Subject: Venom
Culture: American comics fandom
Setting: Marvel Comics
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Misiroglu ed. 2004 p463
"The serpent-tongued, shark-toothed creature known as Venom is truly the stuff of nightmares. He was brought to eerie life by writers David Michelinie and Tom DeFalco, writer-artist Todd McFarlane, and artists Ron Frenz and Brett Breeding in the late 1980s, a time when supervillains were becoming darker, grittier, and more vicious than ever before. After Spider-Man shreds his costume during the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars crossover mini-series (May 1984 through April 1985), he adopts a new jet-black costume that turns out to be a sentient alien life-form that feeds on his adrenaline. Spidey wears the costume for the next several months, taking advantage of its convenient ability to transform itself into civilian clothing. Spidey's subsequent discovery of the alien costume's desire to bond permanently with him leads him to ditch it. The jilted costume later joins with the suicidal ex-Daily Globe reporter Eddie Brock, who hated Spider-Man for ruining his career with the revelation that his biggest news story -- which purported to reveal the identity of the late murderer known as the Sin-Eater -- was a fraud. United in their antipathy toward Spider-Man, Brock and the alien symbiote costume begin a rampage through New York as the grisly, violent composite creature called Venom.
"Seeing Spider-Man as evil, Venom believes himself to be 'protecting' innocent people from the hero's depredations. Venom also finds himself at odds with Carnage, an even more horrible, violent creature who comes into being after a piece of the alien symbiote bonds with a criminal named Cletus Kasady, who made his debut in 1992 in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #361. Though he actually behaves in a heroic fashion on several occasions, Venom's belief that people he regards as 'evil' (including Peter Parker) should be killed places him squarely in the 'villain' column."
Costume
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