All-New Venom is rapidly becoming one of my favorite ongoing series Marvel is putting out. Not only does it consistently give us Dylan tearing down Paul, which feeds the Paul-hating hearts of fans so much and gives us something to unite over, but its newest issues have presented an actually very strong and important theme that will most likely be present all throughout this run, and I am all here for it. The story looks like it’s shaping up to be focused on the concept of forgiving, both yourself and others, and letting go of the past to be the best person you can be today. It’s a perfect theme for a superhero comic, and the perfect one to tell with the unlikely duo of Mary Jane and Venom. After all, it all stems from their less than stellar history with each other.
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Mary Jane Hates Venom
Mary Jane has good reason to despise the alien symbiote, more so than most. After Spider-Man rejected the suit and it bonded with Eddie Brock to seek revenge, one of the ways it went about torturing Peter was by targeting MJ. Venom stalked Mary Jane, breaking into her and Peter’s home and terrifying her. This was Venom’s first introduction, so nobody knew who or what he was, only that someone that looked almost exactly like Spider-Man entered Mary Jane’s most personal bubble and Peter couldn’t stop him.
Spider-Man still wore his black suit at the time, the cloth version, and this experience with the Lethal Protector was so traumatizing for Mary Jane that she couldn’t even look at him in the suit anymore. Even after this, Mary Jane watched Venom torture and try to murder her husband for years. More so than every other villain save Green Goblin, Venom was a personal villain to Spider-Man. Venom could hurt and terrify Peter in a way nobody else could, and Mary Jane watched it all happen. Even after the symbiote grew to be a hero and reconciled with Spider-Man, Mary Jane still hated it. Which brings us to the present day, and the journey of forgiveness her and Venom are on.
Mary Jane Will Forgive Venom, and Venom Will Forgive Itself
Venom has changed a lot since its villain days. Over the past few years especially, Venom has struggled to become a hero in its own right. From being a space knight with Flash Thompson to rewriting its legacy with Dylan Brock, Venom has fought to make up for its horrible past. Mary Jane is on her own heroic journey. After becoming the superhero Jackpot, Mary Jane has gotten a taste of what it’s like to fight for justice, just like she’s seen Spider-Man do for all these years. And now, these two people who want to be the best versions of themselves are literally stuck together.
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In that moment when Mary Jane was dying in the sewers, her final thought was blaming Venom, throwing all the vitriol that she’s built up over decades of stories at what she sees as an unfeeling monster. In that same moment, as Venom is falling apart just as much as Mary Jane, it saw that she needed help and had only one thought; what would Spider-Man do? It knew that he would try everything to help someone in need, so it risked everything by bonding to MJ, and now they’re stuck together.
All-New Venom #6 showed us that Mary Jane still hasn’t forgiven Venom for all the bad it’s done, and Venom hasn’t forgiven itself either. And yet, they both want the same thing: to be a hero like the person that inspired them. Spider-Man was brought up constantly by both members of this duo as they told their origin, and it’s clear the insane amount of respect they both have for him. Both of their heroic journeys start with wanting to be a hero like Spider-Man, but Peter didn’t become a hero out of nowhere. He only rose to be Marvel’s best after he learned a very important lesson.
In the same way, Mary Jane and Venom must learn their own lesson. Not about how to be responsible with their power, but how anyone can be a hero. Mary Jane and Venom are bonded, and that means they have to be a team, but no team can function if one member hates the other and said other thinks they deserve it. They both want to be better, but are letting their past hold them back. To move forward they have to forgive the sins of the past, and only then can they reach their full potential as a team and as heroes. Mary Jane doesn’t have to like Venom, and Venom shouldn’t forget everything it’s done, but Venom has come a long way in being better. They have to acknowledge the good in the bad to become the best.
Forgiveness is really hard, especially when the other person hurt you so deeply. Sometimes forgiving yourself for your own mistakes is even harder. And yet, you can’t truly become the best person you can be with hate weighing you down. All-New Venom shows us that anyone can be a hero, but they have to be willing to act like one. Heroes help everyone, even the people they don’t want to. This is a really beautiful message, and one I look forward to seeing more of in the coming issues. It’s even better than the Paul-hating, though that’s a great reason to keep reading too.
