WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Venom: Lethal Protector #1, available now from Marvel.
Venom: Lethal Protector has brought readers back to what may have been the titular anti-hero’s most formative era. Apart from shining a new light on Eddie Brock’s original foray into superheroics, the series has given fans a powerful reminder of just how different things were for Venom all those years ago. While Eddie and Venom might be indelible parts of each other’s lives today, it wasn’t that long ago that their bond was tenuous and self-damaging at best.
Despite early years marred by an unquenchable bloodlust and violent obsessions, Venom: Lethal Protector #1 (by David Michelinie, Ivan Fiorelli, Bryan Valenza, Devin Lewis, and VC’s Travis Lanham) finds the titular symbiote making great strides in their attempts to become a hero. The two have each suffered drastic losses — albeit often because of their own actions and attitudes — and have discovered ways to make their shared rage into something other than a force solely for destruction. Unfortunately, that same anger kept them from realizing their true potential for decades.
Venom’s early bond and traumatic separation from Peter Parker left it with a deeply rooted hatred for the Web-Slinger. Venom bonding with Eddie, who blamed Peter for many of his professional and personal losses, only amplified this wounded state of mind. Regardless of what heroic impulses either one might possess, a seething desire to kill Spider-Man constantly undercut early attempts to be something more than a violent supervillain. With their huge teeth, unpleasantly long tongue, and tendency to declare hunger for brains, the best Eddie and his symbiote could hope for was the mildly critical label of “public menace.” No matter how much they tried to pin their difficulties on the Wall-Crawler, Eddie and Venom’s bond seemed the real culprit.
Amplifying one another’s hatred drove Eddie and Venom to drastic lengths in their pursuits of Spider-Man, putting them in conflict with plenty of other superheroes. By the time they turned their attention towards villains, they had shown enough heroes their dark side that things were slow to change. Even as Venom increasingly acted for the welfare of others, they had no one who would describe themselves as meaningful allies. The isolation that ensued was undeniably unhealthy.
However, something strange happened in that loneliness. Eddie and Venom began to develop a stronger partnership for the first time. The more time they spent connected, the more positive aspects began to be shared. Even as the Venom of the present tries to leave behind the legacy it has made with Eddie, it cannot pretend that Eddie didn’t changed it and vice versa.
Eddie and Venom are no longer just linked with violent acts and cannibalistic bellows. Instead, they’ve now fought alongside some of the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroes. Still, it doesn’t take too long a look back to encounter reminders of how far down a horrifically different path they went. Whether by virtue of their time together or apart, both Eddie and Venom overcame the worst parts of themselves and uncovered the best of each other in the process. Venom: Lethal Protector certainly doesn’t feature the dynamic duo that fans have come to know, but it absolutely showcases the most crucial era in either of their lives.
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