‘Venom’ Director Reveals Comic Book Inspirations

Ever since he first appeared in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, the villain-turned-anti-hero known as Venom has become one of Marvel’s most popular characters.

Now the symbiote is getting it’s own movie with Tom Hardy starring in Venom, and it’s taking influence from quite a few different comic books. Director Ruben Fletcher spoke with ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis about the classic influences found in the new movie. It’s no surprise that he called out the character’s co-creators first.

“The original [Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie run] is tough to … that I think because they created it that really was the driving force and the origin of it,” Fleischer said. “And so but [Mark] Bagley as well. There was a lot of different artists. There’s been so many iterations of Venom throughout the time. I happen to really like where he’s evolved to … when he goes to space and is more of a … he gets really hulking, he gets huge. I kinda like Venom being big, and just so massive which, especially in the atrium fight, when he’s whipping the guy around by his feet and smacking out the other SWAT guys, we really tried to pay tribute to just that just massive, powerful monster.”

Fleischer names some of the many different iterations of the character, from Eddie Brock’s early days to the time when Flash Thompson joins the Guardians of the Galaxy. There have been many different versions over the years, from Eddie’s first appearance, to when he gives up the symbiote to The Scorpion, to Anti-Venom, to Flash’s Agent Venom, and many more.

The director took a lot of story inspiration from the ’90s comic book Venom: Lethal Protector, which first showed the character go up against the Life Foundation and Dr. Carlton Drake.

But Fleischer admitted that creating a Venom origin story without Spider-Man had some difficulties, and that he hopes to pit the Web Slinger up against the symbiote at some point in the future.

“I think there’s a pretty obvious one [character] inherent to the Venom franchise that for whatever reason couldn’t be included in the film but I will say that I look forward to future movies where said character could perhaps run across Venom. Nothing would be more exciting to see than a face off with Spider-Man,” Fleischer said.

Fans will finally get to see Venom when the film premieres next week on October 5th.