Venom

Marvel's Venom used to be awesome.

Venom first made appearance in 1984. He was newly introduced as a Klyntar, a parasitic alien that dominate and ultimately kill their hosts. However, he sought mutualism with his symbionts and was imprisoned for his radical views. Eventually he escaped and bonded with Peter Parker (Spider-man). While Venom's intentions were benevolent, he was eventually rejected by the superhero. This was due to the symbiote periodically taking control of Parker, an act influenced by Venom's Klyntar heritage. Yet Venom's actions while in control were in line with the best interests of his host.

So, we had an outcast alien that struggled with a dark nature. But overall he had a drive for self-identified moral actions.

Scorned by Parker, who should have been grateful for the symbiosis, Venom became deeply bitter. He sought to reaffirm the bond and found means in joining with Eddie Brock. Brock was in a similar position as the alien; he had been comparatively wronged by Parker. Venom and Brock then acted as a single entity with conflicting intentions to re-affirm the bond and kill Parker.

Venom developed into a character with intricately complex and layered motives. Alongside fighting his base nature, he was similarly at odds with Brock. We constantly saw Venom struggle with this twisted juxtaposition. Further complicating this, Venom begrudgingly worked with Parker when they were faced with powerful threats. This was around 1993 and was the absolute pinnacle of the character.

2005 was when everything started to go bad. Venom and Brock parted ways and the symbiote found a new host: Mac Gargan (Scorpion). Gargan was of much weaker character compared to Parker and Brock, so he was overwhelmed by the symbiote. Venom devolved into something feral and would even regularly cannibalize victims. Gone was the conflicting nature and complex personality. Venom was basic.

2010 was when everything got worse. Captured by the government, the symbiote was lobotomized and used only as a weapon. Venom unwillingly joined with Flash Thompson, but only for a maximum of 48 hours to minimize the symbiote's influence. There was very little recognition of the alien's sentience aside from Thompson periodically battling the savage personality of the Gargan incarnation. Venom even lost his signature look and was transmuted into an edgy mall ninja commando.

In 2013 all was lost. Venom appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy #21, in which the Planet of the Symbiotes was visited. The last 29 years were retconned. The entire Klyntar species was re-described as a hive mind collective intent on acting as galactic peacekeepers and only bonding with hosts to create warrior pacifiers. It being imperative that only ideal hosts be utilized, or both symbiote and host would become corrupted. This corruption was responsible for the race's poor reputation when Venom was first introduced. Venom, then reunited with the hive mind, had his corruption removed and transformed into a uninspired flat character. He was mostly passive to Thompson and had very little personality.

This rewrite was further reaffirmed in other Secret Wars retellings and stuck hard. The worst of them all had Venom's imbalanced nature explained by a pre-Parker joining with Wade Wilson (Deadpool). In this joke of a story, Venom's early dementia is explained away as corruption from Wilson's clowny personality. What. The. Fuck.

Time for Sepration Anxiety and some reminiscing about a time when this character wasn't awful.