Todd McFarlane is a legend among comic book fans. As the co-founder of Image Comics, he created one of the most popular characters of the ’90s, Spawn, which was adapted into a major film and an acclaimed animated TV series. However, before he became an independent comics icon, he got his start working at Marvel Comics, where he made a name for himself by creating the dynamic artwork for The Amazing Spider-Man series. It was there that he created another beloved character, Venom. Venom would later make his cinematic debut in Spider-Man 3, which many fans felt was a largely disappointing interpretation of the character. Venom was portrayed better in his own trilogy as part of the Sony Spider-Man Universe, but how would McFarlane have handled adapting his creation?
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In a recent interview with Comic Book Resources at MEGACON Orlando, McFarlane stated, “Venom’s not a good guy, like in my brain, like they turned Venom into kind of a good guy after I left Marvel, right? So in my mind, he was a villain, and then I left…It was when I had my back turned that all of a sudden…Venom’s a good guy. And so I think my tendencies are always to go sort of dark and serious. Would have been an R-rated movie if they had said, ‘Todd, putting you in charge.’”
McFarlane makes a good point. While Marvel Comics eventually turned Venom into more of an anti-hero, there’s a malevolence and ferocity that made the original depiction of the character so impactful. Obviously, building a franchise around a straight-up villain is a risky move, so it’s understandable that Sony emphasized the heroic elements of the character. And of course, they removed his more brutal, violent tendencies to land a PG-13 rating, making it accessible to a wider audience.
[RELATED: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Is Already Dropping Clues for Venom’s Debut]
Still, while the Venom trilogy was a box office success, fans of the source material are still waiting for a more faithful cinematic adaptation of the character. There are rumblings of Venom appearing in an MCU Spider-Man film later on down the line; perhaps with the success of Deadpool and Wolverine, Marvel Studios will have the guts to give us a proper R-rated version of the character.
McFarlane is clearly not thrilled with how Venom has been portrayed in the movies, but he understands the reasoning behind the decisions and is diplomatic in his assessment of the films.
“Well, I didn’t have any input…and again, it doesn’t bug me, right?” he told CBR. “Like I understand what the rules are. So they did their movie. They were successful, right?”
The famed comic book creator was also complimentary of the actor who played Eddie Brock / Venom, telling CBR, “Tom Hardy, you know, sort of did a cool thing. I got to meet him for the first time, you know, about a month ago or something. And super cool.”
What do you think of the way Venom was portrayed in Sony’s films? Sound off below!
