Following the monumental reveal that the universal threat, Knull the symbiote God, will make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut later this month in Venom: The Last Dance, Marvel fans worldwide are gearing up for an epic conclusion to the trilogy. Well-received by fans for their accurate character portrayals, the Venom movies offer an ideal mix of story and?? action, featuring vivid storytelling infused with cr??ucial source material.

Debuting way back in the original Secret Wars event, the Venom symbiote has enjoyed an impactful role in Marvel history. Here, spending time on various hosts, Venom has evolved into a complex character and the subject of many quality stories. Therefore, using three decades of symbiote immersion, I have identified the best Venom comics for fans looking for relevant facts on Venom before The Last Dance.

Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #300

The first full appearance of Eddie Brock as Venom. Downtrodden and desperate, disgraced reporter Eddie Brock seeks an escape in church. Wavering b??etween anger and shame, Eddie laments where his life went awry??. Ultimately, Eddie erroneously blames Spider-Man for his current situation, believing Spidey's apprehension of the Sin-Eater was the catalyst for his downfall.

Here, in Eddie's darkest moment, the alien symbiote Spider-Man rejected following the Doom best Secret Wars (1984) finds him. Then, fueled by shared anger towards Spider-Man for slights, real and imagined, Eddie and the symbiote bond profoundly. The resulting creation is the symbiote monstrosity and Last Dance protagonist, Venom.

Venom: Lethal Protector (1993)

Feeling the call toward heroism from his developing psyche, Venom decides to take up the cape and vows to protect the innocent. Beginning his heroic journey in San Francisco, Brock encounters a labyrinthian city and five symbiote "children," bonded to security personnel by pere??nnial Venom antagonist Carlton Drake and the vile Life Foundation.

Notably, introducing the symbiotes Riot, Lasher, Scream, Phage, and Agony, Lethal Protector marks a pivotal point in Venom's history. Undoubtedly, this must-read series propelled Venom into the mainstream, igniting his anti-hero transformation and introducing other symbiotes fans may see in The Last Dance.

Venom: Separation Anxiety (1994)

Confused after the events in the Lethal Protector series, Venom's five "children" decide that Venom is their best chance at understanding their symbiosis and normalcy. Therefore, hoping for his aid, they free him f?rom the Life Foundation's captivity. But, untrusting of his former enemies and missing his Other, Eddie fights to survive long enough to reunite with Venom.

Signaling the first time Eddie separates from Venom since first bonding, Separation Anxiety is an early look into symbiote offspring and their often aggressive impact on human physiology. Most importantly, this Venom best highlights the acute separation anxiety instilled in symbiote and host, a dynamic likely upcoming in The Last Dance.

Venom vs Carnage (2004)

A pulpy noir story brilliantly accentuated by the writhing artwork of Clayton Crain, Venom vs Carnage profiles as a must-read material before The Last Dance. Notably, this series shows a paternal Venom as he tries to save his recently spawned "grandchild" from Carnage. Throw-in appearances by Black Cat and Spider-Man and Venom vs Carnage checks all the boxes.

This series shows how far Venom has come from his "gnaw on your spine" days, as he takes responsibility for his offspring and its actions. Indeed, while taking in this visual masterwork, fans are introduced to the Toxin symbiote and its host, police of??ficer Pat Mulligan, complete with all of the familial complications being part of the symbiote hive entails.

Amazing Spider-Man (1999) New Ways to Die

This best Venom read picks up after Mister Negative mysteriously cures Eddie's cancer. Then, reflecting on his? second chance at life, Eddie is attacked by the former Scorpion and Venom's current host, Mac Gargan. After Spider-??Man intervenes, things turn epic as Venom interacts with Eddie's blood, resulting in the birth of Anti-Venom, Venom's fatal antithesis.

A popular, genre-spanning symbiote variation, Anti-Venom, is a powerful combination of residual Venom symbiote and Mister Negative's Lightforce energies. This amalgamation is deadly corrosive to most symbiotes, making him their natural counter, potentially valuable intel for the symbiote battles on tap in The Last Dance.

Venom: Dark Origin (2008)

Venom: Dark Origin represents the preeminent tale of Eddie Brock and his journey toward his fateful encounter with the Venom symbiote. Dark Origin vividly depicts his early life, where the loss of his mother d??uring childbirth left Eddie yearning for love he would never get. This void develops into Eddie's innate feeling of being slighted, constantly seeking to va?lidate himself, often through deception.

This Venom best shows Eddie's tragic transformation into a man willing to cut corners as a journalist, ultimately costing him his career. Lastly, it artistically challenges Brock's assertion that Spidey is the reason for his downfall, highlighting his ??early inability to take responsibility for his actions, a flaw Venom helped him overcome.

Venomverse Saga (2017)

Introducing the Poisons, a parasitic alien race hell-bent on conquest, Venomverse is a quality saga on the Venom symbiotes scattered throughout the Marvel Universe. A variant lovers' dream, Venomverse features venomized versions of iconic character??s like Captain America, Deadpool, Dr. Str?ange, and Wolverine.

In a rarity for Marvel, Venomverse also features Venom teaming up with a Carnage variant, brought together to save symbiotes across the multiverse. The ferocity of this father-and-son duo gives glimpses of the destructive power of a potential alliance, one many fans like myself would love to see in Venom 3.

Venom Inc. (2017)

Venom Inc. is a quick-paced and informative tale with Grand Theft Auto-esque vibes that deftly weaves in secondary characters impacted by Venom, like Andi Benton and Lee Price,?? with Eddie Brock, Peter Parker, and Flash Thompson. Indeed, all had their lives irrevocably changed by the Venom symbiote, yet harbor vastly different feelings towards it.

These differing opinions lead to a host slugfest with Spider-Man vs. Venom vs. Anti-Venom vs. Maniac and his Inkling famiglia. Introducing the evil Maniac symbiote, a new take on a beloved variation, and showcasing the indelible bond Eddie and Venom will share "to the end," Venom Inc. honors Venom's impact on many lives.

Venom: First Host (2018)

Fans looking for more history on the Venom symbiote before its comic debut on Battleworld, I've got a Venom best for you. Wrapped in engaging prose and bright visuals, Venom: First Host offers a candid look into Venom's past. During a war with the Skrulls, Kree infiltrator Tel-Kar encounters Venom, bondi??ng with?? it to further violent wartime mandates.

After escaping his decades-long torture, Tel-Kar heads to Earth to retrieve the symbiote, hell-bent on revenge. Here, readers encounter the juvenile symbiote Sleeper, a unique variation with a sensory skill set that becomes Dylan Brock's feline. Lastly, First Host examines Venom's ability to alter the memories of its hosts and itself, a dangerous slope likely explored in The Last Dance.

Venom: Rex (2018)

Kicking off his world-class Venom run, scribe Donny Cates further expands on symbiote lore with this foundational Venom read. Found in Venom (2018) #1-6, the Rex story arc illuminates cri??tical history linking Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D., the symbiotes, humani??ty, and the suddenly manic Venom.

Needing an??swers in this rapidly evolving crisis, Eddie and his son Dylan seek out the mysterious Rex Strickland, a former spec ops soldier oddly familiar with the symbiotes. The ensuing revelations will see Venom pushed to the breaking point and beyond in an epic confrontation with the wyrm-like symbiote Grendel and its master.

King in Black (2020)

King in Black, arguably Venom's best story, sees him lock horns with the primordial symbiote god, Knull. It's all hands on deck as Venom must team up with the Avengers and X-Men to have any hope against Knull and his reign of darkness. Truly an emotionally charged tale taking Venom full circle, King in Black honors Venom's Lethal Protector?? roots decades later as he risks everything in the battle versus Knul?l.

As the latest trailer revealed, The Last Dance will bring the Lord of the Abyss to ?the big screen, and from all indications, it looks to follow this iconi??c source material. Ultimately, even the film's title, taken from a heartfelt conversation between Eddie and Venom, is an homage to this acclaimed series? that any comic should check out.

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The newest trailer for Venom: The Last Dance gave us our first look at the film??'s villain, and it's not another of Venom's children. In the final chapter of his titular trilogy, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) faces off against Knull, Lord of the Abyss and creator of all symbiotes.

If you're a Marvel Comi??cs fan, you already know why the sound of his name was enough to make the Venom Symbiote want to peel themselves off Eddie's skin. If you don't know who Knull is, worry not! I'm here to tell you everything you need to know about Marvel's most terrifying deity and what his introduction could mean for Sony's Spider??-Man universe.

The tale of Marvel's Knull

Knull is a relatively recent addition to the Marvel universe, fully debuting in 2018 within the pages of Donny Cates' Venom. This is ironic, since Knull is one of the oldest beings in the Marvel Universe. Born from the primordial darkness sandwiched between each iteration of the cosmos (Marvel lore is wild), Knull is the embodiment of the void, and in classic dark god fashion, all he wants is to bask forever in the infinite blackness he spawned fr?om.

Unfortunately for Knull, his eternal slumber ended abruptly when the deific Celestials began laying down the framework of the universe. As the god of nothing, Knull looked at things like color, warmth, and dreams, and said, "Yeah, I'm not about this." So he did what any rational eldritch horror would do: create a living sword from his shadow and declare war on everything.

With the newly-forged All-Black, the Necrosword, Knull decapitated the first Celestial he saw, becoming the universe's first murderer. Armed with the raw, cosmic power of the Celestial's? head, Knull brought an army of dark dragons to life, linked to him through an intricate hive mind. These dragons would become the first generation of Symbiotes, and Knull used them to drown galaxies in darkness and bring entire pantheons of gods to their knees.

After untold eons, Knull's campaign came to a screeching halt when one of his dragons made its way to Earth in the Middle Ages. This dragon?, Grendel by name, crossed paths with a young Thor and got a face full of Mjolnir for its troubles. The electricity ??from Thor's blow rippled up the Symbiote hive mind, hitting Knull head-on and knocking the Lord of the Abyss into a coma.

Free from their tyrannical progenitor's?? influence, the Symbiotes sealed Knull away within the core of his throne world, which they would name "Klyntar." Despite the Symbiotes' best attempts to erase any lingering trace of Knull from the universe, their efforts would ultimately be in vain.

S.H.I.E.L.D. eventually unearthed Grendel's remains and used them to create a platoon of Symbiote-bonded super-soldiers. Grendel's return kicked off a series of Symbiote-related events, culminating with Knull's resurrection at the hands of Cletus Kasady. Knull launched an all-out symbiote invasion of Earth in the 2020/2021 King in Black crossover event, in which the Lor??d of the Abyss finally met his end at? the hands of a divinely powered Eddie Brock.

Knull's debut in Venom: The Last Dance could save Sony's Spider-Verse... or destroy it

Knull is one of the most potent threats ever to menace the Marvel universe, and I'm honestly surprised he's showing up in Venom 3. Hardy's spent most of his tenure as Venom fighting other Symbiote hosts, and Venom 3's first few trailers made it look like that pattern could continue. If my earlier summation didn't clarify it enough, Knu?ll's anything but "another Symbiote villain."

With deific strength, a healing factor, and command over a legion of Symbiotes, Knull's easily the most powerful villain to appear i??n Sony's Spider-Verse. He fought gods and won countless times, and his ability to control Symbiote in the universe means he always has an intergalactic army at his beck and call. With that much power at his command, Knull could become the Big Bad the Sony Spider-Verse has needed for a while.

However, while I am excited to see what Kelly Marcel does with Knull in Venom 3, I'd be lying if I said I'm not a little worried. Knull was a slow-burn villain in the comics, giving readers plenty of time to stew in dread and morbid curiosity before the foretold "God of the Symbiotes" finally appeared. If there's one thing a villain of Knull's scale deserves, it's a good amount of build-up, and the previous two Venom movies didn't mention him at all. It'd be a shame to see the mystique and morbid majesty of Knull restricted to a sin??gle film, even if it is a series-ending threequel.

A tweet from Alec Perez of My Cosmic Circus implied Sony has big plans ??for Knull, so Venom 3 may not be the last time we see the God of the Symbiotes. We'll have to wait until the movie comes out on October 25th to find out.

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Sony and Columbia Pictures have revealed the first trailer for the upcoming Venom movie, giving us a look at the final Venom film in the trilogy. Tom Hardy’s Venom appears all set for anoth?er round of mayhem, and the action-packed trailer teases the fight ahead.

The first trailer does hint towards what fans can mostly expect from the movie, as the alien Venom symbiote warns Eddie Brock about an invasion of Earth by the beings from its world. The beings are non?e other than Klyntar, the alien race created by Knull, one of?? the oldest villains in the Marvel comics.

The final movie’s official synopsis has also been revealed, explaining that “Eddie and Venom ar??e on the run...�and that both of them are being hunted by humans as well as the Klyntar, forcing them “into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie's last dance."

While the trailer does not? dig into why exactly the Klyntar have shown up on Earth and are hunting down Eddie Brock and Venom, it looks like it's an uphill battle for the duo against the Klyntar. The final Venom movie has yet to divulge its big, bad villain yet, and it remains ??to be seen if Venom will only be taking the fight up against the Klyntar.

Interestingly, Sony’s Shared Spider-Man Universe does not seem to be introducing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and finally hav??e him face to face with Venom. The idea was certainly teased in the post-credit scene from the previous Venom movie, but the trailer’s plot looks ??miles away from that reality. Even if we somehow do see Spider-Man, it’s likely going to be a small cameo to introduce him in this Universe rather than seeing him play a crucial part in the final movie.

Anyway, it is all speculati??on at best at the moment. Venom?: The Last Dance will be hitting theatres on October 25, 2024.

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Peter and Miles are about to deal with an alien symbiote

During today's PlayStation Showcase 2021, Insomniac revealed two games. And alongside its take on Logan, the studio confirmed that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is in development and aiming for 2023.

The trailer shown off today features both Peter Parker and Miles Morales fighting crime and slinging webs, but an omi??nous voice soon cracks the scene. As they peer into ??the darkness, we get a glimpse of a well-known Spidey villain: Venom.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIQ3xNqkVC4

Over on the PlayStation blog, Insomniac's Ryan Schneider confirms the team is crafting all-new stories for both Peter and Miles. Much of the same development team that worked on Marvel's Spider-Man is returning, including creativ??e director Bryan Intihar and game director Ryan Smi??th.

Schneider also confirms that Tony Todd, of Candyman fame, will be voicing Venom, and ?that Yuri Lowenthal and Nadji Jeter will be reprising their roles as Peter Parker and Miles?? Morales.

The first Marvel's Spider-Man was a pretty big hit for the PlayStation 4 back in 2018, and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales carried the torch forward into the PlayStation 5 era. It's not a huge surprise to see the Spidey franchise continue production, ?though it's heartening to see both Peter and Miles getting the focus in this trailer. And with Venom, the Spider-family looks like it will keep on growing.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is set for sometime in 2023.

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It ain't as fun when they're in on it

If there's anything that we as a people can agree upon, it's that Venom was an absurd movie. The absurdity came to a point where many filmgoers viewed Sony's Spider-Man spinoff more like a romantic comedy, a notion that is taken both as a joke and somewhat seriously, dep??ending on who you ask. In response, we got this.

With title cards and music that feel more like something from a Love, Actually sequel, this ad shows that Sony is pretty hip to the Venom memes that have circulated since then. At the same time, cynical me thinks that this ad is a little too wink-wink-nudge-n?udge.

Venom was not a good movie, but I enjoyed watching it immensely. Despite its various flaws, it wa?s a fun conversation topic, and turning the movie into something else completely different in our own minds was a fun exercise. Now, the big ol' corporation is trying to get into the fun as well, and I'm not into that. It's like when you explain a running joke between your friends to your parents, and they try to get in on it too.

Now, if Sony were to recut the entire film as a romantic comedy, then things might be interesting. If you're going to acknowledge the joke, you have to full??y commit. I think the film works as its own weird thing, but I'm sure fans would love such an effort. Venom is releasing on digital HD on December 11 and Blu-Ray December 18, which is ridiculously soon, considering the film was just in theaters in October.

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Box office round up

The big question last week was whether or not Venom's above-expectation box office would carry over to next week. Predictions were for a pretty solid drop considering the poor reviews and only OK audience reception. Those predictions were wrong as Venom came in number one this weekend at $35.7 million, a drop of only 55 percent, which is in line with the likes of Logan. It's not a true Marvel mega-hit, but Sony will take t??his happily and we sho?uld be getting that sequel they tease at the end.

Pulling in at second was once again A Star is Born, which looks like it's going to have nice long legs that will pull it through until it gets an Oscar bump once awards buzz starts really picking up later this year. It's not until number three that we see the first new film of the weekend, First Man, but the real travesty here is that Bad Times at the El Royale performed under expectations and that audiences didn't respond well to it with a B- Cinemascore. I can see why audiences might not be jumping on board with th??e film, as it busts up conventions and weaves a plot that's not the norm, but?? this is easily one of the best movies of the year and you should all go see it and if you don't I'll hate everyone. 

EVERYONNNNE!

1. Venom - $35,700,000
2. A Star is Born - $28,000,000
3. First Man - $16,500,000
4. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween - $16,225,000
5. Smallfoot - $9,300,000
6. Night School - $8,035,000
7. Bad Times at the El Royale - $7,225,000
8. The House with a Clock in Its Walls - $3,975,000
9. The Hate U Give - $1,765,000
10. A Simple Favor - $1,380,000

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This is what it was like before the MCU

It is really easy to tear Venom apart. There are a myriad of issues with it from casting to screenplay to plotting to... well, everything. Superhero movies have come a long way in the past ten years, and Venom feels like it learned almost nothing from any of them -- a phase one MCU film with none of the hope or aspiration of things to come. It isn't really ??a good movie.

And yet...

It's fun. It just is. It's one of those movies that's dumb as hell, but you don't hate it for it. It's got this ??campy, throwback feeling that plays stupidly earnest. It's not a good movie at all, but I'm not sure it really wanted to be.

Venom
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: October 5, 2018

Venom, as a character, is a Spider-Man villain created in the late 80s to be all edgy and cool. Looking back the character was a bit cheesy, a bit emo, and a whole lot of 90s. The symbiote was closely tied to Spidey as it first came to be as a new costume for the hero. However, thanks to contracts and rights ownership Spider-Man is nowhere to be seen in this Sony (in "association" with Marvel) production, and so we get an Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) living in San Francisco with his fiancee Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) and working as an investigative journalist. It's this work that brings him to cover Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who is up to something shady involving multiple alien symbiotes he discovered in space during an evil plan to do evil. The symbiote eventu??ally absorbs into Brock and we get the big, sharped-tooth, tar-like blob of anti-hero the film is about.

I mean there really isn't that much more too it. The plot is basic AF (that's what the cool kids say now). We're talking copy-and-paste-from-almost-every-early-Marvel-film-there-is basic. The first half is all origin stuff with Brock being just Brock and Venom being just a black blob of... stuff. Comic book movies have moved past the origin story, and yet Venom is so committed to it we don't even get to see the full "costume" for at least 20 minutes. It's so pre-Iron Man in its thinking that it's kind of refreshing. There's no bigger picture here, no subtext, no creativity; it's just kind of simple storytelling that Venom somehow revels in.

Part of that is just how wonderfully campy Brock and Venom are together. It's not evil Peter Parker campy, it's an earnest straight camp, which is the best kind. Hardy spews both Brock and Venom's lines like he's vying for an Oscar nod, especially when they're talking to each other. I'm not sure what direction Hardy was given for the performance, but as the movie goes on it just gets more and more absurd. It begins working because it's odd and Hardy is so committed to it that you can't help but enjoy it. In fact, even the infamous "turd in the wind" line actually plays pretty well in the context of the film's overall dialog??. By the point it's uttered you happily accept it's something Venom would say.

It should be said that there are plenty of lackluster elements of the film that could easily put someone off. Venom's turn into an anti-hero makes little sense, but as the main driver of the latter half of the film, it's kind of important. It's like there's an entire section of the movie missing that makes their relationship into something more. It's even worse for any other character in the movie. ?They are all relegated to cliches, tropes, and evil monologing of horrific proportions. Poor Ahmed barely gets to do anything but stare at the screen sinisterly, and Willa??ims is nothing more than a MacGuffin (and an excuse for some fan service). 

Part of the problem, and yet also the solution, is Fleischer's pacing of the movie. It never stops, jumping from one set piece to another until we're at the end watching two slightly different colored alien blobs fight each other to the death for no apparent reason other than that's how superhero movies end. Yet, because of this frantic pace, it's hard to really think about any of the movie. You're just strapped in for the ride and that ride starts to get fun. Most of the action, aside from the aforementioned final fight, works well, and Fleischer knows that the only thing really going for the film is Hardy's over-the-top Venom portrayal so ?he just ??sticks with it and sprints through the rest of the movie. I'm not sure if it's genius or idiocy, but it works.

What doesn't work at all is most of the CGI. Venom is truly the one who looks like a turd in the wind. We're not talking Green Lantern levels of ugly, but we're close. An ever-shifting, black blob must be hard to animate, but while the date?d feeling of the rest of the movie gives it some of its fun and camp, it's not a good look for your special effects. 

If Venom had come out ten years ago, audiences probably would have applauded it. It's like Sony missed every lesson learned over the past ten years of superhero movie making, and just went all out with what used to work. It's so ill-informed in its decisions that it turns into a weird parody. If one were being generous one could call it a campy deconstruction of the genre that tears away everything but the most basic elements to expose just how redundant comic book movies are. That's probably being a little too generous to a movie where our hero bites off the heads of people so let's just say this: Venom isn't good, but Venom was never meant to be good anyway.

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A.K.A. Saving Face

Being a famous Hollywood actor must really suck. You can't speak freely about your projects without someone quoting them out of context or weaponizing your words against you. As I posted yesterday, Tom Hardy stated in an interview with YouTube channel "ComicsExplained" that his favorite scenes to film from Venom were in the 30-40 minutes cut from the film. Since that sounds an awful lot like a red flag, IGN took to asking Hardy about the quote at the premiere for Venom last night.

While I do honestly believe his answer here, I can't help but feel he was coerced into this response from a studio executive. Mumbling around his words, Hardy clarifies that to answer the question of the scene he was most excited in shooting, "I was talking like an actor. I had a lot of time improvising and a lot of freedom to play with Venom. So in honesty, there is probably like seven hours or more of me playing Venom and enjoying myself."

He then continues, "So me and the other executive producers know full well that has nothing to do with what's in that story. But never the less, would I like to watch a seven-hour version of Venom...yeah." Hardy also mentions ?that everything he wanted for the story was included in the film and that it is awesome and he's ready for a sequel.

I'm fully aware that there are probably hundreds of hours of "footage" from various films that never see the light of day. When making any project, you always want more footage instead of less, so Hardy's comments from yesterday shouldn't have been automatically bad. That being said, Hardy's response here doesn't really clarify much. You could basically break this down to, "I did what I was told and let them cut out?? the parts I liked."

Really, I would just ignore these bits if you have any interest in the film. There is no point in entering a theater with a negative bias, so just let go of Hardy's possible misquotes and try to enjoy Venom for what it is. As I said yesterday, maybe Sony really does have the best interest of this f?ilm in mind.

IGN [Twitter]

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And tossed like a turd in the wind

The more we learn about Venom, the more disappointing it seems. While likely just being honest about his experience on the set, in a recent interview with YouTube channel "ComicsExplained," Tom Hardy revealed that around 30-40 minutes of footage was cut from Sony's Spider-Man spin-off.?? That could mean a lot of things, but coupled with a PG-13 rating, I don't think it means anything good.

The exact quote, which shows up at around the 4:40 mark in the video, was during a question from the host that asked Hardy what his favorite scene to film was. Hardy didn't even hesitate to respond, "There are scenes that aren't in this movie. There are like 30 to 40 minutes worth of scenes that aren't in this movie... all of them. Mad puppeteering scenes, dark comedy scenes. You know what I mean? They just never made it in.??"

In an obvious attempt to save face, Hardy's co-star Riz Ahmed states in a joking demeanor, "If they didn't make it into the film, they weren't any good, bro. Alright, I hate to break it to you. We all had a meeting, we watched it and were like, Tom enjoyed making it so much, but they weren't, they aren't...it was??n't what you thought it was."

Maybe Ahmed is right and Hardy has gone off his rocker. Maybe Sony really does have the best interest of the film in mind. For many, though, this will sound like a serious knock against the film before it even opens. We'll just have to wait and see this Friday when Venom finally unleashes upon the world.

ComicsExplained Interviews Tom Hardy & Riz Ahmed on Venom [ComicsExplained via YouTube]

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We are Venom, bum ba dum bum bum bum bum

This is the third teaser or trailer we've had for Sony's non-MCU Spider-Man spin-off film, and I still have a hard time believing that Venom is happening for real. But here we are, on an early Tuesday morning, watching a CGI Tom Hardy lick a man's face. Needless to say, there is much to unpack here.

After that first Venom teaser showed, well, nothing, this new trailer shows it all. Not only do we see Eddie Brock as Venom in his full form, full body shot and all, but some symbiote-infused rivals as well. It looks like Riz Ahmed's villain will suit up as Riot, so get ready to watch two differently colored CGI globs go at each other. Man, this trailer is freaky. Did you see t?hat symbiote going for that dude's crotch?

I've heard mixed things about the final bit of the trailer—it does exemplify Venom as a sadistic anti-hero pretty well, but those unfamiliar with the character's personality in some of the comics aren't fond of the humor. At least all of us are united in one aspect: none of us have any idea what the hell ?Tom Hardy is ever saying.

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But look at that terrible CG

Remember that first Venom trailer? The one without Venom in it, that looked awful? I sure do. I've been a fan of Spider-Man and his cav?alcade of villains for a long time, but I w??as in no way excited by Sony's first showing of its attempt at a standalone Venom movie.

This second trailer is better.

We get a better look at the character of Eddie Brock though, and that's a neat touch. Brock is a reporter investigating shady experiments being performed by Dr. Carlton Drake when he's accidentally exposed to the symbiote. The dynamic on display between?? Brock and and the symbiote is actually pretty interesting. Both are battling for control, with Brock clearly unable to master the demon within him.

We also get to see, well, Venom, for one. This is the first time the character has appeared onscreen since Spider-Man 3, and it is a welcome return. Though the visual effec??t??s and CG on Venom's various tendrils and appendages look pretty weak, Venom himself looks gleefully evil.

Here's hoping the final product impresses when Venom hits theaters on Oct. 5, 2018.

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Fine with me!

Late last month, my jaw dropped when CyberConnect2 unveiled "Project Venom," an upcoming shooter for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One platforms that looks a hell of a lot like a Ghibli film. It's still a ways away, on track for a 2017 release, but some newly released screens by Famitsu showcase the beautiful art dire??ction that the developer is go?ing for.

Already known for its graphical prow??ess, this CyberConnect2-led bug-blasting game surel??y won't look as whimsical as the concept art, but pretty damn close.

Project Venom [Famitsu]

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