The most popular Marvel Comics superhero earned a massive makeover 42 years ago, and it changed everything about who he was forever. In 1984, one of Marvel’s most important crossover events not only changed how the company made comics but also instantly changed the direction of several individual comics without warning and allowed the story to play out over several months before all the dots were connected. While all of the changes meant something, one of them was so drastic and shocking that it ended up changing one of Marvel’s most important heroes into something different, and eventually created another iconic character in the story’s fallout.
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It was in 1984 that Marvel Comics released Secret Wars, the first real crossover series that affected all the characters’ individual storylines. It was Secret Wars that proved that these massive events were possible, and the non-stop event series Marvel publishes today wouldn’t exist without this seminal release. However, when Amazing Spider-Man #252 hit the spinner racks in January 1984, it changed everything about the Wall-Crawler.
42 Years Ago, Spider-Man Introduced The Black Costume
The big thing to remember about Secret Wars is that Marvel Comics revealed the fallout from the event before the series was even completed. What happened was that, on the last page of every major comic, the heroes found a portal and ended up disappearing, with the mystery being where they went. The very next issues had them back with some pretty significant changes. Then, Marvel played out Secret Wars, and eventually, people learned why these changes happened.
For Spider-Man, the changes were considerable and had a lasting impact that is still felt today. In Amazing Spider-Man #252, Spider-Man had a new all-black suit. The cover showed the suit and said it was a “new Spider-Man,” which might have scared readers. However, tns was still Peter Parker, but he could put the new suit on and off with his mind, or at least he thought he could. In reality, this was a symbiote, and it was their first appearance in Marvel Comics. This was the origin story of Venom in Spider-Man comics.
Of course, this was the Venom symbiote, and eventually, Spider-Man would learn it was an alien and not just a cool suit and would ditch it with the Fantastic Four’s help. Soon, the symbiote would escape, find Eddie Brock, and Venom would eventually be born and has been a part of the Marvel Universe since that time. Even today, with Mary Jane Watson as Venom, the introduction of this black suit 42 years ago was where it all started.
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Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
