The Evil Within?

So the original idea we had for this public headspace was to talk about some of our favorite nerdy topics. But the name of the blog (Long boxes) was really a focus on our passion for comic books and as of now, for some reason, I haven’t covered this topic at all! I figured I could talk not just about the stories that we are currently reading but giving my opinions and views on different characters there current direction and if and how I personally view them.

To kick off this new series our subject is a complex character that tends to do more evil then good. Venom is an alien being that requires a host to survive otherwise it cannot hold its own structure. It has had several hosts but since its conception it has been inherently evil. Over the past couple of years the character has been through some changes for the better but deep down it will always be a monster out of control.

Origin:

The initial concept of the alien suit was just that. In December of 1984 Marvel was running a series called Secret Wars that had some of the Marvel Universes greatest heroes and villains’ teleported to an alien planet to fight to the death! During this story Spider-Man’s uniform gets destroyed and while fighting finds a mysterious black liquid that covers his body and protects him. This is the first we see of the alien symbiotic suit known as Venom. It was given a personality in Amazing Spider-Man issue # 299 when it tried to permanently bond to spider-man only to be separated from him and encounter its first real long-term host, a man named Eddy Brock.

Venom was angry and felt abandoned upon being separated. This combined with Eddy Brock’s hatred for spider-man fueled the duo into a constant state of trying to kill spider-man or Venom trying to reattach itself to its original host.  Eddy and the suite worked together often but overall Eddy made sure he had primary control while Venom gave Eddy the powers of Spider-Man and then some. In time the alien would have to move on and its next string of hosts was more of a tool for the alien suite instead of the suit being a tool for the host. The next notable host was a man named Mac Gargan.

Between Eddy and Mac was a long span of time and stories including the spawning of a “son” and a “grandson”. But Mac was the worst/best host for the character. A villain in his own rite Mac was not as strong willed as Eddy was and it did not take long for Venom to totally take control. This iteration of the character was not cunning like before but was brutish and more monster then anything else. It was always drawn as a vile creature capable of anything including dismemberment and the consumption of people.

Venom's current host is a man named Flash Thompson. He was a high school bully who picked on Peter Parker when they were young. He joined the army and lost his legs in battle. Years later after a long time of feeling defeated Flash volunteered to take part in the government program that tried to control Venom and use it as a weapon. Flash and venom soon bonded and through the use of sedatives became codependent. Now they no longer work for the government but fight crime as a hero with aggressive means. But while Flash has dominant control with the help of the drugs there is always the voice of Venom trying to take control.

The analysis:

Now that a simplified background of Venom's story has been introduced lets get into the concepts that I take from this character. Venom itself is considered to be the suit/alien life form and not the host it is attached too. The relationship between each host really defines the character. Venom is really the rage monster that can be generated within people's emotions. As the character and host get more aggressive the suit gets bigger to intimidate whom ever it is against. This is similar to a person’s perception of anger and rage where as aggression increases so does the idea of intimidation before violence might occur. The concept of the character is that it feeds off of the host’s adrenaline so it would make sense that anger is the best source of food.

Each host that the alien bonded with dealt with the anger in a different way. Probably the most productive host that Venom had was Eddy Brock. While his motives were evil and generally the duo was out for destruction he was able to channel the rage into a desired direction. Similar to being angry and instead of just getting mad taking that anger and putting it towards a project or a cause that would fix the source of the anger. All the traps and tricks were the result of a motivated individual who was angry and tried to do something about it, granted it was to kill Spider-man but we will just ignore that fact. The same is true in our universe when people protest low wages or the demolition of nature or even the desire to be treated fairly.

Mac is a prime example of taking rage and anger and letting it consume you. There was little to no control between Mac and Venom until drugs were introduced. Mac accomplished very little (in my opinion) when he was bonded with the alien. The two really spent most of there time as a weapon owned by Norman Osborn. Never having his own direction the alien drove the two killing and consuming anything they were aimed at. Anger in the real world has a similar effect when it is allowed to consume and win. Really all that anger leads to is violence while accomplishing nothing at all but destruction and hurt.

While Flash uses Venom to be a hero, he does not really work with Venom because the drugs keep it sedated. But this still applies to how people deal with anger. The drugs suppress the anger so that Flash can do what he needs to do but its really like taking the anger and hiding it or “pushing it down”. Like hiding this emotion eventually Venom will take control and cause chaos like with previous hosts. Anger when not addressed will build and eventually show itself when there is no more room left. There have been several times Flash has lost control even with the drugs and other heroes have had to step in and help him regain control.

Overall Venom is more complicated then just an evil alien out to kill Spider-Man. To me he is a symbol of different ways to control anger and the hosts have all contributed in different ways. I am going to say I am not a psychologist or therapist and have had no training in the field what so ever.  Venom is one of my all time favorite comic book characters and nothing more. This is only my opinion that I wanted to share with the world. I also do not own the rights to the character and the images; Marvel Comics created and owns all the characters in this post. What did everybody think? Do you agree with how I’m interpreting the character? Do you have any other opinions?

-JR