by Joshua H. Stulman

As someone who has followed the comic book exploits of Venom since his very inception, I was extremely critical, although hesitant, to watch the new Venom movie featuring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom. Sony is in the midst of developing several properties based on characters from the Spider-Man cast independent of Spider-Man. It’s an obvious money grab to build their brand up before they eventually sell their share of rights to Disney (ala Fox’s X-Men and Fantastic Four). So with that in mind, the parameters of this film needed to establish a compelling Venom story and look without Spider-Man.

How do you do that? Well for starters: The Costume.

If the Venom Alien doesn’t come from Spider-Man (and the Secret Wars) than there’s no need for the Venom Spider symbol. Funny how they managed to keep his spider-eyes though?! Actually, if you look carefully at his movie design, you will see streaks of grey/white on his chest meant to evoke the jagged patterning of the symbol. Movie version Venom also doesn’t use web shooters, instead relying on the Alien’s tendrils to do his swinging.

In general, the costume is not distracting and certainly gives the feel of Venom. As far as size goes, he’s huge but also with a head that sometimes appears too small (I think it depends on the animators). The appearance of the costume itself is chunky, like its made out of blacktop, rather than a slick oily look of the early comics. I also feel that the teeth and tongue of Venom are too large, and should be more serpentine in look. Its not the best, but better than we got from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man series.

The Venom movie is loosely based on the Venom Lethal Protector mini series from 1992. It is fitting for the movie because this story was the first solo Venom series that transitioned him from villain to anti-hero. 

In the original comics, Venom strikes a deal with Spider-Man to leave New York. He arrives in San Francisco where he stumbles across a subterranean homeless society seeking refuge in the sunken parts of old San Francisco buried by the 1905 earthquake. He initially defends them from Roland Treece and the Life Foundation which are illegally mining the area for gold. Through the course of the story Venom is captured and experimented on by Life Foundation scientists who successfully extract 5 Venom seeds that become the villains Scream, Phage, Agony, Lasher and Riot. Spider-Man eventually returns and teams up with Venom to defeat his offspring. 

I am surprised at how much of the comic story is still retained in the non-Spider-Man universe. Although the Venom movie mixes and fundamentally changes parts of Venom’s story to get around Spider-Man, they do retain the basic  outline of the Lethal Protector story. 

Here Eddie Brock is still a reporter living in San Francisco. He befriends the homeless and discovers that they are being used by the Life Foundation as experiments with Venom Symbiotes. On an undercover story to expose this, Brock contracts the Venom Alien. This in turn puts him on a series of non stop action and chase sequences that see him coming to grips with being Venom. The conclusion leads up to a big showdown with the leader of the Symbiotes, Riot. 

The personality of Eddie Brock is completely rewritten for the movie to make him sympathetic to the viewer. The movie version shows him as successful and well liked who becomes a conspiracy target by the Life Foundation after an attempt to expose their unethical experiments. 

The comic version of Eddie Brock is a failed investigative reporter who is exposed as a fraud. Embarrassed and blacklisted he builds a hatred of Spider-Man for his problems. He turns to body building for discipline but eventually succumbs to suicidal thoughts and approaches a church for salvation. This is where he encounters the weakened symbiote who was hurt and rejected by Spider-Man. Together they bond out of hatred and constantly blame Spider-Man as the root of their failure.  They are quintessentially insane justifying murder (including cops) as a necessary means to protect people from Spider-Man. 

In the early comics, the reader never heard Venom talk. You only heard Eddie Brock’s side of the conversation. This helped to deepen Brock’s insanity. However, in the Venom movie, the alien Venom has a personality that the viewer hears. He has a dark sense of humor that reminded me of Little Shop of Horror. It helps to humanize Venom and Eddie’s relationship and offers important exposition for the viewer. 

Overall the film is jam packed with action and has a simple but competent story. It reminds me of a summer blockbuster that a 12 year old will enjoy but that anyone older has seen a hundred times. It’s a pretty bloodless movie that’s most riskiest thing is one f bomb towards the end of the movie. Yes, Venom eats two people but it’s done in humor and we never really see it. 

Venom is an October movie and they really missed the ball on all the horror and psychosis that is part of the comic book Venom. I think the appeal of the movie is that we finally get to see a better version of Venom than the Spider-Man 3 Topher Grace rendition. Frankly, that’s low hanging fruit to beat. The director really missed out on an opportunity to make a terrifying r rated comic film. Perhaps with in inclusion of Carnage in the sequel, we will see a more psychological horror thriller deserving of Venom’s dark reputation. 

Comic Accuracy: 4/10

Overall Grade: 6/10

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Joshua H. Stulman

Owner, BrooklynComicShop.com