#fucking look at it. i love you symby

[oflgtfol]

oh god. what a great panel. literally swooned over this

[horrendous-bisexual-showdown]

Poll 1

Dina Becher (It/Its) by @sanfielle

Why Should Your OC Win?

where do i even start. dina is a short king. its a disaster bi whose whole life has been dictated by the whims of forces outside its control. the embodiment of the whole universe talked to dina just to tell it dad jokes the entire time. dina played too much LoL growing up and has had its vocabulary permanently impacted by this. it started playing a stupid game that spawned it into a firey hellzone. its the most unlucky person in the world. help it out a little. it needs some kind of W. please. please

What is Your OC Like?

looks: pretty short, short brown hair in dreads, light to mid brown skin, hazel eyes, default expression is nervous or grumpy.

personality: lonely, paranoid, and determined. it just wants to have fun and be itself but there are noobs to pwn and ladders to walk under.

dina is from my webcomic PROLEGOMENON, available on neocities.org ^_^

Solveig (She/Her) by @spellinwaiting

Why Should Your OC Win?

her life is so fucking hard she needs to win something just once

What is Your OC Like?

solveig is my tes oblivion oc and she has just SO many problems. imagine being severely mentally ill in a medieval fantasy setting with no access to proper mental health care. one time someone tried to mug her but then realized she had nothing and they felt so bad for her and the whole state she was in the mugger was like 'ok you need help' and became her friend. shes blessed to have an orc wife who loves her no matter how many times she sprints off into the woods in the midst of a manic episode. what else? she has a horse named 'horse' because she couldnt come up with anything better. she wants to be a heroic knight but is far better at killing people than saving them. her solution to most of her problems is to lie face down on the floor motionless for a while (also the picture is done by my friend whose url is @symbie not by me, i hope thats alright, also i put that here cause i didnt know where else to)

[krisseratops]

Hi cupcake! Anti-Venom and 2, 4 and 12 for the ask game?

Hi honeybun! Sorry for the delay, I was busy horsing around! And thank you so much for the ask, I will try to not spontaneously combust while talking about my fave! And you did ask about my fave, so you brought this on yourself! Here we go!

2. Favourite canon thing about this character?

Before I start, I have to let you know, I am Indecisive(TM). As fuck. Which means I often don't have favourites simply because I cannot choose which one to pick. And also there are so many things about him that I love. Like his design. I love all the symbiotes but there is just something about his face and the way he looks that scratches my brain just right and makes me go apeshit. And that he is a wet pathetic dumbass extraordinaire, worse than when he is Venom even though he desperately tries to pretend like he's got his shit together. Like, they were always idiots but I swear Symby took half the braincells in the divorce, and when he got Anti they had to split what was left. And of course the whole religious nut messiah complex is funny as hell. Also little things like the way using his healing powers leaves him conked out, and the way he grows tiny spikes all over when he gets agitated or upset. God I love his little spikes. And also the way he embodies the whole "If I cannot be wanted, I will be needed, and if I cannot be needed I will be used until there is nothing left". Aughhh.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

I actually don’t do a lot of crossovers between different media, as I usually prefer putting my blorbos in situations in their own universe, or completely off the shits headcanons. But remember that story idea about symbiotes disguising themselves while in the spider verse? Yeah, I've stuck him in the spider verse a number of times for shits and giggles. Also because the multiverse means unlimited potential for settings and situations for them all to get roped into. Otherwise I do like putting him in medieval or fantasy settings, usually in multiverse context, because symbiote dragons babey!

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Oh my. There are SO MANY HEADCANONS swirling around my noggin. (Like, I use canon for cherry picking, then take that and bits and pieces of fanon and anything I can find that I like and put it in a blender, then fill the gaps with whatever headcanons I feel like. Just frankensteining together several versions of him in my head that are between 30-80% headcanon, I keep them on rotation for whatever fits the mood.) One of my main headcanons is that Anti-Venom survives the spider island event. Simply because I don’t want him to die, and for fanfic plot reasons so that he and Agent Venom get more fun times together ;). I have a few different takes on how exactly the symbiote lives on, but it's kinda similar to how Carnage had bonded so closely with its host that it never really left, and could regenerate itself over time from the smallest traces in his body. Bonus points are that the biblical similarities of Anti-Venom sacrificing itself to save the souls of the innocent by giving up its body, only to rise from the dead some time later would absolutely send Eddie's messiah complex into overdrive and make him even more insufferable. Oh, right, and I should probably also mention that I frequently headcanon Anti-Venom as sentient/sapient. Because I want to, and because it makes things a lot more interesting. But I won't go into more detail about that here or else this will turn into a dissertation.

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings! I think I need to go lie down now...

[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

[yozzers]

my opinions on venom #1 because I don’t have any comic friends to rlly discuss this with lol sorry fr inflicting my tumblr followers w this idk how to process all that

this is like a messy mix of a reread with just my thoughts slapped on and some opinions too idk

ok so i could honestly give less of a shit abt eddie rn idk hes not my silly little guy anymore so I just care less abt him i’m actually just waiting fr elwing to kill him off for real bcs he feels soooo soulless these days. like yes some eddie traits are still there but its not the same, so hoo keep that in mind when i talk abt this, anyway

i swear sleeper is the only reason im slugging through recent venom comics, its like (abyssmal emoji face) “venom sucks sm” --> “ :) omg sleeper!”

im going to also assume #1 takes place before extreme carnage since Sleeper is still around and in their cat form. I’m still wondering if Sleeper is going to be treated as the brock family pet or if theyve been restored to a brock family member again i cant really tell... ig ill maybe maybe not find out in the coming issues if RAM V’s apparently plans fr Sleeper are true

also i ... i like that sleeper just indulges sm in being a cat like i KNOW for a fact you arent even like a cat under there thats just a whole symbiote shaped into a cat they say shit like meow mrow bcs they want to

edit: ok i just skimmed through the 2018 run trying to find something else but found this instead... if ewing/ramv are only going by cate’s run then...ig they wont be restored to brock family member status... augeugh but whyyy im understanding why ppl were bemoaning abt dylan’s role as the “blood son” sevrely downplaying eddie’s role as a parent to sleeper im going to take this as “lol no genetically im not related to eddie like YOU are but--” kind of thing for now. im sooo upset realizing sleeper has jus stopped referring to eddie as father :( 

and its funny because it does happen out of the blue, and eddie doesnt even get the chance to really tell his loved ones goodbye or i love you before he just gets blown up

(im glad eddie’s still a little pathetic here... cmon man so much for “trying to convince the universe symbiotes arent to be feared anymore”)

THIS IS REALLY FUNNY FOR NO REASON. DAD SIGHTING, SETPEMBER, 2 AM, HOME.

1) ignore the first panel i just want u guys to know the general time thing eddies been gone fr dylan

2) sorry the way this tells us the symbiote sometimes fucks off whenever eddie goes back to space is so. the dynamic is giving very “divorce kid and their dad’s gf they dont rlly want to have a connection w and maybe even dislike” vibes

3) dylan being the technical 8th kid after sleeper... like lets just say sleeper is the “first child” in this situation bcs thats the only kid where eddie and symby finally stepped up to becoming actual parents to one of their kids and they were “overbearing as hell”, and now theyre just free-balling with the youngest child (dylan) now. it’s kind of funny if it weren’t for the fact sleeper isnt being treated like symby AND eddie’s kid anymore.

i hope sleeper talks abt their exp being raised by eddie and symby at some point i think itd be a funny contrast to give dylan a look at how eddie (and symby) did their parenting before dylan came into the picture. Like “i was kept in a fish tank and smothered with attention” , *dylan vc* “how does it feel, living MY dream (sans the fishtank part)” i also hope now that dylan will interact w the lifo symbiotes w the knowledge hes eddie’s son, that theres a werid family feud situation. lets gooo daddy issues lets goooo. think of it like this sleeper> dylan > lifo and carnage

4) IT KIND OF IMPLIES THE SYMBIOTE HASNT BEEN SEEN IN DAYS? PROBABLY? WHY DOES IT JUST UP AND LEAVE THOUGHHHH also sleeper is a little too passive in this situation fr me its never mentioned if sleeper is also disconnected from the hive so I assume theyre still sort of connected w eddie?? whyd they not realize that wasnt really eddie... huhhhh

WHY WAS SLEEPER OF ALL PPL SURPRISED ABT SEEING VENOM UD THINK THEYD BE ABLE TO SENSE THEIR PARENT BEING NEARBY AND EVERYTHING? LIKE AT FIRST I ASSUMED “OH SLEEPER IS AWARE VENOM IS BEING WEIRD AND STALKING THEM FRM A DISTANCE” NAURRR THEY DONT EVEN KNOW??? this is so...

___

final thoughts ig, i just didnt really feel much. its only issue 1 so i wasnt expecting to get blown away but it just sort of left me scratching my head. its just sort of jarring where i just finished rereading stuff like web of venom: good sons and then the costa run + first host, and im going into this issue... like i think the parenting stuff is rlly the only thing sticking in my head atm. ill probably reread frm the start when we get to issue #4 which is what im mostly anticipating (bcs im expecting to see flash, andi and or bren cameo). 

we dont get to see much on dylan and symby’s dynamic which sucks, bcs thats what i was mostly lookin gout fr in this issue. we do get some more sleeper and dylan interactions which im always happy fr tho! its... a little underwhelming though, actually super underwhelming. sleeper kind of just follows dylan around and its, fine i guess? but i just expected more quips or interjections frm sleeper.

im honestly more interested in dylan’s side of the story which surprised me like i really have 0 care left fr eddie now. which sucks bcs he endeared me sm as a character, but at least currently, he’s sort of just a husk. 

anyway my theory on the whole “dylan and symby not getting along” that keeps being teased im sure itll just be dylan’s rage “infecting” the symbiote all over again or bcs dylan decided to bond with it despite eddie’s warnings its going to go thru that thing the ringo symbiote which is just. unfortunate. im so tired.

anyway!

all of the venom symbio’s shadowed appearances bcs they look so silly:

[mushroomsandteeth]

Favorite Fanwork Day!!!

Too many to pick just one so lets GO!

I'm starting with people who have made fanart and side stories for my fan fiction because I literally think about them everyday and I'm so grateful.

Again, @rainydogco made my baby beautiful, I love it. He looks so handsome like, I think Butch would give you a kiss if he was real.

@felinalain made a side piece to my enormous fan fic that literally stars an in universe cat named Satan. Its adorable and I love it. I'm grateful everyday that such a minor character got attention.

Now onto ACTUAL Venom content

@deluxetrashqueen made this beautiful, almost-too-smart-for-me fic that combines Venom with the Thing novella. It is brilliant and you should be reading it

@dyradoodles said "fuck you Cates I'm making my own canon! With black jack! And a OT3 between Eddie, Flash and Symby!". Seriously though its a good read and a great dive into the mind of Eddie Brock. (Also check out their art, they good)

Eiichi made this AU that is probably one of my favorite Venom AUs. Its 9 parts and my favorite is probably the camping trip. I haven't been able to read the latest parts of it because I'm a baby bitch who can't handle angst, so, if you like angst there is that.

Nitrobot made this big beautiful piece and if you love Black Cat and minor Spider-man villians you should read it. I freaking love this thing. Also rare OT3 of Felicia/Eddie/Symby but it feels so earned.

old_blue made this and it is like Twin Peaks met Venom and had a baby. I kept trying to guess where it would go. This is like my jam and I love it.

Correction, THIS is my jam. Zuzeca mixed Lovecraft with Venom and even though Venom is my primary special interest Lovecraftian lore is my second. So this is just a sandwhiche of two of my favorite things.

LunaLeaf (Nixye) made this based off of the fic @schadenfiend was writing called "The Hand that Feeds". And I recommend both things cus the fic is great if unfinished and this pie recipe is amazing I have made it three times now.

I have more but I'm gonna cut it off here. Go check out @princess-of-peachtrees fics they are all great and too many for me to pick just one. @owlapinart , @d-erm @mentalrhapsody do great art that blows my freaking mind every time they post.

And if I didn't list you its because I spent over 60 minutes on this one post but I swear if you have a fic I most likely have read it and you know I'm always combing the tags for art. I love the fandom here and all our creators you guys rock.

@symbruary

[cultofthepigeon]

Venom Reading Order Part 4.

THE most 90′s Venom comics like just the most aggressively 90′s comics you can imagine fellow 90′s kids please enjoy

Part 4: C O M E  O N   A N D   S L A M

-Venom: Separation Anxiety #1 (October, 1994) Venom and the Life Foundation babies in “Symb....Are We the Badies?”

-Venom: Separation Anxiety #2 (November, 1994) Venom and Life Foundation Symbiotes. Eddie Brock continues to realize maybe he did some bad things and, being Eddie Bock, immediately jumps to suicide. The symbiote continues to pine and to make the >:D face

-Venom: Separation Anxiety #3 (December, 1994) Venom and the Life Foundation Symbiotes. Symby has their on cool hero moment.

-Venom: Separation Anxiety #4 (January, 1995) Venom and Life Foundation Symbiotes. Reunited and it feels so good. Except for Eddie Brock worrying that the symbiote is controlling him and unconsciously realizing that, oh god no, it isn’t.

-Spectacular Spider-man #223 (February, 1995) Carnage. Part 2/2 of (). Carnage cameo and Shriek because god forbid we leave her alone for five god damn minutes to NOT be shat on

-Venom: Carnage Unleashed #1 (February, 1995) Venom and Carnage in the most mid 90′s plot ever imagined as they fight in VIDEO GAME CYBER SPACE. Also the intro to Dr. Pazzo and Kirstin two minor characters I really love. Some Cletus backstory. The most realistic gaming exec ever depicted

-Venom: Carnage Unleashed #2 (March, 1995) Venom and Carnage

-Venom: Carnage Unleashed #3 (April, 1995) Venom and Carnage. Pazzo is the worlds most under paid psyche

-Venom: Carnage Unleashed #4 (May, 1995) Venom and Carnage. Venom and Carnage fight on the internet, Pazzo is a badass, Alana should be hooking up with Pazzo, Kirstin is a good kid, and Kirstin’s mom is a stone cold fox

-The Amazing Spider-man #403 (May, 1995) Carnage makes a guest appearance in a spiderman arc and they have a lot of fun with it

-Amazing Spider-man Super Special: (April, 1995) Venom and Carnage. Eddie Brock contemplates the Who Is In Control Conundrum. Planet of the Symbiotes part 1/5

-Spider-Man Super Special: (May, 1995) Venom and Carnage. Eddie Brock still wants to help. Planet of the Symbiotes part 2/5

-Venom Super Special: (June, 1995) Venom and Carnage. Symby still wants to help. The artist likes Geiger. I still can’t hate MJ as much as I want to. Planet of the Symbiotes part 3/5

-Spectacular Spider-man Super Special: (July, 1995) Venom and Carnage. EVERYONE gets a symbiote and thee’s like 80 amazing background symbiotes and boy even when they’re evil i sure love goo. Also 40 foot tall Carnage. Planet of the Symbiotes part 4/5

-Web of Spider-man Super Special: (August, 1995) Venom and Carnage. Tht One I’m Petty Sure Has MJ And Peter Fuck While Ben And Brock Watch TV In Th Next Room. Oh and remember when Eddie was asking if him or the symbiote was in control? Well The answer is: It doesn’t matter as long as they’re saving and protecting innocent people together. I’m sure this is a lesson that will be remembered in future issues. IM SORRY IM ADDING THIS COMMENTAY AT A LATER DATE BUT I STAN LEATHER AND LACE FROM THE SECOND STORY HOOOOOOOOHMYGD THEY DONT HAVE NY OTHER APPEANCES IM SCREAMING  Planet of the Symbiotes part 5/5

-Venom: Sinner Takes All #1: (July, 1995) Opens with beautiful sleeping beauty rapunzel Eddie Bock. Eddie Brock loves Anne Weying but is also a huge idiot. Side story about the Beat Venom’s Ass Squad.

-Venom: Sinner Takes All #2: (August, 1995) Symby suggests they save Anne’s Life because they liek her! Just....not enough to completely leave Eddie without a squabble and half hearted threats. The first appearance of She Venom!!! 

-Venom: Sinner Takes All #3 (August, 1995) She Venom kills two rapists!!!! Discussion about how the symbiote can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to. Discussion about how being forced to look at the less savory parts of yourself is a violation and how having a sudden full objective view of who you are could be psychologically damaging. A topic that ties well into the fact a man called the Sin Eater is trying to kill Anne because he thinks she’s evil. An over all really good issue that I’m sure won’t be obliterated by some shitty ass shat of a retcon 33 years later!!!!

-Venom: Sinner Takes All #4 (September, 1995) Oh yeah the sin eater is still a thing.

-Venom: Sinner Takes all #5 (October, 1995) The Artists Lesbian Fem Dom Fetish Can No Longer Be Ignored. Eddie is suicidal and the symbiote are evil for one panel but it’s going to be enough for some assholes in the future. More She-Venom. Anne and Eddie are separate for now

-Carnage: Mind Bomb (December, 1995) Carnage. A bit ~Edgy~ but a fun look into Cletus and Red’s Shared ideals and beliefs and....ngl kinks I’m pretty sure.

-Spider-man Holiday Special (December 1995) Venom side story. Venom dress up as Santa.

-Venom Along Came a Spider #1 (November, 1995) Life Foundation symbiotes side story with the introduction of Scott Washington and the creation of Hybrid!  Bonding with the symbiote gives Anne Weying a big ass orgasm. But only Anne for some reason. Either Anne is a FREAK or alternatively Eddie has a REALLY good poker face. Possibly both. Unfortunately this is show in the worst art style in a Venom comic to date. Oh and also the first comic to compare the symbiote to drugs.

-Venom: Along Came a Spider #2 (December, 1995) Hybrid side story. This mini continues to be the most god damn erratic mixed bag of shit and gold. Anne smacks Venom with a lead pipe like it’s a rolled up newspaper and they’re a badly behaved dog. Scott Washington and the Lifo symbiotes suffer. Oh wait bonding with a symbiote has rapey undertones so yeah Anne is a def a freak, Eddie’s poker face is god tier, and poor Scott is into it once he realizes the possibilities. The Lifo symbiotes are scared and sad.

-Venom: Along Came a Spider #3 (January, 1996) Hybrid side story. The art of the main story and the writing of the ide story go from not-great to Unfortunate.

-Venom: Along Came a Spider #4 (March, 1996) Hybrid side story.The phrase “don’t let the Venom side of you take over” is said while the most stupidly posed image takes place. It’s so missing the point of the past several years and so sexist it loops around to being endearing in a Harlequin romance sort of way. Oh yeah the symbiote is just drugs now I guess.

-Amazing Spider-man #410  (February, 1996) Carnage guest stars. Boy there sure is a bunch of weird spiderman drama I don’t care about in the midst of my Carnage comic. Spider Carnage 2/4

-Spider-man #67 (February, 1996) Carnage guest stars. More unimportant spider drama but you get to hear Red’s thoughts! Spider Carnage part 3/4

-Spectacular Spider-man #233 (March, 1996) Carnage. Cleets and Red reunited and it’...well I mean it happens. Spider Carnage part 4/4

-Venom: The Hunted #1: (March, 1996) Scream guest stars and Hybrid in the second story!!

-Venom: The Hunted #2 (April, 1996) Scream and Hybrid. But more importantly: R A D   E D D I E

-Venom: The Hunted #3 (May, 1996) Scream and Hybrid. How Do You Do Fellow Youths.

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[softgrungeprophet]

i ranted on twitter about andi benton (being ignored/mischaracterized/etc) so i’m just gonna copy-paste that all here and expand upon it:

i wish we could at least get a solo run written (and drawn) by a woman, who understands how much anger and pain andi has.

she's so fucking passive in venom inc., especially in the ending... it sucks. it's "growth" she was not shown having, predicated on abandoning a person she cared about (mania)

imagine if she reacted that way about losing flash or if eddie did that w symby? like? 

"i'm just as badass on my own" kinda missing the point here?! mania's alive!? 

(reply to a comment from rec-rewind about mania being treated like a source of power and not a partner) not to MENTION the way loss and her connection to mania are directly connected, it misses that point as well. going from "that's my symbiote!" to not giving a fuck is just so purely ooc for her and misses so much of the point 

andi benton got shafted as a new and interesting female (probably also mixed race) character with a lot of anger and potential!

she was okay in space knight but since it got cancelled it was obvs a rushed thing...

venom inc ending was bad

have not read venomized but have heard very few good things about it

she wasn't even at flash's funeral...

(reply to a comment from rec-rewind about andi being a prop for the plot) she really is a prop. she's barely present for like, half of venom inc. even tho it ostensibly should [have] been more about her than anyone else... bleh

andi benton deserves better but will probably continue to be white-washed and then get killed off for manpain

she has so much anger! so much hurt! so much potential! but she is only brought out as a plot device to say, well i guess we saved the day. yes, leave me alone in philly. forget about me.

and on my private i also tweeted about how like, tho bunn and shalvey are dudes it’d be nice to see them, as andi’s creators, write some kind of special mini, or to see bunn include her in whatever bullshit event but i really want something ~About Her~, you know? not just an inclusion in the tie-ins.

I certainly don’t trust Donny Cates to write her based on his track record so far and to be quite frank I don’t like the way Ryan Stegman drew her in Venom Inc. so I don’t look forward to seeing how she might look if she makes an appearance... or what will happen to her.

I would love to see some kind of mini written by a woman, like I mentioned, and drawn by one as well. Someone like Stacey Lee would be cool because, to quote another tweet i made this morning in my fit of rage, “her work is so dynamic and refreshing... full of movement, and clean w/o being overpolished... would suit andi's hellfire, or a symbiote like mania, well imo”

and also just cause i’ve been reading silk so her art’s on my mind XD it’s very good. there are plenty of other great artists tho. i wonder how annie wu might draw her... her skritchy fine lines would work really well. i mean like i said, kate bishop x andi benton teamup? that would be sick? get wu on it as the Original Detective-y Kate Bishop Artist, master of extremely expressive.... expressions. 

or like.... Emma Rios, or Leslie Hung... both have great art styles i think could suit a story about Andi (either solo or with hawkeye lol) in different ways, different uses of flowing shapes... you know?

ANYWAY

i love andrea benton and it sucks that she’s been reduced to an oft-forgotten, fairly passive character instead of the rage-filled, emo-goth fire-tornado she could be.....

i have a whole doc about how kate could both validate her anger and help her with understanding that anger can lead to bad choices... i have so many thoughts. i have thoughts about how andi reacted to hearing about flash’s death and how no one told her about the funeral; thoughts about how angry she must have been after flash left her standing in the snow without mania--i refuse to accept that response at face value, she was bluffing, she was pissed, ugh ugh; thoughts about how she would resent kate for trying to mentor her in the same way she resented flash for trying to step into a parental role (even if it was accidental); thoughts about how the cure for her demonic possesion was only TEMPORARY?! ARE WE GONNA?? IGNORE THAT???

thoughts about her fears and future and loneliness....

[venomsbabe]

My symbi-babes

Venom is my teefy hunk husbando

Scream is my killer banana taffy waifu.

Carnage is that one at the family reunion we dont speak to or invite but shows up anyway.

Riot is that guy we never pay attention to but next time we look he's fucking everybody up. And we go "holy shit he had a glow up!"

Agony is that emo pastel goth child that doesn't know any better or have any good role models.

Phage is the middle child that eats too much.

Lasher is the green one with the whip fetish.

(Im not counting anti-venom because its not really truly a symbiote ,nor toxin,scorn,or any other symbiotes. Because their not as interesting to me. And carnage if im not mistaken shouldn't be able to even have children. Neither can the venom symbiote anymore. Sides i love the life foundation symbiotes better. so much you can do with them sadly marvel wasted them. But what else is new with marvel.)

[oflgtfol]

Ive never read venom 2003 before https://oflgtfol.tumblr.com/post/751671883581325312/nvm-about-the-comments-people-are-unironically#notes and bc of this post i looked it up for the art style and. I like personally just barely tolerate it tho im somebody whose just Immune to this point to ugly art styles ive seen em all they cant hurt me anymore but my thing is like. Isnt venom 2003 a thing spoof? Like based off the thing??? Why did they get a hyper cartoony guy for this…. Like… huh… isnt it meant to be scary i heard???

ok so a few things

regarding the art style first:

venom comics are quite frankly full of ugly fucking art styles so i too am kind of immune to them. just like, any of the mid to late 90s venom solo comics were butt fucking ugly. HOWEVER. venom 2003 is a specific king of ugly that is particularly atrocious to me. just something about the noses, the lips, the jawlines, it's basically just the caricature art style??? but like, in a comic for some reason??? and i also really hate the caricature art style so much i don't understand why people A. make art in that style and B. pay others to make art of them in that style

but whatever. ugly art is very common in comics of all walks of life. it's fine. but the real kicker, and the real thing i was talking about that prompted me to make that specific post, is this fucking page:

i have such beef with this man over how he draws female characters. it is so needlessly objectifying and dehumanizing. like, the male characters get to just exist, but oh god, how dare a woman wake up from her slumber, we must must must depict her languid curves and the rotundity of her breasts !!! combine this very deliberate objectification with the stupid fucking pouty lips choice behind the art style in general, it's just so gross

and then, the icing on the cake was the comments on readcomiconline about that specific page from venom 2003:

(how dare you put the good name of sleeper symbiote to shame like this!!!!!!!!)

anyway, and moving onto The Thing spoof:

yeah so the "shiver" arc of venom 2003 (because this god forsaken comic run is separated into arcs for some fucking reason) was a riff on The Thing (1982). which, how dare you put the good name of The Thing to shame like this.

and like, i do really think that a symbiotes x thing crossover idea could work. a symbiote who goes rogue, who has no qualms with killing anyone around and doesn't care about its hosts, absolutely would basically be like The Thing and as a fan of body horror i'd love to see a take on symbiotes like that. instead of just oh big claw monster kills people, what about big goo alien assimilates you and rends you apart atom by atom !?!?!?!!? just wish it wasn't in the image of Venom Symbiote, my beloved babygirl who has never done anything wrong ever in its entire life

and yes, the body horror aspect of symbiotes x thing doesn't even hit correctly because the art style is just so atrocious. like, the body horror itself isn't grotesque because the art itself is grotesque, and not in any meaningful way. like Venom: The Hunger (1996) is also quite fucking ugly with its art style but its purposefully ugly - the muted, putrid colors with the heavy black shading are meant to be off-putting, to visually echo the frame of mind that symby, and by extension eddie, is in. because the whole story is about how symby is sick, so a putrid color palette feels sickly, and the grotesque shading makes every character look monstrous, because the sickness is warping their sense of reality and genuinely making them feel like they're surrounded by monsters. IT WORKS FOR THE STORY!!!! but venom 2003 it's just, plain bad art. it's cartoony, it's like a caricature, it does not lend itself to body horror on par with The Thing. caricature art styles are great for like, an uncanny valley feel, but that's not what venom 2003 is going for. it has the chutzpah to show rooms littered with dead bodies, but the art style is so fucking messy and chaotic that i literally cannot make sense of what i'm looking at, so therefore the horror of it doesn't hit me. there is no visual clarity or purpose and worst of all IT'S SEXIST and i hate it

[mushroomsandteeth]

DAWN OF THE LAST DAY OF SYMBRUARY

@symbruary

Uhhhhhhhhhh so ya I didn't get to participate much. Life and death kinda hit me like a freight train in January and I've been playing piece up every since. I'm still glad I got to do some of it. But anyway enough about me. Lets talk comics.

First Host: this was the first Venom comic I read in completion. Its is so much fun and introduces best baby Sleeper.

Carnage 2016: I have two hyperfisations. Venom and Lovecraft. This itches both. Also the writing in fantastic and wonderful.

Carnage USA: I've mentioned it before that my favorite thing about Carnage is just watching Cletus do random shit because he wants to. Whether that be running away to an abandoned town because he is tired and just wants to hangnout in his underwear in Deadpool vs Carnage or he really wants to figure out how to make more zombies in 2016. In this one he this one he literally takes over a small town for no reason. He just hangs out and wants to drink lemonade with old people. I love it.

Venom Acts of Evil: this is just a fun one shot. It reaffirms Venom after such a long string of really ass Cates issues. It was just so refreshing.

Scream Curse of Carnage: its not done yet so we still don't know where it is going but this book great so far. It touches everything a Venom story should touch and fills in a gape we have been missing for a long time: a good ongoing symbiote story. Andi and the scream symbiotes relationship so far warms my heart and I want the best for them. Keep it up guys.

Venom the Hungry: of course I have to put the good Hungry down! Its the good Hunger! Suspenseful story, fantastic genre bending twist, David Bowie! *chef kisses*

Venom The End: so the Chamba is one of my favorite comic book artists. So already I was excited for this book. Then the book turned out to be the million year long love letter the symbiote wrote about Eddie Brock and all biological life. Wow.

Absolute Carnage Seperation Axiety: this book is a campy horror story that will chill most to the bone with its harrowing story about a little girl trying to escape her alien possessed parents... and I think its the cutest fucking shit in the world. I find this story adorable. Yes I know the girl is in danger, yes I know those people are being held against their will, yes I know people die. But damn it the Life Babies doing their best to give a little girl a family is so fucking cute it makes me want to cry! They can't help being creepy assholes right now they are possessed by Donny Cates's Edge Lord! But they still try to give her a family after never truly having one themselves for so long. Its cute damn it!

Marvel Presents #5: ...Eddie is a confirmed monster fucker, thinks his symbiote is sexy, and loves them... ya that the main reason I like it wanna fight ago it?

Carnage Mind Bomb: this is just a crazy interesting story. Cletus is just such an insane character with a weird philosophy on life. He is fascinating. And this book is all about his twisted mind.

Amazing Spider-man, all the Venom Villain issues Michelinie did: I'm not looking them all up again! I'm not! But there is a lot I like. Venom is an extremely interesting villain and even though I prefer him as an anti hero these are fun. And I love that they retired to an island. Its adorable.

The Superior Carnage Annual: Cletus and Red love each other you can not convince me otherwise

Venom 2016: there is a lot of bad here but also so much good. Its a love letter to classic Venom. Wonderful street hero level action. I love Eddie and Symby fixing their relationship ship too. Its fantastic.

So I'm going to stop here because this list is huge. Go forth and be gooy. Happy Symbruary everybody!

[cultofthepigeon]

Venom Reading Order Part 10.

Dark Reign continues and thus my struggle to put 50 fucking events in order does as well. I am a martyr.

The end of our best boy Norman Osborn and it looks like we may actually get some Venom soon!!!

Part 10: I’ve Literally Forgotten What This Reading Order Was About at This Point I Literally Forgot it For a Few Weeks to Fuck Off and Go Read All of Daken’s Shit

Amazing Spider-man Extra #2 (July, 2008): Eddie Brock really needs to find a balance in shit to believe in 

New Ways to Live #1 (September, 2009) Still going strong on the symbiote as a drug metaphor which is...sure something I guess. But going into the rest of this with an open mind I’m excited to see what Eddie Brock is going to do with no brain tumor making him make dumb decisions

New Ways to Live #2 (October, 2009) Eddie standing up for someone with a drug problem is so genuinely nice and oh he got caught up in his own moralizing again and she got kidnapped jfc

New Ways to Live #3 (December, 2009) “Starting tomorrow :)” god I love Eddie Brock so fucking much 

Dark Avengers #9 (September, 2009) Mac and Symb really are going through it . I think the combination of Mac’s drugs, Symby drugs, Symby’s untreated craziness from past drugs, the booze, and also probably syphilis, are finally starting to get to them

Dark Avengers #10 (October, 2009) McVenom and their stupid little sky scooter are fcuking killign me please get them some fuckign therapy

Dark Avengers #11 (November, 2009) My girl Victoria gets her TIME to SHINE and i LOVE HER oh yeah I think McVenom is in a panel

Dark Avengers #12 (December, 2009) Victoria and Norman make another great comedy duo and if McVenom could be in this for more than a page I think the three would legit make a great fucking team

New Avengers #56 (August, 2009) McVenom is allegedly in the background of this one

New Avengers #57 (September, 2009) McVenom cameo. I hope everyone readin this for Venom has like, another character in here that they’re invested in cause this stuff is sorta arc important so I HAVE to include it.

New Avengers #58 (August, 2009) McVenom in the bg yet again. Jessica Jones is added to a list of Marvel heroes I find annoying and stupid but at least she isn’t like a literal fascist which is a high bar to reach in these comics.

New Avengers #59 (September, 2009) McVenom says a few words. Victoria is Perfection yet again and I’ve decided that Taskmaster is an alright sorta dude for a villain

New Avengers #60 (October, 2009) GODDDDD GET DUNKED ON NORMAN

Dark Reign: The List (September, 2009)

Dark Wolverine #81 (December, 2009) McVenom eating pancakes in one panel that’s honestly great. Character studies for Karla and Daken which is honestly great.

Siege: The Cabal #1 (December, 2009) McVenom for one panel and just....woof a LOT going on in an intense way

Siege #1 (January, 2010) McVenom small cameo. Norman Osborn is perhaps not the guy who should be in power perhaps maybe

Siege: The Initiative #32 (January, 2010) McVenom Cameo. A fun look at the ground battle and also remember that army training camp for indentured super-powered teens? Yeah this is where they ended up lol. Bonus why I like Taskmaster for a villain.

Siege #2 (February 2010) McVenom cameo. Listen I love Norman Osborn but the last page of this is fucking GREAT and had me jumping out of bed and hollering like a god damn baboon

Dark Wolverine #82 (January, 2010) McVenom mini scene and i ....i think they and moonstone fucked so......damn Karla that’s like half the team now

Dark Wolverine #83 (February, 2010) No McVenom but listen..........Daken....

Dark Wolverine #84 (March, 2010)  B R U H

Siege #3 (March, 2010) I’m....actually kinda sad to see all this going down?? I have become????? Attached???? To these assholes????????

Dark Avengers #14 (February, 2010) If you don’t like or respect Victoria Hand do not talk to me do not @ me do not even gaze in my direction she is the single greatest thing to come out of this whole 4 years of bullshit

Dark Avengers #15  (March, 2010) Bullseye this is why I’m ok with Daken sexually harassing you on the daily you piece of shit

Siege: Spider-man #1 (April, 2010) Oh wait hold on is that symb? Man I haven’t seen them in I think literal years at this point. Oh wait they’re still crazy oh boy. Also Mac’s Bare Naked Ass.

New Avengers #63 (March, 2010) McVenom cameo and hey wait I think a named character actually died cool

Embedded #3 (March, 2010) You get to see what happened aft McVenom hit that plane! And....Spider-man and Ms. marvel just sort of didn’t bother to follow up on it.......I just realized....

Siege #4 (April, 2010) In which I feel bad for Victoria and Bob and even Osborn, the Registration act is gone which is good, but I can’t help but feel the message is less “super heroes being controlled by the government is bad” and more “it’s ok for super heroes to be controlled by the government as long as its the RIGHT government :)”

Dark Avengers #16 (May, 2010) Alright so Noman’s in prison, which sucks but like.....come on. Poor sentry is dead. Daken and Victoria are free thank god. Moonstone, Bullseye, and McVenom are all in custody but who the heck knows where they’re going next. This entire It’s Always Sunny version of the Avenges is going down and I’m kinda sad about it. But hopefully we’re done with all this military/political/apocalypse shit and we can get back to some good ol fashion street level fun

Amazing Spider-man #647 (October, 2010)  Harry Osborn is simultaneously getting his character assassinated and being a fucking G O D all at once. Truly the a fuckign Osborn. McVenom and also Flash’s fucking Halloween costume which is then immediately less charming when i see the McCain sticker jesus christ

Amazing Spider-Man #648 (November, 2010) And so ends McVenom....and we get an intro to Hobgoblin and a look into Flash’s life rn....oh boy......i can already tell this is gonna be a fucking rollercoaster

Amazing Spider-Man #649 (November, 2010) honestly just gonna follow this intro real quick cause OH SHIT OH HIT WHAT OH SHIT this bitch got a FLAMING SWORD????? THIS BITCH IS AGENT VENOMS ARCH???? OH FUCK YEAH

Amazing Spider-man #654 (February, 2011) And so the new era dawns. What Should I call this Venom? Bootlicker Venom? Enhanced Interrogation Venom? Flenom? Vlash? To Be Continued....

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