The 2021 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Post-Credits Scene
The year 2021 brought us many of the comic book movies we were robbed of in 2020 with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As fans all over the world looked to get back a sense of normalcy this year, the traditions and routines of comic book films became all the more important – especially when it came to post-credits scenes. Thanks to Marvel and DC movies, audiences know not to leave theaters until the credits are done rolling – and in 2021, they got some of the biggest rewards for their collective patience and final efforts to hold off a bathroom run.
The list of nominees for our 2021 Golden Issue Award for "Best Post-Credits Scene" offered varying kinds of thrills. Some of them dropped big reveals that fans didn't even recognize in theaters, while some used the power of celebrity to send theaters into uproar and spark worldwide headlines. We also got the more traditional scenes, which either set up an exciting new story or simply had a good final laugh in store for fans. However, in the end, this year's winner did no less than shake up the lines between movie studios, all while announcing to the world that it was in for a one-of-a-kind event in the Spider-Man Universe!
And the winner of the 2021 Comibook.com Golden Issue Award for "Best Post-Credits Scene" is...
As stated, Let There Be Carnage is this year's winner for its post-credits scene twist, which saw Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock/Venom warped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe – just in time for Spider-Man: No Way Home!
Ultimately we would learn that Hardy's Venom was kind of a gimmicky plant – an unofficial member of Green Goblin's "Sinister Six" team from across the Spider-Man Movie Multiverse who never really got in on the action. However, when Venom 2 was in theaters, Hardy's universe-jumping scene was the first official signal flare that the rumors were indeed true and that No Way Home would be a parade of major characters (and actors) from the Spider-Man films that had come before.
The post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage was also major validation for Marvel fans who felt that Hardy's Venom deserved his place in the MCU. While that dream may not have been fully realized, the "gift" that Hardy's Venom left behind (the MCU's first symbiote) could keep the window of opportunity open for MCU Venom to happen (in some form or fashion).
In the end, the post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage was such a hit that there were entire groups of audiences that came looking for that post-credits scene, rather than the movie itself. If that's not an achievement in post-credits scene making, what is?
Congrats to the team behind Venom: Let There Be Carnage on their Golden Issue Awards win!
And the nominees for Best Post-Credits Scene are:
Black Knight and Blade (Eternals)
Starfox and Pip the Troll (Eternals)
Avengers Meeting (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)
Peacemaker Lives (The Suicide Squad)
Venom Sees Spider-Man (Venom: Let There Be Carnage) — WINNER