One of the themes of We Care a Lot has been that Venom has been written so differently over the years, including stories coming out at the same time. A good deal of the frustration comes from how all of his stories are one shared continuity. People disagree, but I love continuity. I think, when done right, it adds a special dimension to stories and empowers them.

But what of other continuities? The alternate realities and all that? Hell, you can do all the damage you want and it won’t have any affect. Have Gambit as the third Summers brother? Sounds stupid, but go ahead. Have Batman kill the Joker? Go for it! Have Richard Fisk become Daredevil? Sure, why not? Because at the end of the day, Gambit isn’t a Summers brother, Joker’s still kicking and Matt Murdock is still wearing crimson. If you can make a good story out of it, even better!

So let’s look at Venom in the other worlds. This will be a two-parter, followed by a similar look at alternate futures. What better way to start than Marvel’s go-to series for alternate storylines and one of my personal favorites: What If!

I’ve covered What If issues like wildfire before – and I do plan to reprise my Top 100 list a bit after the new batch or releases are finished – so I won’t go too in-depth. The first alternate story for Venom is What If the Alien Costume Had Possessed Spider-Man (#4 in the second series) by Danny Fingeroth and Mark Bagley.

Spider-Man has been feeling pretty tired lately and figures it has to do with his black costume. The Fantastic Four are off in space, so he has to wait a little longer to get Reed’s prognosis. By the time he does, the alien has fully bonded and they can’t get it off of him. Dr. Strange tries, but nothing’s working. They figure Bruce Banner would be able to help, but he’s back to being the Hulk.

Symbiote Spider-Man escapes captivity and hides from Reed’s scope for weeks, while Black Cat nags him for not being able to help Peter. The symbiote soon senses the Hulk and leaves Peter for a better host. Peter is reduced to an old man and dies a day or so later, but not before designing a sonic device that could kill the symbiote.

The Avengers go after Symbiote Hulk and things get worse once the symbiote leaves the jade giant for Thor. In case you’re wondering, here’s what Hulk and Thor look like rocking the alien costume.

It’s also interesting in that despite the symbiote being a villain here, they do still toss in some space for it being well-meaning and defensive. It tells Thor that it didn’t mean to age Peter and that it’s been able to fix Banner’s Hulk problem – which does seem to be true once it leaves him for Thor. Banner is still rather scared of the creature, so it’s open-ended.

Reed remembers that he has Black Bolt on speed dial and has him take care of Symbiote Thor. Then Black Cat shows up with a sonic ray based on Peter’s blueprints and fries the creature, saying that she’s sold her services to the Kingpin in return. Yeah, that would be a nice twist, sister, if they hadn’t had everything well in control when you got there!

That’s not the only time Black Cat is too crazy stupid for her own good. There was a What If two-parter about Peter choosing not to marry Mary Jane and instead Black Cat. The first issue, What If the Amazing Spider-Man Had Not Married Mary Jane (v.2 #20) by David Fingeroth and Jim Valentino features a different take on Venom’s first time going after Spider-Man. With Spider-Man facing Venom at the church, Black Cat is there to pick up the discarded sonic gun.

She wants to shoot him again and finish him off, with Venom egging her on, but Spider-Man stops her because killing is wrong. She gives in, but steps on Eddie as she passes him by. If you’re curious to how their relationship works out, Felicia is stupid enough to go up to Mary Jane in broad daylight in public while in her Black Cat outfit and boast about Spider-Man chose to marry her. It didn’t take long for someone to overhear and put two and two together. Peter wasn’t thrilled.

What If Spider-Man Had Kept his Cosmic Powers (v.2 #31) by Glenn Alan Herdling and Scott Alan McDaniel is about the sentient powers of Captain Universe choosing not to leave Spider-Man after the events of Acts of Vengeance. Spider-Man is challenged by Venom in Central Park and proceeds to overpower Venom with zero effort. This is very fitting for a variety of reasons, intentional and not.

One, Spider-Man is practically the Sentry in terms of his power level. While the Sentry made his name by grabbing Carnage, dragging him into space and tearing him apart, Cosmic Spider-Man grabs Venom, drags him into space and proceeds to talk him down. It’s a cute little comparison. Two, the story is about a sentient being using Spider-Man as a host and giving him powers at the cost of his behavior and relationships. Who better for a guest appearance than Venom?

Lastly, once Spider-Man has Venom beat and shows that he’ll never have a chance in a fight, he makes an offer. Spider-Man’s too strong and big picture to be the friendly neighborhood webslinger, but now that Venom has lost his “kill Spidey” direction, he can take up the role.

Oh yeah, Spider-Man accidentally restructured Hobgoblin’s face to look just like his.

This very panel seems to be the seeds being planted for the eventual Venom hero run that would take place a little over a year later.

Speaking of Spider-Man having an extra edge against Venom, What If Spider-Man Had Kept his Six Arms (v.2 #42) by Michael Gallagher and Kevin West suggests that by having a few extra arms, his fights with the slimy-tongued one are somewhat less perilous.

The seeds for Venom’s hero run continue as several months before Lethal Protector begins, we get What If Venom Had Possessed the Punisher (v.2 #44) by Kurt Busiek and Luke McDonnell. I absolutely love this issue.

Frank Castle enters the church just a few minutes before Eddie Brock does and even passes him on the way out. While in the church, he has Spider-Man on his mind, which is like catnip to the abandoned symbiote. The Punisher becomes its new host, which gives him enhanced abilities in his war against crime. He figures it’s some weird SHIELD tech and doesn’t second guess it, even when he becomes noticeably hungrier and more tired during the daytime. It slowly poisons his mind and makes him try to kill Spider-Man, leading to a showdown on a rooftop between Symbiote Punisher, Spider-Man, Daredevil and Moon Knight. Spider-Man’s able to blast him with a sonic ray, giving Frank a chance to put his foot in the door. I’ll let you read the rest for yourself.

Sweet.

They would later revise the concept in regular continuity with Punisher: War Journal #10, where Frank dons a man-made symbiote.

Venom has a very, very brief cameo in What If Blink from Generation X Had Not Died (v.2 #75). The short of it is that Blink has gained control over reality and can manipulate history to make things more utopian and good. She then trips up due to her own hubris and causes all the built up evil to let loose all at once. Time rifts, zombies, two Galactuses fighting in New York, Red Skull killing Captain America, etc. One window into the world shows Venom going after Spider-Man, which is really just swapped from one of their covers.

The second volume of What If ended with #114, What If… Starring Secret Wars: 25 Years Later by Jay Faerber and Gregg Schigiel. It has to do with Galactus attacking the Beyonder during Secret Wars, which has killed both of them and Reed Richards. Now everyone else is stranded and they end up calling off the war. 25 years later, most of the surviving heroes and villains live peacefully together and have brought forth a new generation of superhumans.

Spider-Man, stuck to live with his symbiote, doesn’t get too much time to shine. In the early exposition scenes, he only gets one moment, where he acts coldly and refers to himself as “we”. Later, as the aged heroes go after Doom’s home, Symbiote Spider-Man is hit by a sonic blast via Klaw.

Human Torch doesn’t seem at all phased by this reveal and saves him while joking around.

What If took a long hiatus until returning as an annual Marvel feature. 2007 brought us two Venom-related stories. First is What If: Spider-Man: The Other by Peter David and Khoi Pham. Hoo boy. This is a dark, dire story. During The Other, Peter Parker is in a cocoon, where he has this vision. A giant spider asks him to embrace his inner-spider and live again. Peter tears the giant spider’s head off and decides that his death should be final.

In his prison cell, Mac Gargan rants and raves about how much he rules as Venom, but then the symbiote leaves him and escapes. It takes a new host, swings across town, drops the host into the waters below and grabs onto Peter’s cocoon. There’s a big mental war and… let me just have Uatu the Watcher explain.

“What follows then is a long, difficult, and terrifying confrontation. It does not occur overnight. No… It takes many months. Months of struggle on both a physical and psychic level – for Peter Parker has a determined, strong personality. It is said that in storytelling that it is preferable to show rather than to tell. But to show the slow, gradual destruction of the being known as Peter Parker… it would be too heartbreaking. I speak of these ‘What Ifs’ to educate… to bring you understanding of the many directions that choices can take you. Not to send you into spirals of depression, nor depict things so nightmarish that you will never have another full night’s sleep, ever, if you bear witness to them. So take the word of Uato, the Watcher, that it was a long and terrible battle, and ultimately… one that Peter Parker lost.”

Jesus.

Mary Jane and Aunt May still live in Tony Stark’s tower and MJ keeps having nightmares about Peter coming back in a not-so-pleasant way. Peter breaks into her room in his brand new form, bringing Aunt May to tears because, “God couldn’t be that cruel…”

Poison wants to put a symbiote in Mary Jane so they could be together. She’s disgusted by that and says she’d rather be dead. Poison shrugs at that, since a reanimated corpse would be more agreeable. Wolverine and Luke Cage enter to help out, but are both taken down. Mary Jane offers to go with Poison just so she can make his life miserable for what he’s done to Peter and her. Poison – for reasons not fully understood – leaves her be.

The story isn’t quite messed up enough, so thankfully we have the ending. Much like Peter is the symbiote’s first love, the symbiote decides to find Peter’s for mating sake. Poison digs up the body of Gwen Stacy, puts it in a cocoon and sometime later, a Carnage-like arm busts out. Intergalactic necrophilia incest. Only in comic books, my friends.

Peter’s fate is just as bad in What If: Age of Apocalypse by Rick Remender and Dave Wilkins. And I’m not just talking about how it’s a very bad comic. During his trip to the past, Legion made the mistake of killing both Xavier and Magneto, creating a present where Apocalypse has a more oppressive rule over the world. The team of Captain America (armed with Mjolnir), Wolverine, Colossus, Thing, Doctor Voodoo, Captain Britain, Nate Summers and Molecule Man make their way through the remains of Yancy Street and sense something’s amiss. There’s black goop all over the ground and Wolverine smells something familiar.

Apocalypse has his own army of clones of Peter controlled by a symbiote hivemind. Lucky bastard. Captain America authorizes lethal force against them and vaporizes them with lightning while the others get their asses handed to them by Holocaust.

Interesting that Remender would include Brother Voodoo as Sorcerer Supreme only a couple years before writing an ongoing series on the same concept. Also, as bad as the story is, it does feature the Four Horsemen as being Hulk, Namor, Juggernaut and Storm. That’s pretty awesome.

Venom gets a quick cameo in What If: Annihilation by David Hine, Mico Suayan and Rafael Kayanan. There, he helps out the rest of Earth’s heroes and villains when Annihilus’ initial armies show up to invade. Nothing other than that.

As of this writing, Venom’s last What If showing is What If This Was the Fantastic Four by Jeff Parker, Mike Wieringo and a host of others. It’s a tribute issue, as Wieringo passed on after finishing seven pages of the story and his other artist friends finished the issue for him. It’s based on the team of Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Ghost Rider remaining the Fantastic Four after the deaths of Reed, Sue and Johnny. Late in the issue, they meet up with a very special Frightful Four roster.

Venom and the rest are granted demonic power from Mephisto, but once they get the advantage in the fight, he drains away their life forces and reduces the four to ash.

As it appears, Venom can rarely catch a break in these stories. Even when the symbiote wins in some way, the classic hosts, Eddie and Mac, get screwed over.

Moving on, let’s talk about Spider-Ham. Lot of you remember Spider-Ham, right? Years before Marvel thought making an entire world of ape heroes was a good idea, they had an entire world of various animal heroes. Guys like Captain Americat, Doc Clamson and Goose Rider would fight Duckter Doom and Raven the Hunter. The series came before the days of Venom’s existence, so it would seem he would never get his day in the anthromorphic sun.

That is, until What The–?! #20 by Aaron Lopresti. What The–?! was Marvel’s self-parody comic series of the early 90’s, featuring comedy stories and Mad Magazine-style spoofs. This issue is a parody of the Infinity Wars, called the Infinity Wart, starring the series’ regulars. Spider-Ham has to rescue Marvel comedy go-to guy Forbush Man. Along the way, he’s joined by Milk and Cookies – a parody of the “Cloak and Dagger” teams of the era – and Wolverina. See, the joke about Wolverina is that she’s Wolverine as a woman. No fooling. The only real punchline is that she has adamantium fingernails. Because she’s a woman. A woman Wolverine.

You know, X-23 is a female Wolverine and she isn’t very funny. She needs to work on that. Maybe she should become a vaudeville enthusiast for several issues.

Spider-Ham meets up with Milk and Cookies, just in time for Spider-Ham’s evil double Pork Grind to show up. Yep. Here’s your pig-Venom.

Spider-Ham tries to instruct Milk and Cookies to fight Pork Grind “like a toon” and demonstrates by having Pork Grind stretch and bounce him around like rubber. None of this takes and Milk and Cookies are easily beaten down. Not like it matters, considering this is their last comic book appearance. Spider-Ham pulls out the classic cartoon ace-in-the-hole of pulling out a can of spinach, eatings its contents and punching out the big bully. The Austrian symbiote pig is out cold and the heroes move on.

The mid-90’s brought us Garth Ennis and Doug Braithwaite’s Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe. I’ve found that how much you enjoy this comic is based on how much Garth Ennis you’ve read prior. It’s about an alternate world where Frank’s family have died due to the crossfire of an X-Men/Avengers vs. Brood battle. Rather than blame the flesh-eating aliens, Frank wages a war on all superheroes.

Early on, he sets a trap for Spider-Man and Venom, as the two brawl through a sewer. Spider-Man knows that there are some barbed wires ready to electrocute them, but is unable to stop Venom from charging.

Frank fries Eddie Brock with a flamethrower and pulls a gun on a defenseless Spider-Man. When asked why he’s killing him, Punisher answers Spidey with, “’Cause somebody had to be first.” This is ignoring the guy he just killed. And all the other heroes he killed earlier in the story. But after ALL OF THOSE GUYS… Spider-Man is the first to die.

Thinking back at that comic, I find it odd how the only major character to survive the entire story is Microchip and Garth Ennis hates Microchip.

I suppose I should make mention of Spider-Man Adventures and Spider-Man Unlimited. Both were tie-ins for the animated Spider-Man cartoons of the 90’s. If you ask me, the whole “Adventures” comics concept is something where DC trounced Marvel at every turn. DC books like Batman Adventures, Superman Adventures, Justice League Unlimited and several others would take the characters and concepts from the shows and make a new story out of it, usually including depictions of comic characters yet to appear on the shows (ie. Blue Beetle and Mary Marvel in Justice League Unlimited). Marvel’s cartoon comics just gave us the same story over again, only without the charm.

Remember Venom angrily honking a car horn? Or that time Cable saved Gambit and told him he was “the Wild Man of Borneo” before walking away like a badass? They cut that stuff out. Though I seem to recall hearing how the X-Men Adventures comic series ended with the Encron Crystal being destroyed, which caused reality to crumble and start over again as the 616 Marvel world. That’s kind of neat in a weird way.

With Spider-Man Adventures, the story took place over issues #8-10 by the team of Nel Yomton and Alex Saviuk. Astronaut John Jameson goes to the moon, where he picks up a blob of black goo. It goes nuts on him and makes him crash once he’s on the way back to Earth (note: this sentence is more interesting if you take out the word “goes”). Spider-Man saves him, but the symbiote latches onto him. He’s cool with it for a while, as it’s a huge help in fighting crime, but after beating Rhino and Shocker, he finds that it’s turning him into a potential murderer. He gets rid of the symbiote, only for it to meet up with a webbed up Eddie Brock. Venom stalks Spider-Man for the third issue, but gets defeated by being near a rocket as it goes into lift off.

With Spider-Man Unlimited… shit, I don’t even know. I’m sorry. I know this thing is supposed to be all comprehensive, but trying to understand that cartoon/comic is like diving through shark infested waters. I’m too afraid to even try. From what I understand, the cartoon was a semi-follow-up to the aforementioned Spider-Man cartoon and it has Spider-Man visiting Counter-Earth (the similar-but-different planet on the other side of the sun. Think of it as the Canada to Earth’s USA) to rescue John Jameson while wearing a new outfit. He sticks around and meets alternate versions of heroes and villains, such as the wacky Green Goblin, and a lot of Dr. Moreau animal people. Venom and Carnage are working together and hitch a ride to Counter-Earth with hopes of spreading symbiotes across the counter-globe.

Venom seems to be about the same, but Carnage is all spikey bones and stuff.

They only appear for the first two issues and are handily beaten by Spider-Man’s impact webbing. The whole series just confuses and frightens me, but I don’t feel it’s worth trying to fully understand it. …again, just like Canada.

Next on the list is Venom’s appearances in the Marvel Mangaverse, a line of comics from the early 00’s that centered around manga-based reimaginings of established Marvel characters. In the Mangaverse, Spider-Man is a ninja teen and last member of the Spider-Clan. Venom appears with tattoos that resemble the look of his 616 self and garb like that of a samurai.

The conflict between Spider-Man and Venom has a lot of similarities to Ryu and Akuma from Street Fighter. It makes sense, since even the original Spider-Man/Venom concept uses the same theme: a good man shuns power that will cost him his very soul and has to deal with a villain who gives into that corrupting power. I’m waiting for the two of them to be reimagined as Jedi and Sith to keep the theme going.

Manga Venom first appears in a Marvel Mangaverse: Spider-Man one-shot by Kaare Andrews. Young Peter Parker is late for his ninja training from his ancient Uncle Ben. He enters Ben’s dojo to find him dead at the hands of Venom. Venom leaves him to grieve and returns to the Kingpin – more of a sumo in this reality – who is annoyed at Venom for not taking the boy out as part of this hit. He offers the ronin power if he complies, so Venom reluctantly continues the contract.

Peter’s Aunt May doesn’t want Peter continuing his training and he tells her he’ll stop. In secret, he dresses up in a webbed costume to train without her knowing. He soon runs into Venom on a rooftop. Venom has his underlings fight Spider-Man, but he goes through them all and gets a cheap shot in to knock Venom down. It’s there that Venom reveals to the reader that he is Uncle Ben’s son. Spider-Man wants to avenge his uncle and kill Venom, but there’s a Hulk rampage going on (Hulk is basically Godzilla in this world) and he’d rather help save people. Venom is somewhat inspired by these actions, though in an odd way. He will no longer hunt Peter, but will instead embrace his destiny by turning on the Kingpin and taking over his operation.

Kaare Andrews stayed on the writing duties of a 5-issue Spider-Man: Legend of the Spider-Clan miniseries, but this time with Scottie Young on pencils. In the story, Peter comes across an amulet that covers him with darkness. He becomes stronger, but loses grasp on reality and becomes more of a dick. Sound familiar?

At one point he slaps Aunt May, showing both of them what level of crazy this has become. May calls in Matt Murdock, renowned Devil Hunter to help out as Spider-Man meets up with the Shadow-Clan, who all wear similar black costumes and have some connection to the death of Peter’s mother. It’s mentioned that although he’s become more formidable, Spider-Man is going to die from the amulet’s curse, even if he can bring himself to part with it. That’s when Venom appears. He and his cronies help fight off some of the Shadow-Clan – which Venom had apparently been a member of way back when – and he stands over a weakened Spider-Man.

Venom has no remorse for any of his actions, but he recognizes that Spider-Man did spare his life and therefore he owes his “brother” a debt. He notes that the amulet has been slow in killing Spider-Man due to him not fully giving into the darkness. But for someone like Venom? The death would be immediate. He puts on the amulet and transfers the curse to himself, causing Venom to become a skeleton in seconds.

Despite all that, we haven’t learned the last of Manga Venom. He appears in a Spider-Man Family one-shot by C.B. Cebulski and Scotty Young. The story begins with Peter, MJ and May visiting the grave of Uncle Ben. Four elemental-based villains show up: Sandman, Jack O’Lantern, a little girl version of Hydro Man and… some wind guy with a beard who I can’t quite place. They beat up Spider-Man, put MJ in a coma and murder May. In the aftermath, Peter discovers a map to where the real Spider-Clan reside. In light of what’s going on, he decides to go visit this mountain hideaway.

What he finds is Venom and a bunch of warriors who share the appearances of classic Spider-Man villains. Venom never truly explains how he came back to life other than, “Let’s just say I was lucky.” Whatever happened, it’s transformed him into some kind of oni. He has the sharp teeth, long tongue and his arms now have a stretching ability, making him closer to his mainstream counterpart.

Venom trains Spider-Man in the fighting arts with the promise of giving him answers about their family’s past. Spider-Man expands his martial arts repertoire and abilities, ending with the final challenge of beating Venom in a one-on-one fight. As a reward, Venom leads Spider-Man to the true leader of the Spider-Clan: Peter’s mother. Not only is she still alive, but May and Ben lied about her death because she’s evil and wants to turn Peter evil. She had May killed to get rid of the last thing holding Spider-Man to humanity so that he’d join her and lead the Spider-Clan at her side. He tells her to go screw herself and swings off. In his stead, Venom is named the new leader of the clan.

On his way home, Spider-Man is attacked by the four elementals, but uses his newfound abilities to beat them. He goes to May’s grave and blames himself for her death, deciding to walk away from this life and be Spider-Man no more.

I should start talking about Ultimate Venom at this point, I suppose. People have been asking for it after all. Unfortunately, this article has been long enough and I’m not sure if any of us have the energy of me going over 13 issues of appearances plus a retconned videogame. Next time.

Instead, let’s go with a Bendis/Bagley joint that isn’t so well known: Spider-Man 3: The Black.

What is Spider-Man 3: The Black, you ask? It’s a rare exclusive comic that came with the special edition Spider-Man 3 DVD if you bought it at… Target? Best Buy? Hell, I can’t remember. It centers around Eddie Brock becoming Venom during the last 20 minutes or so of the movie.

A lot has been said about Spider-Man 3 and Venom’s role in it. Some say that the movie would have been far better off if Sam Raimi hadn’t been forced to put Venom into the story when he obviously didn’t want him there, but let’s be honest with ourselves. The rest of the movie was mostly just crying and whining. I’m in support of nearly anything that will tone down that percentage. Hell, Peter doesn’t put on his Spider-Man costume for a half hour. The movie is bullshit all over the place. Blaming Venom for that mess would be like blaming a superhero for apprehending a serial killer when you just published an interview with a– wait a second!

Now, then. The comic book.

It starts with Eddie watching Peter struggle with the symbiote. The remains of the creature splash down on Eddie and take him over. We see his mental narration as he screams in confusion and fear. It’s taking over, he can’t stop and he feels so cold.

Venom later emerges from an alley and attacks some random people, though all Eddie sees is random memories from Peter Parker’s life. Yes, even Bonesaw is there. The police arrive and shoot him down, but he shrugs it off, screeches and swings away.

He realizes that he has Spider-Man’s memories and that Spider-Man is Peter. In an act of madness, he decides that anything Spider-Man has, he can have, so he goes to stalk Gwen some more. Captain Stacy is called away by work due to Venom’s earlier run-in with the cops, leaving Gwen alone. Venom walks around the house and sees a file on Captain Stacy’s desk about Sandman. He decides to leave and track him down. Like in the movie, the two meet up and join forces.

Venom kidnaps Mary Jane and holds her hostage as bait for Spider-Man. He rants to her, which makes Sandman very uncomfortable.

“He’s a liar, is the thing. You know that? He kissed her. Gwen Stacy. My Gwen. He kissed her right in front of both of us. I’m going to get him back for you, Mary Jane. For all of us. He’s going to pay for what he’s done to you. He doesn’t love you the way I love you.”

Sandman interrupts and suggests that Spider-Man might not come for her. Venom corrects him. Spider-Man is on his way. He can feel it.

Ah, how great a full Bendis/Bagley take on that movie could have been.

Lastly, here’s a quick appearance that didn’t fit in anywhere else. Back in the mid-90’s, Marvel had a Beavis and Butt-head comic. Much like how the cartoon versions would watch music videos while critiquing them, the comic versions would read Marvel comics and make fun of them, such as talking about Namor’s “see-my-weenie bikini” and calling Man-Thing “The Zombie-Turd-Man from Mars”. In issue #3 by Mike Lackey and Rick Parker, they read a couple pages of a Spider-Man story with the art done by John Romita Sr.

Mary Jane is shown at home, wearing lingerie and thinking about Peter. The boys are very into this scene and get disappointed when Spider-Man gets sucked into a fight with Venom and Carnage.

The two grow impatient, tear out the Mary Jane page and leave the rest in the trash.

Join me next time for more alternate adventures of Eddie and his gooey compatriot.

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Posted in comic books, reviews, We Care a Lot by Gavok |