Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most Venomous of all?: Venom as a Dark Reflection

To many readers Venom is intended to represent a dark reflection of our favourite webbed wonder. Today we’re going to look at that notion in a little more detail.

First of all I should hold my hands up and admit that I have argued against the idea that Venom was originally  intended as a dark reflection of Spider-Man. The gist of my argument was that this is an interpretation presumed of his character by older and newer readers alike and. Thus when his debut appearance seemed to fail to fulfil on that premise it contributed to a false impression that the character was a creative failure.

However in thinking back on it I’d like to amend my views slightly.

In my heart of hearts I truly believe that David Michelinie never intended Venom to be a dark reflection of Spider-Man. But I will admit that it possible that it might have been part  of the character’s original conception. But even accepting this possibility I find it unlikely that it was anything close to the central points behind the character.

And yet Venom, especially in his debut, contrary to many readers’ criticisms most definitely does  work as a dark reflection of Spider-Man himself.

This works both in terms of his actual appearance as well as deeper aspects of Brock’s personality.

Venom of course literally looks like a nightmarish version of Spider-Man (or at least Spider-Man in his black costume) so on that level he is most certainly a visual dark reflection. But his look goes beyond this because his body build is an outright reversal of Spider-Man’s. Spidey looks lean and agile whilst Venom’s look emphasis his raw bulk and strength.

This plays into their respective fighting styles and strategies. Both have brains and brawn in their arsenal and use them in tandem when fighting, but Spidey almost always leads with the former whereas Brock leads with the latter.

Speaking of fighting styles have you ever noticed how Spidey’s trademark wit and humour used to distract foes and boost his own confidence is subverted by Venom? I do not mean that Venom is the grim and silent type, but rather he possesses his own twisted sense of humour. It evokes macabre and violent images and rather than boosting his own confidence or annoying his opponent it serves to simply amuse himself and intimidate his victims.

That sense of humour leads us to perhaps the single most important way Venom serves as a successful dark reflection of the web-slinger. The ever present theme of power and responsibility within Spider-Man’s narrative.

Venom’s sense of humour is demonstrable of how he is simply having a blast when in his costume. He positively delights in exerting his power and chiefly uses it selfishly by seeking out revenge and needlessly murdering those who stand in his way. This is in stark contrast to Spider-Man who not only usually employs restraint with his powers but uses them selflessly as a life preserving  force. Further emphasising this contrast is the fact that Peter is often hard on himself for not being good enough as a superhero, whilst Brock despite objectively not being a heroic person (at least early on) outright views himself as a kind of grand protector of innocent life.

Perhaps most poignantly though their origins spell out the way both characters reflect and yet ultimately contrast one another, specifically when it comes to the ideas of power and responsibility.

Eddie Brock origin is the story of a man with a certain amount of fame and ego who acted irresponsibly in service of his own selfish self-interests, permitting an armed criminal to roam free when he had the power help to stop them with relatively little effort.

This prioritizing of his own self-interests over the greater good backfires and causes profound damage to his personal life.

Fellow Spider-Man fans…does any of that maybe remind  you of anybody?

Where Eddie Brock zigs and Peter Parker zags is in how they react in the aftermath of their sins coming back to haunt them.

Peter Parker owned up to his mistakes (but never forgave himself for it) and resolved to never make them again, going forward in his life as a man who accepted responsibility for his own actions and often times even actions he is not truly accountable for. He did this in reaction to the death of an innocent man who loved him and who he loved in turn, even though a third party was more directly responsible for the tragedy that changed his life forever.

And on the other hand we have Eddie Brock.

Eddie Brock barely acknowledged he made mistakes and in fact saw it as a minor misstep. It’s not so much that he forgave himself for the mistakes he made, he the fact that didn’t feel they warranted him being reprimanded at all. In fact he felt victimized by the fallout of those mistakes as though his comeuppance was disproportional to his alleged crime.

Fundamentally Brock didn’t attribute the tragedies that befell him as his own fault, he didn’t accept responsibility for what happened and continued to perpetuate that attitude going forward in his life. Instead his actions (which have included murder) are things he either shrugged off as unfortunate yet unavoidable circumstances or else things he scapegoated onto others.

Specifically he scapegoated the blame for his life being ruined onto Spider-Man who is utterly guiltless in the affair and only tangentially involved. And then he exacerbated this unjustified blame into a murderous vendetta, one which he was prepared to kill others in pursuit of. And he did all that in response to merely losing his job and reputation even though he was still able to find work (albeit less prestigious), which is obviously incomparable to Peter’s loss of Uncle Ben.

Whatever else you can say about how Brock measures up as a dark reflection of Spider-Man, he works incredibly well when it comes to being a dark reflection of the absolute most defining aspect of who Spider-Man is.

And for my money this actually makes Brock a superior dark reflection of Peter Parker than his various adaptations.

Yes at face value Spider-Man 3’s Eddie Brock, the Spectacular cartoon version of Brock and the Ultimate version of him might seem more similar and more obvious dark reflections. But dig a little deeper and it becomes apparent they might reflect and then contrast Peter in more numerous ways than the original version of Brock, but the latter version is the strongest dark reflection of Peter in the most important and defining of ways. His origin, motivation and the philosophy that defines him as a hero and as a person.