#and the symbiote would be better off in the hands of flash/eddie anyways

[spiderman616]

hmmm do i actually like symbiote spiderman or just the idea of symbiote spiderman that exists in my head

[land-of-brains-and-chocolate]

Rec list for Eddie and Symby being vaguely to very gay?

I'm sorry for coming to you with my monsterfucker agenda 😔👊 (no I'm not)

i mean, i probably could’ve seen this coming.

venom is dominated by two opposing narratives. let’s call this the “relationship narrative” and the “control narrative”. they’re not perfectly separated, like, you’ll definitely get elements of one in the other, but generally one of them describes what the story, at its core, is using the symbiote for.

now comics are an endless tug-of-war at the best of times, much less the gayest and slimiest of times. there’s a neverending backlash and backbacklash going on between these two takes. what you want is the relationship narrative.

everything very much started out with that take. eddie and the symbiote are two characters who forge an evil alliance because it lets them do what they wanna do (kill spider-man, more or less) and they have the same kinds of neuroses and complexes and syndromes. lots of early comics are also very fun about the merged consciousness, merged identity deal. that’s kind of the textbook relationship stuff.

personally i absolutely think the original stories (venom was created by david michelinie) have romantic undertones, even starting in the villainy days. eddie describes their first meeting as “a shadow moved, caressed me.” he takes the rejection of the symbiote still being “in love with” spider-man really hard. he sobs his eyes out when he thinks it’s dead and promises to avenge it bare-handed. they totally expect to live happily ever after on a deserted island together.

then there’s venom: lethal protector, which is cute on its own, but if you’re reading for slime romance, i very specifically recommend the novelisation. i won’t even spoil it. and then, planet of the symbiotes is the first comic that i would say has outright queer themes, intentional or not.

so all those recs until now are collected in this post.

we're trucking along through the 90s, we explore elements of one take and then the other and sometimes we ignore the symbiote completely, but not too much changes, overall. the next BIG stop in Gay Venom is, of course, the hunger.

miniseries by len kaminski, just venom: the hunger. plenty of people have written their essays on it, but what’s always important to me is that it DID NOT come out of nowhere. as said above, it expanded on themes that were there, it references michelinie venom very explicitly, like you get your SECOND “tenderly touching the green glass tube” scene.

but yes this one is specifically about, like, stigmatisation, otherness, mental illness, meeting all those things with care and empathy and optimism, tentacle sex. again, many essays. a venom comic that can go “look at the twisted deviance of this relationship” and then turn it around into “but how are you looking at it” is good. god how good would it be if they also did that to eddie more. anyway.

a few years later you get the first MAJOR fucking backlash, culminating in the SECOND story titled the hunger. spectacular spider-man: the hunger, from 2003. completely reboots venom and retcons their motivations and backstories, makes very spiteful references to planet of the symbiotes and the hunger, like it is not also called that by sheer coincidence. literally starts out, in a comic that wants to tackle and redefine venom, with the line “the PROBLEM is that you guys are like an old married couple”. so the new status quo is that the symbiote only ever used eddie to be with spider-man, and eddie only ever used the symbiote to not die of cancer.

the “control narrative” that really kicks in here uses the symbiote as, you know, a thing to control, eddie’s demons personified or even a completely foreign force to torment him. if eddie is evil, it’s not because of what he thinks and believes and wants, it’s because he couldn’t control the symbiote and gave in to its inexplicable bloodlust.

this is an unambiguous downgrade in terms of complexity, in my humble opinion, completely fucks up eddie’s responsibility themes, and is also a pretty clearly petty reaction to venom’s absolute oversaturation in the nineties. the bitch was everywhere and most of it wasn’t good. so there was LOTS of “look at this creepy loser” content by writers cringing themselves into self-awareness at the time. the 00s were going to be GRITTY and MATURE.

this of course means that we get to see eddie slit his wrists and bleed to death on panel after selling the symbiote to supervillains as an attempted act of redemption???

wild fucking times! it’s not exactly worth recommending as ~shippy~, but the first real backbacklash to this first round of retcons comes from dan slott, who just kind of ignores it all in new ways to die. drags eddie back to the land of the living and relevant, makes the symbiote refuse to let its new host kill him, telling that host, and reestablishing, that it loves eddie. and then, to keep him living and relevant, slott makes eddie anti-venom.

don’t even worry about it. anti-venom is essentially eddie seeking redemption with symbiote powers, but without the symbiote, except he pretty much acts no fucking different at all, just keeps on being a murderous vigilante with cracked ideas about innocence and guilt. people still act like he’s better now because, in its metatextual ways, the hunger was right.

then fucking uuuuuuhhhhhhh. agent venom. symbiote goes to flash thompson and the us military, and the writer, rick remender, goes really, really, really hard on the control narrative. the symbiote becomes a substance flash is addicted to, gives a voice to his past abuse, it’s dark times all the times.

people very much do like that narrative for flash, like at least from that perspective it was worth it. i don’t like it much for the symbiote. for the symbiote, representing everything fucked up with flash and forcing him to murder kill bite all the time is resolved via the good guy avengers literally lobotomising it so flash can wear it without further resistance or input. imagine doing that to a human person. you’re uncooperative so we’re gonna turn off your higher cognitive functions and wear you like a meat suit. happy ending for everybody! truly we’ve conquered our demons this day.

then! at the same time, there’s a cartoon coming out, it’s called ultimate spider-man. THAT one does the control narrative take with harry osborn, but then does the relationship take with flash, making it the only cartoon to outright redeem the symbiote and let it find friendship and be valued as a person.

and people loved it! so brian michael bendis gets it in his head that he’s going to redeem the symbiote and make it partner up with flash. and he does redeem it by the highly fucking questionable means of having it be “cleansed”, aka brainwashed and relieved of its memories and personality. not that it matters for long. nothing fucking matters in comics. take this with you if it’s the only thing.

so then for fun friendship times you get venom: space knight, flash and the symbiote’s adventures in space! and then that gets cancelled. eddie is off somewhere being toxin and hunting carnage (2016). many good comics but you did not ask for them.

and THEN.

it is time for the next MOTHER of backlashes.

flash gets literally discarded at fucking roadside to put the symbiote back on eddie and turn back time on their relationship to RIGHT before the FIRST backlash happened. you know, all those 2003 retcons. gone. ignored. no more. venom’s themes are now those circa 1996 again. full fucking on relationship narrative. ROMANTIC relationship narrative, and that after the symbiote was turned into eddie’s evil shadow, after he hated it and spent a LONG time seeking to eradicate all symbiotes (and not even for the first time).

the COSTA run. venom (2016). reviled and beloved.

like this comic is fucking ANGRY about symbiote treatment. i HAD to tell you all of that so you’d understand ANYTHING it’s doing. the first thing it does is flip it completely around, puts the symbiote on a military guy who’s making IT do bad things, makes his ability to control it horrifying and abusive instead of heroic and admirable. one of the later things it does (in the follow-up venom: first host) is outright feature a villain who lobotomises symbiotes, ending on a symbiote serving him swift and sweet payback by doing the same thing TO HIM. it’s exactly as unsubtle as the hunger (2003) was about its hang-ups.

comics... are a conversation.

flash remains a symbiote friend but still got fucked over big time by it all, symbiote-focused writers slott and costa also kind of use him to literally, in case anybody hadn’t caught on, literally spell out the REAL story that’s been going on in the writer's room for the past THIRTY YEARS:

you’ll notice i didn’t actually list any of the Gay Shit for you, you’ve probably already seen it or you’ll get to see it for yourself. yes, they are deeply in love, yes, it’s fucked up and flawed, yes, it is real and taken seriously and has ultimately redeeming potential. yes the concept of that nearly knocked me off my feet and in front of the subway at one point. yes there’s mpreg

it’s also fucking riddled with events, which spin off into other comics, so either ignore those and rely on the recaps OR click yourself forward through the “next issue (story)” button on marvel wikia to know what to read.

and after that must of course come the backbackbacklash, as certain as death or taxes. in the next run, we retcon everything once more, eddie just needs to control his darkness, the symbiote was an evil abuser all along, nothing on earth is ever new.

i’m not gonna go through it, i’m just gonna point you to the backbackbackbacklash issue that came out during this time: venom annual volume 2 number 1 - it’s confusingly named, it’s the one that has a blue-skinned space lady on it. this one ignores the backbackbacklash going on very pointedly and goes “it’s not ABOUT control” again, it’s pretty explicitly romantic.

and then there’s also marvel comics presents (2019) #5, which, oddly enough, does not particularly feature the characterisation you’d typically see in the relationship narrative? but it does feature eddie and the symbiote literally fucking, so you’d want to know about it.

that’s the overall, like, frame of eddie and the symbiote being in a relationship (nuh uh) (yeah they are) (NUH UH) (YEAH THEY ARE)

some stuff that’s smaller but still notable, uh.

nova (1999) 6 - 7, that’s the “we’re space married”

venom: dark origin, that’s an ALTERNATE (!!!) take on the character, don’t expect a likeable eddie but it’s very darkly funny and gay so what can i say.

venom: the end, which i would absolutely fucking hate to be canon, i think its characterisation is quite regressive, but the symbiote sure is in love, i guess.

venom: separation anxiety, the dawn of the control narrative but eddie’s characterisation did not have to go so wrong from here, like if they’d just figured out AT THIS STAGE that he's STILL acting like venom without it... i digress. it has the symbiote going eddie eddie eddieee

venom: sinner takes all, this is the first she-venom comic so that’s. hm. interesting. healing symbiote blanket

don’t read venom: license to kill just look at this panel with me

if i think of more comics worth adding i’ll add them.

the subtext slash text is heavy enough to be present to some degree in literally every cartoon adaptation of eddie brock. spider-man: the animated series goes FULL control narrative, in fact it started the “the symbiote corrupted peter” take that we to this day cannot escape, but the first few venom episodes are VERY playful about their relationship.

in spectacular spider-man it’s canon, but horrible. eddie’s in love with it, but eddie's a good boy and the symbiote is played very, very, very abusively. i think this is an evil symbiote adaptation that works well enough, at least it’s an actual meaningful character instead of just a malevolent force to resist.

in marvel’s spider-man, the only venom episode worth watching is venom returns.

i’ve actually got every symbiote-relevant episode listed right here from when we did our communal watch-through.

also watch truth in journalism. idk if it’s exactly shippy just do it

[snarky-badger]

How about Eddie and venom with a expecting f/o? Thank you for your amazing writing it helps perk up my day! :)

Another Prompt that’s a little like this one: Can you do a prompt where the reader is pregnant with Eddie’s kid? Then after a lot of arguing their finally allowed to go shopping on their own. Only to get stuck in the elevator on the way home. So Eddie, and Venom have a panic attack trying to find them.     

Another two for one!

Two pink lines had changed your life.

At first, seven months ago, those two lines had terrified you. You hadn’t been ready to be a mother, and your boyfriend made things���. complicated. Sure, at first you’d been a little leery of dating Eddie when you’d learned he was bonded to an alien symbiote, but you’d adapted to that. But having a kid… wow. That was huge.

You’d initially been a wreck when you’d missed not one, but two periods. It was only when Venom had tattled on you and told Eddie that your scent had changed that you’d hesitantly admitted to Eddie what you’d been hiding from him.

The two of you had immediately gone out and bought half a dozen pregnancy tests. You’d read the instructions and followed them, and the next ten minutes, waiting for the results, had been intense. Eddie had been worried - you both knew that he wasn’t quite ‘human’ anymore, not with the symbiote intertwined in his very blood, his every cell.

But when those two pink lines had shown up, he’d given you the brightest smile you’d ever seen and picked you up to twirl you around. You’d laughed, relieved and excited by his enthusiasm, worry tempered by his firm promise that he’d be with you every step of the way.

The symbiote, of course, had instantly peppered the poor man with endless questions. Once it had understood what was going on, Venom had taken Eddie over, knelt in front of you and pressed his face to your then-flat stomach, sniffing and nuzzling, expressing that it had sensed something different in you, but that it hadn’t known what it was.

Well, then.

The next seven months had been a whirlwind. Eddie had insisted in getting the two - soon to be three (or was that four?) - of you into a bigger apartment. He’d switched jobs, choosing a more financially stable journalism job down at one of the largest newspapers in the City.

Despite his protests that he could provide for you and the baby on his own, you’d put your foot down and ignored his attempts to talk you into quitting your job down at a women’s clothing boutique downtown. Your boss, a lovely grandmotherly-like woman, had been overjoyed to learn that you were expecting, and had quickly offered you all the time off you needed for doctors appointments and whatnot.

Venom, meanwhile, had begun what he called ‘nesting’, the symbiote always insuring that you were well fed, comfortable and as safe and he and Eddie could manage. They were never more than a phone call away, and you knew that if trouble dared to come near you, it was Venom that would appear to literally stomp that trouble to death.

There had been a lot of steak purchased and ‘appropriated’ before Eddie told the symbiote that you needed fruits and vegetables more than meat. And when you’d started craving pineapples and onion soup, the alien had literally scratched his head before shrugging and going out to steal a crate of pineapples from the import docks. Eddie at least paid for the onion soup from the nearby restaurant which slightly offset your guilt for the pilfered fruits.

Venom had been endlessly entranced as your belly started to swell, had stared at the sonogram from the doctor for hours on end in shock and awe, talons tracing the picture of the small life growing within you. At night, when it was his turn to sleep with you, he’d keep a taloned hand cupped against your belly protectively. Often, even when it was Eddie sleeping next to you, you’d wake up to the symbiote covering your stomach like a black blanket, the alien constantly enamored by the baby’s heartbeat and movements.

Now, seven months along, you were appreciative of both of your boys’ help, but you were low-key ready to strangle them. Perhaps it was the hormones, but all of their constant pampering and over-protectiveness was getting to you.

Eddie had once again tried to talk you into, if not quitting, then at least taking time off work. Venom had offered to kill your boss, and then you’d gotten a headache from listening to Eddie and Venom bicker.

You’d stomped out of the apartment that morning without so much as a ‘goodbye’, slamming the door hard enough that the walls rattled a little. Had simmered down by the time you’d gotten to work, thankfully, and your boss had given you a knowing look.

“Man problems?”

“Can’t kill him, he’s my source of soup,” you muttered as you, somewhat roughly, hung some new dresses onto hangers.

Your boss laughed, eyes kind. “Oh, I know. My Martin was the same. Nothing turns men into complete worrywarts like a pregnant woman. I actually made out a plan to kill him with a roast and then cook it to eat the evidence.”

The mental image made you laugh. “Better yet, you could’ve fed the cops the evidence.”

She grinned. “Exactly! Here, come do my tired old eyes a favor and do your magic with the books. I can hang those up.”

It was a bad attempt to get you to sit down and take the weight off your aching back and ankles. But it wasn’t framed as an order or a whine, so you nodded and went to sit down behind the counter, opening Quickbooks on your boss’ laptop and letting yourself sink into some basic accounting.

The shop ended up being busy that day. Fifteen bra fittings needed, and thrice as many customers needing help picking out outfits. Half left messes and unfolded clothes behind, and you felt like you were picking up after toddlers as you refolded everything and sorted through the clothes that had been tried on and found unworthy.

You were exhausted by quitting time, your ankles swollen, back aching, and a headache pounding behind your temples. You were looking forward to heading home and putting your feet up.

A text from Eddie made you pause just as you were leaving the shop, a sigh leaving you when he said he’d be late and to take it easy and that he loved you.

Hormones. It had to be hormones, because you had to wipe at your eyes.

Huffing, you called him back. “I’m sorry for this morning,” you blurted when he answered.

“Babe, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to push, I know you like your job. I just worry. And, uh, he, is sorry too. Didn’t realize that you liked your boss that much.”

You rolled your eyes as you walked along the street, the smells of a nearby Thai restaurant making your stomach growl a little. “She’s a kind lady who keeps paying me on my days off despite it not being in my contract and who also buys me pineapples so I don’t have to deal with cravings at work. So yes, I’d like to keep her around.”

“Sorry, pretty.” Eddie cleared his throat as the symbiote relinquished control of his voice. “Anyway, we’ll be an hour or so late. Just head home, we’ll go pick up your soup once we’re free.”

“Don’t worry. I can grab it on my way home.”

“Babe–”

“Eddie, I am pregnant not an invalid. I’ll just pop in the restaurant, buy soup, and head straight home. Easy peasy.”

He sighed into the phone, and you narrowed your eyes, readying yourself for a fight. “Promise you’ll take it easy,” he said instead of protesting, like you knew he wanted to do. Like Venom was probably doing in his head.

“Promise. I’ll even buy some of that cake I know you and V like.”

“Triple chocolate?”

“Yup.”

“Well, how can we say ‘no’ to that?” His chuckle that echoed through the phone made you smile. “Love you.”

“Love you too. I’ll see you later.” You hung up feeling better, less homicidal and less likely to try to smother him in his sleep. Climbed onto the streetcar heading home and smiled at a teenager that offered you his spot on a bench.

Your mission to appropriate soup and cake was effortless, and you happily cradled the paper bag to your chest as you walked the last couple of blocks home. Achy and hungry, you stopped to gather up the mail in the apartment’s lobby before stepping into the elevator.

About halfway up, it started to groan, and you quirked an eyebrow at the light screeching sound it made before it rattled to a stop, the lights going out.

Shit.

You reached for the ‘help’ button, pressing it and the emergency button. The bell sounded, loud, echoing in the small elevator, but no one answered the help line’s phone. Nervous, you pulled out your smartphone, heart sinking when you saw that there was only one bar of service available. 

What the hell was the elevator made of that you couldn’t get proper phone reception?! Lead?!

Still, you tried dialing Eddie again, voice coming out shaky and nervous when you thought you heard the line pick up. “Eddie! Eddie, the elevator’s stuck, I need help! Can you hear me? Eddie?” You pulled the phone back to peer at the screen, sighing when you saw the words ‘no service’ flashing.

Trying to keep from freaking out, you pounded on the doors, kicking a few times as you bellowed. “HELLO!! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!?! HELL-FUCKING-O?! PREGNANT WOMAN WHO NEEDS TO PEE TRAPPED IN THE ELEVATOR!!”

Panting, holding onto your calm by your proverbial nails, you slumped back against the wall, fighting the urge to sink to the floor - you’d never be able to get back up if you did. Spent a moment jabbing your thumb into the call button, listening to the elevator phone ringing endlessly over the blare of the emergency bell before, finally, someone picked up.

“What?”

“I’m stuck in the goddamn elevator, don’t you ‘what’ me! Can’t you hear the alarm?!”

“Oh.”

“OH?!”

“Just… Shit. I’m twenty minutes away at another building. Just chill. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“WhaaAAAAT?! But I’m pregnant!”

“You in labor?”

“You’d better fucking hope I’m not!”

“Then I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

The resounding ‘click’ of the Superintendent hanging up on you felt like the final nail in your coffin.

Unbeknownst to you - this would be recounted to you by Eddie and Venom later that night - Eddie had gotten some of your call. It had been garbled. He’d made out the words ‘Eddie’ and ‘help’ amidst a lot of static and blaring alarm noises and panicked. He’d screamed ‘pregnant girlfriend in trouble!’ at his boss and bolted out of the office.

It was Venom that swung through the City, ignoring the screams from the people that spotted him out in the daylight. He’d burst into the restaurant that he knew you’d gone to, shattering the plate glass window in his entrance. Upon realizing that you weren’t there, he’d upended a table in frustration, scarfed down someone’s steak dinner and left by ripping the front door off it’s hinges.

Luckily, he’d spotted a car driving a little too fast, weaving through traffic, with an elevator repair service truck following at it’s bumper. He’d easily spotted it as both vehicles had screeched to a halt in front of the apartment building, a trio of men rushing inside.

Thankfully, Venom’s territorial nature insisted that he find out what the hell was going on in ‘his‘ building and he’d gone to investigate.

You meanwhile, had a migraine from the alarm, and were dealing with a little panic by beating on the elevator doors while screaming obscenities. Only when the blare of the alarm cut off did you stop, head tilted a little. “Hello?”

“Jesus, Lady, you got some lungs on you!” Drifted up and through the closed doors. “Listen, I got a repairman here, we’re trying to figure out what’s wrong, okay? Just sit tight!”

“I’ve been ‘sitting tight‘ for twenty minutes!”

“Well then you’re already a pro at it, aren’t you?”

You snarled, debated kicking the doors again, just out of spite, but your sore feet took precedence. Instead, you pushed the heels of your hands into your lower back, trying to ease the constant, slowly worsening, pain there.

Unable to do anything else, you paced your small enclosure, back and forth, being careful not to kick the now-cold soup and cake takeout you’d placed on the floor. Felt tiny kicks from your baby against your belly, and slid a hand to press against the tiny bumps, trying to even out your breathing. “S’okay, junior. Either this asshole will get us out of here or your Daddies will come home and kill him. It’ll work out you’ll se–”

You cut yourself off with a shriek when the whole elevator shook, wobbling hard enough to send you to your knees. Heard the cables holding you from plummeting groan in response, and felt your heartbeat kick up accordingly.

“Jesus, Lady! You drop that kid or something?!”

“You’re not fucking funny!” You screamed back at the Super, before covering your belly with your hands, feeling the elevator wobble again. “Please don’t let me die in an elevator,” you whispered to whatever Gods were listening. “Or at least, let the elevator take out the Super on the way down.”

“SORRY, PRETTY. DIDN’T MEAN TO SCARE YOU.”

You gasped and jerked your head up, staring at Venom as he peeled back a section of the elevator’s ceiling as if it was as flimsy as a can of sardines. The elevator shook again as he dropped through the hole he’d made, landing in a crouch in front of you.

He reached for you at the same time that you flung yourself into his arms, closing your eyes when he enveloped you in a hug. “SHH, LITTLE NIBBLE. WE’RE HERE NOW.” Venom nuzzled at you a little before scooping you into his arms, and you finally relaxed. Nothing short of a nuclear attack would convince Venom to leave your side now.

Odd how just ten hours ago you were ready to kill him for doing just that.

“HOLD TIGHT,” he rumbled, and you wrapped your arms around his neck accordingly, blinking when he extended a tendril to pick your purse and bagged food up off the floor before leaping straight up.

The two of you easily cleared the elevator and another twenty feet of elevator shaft before Venom shifted his grip on you, the arm that had been supporting your legs reaching out to grab onto the edge of a ladder. He hung there for a moment, before shoving off, bouncing off the opposite wall and sending the two of you sailing through the open elevator doors on the fifteenth floor.

He twisted and landed on his back, protecting you and your swollen belly from the impact, and you lay there, eyes clenched shut, before the feeling of him licking at your cheek made you open them. “Are we alive?”

A deep, baritone, laugh left him. “OF COURSE,” he chuckled as he fluidly rose to his feet and carried you into your apartment, hissing a question when you wriggled out of his arms. 

“Bathroom,” you blurted as you ran for it. Managed to get there in time to avoid an accident, and you blushed when he chuckled at you through the door when you sighed in relief. “Oh, hush.”

Did your business, then washed your hands before rejoining him in the kitchen, where he was in the middle of devouring the piece of cake you’d bought for Eddie. “Eddie needs to get downstairs and explain to the Super that I’m out of the elevator. And maybe yell at him a bit.”

“WE COULD GO. DON’T LIKE HOW HE TALKED TO YOU.”

You decided not to mention how long you were stuck in the elevator, otherwise Venom might disembowel the man. “Yes, well, nothing to be done about that now. And, thank you, for coming to my rescue.”

A rumble very much like a purr left him as he moved over to you, one hand settling on the small of your back to pull you close while he leaned down to lick at your cheek. “YOU SOUNDED SCARED ON THE PHONE. YOU KNOW WE’LL ALWAYS COME TO YOU WHEN YOU NEED US.”

“I know. Still, thank you.”

“WE ACCEPT KISSES AND CHOCOLATE. AND WE ALREADY HAD CHOCOLATE,” he smirked, and you rolled your eyes before tilting your head up, sighing as he claimed your lips in a hungry, heated, kiss.

There was the sound of a startled cry from the open apartment door, and the still open elevator doors. Something that sounded suspiciously like ‘what the fuck happened to the elevator?!’ drifted to your ears, and you sighed as you reluctantly pulled away. Venom grumbled a little, nuzzling at your neck, and you heard him drink in a lungful of your scent, his free hand dropping to cup your swollen belly protectively, talons gentle against your skin.

He pulled back a moment later, pale eyes widening, when the baby kicked out, and you chuckled a little at the shocked expression on his face.

“Junior’s not a fan of elevators,” you said with a smile as Venom dropped into a crouch and framed your stomach in his hands. He tapped at a spot, grinning with a happy rumble when a tiny kick answered him.

The call of ‘Lady, where the fuck are you?!’ from the hallway made both of you grumble.

“I’m fine! Boyfriend saved me! He’ll be down there to talk to you in a minute!” you hollered back, gently sliding a hand across the nape of Venom’s neck when he growled something about hanging people from their entrails. “Eddie needs to make an appearance, hun.”

Venom hissed, then reluctantly pulled away. Rose to his feet and placed a kiss to your forehead before the symbiote pulled away from it’s human host, reintroducing Eddie to the world as it shifted around him to form jeans and a button down shirt.

The man blinked a few times to reorient himself, then smiled at you in relief and pulled you in for a brief hug. “Glad to see you’re alright, babe.”

You leaned into him a little, taking comfort in his embrace. He was warm and strong and safe, and you drank that in, along with his scent and the smell of his aftershave, before necessity made you pull away. “I hate elevators. Do me a favor and go yell at the Super for me.”

Eddie, being a journalist, eyed you. “Were you in there all this time?”

“Yeah. He was at another building. Took him almost half an hour to get here.”

His eyes darkened, like a storm rolling in. “Yeah, we’ll have words with him. Nuke your soup and go put your feet up, we’ll be back soon, okay?”

“Yup.” You rose up onto your aching tip toes to kiss him again. “No killing the help.”

A chuckle left him, laced with Venom’s own unearthly rumble. “We promise nothing.”

[em0x0]

You mess up, big time. Part 2

Jason Todd x Venom (kind of get Tim into it just for fun

Warning: messy plot, curse, violence.

“I didn’t come all this way for a coffee, Eddie.” Jason, who is clearly annoyed.

“Someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed. I bought you coffe so would you do me a favour and hack into Life Foundation?”

“What, you are still on that? What are you looking for anyway?”

“Hear me out, I got and interview with them and I really need something solid, so it would at least seem like I know what I am talking about and might push them to talk.”

“They are actually doing an interview with you? Do they not know what you have done?” Which mean all those corrupted company Eddie took down in the past.

“I guess not. Or they are playing ignorance.”

“Yea, big company do have a tendency of doing that.”

“So, can you do some hacking or not? Kind of need it by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow, are you serious?”

“Yes, sorry is so last minute.”

“Fine... you own me big time! That coffee is shit by the way.” “Since big time reporter need his super secret document, I better get to work. I am going to send you the file tonight.”

“Yea, yea. I own you, thanks!”

Jason is not the greatest hacker if he have to be completely honest, he is more physical like making a bomb and using his gun right in the action. Not behind a computer screen.

Jason spended hours trying to hack into the system of Life Foundation, but still cant get into the research part. And he decided to ask for foreign aid, aka Tim.

“What do you want Jason?”

“Are you out on patrol today?”

“No.”

“Great, can you help me hack into Life Foundation? The new research they are doing specifically.”

“You in San Fansico?”

“Yea, can you help??”

“Why are you doing this?” It’s actually quite surprising that Tim would ask anything, in their line of ‘work’ hacking into big company is like a daily chore, so that should not be anything but ordinary. Well apparently not Jason guess.

“It’s just a favour for a friend.”

“Don’t know what you are getting yourself into, but be careful.” “Okay. I got it. Jus.. they are doing all kind of experiment on human.”

“Well, that’s was quick. Whatever that is mind send me a copy of it?” Jason wonder if he should call earlier.

“Just did. I got to go Bruce is calling me.”

“Alright, thanks. Own you a coffee, Tim.”

While Eddie go and have an interview with Carlton Drake, Jason have a plan of his own as well. There is a researcher position open in the company, it does beg the question of why is ther a position open. But see how much Carlton love doing experiment on human, it will not surprise Jason that a unlucky researcher might end up being a lab rat for Carlton. In Jason opinion building a fake identity with extensive science background is much easier than hacking. Peter Rodd it is.

“Hi, Peter. I’m Dora Skirth the chief scientist for this project.” Dora leading Jason ‘Peter’ to a control panel infront of a glass cell with a round vault with some kind of goo in it have a rufous-ish colour.

“Keep an eye on this, and the monitor over there.”

“Okay.”

Jason sit down infront of the cell and start monitoring the wave and movement as told by Dr.Skirth. Jason phone buzz.

“I mess up, they kick me out.” Text from Eddie. Jason is far from surprise, Eddie is very much like him could be over power by instinct and mess things up. Hot headed. Implosive.

“Well, I got a position in their lab. But cant move yet, probably have to wait till everyone is off.” Jason send a text back to Eddie.

Then Jason hear a familiar voice, it’s Tim. Jason lean over the panel and see, it is Tim, who currently is talking with Carlton Drake. Then it click, they are both Drake! They are related.

“Why did you hack into my system, cousin.” Oh they are cousin, that’s totally make sense Jason think. It’s very unusual that Tim would get caught like that, Carlton must be good at that.

“Just curious about your research.” Good going Tim, he really is not the best liar.

“You can just ask you know, cousin.” Then Carlton start leading Tim toward where Jason is.

“Let me show you.” “Open the door.” Carlton ordered which is for Jason, since his is siting at the control panel. Jason of course do as the man said, slightly panic because don’t know what Tim reaction would be when he saw him and what the man plan to do. After the door to the glass cell open, Carlton urge Tim to go in and show him the goo in the vault.

“We call them symboite, they can’t survive without a host on earth. So we are trying to find one for them.” Jason as this instant know exactly wha going to happen, start to think we he can do to get Tim out.

Tim didn’t realise Jason standing outside and behind the panel, probably too occupy by the fact that he might very soon be consumed by some sort of alien life form. Jason is wearing a lab coat but he did have a flash grenade on him in case he need a quick exit. He just really hope the impact is enough to break the glass, so he throw it like a baseball pitcher and the glass did break. Jason immediately jump across the panel and grap Tim, and start run. Jason did not realise at that moment Tim is not the only one he break out of the lab.

Security is already chasing them, and with guns. Jason really regret not having more than a flash grande on him. This is just not very great odds.

“Hum, so what’s the plan?” Tim ask when they turn a corner and loses the gruad for a bit.

“Do I look like someone that have a plan.”

Tim somehow can still roll his eye while they both running.

Then they heat a dead end, look like a back door but its lock. Then Jason without thinking just through himself to the door and the door break open like some miracle.

“You are stronger than I thought.”

“Well, I’m stronger than I thought.”

Lucky for Jason and Tim the Life Foundation is like a maze, so losing some security guard is easier then they thought. But unlucky for the security guard.  

“We lose them.” a guard rush back to the lab and report back to Carlton 

“How can you lose them we are on a fucking island. Where can they go? Keep looking, and bring back my creature.” Everyone in the lab is stunted by how furious Carlton is. It is rare to see the stoic and ascetic CEO so emotional.  

“Copy that.”

“Still can’t believe we make it out alive.” Tim sign after they cross the bridge and on the way back to down town.

“Really? I definitely had been in worst situation than that.”

“Always hated Carl but never thought he would actually try to kill me.”

“Hah, another sibling trying to kill you? He need to get in line.”

“Very funny Jason.”

Jason start to feel a bit nauseous and dizzy, which is not a good thing cause he is the one driving the car.

“Hey, hey! Watch it!” Tim yell, and grip the steering wheel and avoided the tree they nearly crashed into and stoped on the side walk.

“Sorry, feeling a bit under the weather.”

“Yea, its been a long day. How about let me drive you home.”

“I got a safe house in china town.”

“Seriously, how did you get safe house everywhere.”

“I am pretty sure you know how.”

Few more turn, they arrive and Jason is sweating like he just have a shower.

“Hey, you sure you are okay? You look terrible.”

“Probably caught something in the lab, but don’t worry I think it going to off soon.”

“Okay, just call me if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

Jason can feel his phone buzzing but he is to tired to even look at who that might be. Dozing off on the way through his kitchen, and fell down on the floor.

When Jason wake up he his cover in chocolate powder.

“What the fuck?”

“FINALLY, DO YOU HAVE ANYMORE OF THAT.”

“What? Who’s there?” Looking around his apartment but no one seem to be there. That’s new, the joker never show up like that.

“I AM NO JOKER.”

“Who... who is this again?” He can see a slight reflection of a rufous colour creature on the window. Jason instinctly run toward the window and open it. But there is nothing there.

“I AM TOXIN.”

“Toxin? Like chemical and stuff?”

“NO. YOU PEOPLE CALL US SYMBIOTE, WE COME FROM A PLANET, KLYNTAR.”

{Oh, right symbiote...Jason feel like he got a parasite or something.}

“I AM NOT A PARASITE!”

“What!? You can hear my thoughts?”

“JUST LIKE YOU CAN HEAR ME.” “ENOUGH CHIT CHAT I WANT FOOD!”

“What do you eat though?”

“BRAIN ORGAN SOMETHING FRESH.”

“No, no brain and no organ.”

Jason walk to the kitchen and try to find something to eat, don’t know if it’s the influence of the symbiote or he is just genuinely hungry. Jason is so glad that he just stock up with microwave meal, he love to cook but these days he rarely have time for that. Jason grip one and go put it in the microwave. 

“THAT I WANT TO EAT THAT!”

“Chocolate?” Jason pass the chocolate to the symbiote who had peek out of Jason’s shoulder into a little puppet like figure and quickly snitch the chocolate out of Jason’s hand and finished it without even chewing. “hey! watch it, you nearly bite my hand off.” 

“DO YOU HAVE ANYMORE OF THAT?” 

Jason look into the cupboard to see if he still have anymore, but no luck. 

“I will go buy some after I finish that.” Jason gesturing toward his microwave meal. 

“HURRY. OR I MIGHT JUST EAT YOUR LIVER.”

“okay, calm down. I will hurry.” Jason think his is short tempered enough, surprise to find ‘someone’ who is worst then him. 

Jason finish the meal even though it burned his mouth. 

“Hey, Jason. Did you have someone over?” The nice old lady the live next door asked him. 

“Oh, no. I am just on the phone. Sorry if I am too loud.” 

“No, no. Don't worry about it dear. I brake some chocolate chip cookie you want some?”

“I am on my way out, maybe next time. thanks.” When Jason about to turn around and wave the old lady goodbye, and the symbiote yelled. “I WANT SOME.” (Jason is so glad the symbiote is not actually yelling and only he can hear.) “Second thought, I would like some.” 

The old lady put some cookie in a paper bag and hand it to Jason. This make Jason miss the cookie Alfred made, which is one of the reason Jason initially decided not to have the cookie. Nostalgia never mean anything good to him. 

Jason walk to the fire escape stairs and start offering the cookie to the symbiote. 

note: There might or might not have a follow up. Sorry for all the grammatical error. 

art by: ineedcats

[softgrungeprophet]

u kno what

the entire part at the beginning of cates’ run, w/ eddie medicating to suppress the symbiote, was..... totally unnecessary? it doesn’t actually accomplish much of anything from a story-telling pov OR in-universe

it has no effect on the overall plot, which hinges on the aftermath of their fight with knull and the tragedy of sacrifice/loss.

i SUPPOSE it could be considered important to establish a downward spiral, but it still feels out of character even for eddie, who i will readily admit is a jackass, and a drop in their wellness and relationship could have been established in a way that was more in-character and made more sense (cause frankly i’m not sure that anti-psychotics should be able to suppress the symbiote unless they are specially manufactured somehow, or unless they ARE in fact the military-made suppressants we saw with Flash (which also seems doubtful because eddie is, like, a fugitive?))--

I’ll add to that, having read through Costa’s run and then of course First Host (plus misc. other comics), the beginning of the Cates run feels heavily disconnected from the entire timeline, and in particular the end of First Host.

I think there IS room for a spiral, after the end of First Host, with a high probability that they would feel as though they had failed as parents, but this sudden, “oh i’m having nightmares, I better completely and utterly shut out my true love so they cannot communicate in any way or meaningfully interact with their environment like, at all” is like..... uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what, you did what now

like--especially because the pills don’t DO anything. they STILL lose control as Venom. so literally all they do is make it so the symbiote can’t communicate with him, isolating it from its main source of mental and emotional interaction and enrichment.

and here’s the thing: they’ve lost control before. it’s happened. and eddie didn’t trap it in his body like that... it’s fucked up, and I think the beginning could have been introduced--Knull-induced nightmares and loss of control included--without using a frankly abusive form of self-medication as... i don’t even know what? an explanation? it didn’t explain anything. is it just to say “wow look how bad a place they are in” cause idk man I could tell they were in a bad place by the fact that they seem to have sold literally the only furniture they still owned (and the tv) and the fact that eddie had let his hair get so long and that he had stubble and that he was having nightmares and so on and so forth

I just think it could have been handled in a different way that didn’t leave the beginning feeling kind of foul.

I have other problems with the first handful of issues--the whole spiel about not knowing its name or whatever the fuck is also totally unnecessary and kind of flies against really firmly established, widely-accepted lore (and character development), and I’ve seen other people point out why more succinctly than i could--about it being basically part of the dude’s info-dump/lore retconning as he establishes the plot and shit. and like, i get it, you see some flaws or missing pieces, so you wanna fix it, but you don’t have to like...... change every single thing......... just cause you can...? not everything needs “fixing.”

and i say this as a person who does bullshit like write 500 words on how i think the symbiote processes auditory stimuli.

even before I had read other venom comics--Donny Cates’ first 6 issues were actually the first comics I read, and I still felt really on the fence about whether I liked the series or not. The end of 6 had me invested, which is really the main thing you need, but I don’t think the first arc holds up very well, particularly now that I have read a lot more of the main Venom comics.

the thing is, I actually liked 7 and 8--eddie’s a dumbass who hates himself and i think that came across well, and i’m all for actually, genuinely exploring his mental health issues and inferiority complexes... (also buzzcut beardy eddie....is handsome)

it really is just like the opening framing of the series that has caused me the most issue so far, and the implication that eddie doesn’t seem to actually be that in-tune with the being who uhhh.... gave birth to their love-child. Like. What. Especially after the tenderness of the previous run.

anyway i don’t mean to come off totally negative and i probably need to reread the first 6 issues cause I might be foggy on some details... but it still is just like. eh. i like angst and interpersonal drama but like--suffering for the sake of suffering gets old fast lol

if i wanted to deal with supernatural again i’d just watch supernatural >>

oh also from talk of the preview it sure seems like they fridged someone off-screen and that too is Entirely Unnecessary and pointless and i’m just rolling my eyes at this point

god, and her name is mary too lmfao

[land-of-brains-and-chocolate]

Hey. At this point I don't think I'm ever going to read Cates, unless that proves necessary for appreciating the art. Anyway, I haven't and this is not to defend him, just-- do you think there's any chance he is aiming at aaaaangst with a happy ending? Because he may have the proportions all wrong and do dumb things other ways, but many people do like fictional angst w/ a happy ending better than just fictional sweetness.

he’s absolutely gonna have a happy ending, good lordt, that’d be the cherry on top, just killing eddie off at the end of his run or whatever. no.

angst with a happy ending is good and popular. the problems are:

nobody is actually calling for just fictional sweetness. nobody expects that from a comic book. people thinking that the cates run is too dreary to get invested in does not mean that they want a story without any drama or conflict. it’s a jackass move to say so to invalidate them.

ten issues without a single ray of hope. almost a year of expecting us to not grow emotionally fatigued when it’s just one thing after another. two arcs of nothing but added trauma, nothing resolved, no moments of relief. and we’re still only ramping up, if even one of our predictions is correct.

it’s not angst? it’s not good angst, at least? i can’t actually empathise with eddie, i just feel frustrated with the writing?

it’s… i hate to say it, but it really is manpain.

It’s marked by excess. The tragedies of the character’s history are extreme: his reaction to them is melodramatic: his pain is tacitly or explicitly acknowledged by the story and/or other characters to be worse than anyone else’s.

the symbiote is making eddie do horrible things. the symbiote god is coming for eddie personally. the symbiote loses its voice. eddie finds out that flash is dead. eddie thinks the symbiote never thought he was good enough. eddie gets punched by his dad. eddie’s homeless and penniless. eddie’s cancer comes back. eddie’s brother wants to kill their dad. carnage is coming and eddie’s all aloooooone. like please. every single one of these could have been enough for some quality angst if they’d been fleshed out.

It is self-centered and inner-directed; events, especially traumatic events, in the narrative are typically viewed through the lens of how they emotionally impact the bearer of the manpain, who is often a figure of isolation.

THIS IS THE WORST ONE. the symbiote essentially dies for eddie and eddie reacts with nothing other than self-pity. the narrative doesn’t spare the suffering of anyone but eddie a single thought. here, look, i’ve complained at length. now we can also add eddie sitting across from his beaten up brother asking for his help and thinking about how annoying this is to HIM to the list.

i’m being yelled at to feel sorry for eddie while i can see everybody else also suffering behind him, but every time i look, he waves his hands in front of my face and goes HEY. HEY. LOOK AT ME.

The character’s painful history is frequently (although not universally) created by exploiting the death/suffering/loss of a woman, or children, or both. These women and children are often not characterized as having any importance in the narrative other than as plot devices to create manpain.

the symbiote. not a woman or child, but… the symbiote. his sister, too, but she foretells some meta memory bullshittery going on.

The manpain serves a dual function. It is an easy way for a creator to shorthand a male character as vulnerable, and therefore sympathetic. It is also used to excuse a range of behaviors that often include actions that would otherwise be read as unsympathetically selfish, anti-social or violent.

showing him suffering and suffering and suffering is all this run does to make eddie sympathetic. see also the twitter conversation about HOW could you think eddie’s a shithead? he’s been through SO MUCH.

important note: i haven’t read #10, i probably won’t read any more.