Venom’s Strangest Looks

Venom made his live-action debut in 2007’s Spider-Man 3, and with his first movie appearance receiving a largely negative response from fans, Sony will take another shot at Eddie Brock in the villain-slash-anti-hero’s own movie. Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and starring Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), Venom will apparently be segregated to his own universe, operating in a world without a Spider-Man — Eddie Brock’s hated mortal archenemy. Brock will spin his own web in an R-rated movie, most likely facing off against Carnage — the red-and-black symbiote that’s come into conflict with both Spider-Man and Venom in the Marvel comics.

With Venom planned for an October 5th, 2018 release, it shouldn’t be long until we get our first look at the latest cinematic iteration of Venom, who traditionally is depicted as being body builder-sized, with the gooey black symbiote rocking a massive white spider on its chest, jagged white eyes, sharp teeth and claws, and a sprawling tongue that would make Miley Cyrus writhe in jealousy.

In his near thirty years of comic book existence, Venom has taken on some gnarly looks. Here are some of the weirdest.

Venomsaurus Rex

Mark Millar’s Old Man Logan limited series saw a near-apocalyptic Marvel Universe, where the bad guys won and almost all your favorite heroes were dead. And it had a Venom dinosaur. A dinosaur from the Savage Land — Jurassic Park on steroids — served as the new host for the parasitic symbiote that once plagued Spider-Man and Eddie Brock, and the V-Rex ran down and attempted to eat an elderly Logan and an elderly, blind Hawkeye. (Must go faster.) Worry not, our heroes were rescued when Black Bolt, leader of the Inhumans, showed up and unleashed his devastating vocal chords against the prehistoric beast, toppling it with just a whisper.

Venom Was the Bomb in Avengers, Yo!

In Mighty Avengers #7, a piece of space debris falls to Earth, freeing a capsule that unleashes a Venom symbiote virus on New York City. (Hate when that happens.) As expected, a horde of symbiotes possess helpless New Yorkers, transforming them into blood-thirsty monsters. It’s all hands on deck as New York’s superheroes have their hands full against a horde of enemies-slash-victims. Worse, with countless Venoms and Carnages running around, the symbiotes infect the New Avengers, turning heroes like Spider-Man, Venom, Iron Fist, Echo, Ronin, and Doctor Strange into Venomites. The effects of the bomb were eventually reversed, with the mastermind behind the plot — Dr. Doom, naturally — defeated by Iron Man and his team of Mighty Avengers.

Can He Swing From a Web? No He Can’t, He’s a Pig

In the Aniverse — an offshoot of the Marvel Universe where everyone is a Looney Tunes-esque talking animal — “Venom” was Pork Grind, an Austrian Toon U student and villain of Peter Porker, aka the specporkular Spider-Ham. He had little in common with his 616 counterpart, Eddie Brock, but Pork Grind was for all intents and purposes Spider-Ham’s evil doppleganger, and was soundly defeated by the Bugs Bunny-like antics of the hammy hero.

Jheri! Jheri! Jheri!

In a 2011 oneshot, What If? Iron Man: Demon in an Armor #1, Wade Wilson — aka the Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool — came into possession of the Venom symbiote after being hired by Galactus to whack another cosmic being, the Beyonder. Now, armed with Jheri curls and a deadly alien spacesuit, Wade Wilson had become Venompool! While attempting to kill the Beyonder, Venompool learned that his archenemy, the villainess Carnage Curl, was pregnant and carrying the baby of Galactus. During a showdown on the Hairy Spranger talk show, Galactus and Beyonder destroyed the Earth. The lone survivor, Venompool used a special weapon, the Recton Expungifier, to erase the fueding beings from existence, saving the Earth — only to later be killed in the universe-spanning Deadpool war. Those Jheri curls were too pure for this world. Or any world.

I am Venom

Flash Thompson, former high school bully-turned-friend of Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, was equipped with the Venom symbiote after losing his legs as a soldier in Iraq. Now working for the government as Agent Venom, Flash eventually joined up with the Guardians of the Galaxy on Captain America’s recommendation. During his adventures in space, Flash learned of the Planet of the Symbiotes, home to a race known as the Klyntar. It was during this time that the reaches of space made the Venom symbiote even more erratic and aggressive, leading to its defeat and capture by the Guardians, who imprisoned the Klyntar. Upon its escape, the symbiote bonded with Groot, saying only, “I am Venom!” Rendered unconscious by Drax, Groot-Venom became Rocket Raccoon-Venom, only for the symbiote to then bond with Drax, like some kind of messed up, intergalactic key party. As strange as this whole debacle was, these Guardians of the Galaxy / Venom mashups are pretty cool — and there were no Jheri curls.