By Andreas Gkoumplias,
One of the most interesting characters in the Marvel universe is by far Venom. The alter ego of Spider-Man and, of course, his main antagonist, Venom drew a lot of attention to himself both from the comic books, where he is mostly portrayed as a rival to Spider-Man, but also from his appearance in the movie Spider-Man 3 (2007). Fast forward to some years later on and specifically to the year 2018 when the Marvel antihero gets his own movie and to the year 2022 when the sequel is released, it became one of the most awaited, most hyped films and undoubtedly one of the most hyped heroes in the Marvel universe, despite many not liking the sequel to the first movie. But one has to wonder: what is it that fascinates people with this character and makes him so well received?
The answer to that question is not simple to give, since there are actually quite a few aspects that make this character likable. To clarify, this article is mostly going to refer to the movies of Venom, rather than the comic adaptations, since the movies are actually newer chronologically. But we are going to start off simpler than that. What is Venom? Well, the Venom character consists of two parts, the symbiote, and the host. A symbiotic is an alien form of life that needs a host to be able to take over and continue to function. What we learned from the first movie, however, was that symbiotes have an insatiable appetite, so by taking over a host they are essentially feasting on them, up until they are no longer useful, where they move on to the next one. In our case, the symbiote is Venom, and the host is Eddie Brock, a struggling journalist that happened to stumble upon it. Their relationship struggles throughout the first movie, but over time Venom realizes that Eddie is far too good of a host to just waste and get rid of like he did with others beforehand.
After the release of the first movie, the good critics skyrocketed, and for a good reason. Venom’s personality was exactly what the mass crowd was looking for: a hero that is unlike others or to put it simply, an antihero. Venom’s personality is far more different than anything we have ever seen: he is not evil, yet his intentions are not always pure, he is powerful, yet he often abuses that power of his, and sometimes, he chooses to use his powers for a good purpose, he is impatient but at the same time humorous and funny. These contrasts and differences that come to the surface so naturally and effortlessly throughout the movie, captivate the audience and make the movie exciting and not monotonous. His weird sense of humor paired with Eddie’s personality makes for a great, interactive, dynamic duo and by watching the movies you can understand why that duo was so well received.
Furthermore, the audiences certainly loved both the beginning of the relationship between Eddie and Venom and also the way this relationship evolved in the second movie. Seeing the two of them interact and their relationship evolving, through good times, difficulties, arguments, and even Eddie leaving Venom two times but eventually coming back to him, really gives an insight into how close they are and how their relationship works. But more importantly, the duo overcoming the occasional difficulties and working together more bonded that ever left and still leaves a very good impression on the audience who always yearns for more.
To conclude, as mentioned above, Venom has a very interesting and different personality that attracts a lot of people, because it differs so much from the traditional superhero stereotypes that we see all the time. It proves that superheroes do not always wear capes or are always the strongest or have the upper hand, but rather that heroes have their own problems, their own personality (even if it is messed up sometimes), and their own motives. And one thing is guaranteed: with a third movie set to be released in the near future, following the events of the second one, Venom’s fan base is only set to grow even more.
References
- Venom (character), wikipedia.org, Available here
- Venom (Symbiote) (Earth-616), marvel.fandom.com, Available here
