Marvel Just Reset Venom to His Old Status Quo (And Threw Away a Decade of Character Growth)

Venom has been through a strange couple of years. After Eddie Brock ascended to become the King in Black and replaced Knull, his son Dylan bonded with Venom. However, he quickly lost the symbiote to the wind, and Eddie was killed. While Eddie bonded with Carnage to attempt to control his savagery, Venom bonded with MJ, but at the tail end of Queen in Black, the original duo of Eddie and Venom were reunited. They officially staked their claim as the symbiote in town in the all-new Venom (2026) #1, but this is a return to form in far more ways than one.

Venom is acting exactly like they did a decade ago, and that’s a major problem, because they are not the same as they were then. The symbiote duo has always been subject to circular characterization, but they finally escaped that pit several years ago, only for this singular issue to reset them back to square one. Instead of the hero that they’ve become, Venom is nothing more than an anti-hero nobody trusts, putting them in a box that, ironically, is the last thing this issue wanted to do.

From Anti-Hero to Hero to Anti Again

Venom has changed a lot in the last decade. Eddie Brock had been trying to redeem himself and his once-murderous life partner ever since he got it back from Flash Thompson. They strove to be anti-heroes, but really developed into something more during Donny Cates’s legendary run on the title. It deepened Eddie and Venom’s relationship like never before, and helped them both grow into truly heroic characters, embracing but overcoming their pasts to save the world as only they could. When they separated again, Eddie backslid into his anti-hero ways, yes, but Venom stayed staunchly heroic, even saving the world from Knull again with MJ.

Yet, in the new series, Venom has firmly shifted to anti-heroism once again. He’s brash and angry at the world, and the entire issue builds up to him telling the heroes of New York that he doesn’t need or want their approval. Nobody trusts the pair, and perhaps they shouldn’t, given that the symbiote is offering to murder the small-time criminals they put away. Eddie is the worst character regression offender, however. He’s an unrelenting ball of rage at the world for his position in it, but while he might have lashed out like this over a decade ago, today it just feels strange. He has genuine superhero allies, but it’s like everyone forgot immediately.

This is a statement that Venom will never truly leave these anti-hero roots behind, despite this entire issue building up towards Eddie saying that they will not be put into a box. His central argument is that the duo is so much more than anyone thinks they could be, but multiple heroes have repeatedly expressed faith in the duo before this. Despite is strong stance against saying that Eddie and Venom could only be one thing, it proves the exact opposite, showing that they can never truly leave their anti-hero past behind.

Rewritten Characters Lose Connections

Comic book characters, by their very nature, reset to a certain status quo often. That’s a baked-in part of the medium, but while most fans can overlook that, it’s especially grating when major changes in characterization are wiped away like they didn’t happen. Change in character is natural between runs and different creators, but resetting a character to before their major development feels like a slap in the face to the readers who stuck by them. It’s especially aggravating when that characterization was consistent across multiple runs before this and creates cheap drama and problems that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Characters like Damian Wayne are a perfect example of this constant reset, but it’s never happened to Venom on this level before, so it hits especially hard. Doing this, at its core, is a betrayal to the fans. Eight years of storytelling have effectively been washed away, and we have no idea if Eddie or Venom will develop into the characters that they were again, or if their previous relationships with others, such as their son Dylan, will actually appear again in the foreseeable future. This issue of Venom was tons of fun, but when it’s built on a foundation like this, it’s hard for long-time fans to get invested. This might not be what kills characters, but it could easily split fandoms in two.

What do you think of this new direction for Venom? Let us know in the comments below!

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