He is one of Spider-Man's most popular and well known villains, especially of the post-Ditko, post Romita Sr. era. Along with Norman Osborn (the original Green Goblin) and Doctor Octopus, he is considered one of Spider-Man's "A-List" supervillains, the third part of an Unholy Trinity. His one word name inspires fear in Spider-Man himself and excitement among Spidey fans. He is the only Spider-Man villain to have had his own series (or series of limited series - whatever you want to call them).

Yet, he is also one of the most maligned of villains, his motivations belittled, his origins considered atypical for villains of the "Friendly Neighborhood" Spider-Man. Both Brian Michael Bendis and Sam Raimi, the two men most responsible for reinterpreting Spider-Man for the 21st Century, had to be pushed into using him. Bendis' hand was forced by overwhelming fan demand which began from the very beginning of Ultimate Spider-Man, and Raimi had to be persuaded by Avi Arad into using him in Spider-Man 3. He is unfortunately, in many ways, the ultimate "victim" of his own popularity.

His name, of course, is Venom!

This series will examine Venom in all of his incarnations - symbiote, Eddie Brock, and Mac Gargan. It is true, I have stated many times in many columns that I have never really cared for Venom for various reasons - including what I believed where less than compelling motivations of the primary human host, Eddie Brock. Even those who love the character will willingly admit that he was overused and nearly ruined. However, the purpose of this series is not to malign the character, as, to misquote Jessica Rabbit, characters by themselves aren't necessarily bad, they're just written or drawn that way. We will take an even handed look at Venom's history, his potential, the reasons for his popularity, and where I think Marvel began to run him off the track.

I had originally considered writing this series much like my HobGoblin one, where it was assumed that we always knew that Roderick Kingsley was the HobGoblin from day one - rather than years later. I thought about taking the approach that we knew everything about the symbiote's and Brock's backgrounds and motivations from the beginning, and writing from that angle. However, one of the points of the HobGoblin series, besides bashing Marvel for screwing him up in the first place, was to show that no matter how far things got off track, miraculously it worked itself back to writer Roger Stern's original intentions for the character. And for the most part, the original HobGoblin is not a controversial character as most Spidey fans seem to like him. Venom, on the other hand, seems to have as many detractors as supporters, and his character is an example of what goes wrong when you don't have the "ending" already figured out, when a character unexpectedly explodes in popularity. In some ways, he's the poster boy for what went wrong in comics culture in the 1990's.

But before we get into the real nitty gritty, we unfortunately have a lot of expository ground to cover, beginning with the symbiote - what was it and where did it come from? And before there was Eddie Brock - there was the Sin-Eater.

Secret Wars
Once upon a time, Mattel wanted to sell toys. And Marvel wanted to sell comic books. And the two companies came up with an arrangement by which they could do both!

Actually, the story of Venom begins a little earlier. In the introduction to the Secret Wars trade paperback, then Marvel Editor in Chief Jim Shooter stated that the idea of the black costume came from a piece of fan fiction he was sent, and he liked the concept enough that he bought it from the fan, and subsequently used the "Secret Wars" story to implement the change.

Now, Secret Wars, which debuted in 1984, is one of those Marvel projects which is popular with many, and probably disdained by the same number. Some (myself included) see it as a primary example of Marvel Whoredom, an overlong, overblown year long advertisement for a line of toys, which, well, it really was. However, there are many fans who enjoy it either as a guilty pleasure, or just accept it at face value as a rousing knuckle-busting adventure with a veritable potpourri of Marvel heroes and villains, and don't vex themselves with the politics or motivations behind its creation.

Anyway, according to The Comic Book Heroes by Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs (published in 1997 - I found this for $5 in the bargain box at a comic book shop - and it has been one incredibly valuable purchase. It's a marvelous history of comics from the beginning of the Silver Age to the mid-1990's), Mattel Toys struck a licensing deal with Marvel and wanted a comic book to promote the new toy line. According to Heroes, the title Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, and the concept, all of the heroes in one big story, came NOT from Marvel, but from Mattel! Jim Shooter, in an odd bit of assignment distribution, gave the writing job to himself. He claims in the following Comic Book Resources interview by Michael Thomas, "The only goodies, the plum I ever took for myself, was Secret Wars. You know why? It had all the characters in it and I thought about getting someone else. But no matter who I picked, they would've screamed. Because they'd say, "You're going to let John Byrne or Chris Claremont write my characters? Blah, blah, blah!"

Heroes tells a slightly different story - that Shooter was originally going to assign the story to another writer, until he discovered that one copy of Secret Wars was going to be included in each comic "sampler" package at various toy stores (you still see similar packages at Toys R Us - there's about 5 comics, and you can see what two of them are - but the ones in the middle are pot luck), guaranteeing sales of at least a few hundred thousand copies, which meant some nice royalties for the creative team. Jones and Jacobs postulate that Secret Wars was the straw that broke the backs of several retailers and independent publishers in the mid-1980's - as the retailers, already overextended, ordered Wars heavily to meet anticipated demand. In order to free up the cash necessary, they slashed their orders for other things, starting with independent comics, which initiated a chain reaction of unpaid distributors, publishers, and creators.

So, for these reasons, among others, I have no use for Secret Wars. Another reason being that it's basically only an average story stretched out over 12 months, and that it had so thoroughly bored me that I dropped it after issue #4. Of course, that's only half of the story. The twelve issues of Secret Wars all together sold eight million copies (this is per Heroes again), not counting any of the subsequent trade paperbacks, which you can still buy more than 20 years later. That's over 650,000 copies per issue. Even the current Marvel opus Civil War, which is a mega smash by current standards isn't going to get anywhere close to 650,000 copies per issue. If Joe Quesada thought he could sell eight million copies of a twelve issue series by whoring out to Hasbro, or ToyBiz, or whatever, he'd do it in a heartbeat - and you couldn't blame him. And looking back to the 1980's - Marvel was not nearly in the healthy financial situation then that it is today. Its long-term survival was NOT assured, and it needed the cash this series generated. And while it may have indirectly exacerbated the economic crisis in the industry, the fuse was really lit by the lack of proper capitalization and poor business practices of retailers and distributors, many of whom probably shouldn't have been in the business in the first place.

Now, beyond the politics and into the story, Secret Wars in a nutshell, tells the story of an alien being of immense power, known as the Beyonder, who plucked large numbers of superheroes and villains from Earth, placing them on another world so the Beyonder could study one of those typical good vs. evil fights. I think I saw variations of that story in about half a dozen Star Trek episodes in the 1960's, and it was worn out then. In issue #8, during an assault on the fortress where the villains are hanging out, Spider-Man's costume gets chewed up in a battle with Femme Fatale and Absorbing Man squeeze Titania. After the fight, noticing that Thor is sporting a new helmut and cape when they had been trashed earlier, Spidey is pointed to a room full of alien contraptions, including one that he is told will generate whatever clothing he desires. In a move that by any rationale is still stupid, rather than actually ask anyone, Spidey just starts fooling with alien technology he does not recognize nor has any clue how to operate. He sticks his head up the first upside down punch bowl that he sees, "thinks" about a new costume, and out comes a black glob that immediately begins to cover his entire body, turning into what he believes is just the latest in popular alien fashion, albeit with a big white spider on the front and back. Although the "costume" is not in the traditional red and blues, Spidey dismisses it as him thinking about the new (Julia Carpenter) Spider-Woman's costume at the time. And not only does the costume respond to his wishes, clothing and "de-clothing" him at will - it also comes with its own supply of webbing!

Nothing weird about that. No siree. Happens at least one out of every three visits to an alien planet.

Oh well. It is what it is.

Needless to say, Spidey returns home with the rest of the heroes and villains (well, most of them), displaying some snazzy new duds that evoke more than a few gasps of fright from various unsuspecting goons.

The Death of Jean DeWolff
Another story that must be discussed as a precursor to the Venom Saga is this one. As is typical with the Spider-Man mythology, so little of what ultimately happens is planned, yet somehow it still winds up fitting together in one large, rich, if somewhat convoluted, mosaic.

Whenever you see a top 10 list of Spider-Man stories "The Death of Jean DeWolff," written by Peter David, which ran from Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110 (October 1985-January 1986), is usually among them (including my own). Captain Jean DeWolff, created by Bill Mantlo way back in Marvel Team-Up #48 (August 1976) was one of Spider-Man's few friends among the police. She was a chain-smoking tough talking cop whom Spider-Man often infuriated by what she perceived as his reckless behavior and his tendency to be a hot head. But underneath the bluster she had a deep respect for the wall-crawler, and a hint of romantic affection.

Anyway, Jean's death was one of a series of murders (other than Jean, a priest and a judge were also killed, and J. Jonah Jameson targeted), committed by a villain known as the Sin-Eater - who punishes the "sinners" he perceives as soft on criminals. In issue #109, the Sin-Eater invades the Bugle, looking for Jonah, but Peter Parker drills him with a typewriter roller (typewriters - I remember those). This character turns out to be a mentally ill poser by the name of Emil Gregg who confessed to the crimes, but the real bad guy actually turned out to be a cop himself, an Ex-SHIELD agent driven mad by exposure to an experimental drug and the recent violent death of his partner.

Of course, I'm grossly oversimplifying it - but as it turned out, Gregg's confession would have long and dramatic repurcussions which have shaken Spidey's world ever since.

First Appearance
But before I get too far ahead of myself, the actual, first true appearance of the symbiote and the black costume was Amazing Spider-Man #252 (May 1984), which incidentally was also the debut of Tom DeFalco, now the scribe of Spider-Girl, on the title. We learn at the beginning of this issue that Secret Wars has already happened as far as the core titles are concerned, and it's now the aftermath (other than Spidey's new costume, for example, Ben Grimm had reverted to human form and stayed behind on the alien world, She-Hulk had taken his place among the Fantastic Four, the Hulk had been badly injured and was losing his tenuous grip on Bruce Banner's intelligence), an unsubtle tease to get you to start buying the Wars mini series that debuted around the same time to see how we all got to this point - kind of line an early version of 52, I suppose. As it turned out, by the time we saw how Spider-Man actually obtained the black costume, more than half a year and passed and we had already seen him reject the costume and go back to his original red and blues in the main titles!

Now, in the more than 30 years that I have purchased Spider-Man comics, I don't always remember buying each and ever one (I'm not THAT anal), but I do remember this one. I was a junior in college at Indiana State University in Terre Haute (sounds and smells like "goat"), Indiana, and there was a comic book shop on Wabash Avenue called "New Concepts." It later moved out to a shopping mall and I do not believe it exists any longer, sad to say, like so many comic shops that I have patronized during my years (I'm cursed, I tell you, cursed). But here's one reason I remember it so vividly. Without Diamond Comics to tell me when the releases were, I had to make the trip every Wednesday (fortunately the store was a short walk from campus) to New Concepts so that I could be sure not to miss anything. Usually I got there early enough on New Comic Day (even at my age, there's just something special about that), that there would be plenty of copies of every new title.

Not this time.

There was one issue of Amazing Spider-Man #252 left, and it was in less than mint condition. The thing had flown off the shelves - and it wasn't too hard to figure out why.

That black costume was just too damn cool. And using it in an homage to the original Jack Kirby cover for Amazing Fantasy #15 didn't hurt either. I've come to believe that one of the key reasons for Venom's popularity is that costume. With the large white spider on the front and back, it is just totally baaaaad. I know that I loved the thing from the minute I saw it. Marvel stated in the letters pages of issue #259 that issue #252 generated six times the usual mail - and that the verdict was 58% in favor of the new costume, 36% against, and 6% indifferent. Lies, damn lies, and statistics aside - the black costume was a smash hit, which took even Marvel by surprise. I remember when the Secret War toys debuted - I immediately bought a black costume Spider-Man action figure the first time I saw one. So, yeah, I was a hypocritical chump and succumbed to the hype and the whoring. The black costume has remained a favorite of many ever since, and it's not by accident that it returns in the post - Civil War fallout.

This was also the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man pencilled by Ron Frenz, who soon became one of the hottest artists in comics at the time, and deservedly so. Ever since John Romita, Sr. put his indelible stamp on the character, Peter Parker had grown more handsome and robust over the years. Frenz' Peter Parker on the other hand, was a step back to the Ditko days. Peter was not his old nerdish self, but he was back to being a very lean and wiry character - and the fans took to that immediately as well.

I forget how many times I read that issue just to keep looking at that costume. I wouldn't consider myself as much a traditionalist as a lot of Spidey fans - but I would never have thought at the time that Marvel would consider changing his costume because the red and blues were too iconic (and we all know how popular Superman's new duds were - and don't get me started on "Bat Nipples"). Even Sam Raimi, after considering making some changes to the costume for the first Spider-Man film (including leaving the eyes exposed), decided to abide strictly by the traditional Ditko design. But, the black costume actually looked more in tune with a stealthy, sneaky superhero who travelled from rooftop to rooftop during the night, than the loud entertainers' outfit that he initially designed for his wrestling career. As I mentioned, the white wraparound spider was also awesome - although I wondered just how practical that would be. While it would be eerie for a bad guy to turn around and see only a pair of white eyes and the big white spider staring at him - that spider also provided a lot clearer target, particularly during the night, if you wanted to pump him full of lead. But that was an acceptable concession for a medium that relies on visual imagery. The only aspect of the costume that really bothered me was the fact that it responded to Peter's mental commands, a little too sci-fi-ish for a working class superhero such as Spidey. Of course, we know now what was to come. And it didn't take us long to figure out that there was more to this costume that met the eye, but Spidey was really slow on the take.

First of all, Peter noticed that he was always tired, even moreso than he figured that even a superhero who burned the candle at both ends should be. And beginning with issue #255, we could see that as Peter dozed off during the night, the costume would automatically, without guidance from him, cover him and take him out for joyrides as Spidey - all while Pete was still asleep!

So it was to no one's great surprise (well, except for Spider-Man himself), that during a fight with Puma (another one of those guys who can track Spidey by his distinctive smell) in issue #257, the latter told Spider-Man that the webbing was organic (by the way, this was the same issue in which Mary Jane told Peter that she knew that he was Spider-Man). Spidey finally took the suit to Reed Richards in issue #258 to get it analyzed and Richards concluded what he and the rest of us already suspect, except for Spider-Man himself, that the suit was alive.

I suppose we can accept Spidey being slow on the draw as the symbiote dulling his judgment so that he didn't try to jettison it before it had a chance to bond permanently with him.

One of the things that has become an accepted part of Spider-Man lore, reinforced in Spider-Man 3 is that the symbiote brought out the darker side of Spider-Man, getting him drunk on his power, and turning him more violent and vicious. This was true in the 1990's Fox Animated Series, which was the first re-telling of the tale, and in Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man revisitation and in Spider-Man 3. However, this was NOT part of the original canon! Rather than boosting Spidey's powers or influencing his emotions, the symbiote was really akin to a "space vampire" that was feeding off his life force and actually making him weaker. Eventually, as it was originally written, the logical outcome would likely have been that the symbiote would consume and discard him - much like the fate that was in store in What If Volume 2 #4, which I discuss in my Alternate Spidey article Spidey Dies , and in What if Volume 2 #114 (November 1998), which postulated a universe where the heroes stayed trapped on the alien planet after Secret Wars and did not return to Earth.

Sensing Spidey's horror at finding out that it was actually alive, and fearing separation, the suit attempted to bond permanently with him. Using a sonic weapon, Reed blasted the alien symbiote off and imprisoned it, which of course, left Spidey without a costume, prompting the infamous Amazing Bag Man outfit, which is fondly remembered yet today (appearing as an alternative costume choice in a Spider-Man video game, and also as one of the variant covers during "The Other" in 2005).

Imprisoned at the Baxter Building, the symbiote began to plot its escape and revenge, and resisted efforts by Richards, as noted in issue #259, to communicate with it. In issue #260, the symbiote attempts to take control of Franklin Richards' mind - but finds out that Franklin's psychic abilities are too much for even it to handle. It finally escapes in issue #261 with the help of a curious mechanical intruder that drills a hole in the chamber in which it is kept.

The stage is now set for the "final" confrontation between Spider-Man and his killer klothes.

Scorned Lover
For many years, there had been what I like to say were "2 1/2" Spidey books. Obviously, there was Amazing, and in the previous 8 years Spectacular, along with the first volume of Marvel Team-Up which was "sorta" Spidey's book because he always seemed to be in it. However, Marvel decided to drop MTU and replace it with a true third monthly Spider-Man title - Web of Spider-Man , debuting with the April 1985 issue. For most of its 10+ years on the shelves before being cancelled and replaced by Sensational Spider-Man in the wake of the emergence of the Ben Reilly Spider-Man, Web had a very shaky life, often plagued by the lack of consistent creative team, and was the lowest selling of the Spider-Man titles. That doesn't mean that there weren't several good stories - notable Spidey scribes such as Peter David, David Michelinie, and Gerry Conway took turns toiling on the title (oooh - aliteration), but it never really gained any traction - and its career could probably best be summed up by the fact that issue #100 was the first and only appearance of the infamous Spider-Armor. But it certainly started out with a bang - the "death" of the symbiote.

After escaping captivity in the Baxter Building, the symbiote reaches Peter Parker's apartment, where it disguises itself as the familiar red and blue pajamas in order to mislead Pete into putting it on - and then it promptly tries to finish the job of permanently bonding with him. Spidey is determined to return to the Baxter Building in order for Reed to blast the symbiote off again, but it resists. Although waylaid by a group of flying criminals known as the Vulturions (let's not invest a lot of time talking about them), Spidey realizes that he'll never reach the Baxter Building in time, but passes by Our Lady of Saints Church in lower Manhattan, where a ringing bell draws his attention.

In a scene that will no doubt be permanently memoralized by being a climactic moment in Spider-Man 3, Spidey uses the sound of the bells to force the symbiote to leave his body - but the constant loud ringing begins to turn his brain and eardrums to mush, and he passes out as the symbiote disengages from him and begins to flee the church, leaving Peter behind to face either death or permanent brain damage. However - although the narrative (written by Louise Simonson) - describes the symbiote as an emotionless being who preys upon the emotions of others - its pairing with Spider-Man has permanently altered it - to where it now feels emotion - and affection for its former host. It returns, and carries Peter down the stairs of the tower, beyond the deadly effects of the bell. And, after one last gentle touch, the sonics generated by the bell dissipate the symbiote, leaving Peter to ponder why it sacrified its life for his own.

And thus the symbiote was dead.

Well - as dead as anything can be in the Marvel Universe.

The Host With the Most
Flash forward another year and a half, and David Michelinie is the scribe of Web of Spider-Man (and as I discuss Venom's creation, some of these comments are cribbed from Comic Creators on Spider-Man, by the one and only Tom DeFalco, another essential (no pun intended) guide for the Spider-Fan). Intrigued by the idea of a Spidey villain who doesn't trigger our hero's indispensible spider-sense, Michelinie begins to foreshadow the introduction of this new villain. At the end of issue #18 (September 1986), Peter Parker is shoved in front of a passing train - and horror of horrors, his spider sense did not warn him! Six months later in issue #24, someone literally reaches out a window and yanks Peter off a building, sending him into freefall.

Michelinie is then given the flagship title and is asked to come up with a special event for the quickly approaching issue #300.

In the closing moments of Amazing Spider-Man #298 (March 1988 - which was also significant because it was the first Todd McFarlane issue), we see a large, dark mysterious figure staring at a wall covered with clippings about Spider-Man. The figure becomes increasingly angry as he talks about Spider-Man, pounding his fist into his other hand, talking about the shroud that was put over his life. We then see his hands become covered with a black substance and suddenly we realize...that the symbiote is alive and has found a new host.

But who?

Well, considering that this figure is cloaked in darkness - it has to be someone we know, right? After all - what would be the point of obscuring his identity if it is someone we've never seen before? It's just been revealed that the symbiote is alive - which is shock enough - so then the identity of the host has to be the real stunner - right? Right?

And the "shroud" reference? Could this mean an old foe from Spidey's past has been resurrected by the symbiote somehow? Or someone incapacitated or left for dead whom the alien has rejuvenated? Who would meet those crtieria? Could it be that Kraven the Hunter really didn't die from his self-inflicted gunshot wound - but was merely comatose until the symbiote found him - perhaps drawn by Kraven's emotional anguish near the time of death - and waited in the wings to claim the body?

Well, it couldn't be Norman Osborn because he died in such a classic story that no one would consider bringing him back (although apparently Bill Mantlo actually tried - Osborn was supposedly his original choice for Carrion).

And then the very last page of issue #299 gives us an iconic snapshot, as you can see above - our first full shot of Venom, brought to life by superstar artist Todd McFarlane. Mary Jane enters the Parker apartment and is greeted by You Know Who. It's interesting to note that as Venom originally appeared, he was mostly teeth and muscles - no tongue, no green drool, no wildy exaggerated jaw, no taste for brains - that would all come later - much to the character's detriment.

The story begins with a frightened out of her wits Mary Jane telling Peter about the massive figure that spooked the hell out of her. Peter recognizes it immediately as the symbiote with a new host and borrows Reed's sonic gun.

We first see Eddie Brock very early in the story, as the symbiote receeds from his body. However, he is not named yet - and I remember being completely befuddled. Who is this guy? And those of us who love to point out inconsistencies will quickly note that when Brock revisits the church to prepare for his battle with Spider-Man, he mercilessly and without hesitation brutally suffocates a police officer who's barely older than a boy. Although he says "innocent death is so unpleasant," it rings hollow, since Brock has the ability to render people unconscience by cutting off oxygen for only a moment and could have done so here. Such an action in our world would earn Brock an appointment with a needle or old Sparky (well, the needle in New York), something to remember as Marvel made him a hero years later with his own series, calling him "The Lethal Protector."

Later, Peter spots the symbiote webslinging by his and Mary Jane's new apartment (the ritzy one that they were kicked out of later), and pursues him after changing into Spider-Man. But since the symbiote doesn't trigger Spidey's senses, it isn't long before the new symbiote/host are able to get the upper hand. Then, the revelation is finally at hand, as we learn the identity of the man behind the symbiote - and it's...it's....it's....

Eddie Brock.

Who the HELL is Eddie Brock?

When I first saw this (and yes - I bought this off the rack almost 20 years ago - and no, I don't remember the comic shop where I bought this one. Told you I wasn't that anal) my first reaction, besides the comment above, was where did I miss this? I assumed that the character had to have appeared in the Spider-Man (or even other Marvel) titles earlier, or at least have been mentioned, and I just didn't remember. It was plausible because I had only been buying the title erratically. Turns out, of course, that Brock was specifically created to be the new host - he was not an already existing character. The exchange between Brock and Spidey indicates that the latter recognized Brock by his picture in the Daily Globe, and not as a result of a previous encounter.

Brock then goes into a classic supervillain monologue and tells his story. He was a reporter whose column in the Globe was read by millions and he was writing about the Sin-Eater murders as they occurred. As a result of those articles, he stated that he was contacted by the aforementioned sad sack Emil Gregg, who confessed to being the Sin-Eater (Michelinie actually based this on a real event that had occurred in New York during the 1970's, when someone claiming to be the Son of Sam approached reporter Jimmy Breslin - again the credit for the reference goes to Comics Creators). Brock began telling Gregg's story but was pressured by police and the Globe's lawyers to reveal his identity before he killed again. And of course, we know what happened. Gregg was a phony and Stan Carter was soon revealed as the real Sin-Eater. Brock was fired and ostracized by his former colleagues, and as he described it - forced to write venomous (hence his supervillain name) celebrity pieces for tabloaid magazines in order to survive. And rather than say, being mad at Gregg for being a screwed up liar, Brock blamed Spider-Man for exposing Brock and Gregg's fraud.

Brock pondered killing himself, but couldn't do it because it was contrary to his Catholic faith (Catholics believe suicide is a mortal sin - us Protestants just hope you have us spelled out in your will before you go off yourself). The symbiote found Brock in the same church the confrontation from Web of Spider-Man #1 took place, and it was a match made it heaven - with two lonely, rejected souls providing comfort and strength to each other, and feeding their mutual hatred of Spider-Man.

Eventually, though, Brock overextends himself. He uses too much webbing to subdue Spider-Man in order to set him up for one of those brilliant death traps (rather than just stepping on Spidey's head while he's unconscience, cracking his skull open and squishing his brains like any supervillain with sense would). Since the webbing has to be manufactured by the symbiote - like a human body manufactures its own blood - Brock depleted the symbiote's reserves - as if his own body had lost several pints of blood. In mid swing, Venom literally runs out of webbing and crashes to the ground. The two personalities are both unconscience, but still joined, and Spider-Man hauls them back to the Baxter Building where the Thing incarcerates them in a sonic chamber until they can be sent to the supervillain prison called the Vault.

Little did anyone know at the time - but a legend had been born.

Now - Why Again are you a Supervillain?
But it was a legend built upon a pretty flimsy premise - because there's simply a lot that's wrong with Venom as he was created. Basically, Brock f****d up, and his blaming of Spider-Man for his troubles is a helluva stretch. It wasn't like Spider-Man kicked Brock's ass personally for something, or hurt someone he knew. Brock was fired, not because Spider-Man caught a psychopathic super powered murderer, but because he failed to do his homework on a story - very much the same reason why Dan Rather was nudged aside at CBS because he and his staff didn't do their homework and rushed a bogus story to air before it had been properly vetted. Brock was a reporter long enough to know better. Even JJJ's bizarre hatred of Spidey, fueled by jealousy and feelings of inadequacy, made more sense than this.

For starters, there's the ethical problem of Brock working with and shielding from the authorities a man he himself believed was a vicious serial killer. Brock says that he was telling Gregg's story "incisively, compassionately," but if Gregg truly had been the Sin-Eater, he didn't deserve any compassion. The Sin-Eater didn't mercifully kill people who had it coming, he blasted huge holes in innocent people (remember, Venom is supposed to believe in the protection of innocents, right?) and splattered their guts all over the place. He killed a priest for goodness sake, and if Brock was such a damn good and holy Catholic (as we will see in a minute), why would he have any compassion for a priest killer? And I'm admittedly no constitutional lawyer, but Brock's perception that he was within his First Amendment rights to not disclose Gregg's identity seems rather specious considering that Gregg wasn't disclosing the Sin-Eater's identity and wanting to be shielded from retribution or the fact he gained his knowledge in the commission of another crime - he was saying he was the killer! The First Amendment prevents the government from throwing you in jail because you stand in front of the White House carrying a sign that says "George Bush Sucks!" - but I'm not so sure that you still have a First Amendment right if you're protecting a murderer who is very likely to do it again. But like I said, I'm not a constitutional lawyer.

After all, Brock could have worked out a deal with Gregg that resulted in him giving himself up - but Brock would keep the rights to tell his story. Let the police arrest Gregg and let them do the dirty work of investigating whether or not his story made sense, and let them take the heat when he turned out to be the wrong guy. Brock could still have told his story - but then it would have been the police's fault that they nabbed the wrong guy. So, this isn't just a tale of Brock making an honest mistake and being ruined for it - Brock was already criminally negligent at the very least. He was using a confessed murderer for his own ends and he got burned! Boo hoo!

And his logic that Stan Carter might have simply given up being the Sin-Eater once someone else was caught for the crimes? Right. The Sin-Eater was a psychopath whose mind had been fried by the drugs he had been injected with. He was a nutjob on a holy mission - and nothing short of incarceration or death (or a savage beating by Spider-Man that permanently crippled him) was going to stop him. For a hard-bitten reporter of Brock's ilk, that was either naive or just plain dumb of him to think that.

And here's the worst part - that's not even how the Sin-Eater story unfolded in the first place! Gregg didn't come to Brock and then Brock revealed his identity - Gregg stormed into the Daily Bugle dressed as the Sin-Eater threatening to kill J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker knocked him out by throwing a typewriter roller at him, and then the cops arrested him.

Considering that The Death of Jean DeWolff had been written just a couple of years earlier, and was already a classic story - this isn't the case of a writer misremembering an obscure event that only a continuity obsessed fanboy whore would remember - this is a case of a writer who just picked a flimsy motive for his villain in the first place, and then took some artistic license by retconning an already existing story that actually unfolded a different way.

Plus, it should be noted that every re-telling of the Venom story ditches the entire "I f****d up and got caught" plot, and gives us more compelling reasons for Brock to hate Spider-Man AND Peter Parker, usually via an already existing relationship and animosity between the two before Brock first becomes Venom.

• In the 1990's animated series - Brock is Peter's less than ethical rival photographer at the Bugle (as opposed to being a reporter at another newspaper) - and tries to promote his career at the expense of Spider-Man. He grows to hate both men, which gives him an already built in motivation when the symbiote first bonds with him.

• In the Ultimate version, Eddie Brock Jr. is the son of Richard Parker's science and business partner, as well as a childhood friend of Peter's. Eddie is a little unstable anyway, but eventually turns on Peter because after he shows Pete the miracle "cancer suit" their fathers developed, Pete goes behind his back to conduct experiments on it - which he discovers when he turns on the TV and there's a black suited Spider-Man fighting crime in front of the cameras!

• In Spider-Man 3, Brock is a rival photog like in the animated series, but with the extra kicker of being young and a contemporary of Peter Parker's AND something of an Anti-Parker - unethical, full of himself, and obnoxiously flirtatious with the ladies. You can see this young man doing something stupid, ruining his life, but refusing to take responsibility, unlike the older, more experienced, comic book Brock. And - he is also Gwen Stacy's boyfriend at the beginning of the film.