venom’s original villain days. that’s it! nothing else is obligatory! michelinie establishes their characters and it’s crucial context for everything else.
people are turned off by the concept of Seeing Their Babies As Villains, i think, but… don’t be? they’re not exactly presented as pure evil and they definitely aren’t one-dimensional. it’s more that they’re deeply, relentlessly, stubbornly misguided. they start chasing spider-man around as a shitty coping mechanism, while doing so they develop a moral code for themselves that keeps them from feeling too bad about it, eventually their pain fades and so their moral code starts meaning more to them than killing spider-man. it’s a remarkably elegant villain to anti-hero transition.
what’s also important is that eddie and the symbiote are intended as equally sympathetic – the symbiote more so, if anything. they’re caught in an echo chamber where they’re encouraging the worst in each other, but the symbiote is unambiguously a vulnerable person, not a mere corrupting force, and their bond develops to the point where they’re stranded on a deserted island and spend the whole time hilariously blissed out because they’ve got nothing better to do than revel in each other’s company.
it’s also plain not that serious and straight-up fun. they’re one big loud dumbass and one small quiet dumbass that get up to ridiculous antics as the world’s biggest and loudest dumbass. they’re scary, but not in a way that stops them from being weirdly adorable. they’ve got the funniest fucking attitude and are, in the end, much more of a menace to everyone around them than each other.
the heartwarming tale of two goofy villains motivated by despair sublimated into anger who team up in the pursuit of revenge but end up committing their lives to one another three times over without ever getting it, that’s michelinie canon.
amazing spider-man (1963) 258 web of spider-man (1985) 1
and for further michelinie canon, developing them from where we left off, towards a clear and ridiculously, astoundingly tender conclusion:
venom: lethal protector 1 – 6 (a bunch of non-michelinie anti-hero shenanigans, venom: separation anxiety provides most of the missing context between these two if you need it) planet of the symbiotes: amazing spider-man super special 1 spider-man super special 1 venom super special 1 spectacular spider-man super special 1 web of spider-man super special 1
this post is so beautifully articulated! I haven’t read most of the 90s stuff but I will definitely check it out!
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they’re one big loud dumbass and one small quiet dumbass
The best description of the duo XD
There is a collected version called Spider-Man: Birth of Venom that has early Venom origin stories which is easier to collect:
Collects Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #252-259, #300 and #315-317, Web Of
Spider-Man (1985) #1 and material from Secret Wars #8, Amazing
Spider-Man (1963) #298-299, Fantastic Four #274, Amazing Spider-Man
Annual #25.
A Force Sensitive Phasesixer 