Venom Co-Creator David Michelinie Writing New Series Set During Eddie Brock's Early Days
Marvel announces new retro series Venom: Separation Anxiety.
They're baaaaaaack! David Michelinie — who co-created Eddie Brock with artist Todd McFarlane during their run of Amazing Spider-Man in the 1980s — is reuniting with the brains-eating anti-hero in Venom: Separation Anxiety. Set during Eddie's early days as a lethal protector, the five-issue limited series pits Eddie and the symbiote against a different kind of brain eater: the sinister mind-control powers of Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man.
"I'm always delighted to write a new Venom story in a retro background," said Michelinie, who previously returned to Marvel for another retro-set series, 2022's Venom: Lethal Protector. "With Separation Anxiety as the required theme, the problem became how to do something that's already been done — have Eddie Brock separated from his symbiote 'other.' So I thought, what if there was a deeply creepy villain with a decidedly bloodthirsty agenda who was able to take bits of Eddie's symbiote away every time the two touched, with that enemy slowly growing stronger as Venom slowly grew weaker? And that was the nugget that became 'The King In Purple.'"
Long before Eddie Brock becomes the King in Black, he'll face the King in Purple. Marvel describes Venom versus Purple Man: "When the iconic villain uses his terrifying mind control powers to torment Eddie and steal his symbiote for himself, everyone's favorite symbiote slugger may need to ask for unlikely help to get it back AND save his sanity!"
Marvel Comics also released the Venom: Separation Anxiety #1 cover from artist Paulo Siqueira (Venom: Lethal Protector, Carnage), paying homage to Charles Vess' classic Web of Spider-Man #1 — the iconic issue where Peter Parker separated himself from his alien costume, spawning a hatred that would ultimately bond the symbiote and Eddie Brock.
Venom: Separation Anxiety #1 (of 5), written by Michelinie and penciled by Death of the Venomverse artist Gerardo Sandoval, is on sale May 15 from Marvel Comics.