Spider-Man 2.

Into The Spider-Verse is probably ranked 3rd or 4th in my listing of the Spider-Man films, and that’s where it belongs. For me, the best Spider-Man films are Homecoming and Far From Home, though I’m undecided on which gets the top spot. Homecoming is a funner movie, but I think Far From Home might be a better Spider-Man movie, though only by a bit. Then again I’ve only seen Far From Home once so maybe I need to see it again.

I’ve seen so many people riding the metaphorical dicks of Spider-Man 2 and Into The Spider-Verse when they shouldn’t be. And I’ve seen so many people say that with the whole Sony/Disney fiasco that it’s good Disney/Marvel no longer have Spider-Man and that Sony own the sole rights. Hell, just a few minutes before writing this post I saw someone talking about seeing a Spider-Man movie not connected to the MCU that has no connection to Tony Stark or the Avengers or Happy or anything else from the MCU. Those movies already exist, they’re the Raimi films, the Amazing Spider-Man films and Into The Spider-Verse, and they’re nothing compared to Spider-Man’s involvement in the MCU.

The MCU Spider-Man films are nothing like those other sets of films, and that’s a good thing. They’re telling a new story, a whole new world and reason for Spider-Man being a thing. There’s new villains, new takes on characters, new places to go, but for some reason you people don’t want this. The previous films never told us anything about Spidey joining the Avengers or meeting Tony Stark despite those being things from the comics, but now we get to see these things be adapted, these new an unique stories come to life. But no, you people don’t want that, you don’t want Spider-Man to be part of a bigger and shared universe. You want Spider-Man to be it’s own thing and probably want a rehash of Spider-Man 3. Well guess what? It’s not happening. The Venom symbiote already bonded with Eddie Brock in a mediocre film that could have been much better that you for some reason want to share a universe with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man even though that would be laughably bad.

Looking back at all the Spider-Man films, they all are great, but they just aren’t the MCU ones. The Raimi films (in my opinion the worst of the bunch) were the first time we saw a proper live action adaptation of Spider-Man, making them extremely memorable and that’s probably the main reason why they’re loved so much. We got to experience everyone’s favourite web slinger, we saw memorable and well done villains (Green Goblin, Sandman, Venom, Doc Oc), we saw Uncle Ben’s death and we got a pretty good Spider-Man. But we also saw actors way too old looking for their characters, a Spider-Man with natural webs, awkward and sappy acting, a terrible love triangle, weird dancing on the street and in a club, weird facial expressions and whatever the fuck that 2nd Green Goblin was, among other things.

Then there’s the Amazing Spider-Man films (the second worst of the bunch), which I preferred to the Raimi films. We got a more believable Peter Parker, we got a Spider-Man with webs he built himself, we got a believable and cute relationship, we got some good villains (Lizard and Electro), we got a side plot involving Peters parents (which I honestly loved) and we got heart in the films. But sure, there’s also the Green Goblin (this version was kinda bad), sometimes it gets a bit sappy, the ending of 2 was kinda weird, the series was cancelled before we could see a third film, we got another Uncle Ben death and there’s probably more things I’m forgetting. Nonetheless, these films were still better than the Raimi ones.

Then there’s Into The Spider-Verse, a film which you people seem to have decided is definitively the best Spider-Man film. Sure, opinions are opinions, they’re subjective and different people have different tastes, but I keep on seeing people talk about it like as if Spider-Verse being the best film is a concrete fact, even though it’s not. Sure it had a lot of good. We finally got to see all these different versions of Spider-Man, we had an alright plot, we got things that would be much harder/impossible to see in live action and we just had a fun film. But we also had a absolute unit of a Kingpin which was fucking weird, a genderbent and weird af Doc Oc, a plot that despite me saying was alright still came out of nowhere (and yet you all act like it was perfectly normal and natural) and stuff that went on for too long. This films definitely does deserve praise, especially for the hard work the animators had to put in, but just because it had this hard work doesn’t mean it’s the best.

And finally, there’s the best of the bunch, the MCU films. We finally got an accurately aged Spider-Man. We got a realistic Spider-Man. We got the most accurate representation of Spider-Man out of any of the movies. We got natural romance, we got Peter actually having friends, we got new villains, we got Spidey, a Marvel character, interacting with Iron Man and Captain America (among others), also Marvel characters. And we didn’t even have to sit through another crummy Uncle Ben death or scene of Spidey gaining his powers. After all these years, all these attempts, we finally got a top notch Spider-Man, one we are extremely lucky to have. Sure, I have seen complaints about these films, such as a new version of Flash (though actually I fucking love this version), or so far Peter relying a lot on Tony Stark. But guess what? Peter is god damn teenager. He’s still coming into his own, he needs to have people to rely on. The other live action Spidey’s have been independent, so now it’s time we see him actually learn, and actually be the kid he is, be the Spider-Man he’s always meant to be.

If Sony and Disney don’t come to some sort of an agreement, then everything this Spider-Man is will be ruined. All that character development, all those relationships. Gone, reduced to ashes. He won’t be the Spider-Man we’ve known since Civil War, he’ll be someone completely different, to the point that you might as well recast him. This won’t be Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, this won’t be Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, this won’t be animated Spider-Man and this won’t be Tom Holland’s. It’ll be someone completely different, in a universe where sure, new stories can be told, but they won’t be as good. Currently Spider-Man is already an established part of the MCU, and he was supposed to be very important going forward, but you people want it gone. You want a whole series of 23 films to be ruined so you can fantasize about Spidey getting pegged by Venom because you don’t like seeing something new that makes sense.

So sure, go ahead and jerk off to your shitty opinion that Into The Spider-Verse is the best Spidey film, but keep in mind that you’re wrong. Keep in mind that you’ll never see something as great as the MCU and their Spider-Man.

And yes I know that in terms of the whole Sony/Disney fiasco that Disney are the ones mostly in the wrong, but that doesn’t mean that Sony makes good Spider-Man films and can make a good one going forward. That’s what Marvel Studios does, that’s what Kevin Feige does.

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mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker · 6 years

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Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows Vol 2 #8-9 Thoughts

Previous thoughts here.

With the Venom movie having been released recently I felt this was the time to catch up with the Venom arc of Renew Your Vows.

I’ll not lie to you all, exempting the hype surrounding the announcement for the series no arc of Renew Your Vows had me more excited to read it than this one. I knew how it was broadly going to play out, even without being mildly spoiled, because of course the broad idea behind the story is the way every instance of the Venom symbiote bonding to people tends to play out.

But therein is why I was looking forward to it.

I.Love. VENOM!

Of course I do. As I mentioned in my post about the X-Men arc, I am a child of the 1990s and if you were a kid in the 1990s getting into Spider-Man then the chances were you loved Venom.

This is owed in no small part to the 3 part Alien Costume story arc from the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon which was for most people of my generation their introduction to the character and to Spider-Man as a whole.

It was in this cartoon that the very idea of the Venom symbiote acting as a corrupting force and a drug was first institutionalized and it has had an influence on absolutely every rendition of the character ever since, including in the original comics.

This idea, that this costume can change a character, make them evil, darker and more dangerous whilst accompanies with a cool black makeover for them, is critical to the appeal of Venom as a whole. It is why in fan art, fan fiction, adaptations and stories people love to attach the symbiotes to other characters.

Doing an arc featuring Venom in RYV was just the single most natural and perfect idea made even more natural by having MJ act as the host.

Whilst neither Venom nor the Spider-Marriage debuted in the decade, both were in significant ways shaped and promoted at their heaviest during the 1990s and RYV being a book clearly riffing on that decade (as it did in the prior arc) made Venom a welcome character to tackle. But it goes further than that. Venom has an important history and thematic connection to the Spider Marriage.

His co-creator David Michelinie truly began his long run on ASM (and thus became the chief architect of how Spider Marriage’s early years) in ASM #298-300, the arc introducing Venom where he infamously terrorized Mary Jane. So frightened was MJ of the visage of Venom that she asked peter to abandon his black costume permanently.

The Venom symbiote’s relationships with it’s hosts have also over the years been played as metaphorically romantic, with the second Venom story even floating the idea that it’s hatred of Spidey for rejecting it was rooted in something similar to love. Making the Venom symbiote symbolic of Spidey’s ‘scorned lover’ and thus the idea of it returning to haunt him in a series about his family and bonding with his wife utterly juicy.

And of course Venom was critical in the first volume of Renew Your Vows where Spider-Man seemingly killed Brock and the symbiote to save his family.

All this and it was IIRC the FIRST time that Gerry Conway was ever going to write for Venom.

So with all this in mind I was HYPED for this arc and remained HYPED for it long after it came out and I drifted off from reading comics in general.

Then of course we all learned that this arc was the main reason for why Conway left the RYV series, why Stegman had to handle some of the scripting duties and likely why we wound up with Houser and the controversial time skip.

And it was all because Marvel’s promotional department saw the sales of a MJ as Venom variant.

I am not making that up.

Basically this arc has a lot of baggage for me and for fans in general.

With all that said how did I feel about it when all was said and done.

Basically more could’ve been done with it but what we did get was pretty much solid!

In a way it’s a testament to sometimes the promotional department having good ideas. Sometimes. I also gotta give it up to Stegman. He stepped in for some of the scripting duties and really didn’t do a bad job at all.

Lets get the negatives out of the way.

· The story brings up Peter killing Eddie Brock but doesn’t really address it or explore it.

· As I said more could’ve been done with this.

· Annie barely appears and doesn’t significantly contribute to the story.

· The symbiote’s corruption of MJ isn’t the way the symbiote’s influence usually works in the comics or adaptations.

· Peter not cluing in immediately upon seeing MJ in costume that she’s bonded to Venom is questionable.

· So is Liz Allan not realizing Spinneret is MJ.

· So is MJ just immediately seeking out Liz to get new powers and wearing the ‘bio-suit’ without even talking to Peter about it. Not to mention her not realizing it is a symbiote.

HOWEVER...these are also small problems at best and/or stuff that can be explained away fairly easily.

· Like I said more could’ve been done but what was done was sufficient enough.

· Annie got a lot of play in issue #3, was equal with her parents in issue #4, was a little more than equal with them in issue #5 and was really the main focus in issues #6-7. So taking a break from her to give Peter and more notably MJ the spotlight is justifiable.

· The manner of the symbiote’s corruption could be explained via it being an AU but at the same time I think you could equally argue that the symbiote doesn’t generically make someone more aggressive and violent. In the 1994 cartoon arc (which I recently watched) there was the implication that the symbiote actually accentuates attributes of the host and removes inhibitions. So in the show Peter did become more aggressive, but he also became more selfish, more assertive, flirtatious, creepy, egotistical, touchy and such. In issue #2 it was established MJ does a lot of stuff and juggles it all and in this arc we see her basically become hyperactive, she does more becomes more of a go getter. Even if you do not buy that the costume’s affects are metaphorical of a drug and drug addiction and MJ’s ‘symptoms’ are not dissimilar to those displayed by people who use certain drugs. If this was the intention it is actually pretty genius.

· Peter not realizing he is dealing with Venom could be explained via his presumption that the symbiote was dead. But also on a deeper level his need to believe it was dead because of the threat it poses to him and his family and the traumatic memories associated with his killing of Brock. To have crossed that line and it been for nothing would be too horrible. As is the possibility of MJ being bonded to it. this isn’t even getting into how the symbiote just historically freaks Peter out. So basically MJ bonded to the symbiote is something Peter just doesn’t want to believe to the point where he doesn’t truly confront the idea until he has to and it becomes unavoidable.

· Liz not realizing Spinneret is Liz could be explained by unfortunately just a conceit of the whole secret identity concept.

· MJ’s actions could be explained as a result of her being freaked out by seeing Annie’s dying body. Parents (and stereotypically more commonly mothers) become emotionally unsettled when confronted with harm to their children and in this story MJ was so freaked out that she tossed an entire train at Mysterio (which Peter has done in 616 but the story claims he hasn’t in the RYV universe). Her rage is actually a nice tie-in for what we saw in issue #2 when Mole Man’s goons had Annie. So MJ’s questionable and impulsive actions might be the result of Mysterio screwing with her head.

Speaking of the Mysterio scene, it encapsulates something that I think was needed for the series by this point.

Not only does it explain MJ’s only been a superhero for 2 weeks but it showcases her inexperience relative to Peter. In prior arcs the series was slightly in danger of overwriting MJ at the expense of Peter, I am thinking more specifically of her single handily defeating Magneto in issue #7. And the manner in which MJ screws up in the train scene is totally believable and cuts to the heart of the series theme of family.

That scene along with the end of the story also displays some great, great relationship writing between Peter and MJ. It shows us how their dynamic works, how they can be playfully catty but also caring. So often we see MJ being the strong one, the shoulder for Peter to cry on but here she’s the one who needs him, she’s the one who screws up and whom he has to be strong for.

But wonderfully he doesn’t just save her and that’s it. He helps her by facilitating her the opportunity to save herself. The issue also manages to make Peter following her sidestep him being patronizing or creepy by framing it and acknowledging that it could across that way, whilst also not being the intention.

The relationship writing is really good even outside of the scenes where they are not together. MJ’s concerns about Peter resenting her and her not pulling her weight had me apprehensive at first because it is not true to their relationship in general. But the story made it clear they were referring to their dynamic as heroes specifically at which point MJ’s analogies and half truths when discussing her marriage at work made a lot more sense.

At the same time the series portrays Peter as very proactive and competent which is always nice to see and had I read these nearer their original release would’ve likely impacted me more since back then such a portrayal was lacking in the main book.

Speaking of which I appreciate that the series doesn’t feel the need to focus upon all three family members in each story. Issues #1-3 focussed upon them individually, issues #4-5 upon all three of them. Issues 6-7 upon the three of them but leaning towards Annie and issues #8-9 are about Peter and MJ, leaning more towards the latter. This mixing up of the dynamics helps keep things fresh and explore the family more fully.

You’d think then that Annie’s presence in the book would be superfluous filler but in fact what’s so clever in this arc is that Annie despite having little panel time is important in driving MJ

Now let’s get down to the main attraction, Venom.

I felt more could’ve been done but playing it as something that made MJ more hyperactive at times and exhausted at other times was a neat touch. Her outfit looked cool and the climax where she mentally duelled Venom was a wonderful way to pay off both her experiences in RYV vol 1 and ASM #300 with Venom, showing how much MJ has grown.

Finally Liz’s role in this story was...surprisingly effective.

In 616 I do not like Liz Allan being a villain but at the same time given her history (especially from the DeMatteis/Buscema run in the 1990s) I also have to admit it does make a lot of sense. This story in a weird way pays off the potential she had in that role and creates a compelling parallel between her and Mary Jane as mothers who are willing to go to extremes for their children and families.

Finally Stegman was God-tier in the art department as usual but Frigeri as guest artists did a surprisingly solid job nevertheless, with his style complimenting Stegman’s.

Over all I give this arc a solid B+

P.S. MJ having Spider Sense whilst bonded to the symbiote is...weird. The symbiote can’t really give you that power and even if could it didn’t alert her to Peter. Maybe the symbiote was altered by Liz and MJ never considered Peter a threat enough to register to her Spider Sense. The former aspect would help explain how and why she was apparently impervious to fire.

#ryv thoughts #Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #spider-man renew your vows #Gerry Conway #ryan stegma #venom #Venom Symbiote #spinneret #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson parker #mary jane watson #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Anna May Parker #Liz Allan

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protect-lethally-blog · 6 years

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I’ve got a few followers now who are based around Raimi’s Spider-man films. Which is awesome, I loved those movies as a kid, and I love you all for continuing something for so long, but I want to make sure that people know my Eddie is very different from how those movies portrayed him. He’s not going to act the way you might expect him, and he’s not going to comply to that canon. Much like I don’t follow the current comic run because I find it too ooc, I don’t follow Raimi’s either for the same reason. If you’d like to know why, click under the cut.

There’s a lot of little differences between comic Eddie and how he is in the movie. A lot of them are relatively small - like how the movie portrays him as having no real friends and kind of a laughing stock of the ladies when Eddie had a decent relationship with people he worked with and had a wife before things went south. He isn’t a photographer, he doesn’t pray for Peter Parker’s death. In fact, he doesn’t even know who Peter Parker is until after he bonds with Venom. All of these things can be easily brushed off, but there’s one big difference and the real reason I won’t play Raimi’s Eddie:

Raimi’s Eddie is shown as bad with no depth or redeeming anything. Comic Eddie (and the symbiote) was never “evil”.

Most specifically, in the comics, Eddie did his best to not hurt any innocent people while getting to Spider-man. To the best of my knowledge, in all the comics I have read, he never actually hurt, or kidnapped Mary Jane. He showed up at their apartment once, scared the shit out of her, and told her he was looking for Spider-man, knowing Spidey would come after him. He only threatened her expressly once, and that was because she hit him first so he deemed her no longer an innocent bystander. Same thing with Felicia Hardy, he did attack her, yes, but he didn’t approach her with the intention of doing it and only fought back after she attacked him.

He never has been ‘bad’, and he’s never thought of himself as that, let alone enjoyed it the way Raimi’s does.

Eddie’s purpose as Venom, from the beginning, was to stop Spider-man because 1) revenge, and 2) he thought that Spider-man was dangerous to innocent people, and ruined people’s lives through his actions. Everyone around Spidey got into trouble at some point, and random people got hurt by the supervillains that he attracted. So, Eddie thought taking him out would not only give him the revenge he wanted, but would actually protect innocent people.

He is eventually convinced to give up on his vendetta when Spidey helps save the life of his ex-wife, and decides to devote himself to being a vigilante. The biggest difference between them is that Venom has no problem killing if he deems the person deserves it (which, admittedly, his qualifications for ‘deserving it’ are loose at best sometimes). Especially in modern comics, he’s straightened up and tries to be more like a traditional hero, not killing people, and protecting innocents, though it’s difficult for him, since he often has to contend with both how people view him (as a monster and insane), and the instability of his symbiote, who is incredibly susceptible to influence and madness by virtue of it’s malleable nature.

So, yeah. No kidnapping and trying to kill MJ here.

#ooc #;headcanon #i love all of you raimi muses and come talk to me so we can figure out a way to make things work so we can rp #<3 #;meta

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leighlikescartoons · 7 years

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Marvel’s Spider-Man Episodes 6-8 (Review)

It's the Saaaaaandmaaaaan. Looks like Adam Sandler decided to... no wrong Sandman. I was a little surprised when they went with the same approach for Flint that they did with Rhino. Unwillingly being transformed into the big bad monsters they are. Ol' Sandcastle's voice has turned to wind as he struggles to form basic words, words that any civilian of a Marvel show should know. "Saaaaaave Me." Once he turns back to Marco his voice comes back and sounds spot on. I like the look. He actually looks like he's made of sand, as opposed to something thicker, like Oatmeal. Honestly, the way Characters are drawn is super pleasing in this show, but it just misses the mark with certain designs. His human form hits all the boxes I need. Striped green shirt and brown pants. Like Steve from Blue's Clues except big and muscular.

The episode is heavy on Venom action, which makes sense since the next episode (Episode 7) is called "Symbiotic Relationship". What I don't get is, just two episodes ago Max Modell was working on the Symbiote and seemed extremely invested in it. But now he's passed it on to four of his students? Why was there no mention of this? I'm not one to get mad and stomp my feet about continuity, but that's a preeetty big change.

This episode is much better than "Party Animals". We start out with a fun scene where Peter isn't the biggest loser in the frame. He's out geeked by Miles and Anya who refuse to enjoy the pier to work on their science project. Then, after Sandy Cheeks makes his debut, Gwen swoops in to save the day! Or she would have if Spidey didn't steal her thunder. Plus Harry works on more Goblin tech. It'll be interesting if he actually turns out to be the Green Goblin in this incarnation as opposed to Norman. I'm so glad they went with the not a villain angle with Sandman though. The end to his story arc in Spectacular warmed my cold animated heart. Flint Marco deserves to be a hero. (Please don't message me about all the horrible things he's done in the comics. Let me have this)

I do actually have two gripes about this episode. First, Hammerhead's voice stinks. Second, Aunt May's insurance didn't cover Sandstorms. Are you kidding? Oh man, what insurance in Marvel's Manhattan doesn't cover super related accidents? Maybe her package just doesn't cover it.

Symbiotic relationship! Looks like criminals are using the web-head's mask to hide their faces. I think it's a fun thing to do instead of just drawing them with standard issue ski masks. I would have liked it better if each wore a different hero's mask though. Extra points if one was Iron Man, as he pops in next episode "Stark Expo". That would have extra extra cool if A) the previews didn't so readily spoil it and B) it weren't playing back to back to back with Symbiotic Relationship and Sandman.

So we get a good look at Spidey's new power-up using his Symbiote, the design of which I love by the way. It looks... as you'd expect the Venom suit to look. The only gripe I have is he still has shoe bottoms. Does the Symbiote form shoe bottoms? Or does it just not cover his feet all the way? Is the Symbiote called Venom when it's still attatched to Spiderman, or is that an identity it takes on afterwards?

But then the next morning, Oh no! Spidey's cornered! They have guns! What ever will he do to get out of this jam against three identical looking extras?Norman is getting more and more shady. Hiring villains, associating with Allistair(sp?) known bully, and going as low as breaking into Horizon High to steal their expiriment. Lucky for Gwen and crew, Peter already lost it. Take that Osborne!

I would have liked if the entire Symbiote being attatched to Spidey was contained in this one episode, giving him a power boost for one or two and then letting Peter figure out it's bad for him. Oh well.

At the end of the episode Norman swears Spider-man will one day be his. Do you think there will be a romantic story line between them? That's probably what he meant.

Stark Expo! Looks like Tony is making his big appearance. After their relationship from the movie (No Spoilers) is anyone really surprised? He shows up and Spidey is a huge fan! But I'm not, his voice is a little... dorky. I mean he's an inventor, but he's also supposed to be a playboy millionaire with a presence. Batman doesn't sound like a dork... sometimes Batman sounds like a dork, but Bruce Wayne never does! And Tony doesn't put on a voice when he's suited up. Not to mention, his suit looks kinda bulky. Overall, I don't have a good first impression of him. Hopefully the inevitable scene where they team up changes my mind!

I'll be honest, I don't know who the villain is here. Maybe they're from Iron Man, but they could just as easily be from Spider-Man. He seems to be the physical embodiment of a computer virus. He shorts out Spidey's shooters and posseses Tony's new suit. Mark 52.

Speaking of Villains, Norman hints at Green Goblin's upcoming appearance. Just give me the crazy green villain I want! Goblin has the best personality AND the best color scheme. Don't mess this up!

So it looks like Max is back to working on the Symbiote instead of Gwen and co. for some reason. He's looking into developing it into something to advance prostetics though, so I'll let it slide. The inconsistency is trumped by the good intentions. Then in walks Tony! Honestly his voice sounds like a duck. Maybe the actor went in for a Duck Tales (which premiers next Saturday by the way) audition and got the spot as Iron Man instead. Not a bad upgrade.

Doc Ock is wearing... a military outfit? I mean, not standard issue or anything, but what you might've thought was standard issue as a kid. He looks very soldier like. Anyways, he's brought a familiar set of arms to Stark Expo and gets infected. Even if he's trying to be a good guy, he's simply fated to be bad. How unfortunate. But it does give Harry and Miles a chance to show off some heroic tendancies. Now the only one who hasn't is Anya, who I recently found out is the Alter Ego of Spider-Girl. How fun! I'd love if the Sinister Six had to take on Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, Spider-Gwen, and... er... Also Spider-Man.

They didn't get to show off their expiriments though! Ghost, the villain's name is Ghost, destroyed the Expo before they could. It's a shame, while Flash clearly had the best, and deserved the prize, I would have loved to see some of the other cool tech. Speaking of Flash, it seems like Eddie Brock may not show up, Flash taking his place.

At the end it seems Ock is getting set up to turn into his villainous counterpart. With mentions of connecting his arms to the spine and we all know how that ends. Not to mention Norman swooping in. I worry for that little round geek. I'm also not sure if he's a Professor, like they said in Episode 2, or a student. Maybe he's both?

All in all, on a scale of 1 to Spectacular I'd give this trio of episodes the scene from Street Sharks when Bends is such a trusting friend that he accepted the fact that his 4 friends had turned into shark monsters with a simple "No, It's me, Bobby." and then let 4 massive SHARKS into his car. What a guy.

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thevenomsite · 7 years

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Nick Lowe Venom Inc. Interview

This Week In Marvel Nick Lowe Interview Hello fellow Venomaniacs! John here, co-host of the "We are Venomaniacs" podcast, regular TVS commenter, and all around Flash Thompson fanboy! Most of you probably know me as Venom_Knight. TVS has given me the opportunity to help post some Venom content for all of you. I look forward to sharing more symbiote goodness with you. Episode 307 of "This Week In Marvel Podcast" featured an interview with Marvel executive editor Nick Lowe talking about December's Venom Inc. I highly recommend listening to it yourselves but I went ahead and put together a summary of the dialogue from the interview. In it, we get some great info on Peter, Eddie, and Flash's goals in Venom Inc. as well as some information on Lee Price and Mania. Interviewer: What is Venom Inc.? Lowe: For a long time Dan Slott has wanted to do a Venom story in Amazing Spider-Man and he has said that he’s been beaten back from it a few times over the years because something is always happening with Venom or it’s been turned into a book of its own. Since the symbiote has come back to Eddie, the time just seemed right. As we started cooking up the story, it was bigger than just Amazing Spider-Man. So Dan and Costa came into the office and they met for a couple days and talked about what the story could be and we cooked up this insane, insane story. I’m excited for this to come. It kicks off in Venom Inc. 1 and then bounces back between Amazing Spider-Man and Venom then ends in another one-shot comic. The story starts with Mania and things don’t go very well for her. In the very first pages of the story, she gets ambushed by, who we discover to be, Lee Price. He steals the symbiote and becomes Maniac. Interviewer: What happens to poor Mania? Lowe: You’re going to have to read to find out. It leads into an incredible story. You might think “Nick you just told me the story of the whole first issue” Oh no. There’s surprises up our sleeves. In the cover of Amazing Spider-Man 792 there’s a figure that’s all blacked out and not in a way that Venom is all blacked out. Who is that person? I’m not going to tell you. Interviewer: I love that at the heart of this story is the relationship between Peter Parker and Eddie Brock. Lowe: Eddie Brock and Mr. Flash Thompson! Interviewer: I didn’t know if we could mention him or not because I didn’t know if he was the guy you were being all mysterious about. Lowe: Nope, Flash is in it. Interviewer: So Flash is in the story, let’s cut to that then. We’ll get back to Peter and Eddie in a second. We haven’t seen Flash in a little while. He’s been kind of off the radar. We saw in Venom 150 what happened to him to take him off the table but where do we pick up with Flash? What’s been going on with him? Lowe: Well he lost the Venom symbiote. It got taken from him. It got shot off of him by some rouge FBI agents and so he has been looking for it ever since but also since he’s back from being in space for a long time he’s been reconnecting with Andi down in Philadelphia and he’s been reconnecting with his world up in New York. Now we haven’t seen much of that yet, we’re going to see it coming up in Amazing Spider-Man 789, Flash shows up, and you’ll see him in Spectacular Spider-Man 5, he’s in that, popping up here and there. But he doesn’t feel whole. If you know something about Flash Thompson, even when he was a bully, he wanted to be a hero so bad. He wanted to be Spider-Man, he LOVED Spider-Man and he got to be that hero when he was Venom. He got to be a space knight. It was dark at first and there were some troubles at first but he became a hero and that was everything he had wanted but now it’s gone. It was robbed from him and so he is trying to figure out what his role in life is and he’s also searching for his friend Venom, the symbiote. So that’s where his story picks up and where that story goes, I’m not going to tell you. It’s amazing. Interviewer: I look forward to finding out. I love Flash Thompson, he’s one of my favorite characters. He’s great. I loved him as Venom and can’t wait to see what you guys have planned for him next. So Peter and Eddie. Never the best of friends. Lowe: Oil and water. Pepsi and Coke. Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. Interviewer: So the heart of the story has to be the relationship between Peter and Eddie right? Because they are the two central figures. What does the story do for them and their dynamic? Lowe: Well it’s one of those fun things that Spider-Man and Peter Parker are always the nice guy but one of the only people he’s not nice to, is Eddie. He HATES Eddie because Eddie did horrible things to him and the people he loved. The Venom symbiote as well, he hates the Venom symbiote. That’s one of the core things about Peter and Spider-Man and Venom Inc. puts them in the same room more than once and it is not pretty. Eddie, on the other hand, he is an interesting guy. He is not a white knight he is, at best, a begrudging hero or a hero with a heart of coal. Neither of them are pleased to see the other and one of the things I love most about this story is that, once it gets going, there are some very understandable goals that people have but they are not the same goals. Peter and Flash in issue one have very different goals. Flash wants to find the Venom symbiote and save it from whoever’s got it. Peter wants to find the Venom symbiote and get rid of it. Eddie and the symbiote are in one of the most interesting relationships in comics. Its love is twisted and odd. You can’t really compare it to anything. It’s not like having a brother, it’s not like having a girlfriend or a boyfriend. He has an alien symbiote that is linked to him and they share thoughts and a brain. It’s so weird. Eddie wants to keep it safe as well. So Eddie and Flash honestly have more in common than Peter and Flash. Then you look at Maniac, Lee Price who has a very different agenda from all of them. It’s pretty scary. I will tell you what makes him different, because we didn’t want him to just be another Venom. What we came up with Dan and Mike is that Lee just doesn’t wear the symbiote, he weaponizes it. He’ll spit a bit of it onto someone and then they get this black Venom face and Lee can control their minds. Interviewer: Nasty stuff. Lowe: So we show the cover of Amazing Spider-Man 783 which is part 4 of the story and it shows that Spider-Man has that on his face. It is not pretty. We go to some pretty crazy places with that. I am so excited for people to finally know about this.So what do you guys think? This seems like a win for every kind of Venom fan! I for one am excited to see Flash Thompson back in action and look forward to seeing what they have in store for him. Who is the mysterious figure on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man 792? What will happen to Mania? What kind of reaction will Flash and Peter have to Eddie being Venom again? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section Venomaniacs! http://dlvr.it/PnvrrW #Venom

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