Okura
01-13-2007, 02:07 PM
Since there's so much debate going on with the character of Venom, I felt it was worth making a FAQ with the current information that we know about Venom, so that the same questions aren't asked over and over.
What does Venom look like?
This is possibly the best picture we have seen of what Venom's design will be like:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/Okuraorca/sm3vem.jpg
Where is his huge tongue?/Where is Venom's green drool?
The character Venom has had many different incarenations by different artists for the Spiderman comics. The original Venom design was nothing more than a muscular man (Eddie Brock) in the black suit with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
Later artists exaggerated the teeth and tongue's length. The green (and other coloured) drool was added in as well by seperate artists, as well as the huge size. The thing one would notice about the Spiderman movies is that they attempt to use the earliest forms of the characters, since the movies deal with the 'birth' of these villians/heroes. For this reason, Venom is made to look more like his first appearances in the Spiderman comics from the 80's, so the teeth and tongue have been toned down.
Why isn't he big like Venom usually is?
Again, different artists, different visions of Venom. The thing about a character like Venom, being part alien, is that a comic writer can 'alter' the character slightly to their own tastes as they wish, for the alien is an unknown creature and could house as many secrets as we wished it to. Compare Venom from Issue 300 of the Amazing Spider-Man to a more recent comic with Venom... The powers and abilities have altered.
In regards to muscles and size, the movie Venom is designed to be the original concept of Venom; an evil doppleganger of Spiderman.
For this reason, in a comic, the audience can identify Venom as an evil Spiderman no problems. In a movie, this connection isn't so easy to spot, so Eddie Brock has lost most of his bulk to act more as a rival to Peter in photography and later, a rival to his role as Spiderman.
This again, comes down to the differenet artists story of Venom, with different artists in the movies to the comics. But despite the fact he may not be huge, this does not make Venom a true villian to Spiderman.
I thought Sam said he'd never use Venom in a Spiderman movie. Why the change?
There's a few suggestions to this change of mind for Raimi, though the main one accepted it would seem is the following;
Sam Raimi wanted to use Sandman, who is one of his favourite villians apparently. Avi Arad of Marvel spoke to Sam, explaining that fans are badly wanting to see Venom in the movies since the first movie. He explained to Sam that the movies aren't all his, but for everyone and that it wouldn't be fair for Raimi to select all the villians he wanted to see and ignore the fan's wishes.
Sam has said that he never wanted to use Venom, because Venom is the comics is a shallow character, devoid of humanity; there was little to build about him to tell much of a story. The scriptwriters were able to devise a decent plot, giving both Eddie Brock and Venom more character and such Sam decided to use Venom.
Is this the alien Venom or the Ultimate Venom?
Classic Venom is the alien symbiote, which is seems this story is based on, since Sam prefers the classic Spiderman tales over the Ultimate storyline. The Ultimate Venom was a biological suit that bonded with its patient to help cure any illness, including cancer. However the suit was imperfect and drove it's wearer insane, to the point they mutated into a monster. It also tried to 'eat' the person alive.
There are similarities between them both;
* Ultimate Eddie Brock was called Eddie Brock Jr. and it seems that Eddie in the movie is named the same.
* Ultimate Eddie started hitting on Gwen Stacy. It seems in this movie that will also be happening.
However, it's more or less widely accepted that it will be the classic Venom that occurs in this movie.
How can they have Venom? They need the Secret Wars to bring him in...
*Head desk*
Okay, simply put; Do you HAVE to have a huge war in another world for an alien to arrive on Earth?
In the cartoon, the symbiote was brought back by John Jameson. This is what is believed to occur in the movie due to most magazines commenting on this, though another small belief towards how the symbiote will get to Earth is via a meteorite that crashes on Earth.
How the symbiote gets to Earth is not fully confirmed, but we know that the Secret Wars will NOT and DO NOT need to occur.
What's with the raised webbing? He looks like he's wearing the black Spiderman outfit.
Yes, this again relates to the 'Spiderman doppleganger' ideal. The suit does not change from it's Spiderman design much, be instead the raised webbing from the Spiderman outfit becomes distorted and twisted. This once again adds emphasis to the ideal of the character of Venom.
How long is Venom going to be in the movie?
Most likely only from the third act of the film onwards at the earliest. The reason for this is the whole purpose of Venom's character in the story. Venom WILL be in the movie and he WILL fight in the film's climax, but he will not be in most of the movie. Maybe 15 to 20 minutes is enough for him.
Why is Venom only at the end of the movie? That isn't enough time to express his character!
Actually, its more than enough. The reason is this; Venom is the end to the story of Spiderman's story with the symbiote. In the comics, this story has no closure, because they are not willing to kill off Venom, which works fine in comics of course, but not in movies.
Venom's role is the final act to the symbiote story. To sum it up briefly, this is the story widely accepted;
Spiderman gets the symbiote
Enjoys the new power
Lets the power go to his head
Does evil stuff
Attempts to kill the symbiote
Assumes he kills it and washes his hands, believing he can simply forget everything and attempt to move on
The suit returns as Venom, giving a physical form to Peter's evil deeds, forcing him to fight himself
As you can see, there is more to the character of Venom than simply a 'evil twin' to Spiderman. Venom is a twisted distorted version of everything that Spiderman is, a physical form to the darkness within Peter, mixed with Brocks.
For this reason, what left is there to tell in Venom's story? Peter is forced to face his past sins and lay them to rest once and for all, in a final battle against Venom. Once that fight is over, Venom has no more point in staying in the story. Hence, his character will most likely be killed.
Will Venom die?
Most likely.
As will above, once Peter has overcome and dealt with his mistakes and past errors, in the form of Venom, Venom no longer has a point. For this reason, all that is left, for Venom to die.
There is a slight chance Eddie Brock may survive, but it is mostly believed unlikely.
Venom will only appear at the end, rushing to the screen, meaning that he's the villian in Spiderman 4 right?
No.
It's been confirmed the story will end without a cliffhanger like Spiderman 2 did, so no. Venom will fight and either die or be defeated and Spiderman 4 will tell a different story.
The symbiote story will begin and end with Spiderman 3. It could be picked up again later, but is unlikely.
Will there be a cameo of Cletius Kassidy for Carnage?/Will Carnage ever appear?
No one knows for sure, but it is EXTREMELY unlikely, for the simple reason of the character Carnage is. If Sam thought Venom was a shallow character, Carnage will favour even worse in his books. There is little story to tell with Carnage as a villian, though not impossible.
Two suggestions are innocence; since Cletius was never given a chance at innocence; even given a totured, abused childhood he in his own twisted way, is the most innocent of them all.
The other, is to use Carnage from th eUltimate universe, for that character has a bit of a stronger story than the classic Carnage.
However, despite even these, Carnage's appearance in anything Spiderman movie related would probably be restricted to perhaps a bonus boss in the Spiderman 3 video games.
Will Venom talk?
Unknown, but most likely.
If Sam wants characters that have actual character to them, Venom will need to talk.
I saw black webs in the trailers. Are they from Venom?
Most likely.
It is thought to different him from Spiderman in the final fight, Venom will have black webs, so most likely.
I saw Venom in Spiderman's eye! Can you see him?
Please, do us all a favour, and go hang yourself.
This has been debated a million and one times. Unless its GLARINGLY obvious, like Doc Ock or the Green Goblin were, then there is a 99% chance there is nothing in Spiderman's eye.
Why would Venom team up with Sandman?/Will Venom kill MJ/Gwen?
We don't yet know if he will or not. This is just believed to occur, though for all we know, Venom will be on his own for this fight or even teamed up with Harry. And we don't know who in the movie is set to die if any of them are planned to be done away with anytime soon.
Besides, who wants to know the ending of the movie anyway?
And that's all I think that is worth explaining at the moment. My mind is completely blank now.
If there's a question or something you think is worth asking, PM it to me, and I'll add it on this list.
What does Venom look like?
This is possibly the best picture we have seen of what Venom's design will be like:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/Okuraorca/sm3vem.jpg
Where is his huge tongue?/Where is Venom's green drool?
The character Venom has had many different incarenations by different artists for the Spiderman comics. The original Venom design was nothing more than a muscular man (Eddie Brock) in the black suit with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
Later artists exaggerated the teeth and tongue's length. The green (and other coloured) drool was added in as well by seperate artists, as well as the huge size. The thing one would notice about the Spiderman movies is that they attempt to use the earliest forms of the characters, since the movies deal with the 'birth' of these villians/heroes. For this reason, Venom is made to look more like his first appearances in the Spiderman comics from the 80's, so the teeth and tongue have been toned down.
Why isn't he big like Venom usually is?
Again, different artists, different visions of Venom. The thing about a character like Venom, being part alien, is that a comic writer can 'alter' the character slightly to their own tastes as they wish, for the alien is an unknown creature and could house as many secrets as we wished it to. Compare Venom from Issue 300 of the Amazing Spider-Man to a more recent comic with Venom... The powers and abilities have altered.
In regards to muscles and size, the movie Venom is designed to be the original concept of Venom; an evil doppleganger of Spiderman.
For this reason, in a comic, the audience can identify Venom as an evil Spiderman no problems. In a movie, this connection isn't so easy to spot, so Eddie Brock has lost most of his bulk to act more as a rival to Peter in photography and later, a rival to his role as Spiderman.
This again, comes down to the differenet artists story of Venom, with different artists in the movies to the comics. But despite the fact he may not be huge, this does not make Venom a true villian to Spiderman.
I thought Sam said he'd never use Venom in a Spiderman movie. Why the change?
There's a few suggestions to this change of mind for Raimi, though the main one accepted it would seem is the following;
Sam Raimi wanted to use Sandman, who is one of his favourite villians apparently. Avi Arad of Marvel spoke to Sam, explaining that fans are badly wanting to see Venom in the movies since the first movie. He explained to Sam that the movies aren't all his, but for everyone and that it wouldn't be fair for Raimi to select all the villians he wanted to see and ignore the fan's wishes.
Sam has said that he never wanted to use Venom, because Venom is the comics is a shallow character, devoid of humanity; there was little to build about him to tell much of a story. The scriptwriters were able to devise a decent plot, giving both Eddie Brock and Venom more character and such Sam decided to use Venom.
Is this the alien Venom or the Ultimate Venom?
Classic Venom is the alien symbiote, which is seems this story is based on, since Sam prefers the classic Spiderman tales over the Ultimate storyline. The Ultimate Venom was a biological suit that bonded with its patient to help cure any illness, including cancer. However the suit was imperfect and drove it's wearer insane, to the point they mutated into a monster. It also tried to 'eat' the person alive.
There are similarities between them both;
* Ultimate Eddie Brock was called Eddie Brock Jr. and it seems that Eddie in the movie is named the same.
* Ultimate Eddie started hitting on Gwen Stacy. It seems in this movie that will also be happening.
However, it's more or less widely accepted that it will be the classic Venom that occurs in this movie.
How can they have Venom? They need the Secret Wars to bring him in...
*Head desk*
Okay, simply put; Do you HAVE to have a huge war in another world for an alien to arrive on Earth?
In the cartoon, the symbiote was brought back by John Jameson. This is what is believed to occur in the movie due to most magazines commenting on this, though another small belief towards how the symbiote will get to Earth is via a meteorite that crashes on Earth.
How the symbiote gets to Earth is not fully confirmed, but we know that the Secret Wars will NOT and DO NOT need to occur.
What's with the raised webbing? He looks like he's wearing the black Spiderman outfit.
Yes, this again relates to the 'Spiderman doppleganger' ideal. The suit does not change from it's Spiderman design much, be instead the raised webbing from the Spiderman outfit becomes distorted and twisted. This once again adds emphasis to the ideal of the character of Venom.
How long is Venom going to be in the movie?
Most likely only from the third act of the film onwards at the earliest. The reason for this is the whole purpose of Venom's character in the story. Venom WILL be in the movie and he WILL fight in the film's climax, but he will not be in most of the movie. Maybe 15 to 20 minutes is enough for him.
Why is Venom only at the end of the movie? That isn't enough time to express his character!
Actually, its more than enough. The reason is this; Venom is the end to the story of Spiderman's story with the symbiote. In the comics, this story has no closure, because they are not willing to kill off Venom, which works fine in comics of course, but not in movies.
Venom's role is the final act to the symbiote story. To sum it up briefly, this is the story widely accepted;
Spiderman gets the symbiote
Enjoys the new power
Lets the power go to his head
Does evil stuff
Attempts to kill the symbiote
Assumes he kills it and washes his hands, believing he can simply forget everything and attempt to move on
The suit returns as Venom, giving a physical form to Peter's evil deeds, forcing him to fight himself
As you can see, there is more to the character of Venom than simply a 'evil twin' to Spiderman. Venom is a twisted distorted version of everything that Spiderman is, a physical form to the darkness within Peter, mixed with Brocks.
For this reason, what left is there to tell in Venom's story? Peter is forced to face his past sins and lay them to rest once and for all, in a final battle against Venom. Once that fight is over, Venom has no more point in staying in the story. Hence, his character will most likely be killed.
Will Venom die?
Most likely.
As will above, once Peter has overcome and dealt with his mistakes and past errors, in the form of Venom, Venom no longer has a point. For this reason, all that is left, for Venom to die.
There is a slight chance Eddie Brock may survive, but it is mostly believed unlikely.
Venom will only appear at the end, rushing to the screen, meaning that he's the villian in Spiderman 4 right?
No.
It's been confirmed the story will end without a cliffhanger like Spiderman 2 did, so no. Venom will fight and either die or be defeated and Spiderman 4 will tell a different story.
The symbiote story will begin and end with Spiderman 3. It could be picked up again later, but is unlikely.
Will there be a cameo of Cletius Kassidy for Carnage?/Will Carnage ever appear?
No one knows for sure, but it is EXTREMELY unlikely, for the simple reason of the character Carnage is. If Sam thought Venom was a shallow character, Carnage will favour even worse in his books. There is little story to tell with Carnage as a villian, though not impossible.
Two suggestions are innocence; since Cletius was never given a chance at innocence; even given a totured, abused childhood he in his own twisted way, is the most innocent of them all.
The other, is to use Carnage from th eUltimate universe, for that character has a bit of a stronger story than the classic Carnage.
However, despite even these, Carnage's appearance in anything Spiderman movie related would probably be restricted to perhaps a bonus boss in the Spiderman 3 video games.
Will Venom talk?
Unknown, but most likely.
If Sam wants characters that have actual character to them, Venom will need to talk.
I saw black webs in the trailers. Are they from Venom?
Most likely.
It is thought to different him from Spiderman in the final fight, Venom will have black webs, so most likely.
I saw Venom in Spiderman's eye! Can you see him?
Please, do us all a favour, and go hang yourself.
This has been debated a million and one times. Unless its GLARINGLY obvious, like Doc Ock or the Green Goblin were, then there is a 99% chance there is nothing in Spiderman's eye.
Why would Venom team up with Sandman?/Will Venom kill MJ/Gwen?
We don't yet know if he will or not. This is just believed to occur, though for all we know, Venom will be on his own for this fight or even teamed up with Harry. And we don't know who in the movie is set to die if any of them are planned to be done away with anytime soon.
Besides, who wants to know the ending of the movie anyway?
And that's all I think that is worth explaining at the moment. My mind is completely blank now.
If there's a question or something you think is worth asking, PM it to me, and I'll add it on this list.