Marvel Comics Easter Egg Spotted in ‘Venom’

Venom is now in theaters and earning big bank at the box office, with audiences seeming to have way more fun with the film than critics. Well, if you're a Marvel Comics fan who went out to see Venom, then you may (or may not) have noticed a particularly nice (if not subtle) Marvel Comics Easter Egg, which was a direct callback to Eddie Brock's comic book origin.

Obviously, SPOILERS follow!

Early on in Venom, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) turns his own life upside down, after he steals privileged information from the computer of his corporate lawyer girlfriend Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), to use in a hard-hitting investigative report on wealthy (and shady) industrialist, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Drake doesn't take too kindly to Eddie pressing him about he dead bodies Drake's Life Foundation is rumored to be stacking up - and in retaliation, Drake has Eddie fired from his own show, and adds insult to injury by having Anne fired, too. Eddie quickly finds himself jobless, and single again, and he immediately breaks out his contacts list to try and land another reporting gig.

Before Eddie confronted Drake, Anne had warned him not to poke the bear, as she doesn't want him to get run out of San Francisco like he got "run out of New York." She specifically alludes to a dark time in Eddie's past, saying they don't want a reapt of "The Daily Globe incident." The name-drop is of course a reference to the major NYC newspaper that serves as a primary rival to J. Jonah Jamenson's Daily Bugle - and a place where both Eddie Brock and Peter Parker serves as reporters in the past.

Venom takes the reference a step further after Eddie is fired, by having Brock locate a contact in his phone named "Barney Bushkin," which is a reference to J. Jonah's chief rival in the news business, and publisher of the Daily Globe. In a brief voiceover cameo, we hear Bushkin on the phone telling a defeated Eddie that he has no jobs or assignments to give him.

So far, Venom has caught some flack for the liberties it takes with the character's traditional origin story; and yet, Marvel fans keep discovering more and more Easter egg and references that demonstrated how the filmmakers truly know the depth of Venom's history and backstory, and worked nice nods to those elements into the film - even when having to work around the restrictions of the limited amount of Marvel mythos and characters the film was sanctioned to use. Another recent example is a cameo from a pivotal Spider-Man character, which was again done so subtly fans may have missed it. No doubt more Easter eggs will get unearthed, as Venom's box office run continues to expand.

Venom is now in theaters. You can check out our official Venom Review HERE.