The Vindication of Venom Part 13/Appendix B: Religion, reflections and other matters

Among the things we will be discussing today is the role of religion in Eddie Brock’s character and ASM #300. But that’s not all. Read on!

Echo Chamber

In Web of Spider-Man #1 we learn that the processes of symbiosis cuts both ways meaning the symbiote could itself be influenced by its host. Specifically in the issue the symbiote is shown to have learned to feel human emotions.

For what it is worth this was somewhat corroborated in Spider-Girl #100. In the issue Spider-Girl states that the symbiote was filled with hate and resentment from Peter’s rejection, that  Brock’s influence served to make the symbiote vicious and that Normie Osborn (it’s most recent host) taught ‘her’ to become friendship and love.

Though Spider-Girl exists in a different universe from the mainstream 616 version of Spider-Man it had an identical history to the 616 Marvel Universe up until about late 1998. The series was also shaped mostly by veteran Spider-Man writer/editor Tom DeFalco, who is recognized as an authority on Spider-Man if there ever was one. DeFalco actually penned ‘Spider-Man: the Ultimate Guide’ back in 2001, at the time the most definitive Spider-Man information book ever. Spider-Girl #100 was itself not only worked on by DeFalco but also Ron Frenz both of whom actually introduced and explained the symbiote’s origins back in the 1980s. All of which lends Spider-Girl a certain degree of credibility in spite of being a non-canonical story.

However yet more corroborative evidence was provided in Brian Michael Bendis’ run of Guardians of the Galaxy as well as Robbie Thompson’s run on Venom: Space Knight, both of which assert that the symbiote was ‘corrupted’ through exposure to its hosts, something common to its species.

This can go some way to explaining the symbiote’s hatred Spider-Man despite it also caring about him and attempting to save him in Web #1. It was influenced by Brock’s own hatred of the wall-crawler.

However since ‘symbiosis is a two-way street’ and we Brock clearly talked to the symbiote in ASM #300 it is possible Brock could’ve ‘felt’ the symbiote’s hatred for Spider-Man. This then could have validated Brock’s own hatred for Spidey and caused him to double down on his warped interpretation of events.

If you accept that Brock and the symbiote could to some extent influence one another, this could then be said to have created a kind of echo chamber.

That is to say Brock’s hatred for Spider-Man reaffirmed and increased the symbiote’s hatred of him. Then the symbiote reflected those increased feelings of hatred back onto Brock. This would then reaffirm and magnify Brock’s hatred for Spidey and he’d reflect that back onto the symbiote, and the cycle would begin again. The end result would be both individuals have their hatred amplified and their rationales for said hatred continually validated.

These notions were also implied in ASM #300 when Brock stated that the symbiote ‘clarified’ his anger, ‘focused’ his purpose and had a matching hatred for Spider-Man.

Role of Religion

In spite of being exorcised from virtually every adaptation, Eddie Brock’s religious beliefs cannot be dismissed when analysing the original version of the character.

To begin with Brock was a man in despair when he encountered the symbiote. He was considering suicide and though he couldn’t go through with it, he was still in a state of helplessness. The symbiote’s arrival must have seemed to be a kind of divine miracle to him. He even talks about their meeting using religious language, referring to it as a ‘shadow filled with light.’

Remember he was a man of faith who in his darkest hour was praying for help on hallowed ground. That was the state he was in when from above  the answer to his prayers appeared. He got a constant, affectionate companion who shared his deepest darkest desire and gave him all the means he could ever need to fulfil it.

For a desperate religious person how could Brock not  see this as a sign from God that his feelings and vengeance were righteous?

Of course in reality his use of this newfound power is utterly contrary to the faith he holds as so important. Conceptually not only does this hammer home the hypocrisy of the character (discussed back in Part 8) but also highlights his insanity, coding him within the archetype of a ‘religious lunatic’.

In a sense Brock is representative of numerous individuals throughout history who act upon religious beliefs and use them as justification for their actions despite ignoring other core tenants of said religion. The Ku Klux Klan, the Westboro Baptist Church, the Spanish Inquisition, the Knights Templar, Al-Qaeda and ISIS are just some of the many examples of real life groups  of individuals like this throughout history.

As mentioned in Part 8, the most illustrative example of Brock adhering to this archetype is his inability to kill himself  due to his religion despite his willingness to take the lives of others. However there are other examples to be found in ASM #300 such as his referring himself as a victim Spider-Man ‘ruined’, his referring to Spidey as a victim and his fixation upon a church as the site of his suicide and vengeance.

The time period of the issue’s publication is important to this perception of the character.

In America during the late 1970s/early 1980s there had been a resurgence in traditionalist religion and with it of course a certain degree of religious zeal to accompany it. More poignantly you saw the mainstreaming of tele-evangalism, moral panics about thing that the children were into, etc.

Accompanying this of course was a certain peaked interest in the occult. These elements being part of the early-mid 1980s pop culture is what led to products such as Ghostbusters and the X-Men graphic novel ‘God Loves Man Kills’ to be produced.

Though the embers of that had died down when ASM #300 was published in 1988 it was still there, as evidenced by the X-Men crossover ‘Inferno’ in 1989 centred around the idea of a demonic invasion of New York city.

In this context the religious aspects of Brock’s character and how they are conveyed act as shorthand to the readers that Brock is ‘a religious lunatic’ and his actions and rationales should not be taken as strictly logical rational.

Dark Reflections

I stand by my statements from Part 3 that Michelinie’s primary conception of Venom did not involve him being a ‘dark reflection’ of Spider-Man. However I’d now like to tweak that assessment. Whilst I hold that it was never Michelinie’s primary  intention it may well have been part  of the conception all the same. By accident or design the character’s debut does grant him some traits that render him along these lines.

To begin with he obviously possesses Spider-Man’s powers, uses them for evil and does so whilst wearing a villainous version of Spider-Man’s costume that also has a darker colour palette. So on a superficial level he possessed the basic ‘dark reflection’ villain starter kit.

Beyond this though, Venom’s physicality and fighting style is different to Spidey’s. Peter is a muscular man with a lean build who uses his powers in combination with his intelligence (leading with the latter) to win battles. Brock by contrast has a bulky body build and relies upon overwhelming his opponents with his superior physical power to win battles, though he isn’t honestly stupid and displays a fair degree of cunning.

However where Venom is truly a dark reflection of Spider-Man is in contrasting their respective origins and motivations.

Brock was foolish, immoral and possibly selfish actions in letting a dangerous individual roam free ruined his career. But he accepted no responsibility for what he had done, instead flimsily blaming a third party.

This led him to consider giving up on life until he gained power that he then used violently for the selfish goal of murderous revenge. It is a mission he at times carried out with a dark twisted sense of humour and felt was ultimately heroic.

In direct contrast Peter Parker used his newfound power selfishly too, but for financial gain as opposed to anything truly violent or hurtful. He even resolved to use his financial gains to help a third party, his aunt and uncle. Like Brock his ego and selfishness led him to make a mistake that allowed a dangerous individual to go free. And like Brock he paid for that act, but the cost was far larger than simply losing his career, it was his uncle’s life.

When the dust settled he accepted responsibility for his mistake and blamed himself  for what happened and went on to do the same for other events in his life. This included many things that he wasn’t honestly responsible for. He then used his powers to altruistically defend life as much as he could, simply because he felt it was the right thing to do. And he never gave up on his own life no matter how heavy the burden became, often employing witty good natured humour to help him deal with things.

To boil it right down, Spider-Man/Peter Parker is a hero who embraces the responsibilities of his life and uses his powers to safeguard life, whereas Venom/Eddie Brock is a monster who doesn’t truly take responsibility for anything and uses his powers to endanger life.

I don’t know if that was truly David Michelinie’s intent in creating Venom. If it was then his interest and focus for the character was evidently elsewhere.

Nevertheless in this sense comic book Eddie Brock is not only a dark reflection of Spider-Man, but an ingenious one too.

Creative Value

Eddie Brock in so far as his motivations are concerned amounts to a disturbed individual with an obsessive hatred for Spider-Man over an imagined slight.

From a creative perspective this is actually a pretty great conception for a Spider-Man villain than most people give credit for.

I’m sure many people reading this essay series will simply hand wave a lot of what I’ve outlined in prior instalments as:

He’s crazy so his motivation can just be anything and it doesn’t have to make sense. Lame!

However that is grossly oversimplifying what I’ve been trying to say.

A vital part of Spider-Man’s conception is that he is (relatively speaking) the everyman superhero who juggles his secret identity with the realistic ups and downs of life. Peter Parker’s secret identity not only serves to allow him to have those common life experiences, but also protect himself and those close to him from danger at the hands of his enemies

Of course these enemies mostly consisted of Spidey’s established rogue’s gallery of super villains. However readers could also presume the numerous nameless common crooks Spidey had nabbed might seek vengeance upon him if they knew his secret identity

Eddie Brock represented a previously unexplored side to Spider-Man’s potential enemies. He was the unseen enemy, one of the dangerous and disturbed individuals who wished to do serious harm to Spider-Man and his loved ones very specifically for irrational  reasons.

This is not only very much in line with Spider-Man’s core concept as it is entirely realistic, but it is also pretty frightening. Perhaps it is even frightening precisely because   it is entirely realistic.

Most of us do not have actual enemies in our lives who want to do us serious harm. But Eddie Brock represents how sometimes in life you can earn the ire of someone dangerous for no absolutely no logical reason or at least the flimsiest of reasons. Maybe something you did had an unpredictable tangential effect that negatively impacted someone. Maybe you just bumped into the wrong person. Or maybe you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and looked at them the wrong way.

In these ways the existence of Brock as a villain reinforces Spider-Man’s need for a secret identity. He just reinforces that need from a different, uncommonly tapped angle than one might expect.

In this sense his anonymity and seemingly irrational motivations make all too much sense within the narrative themes of Spider-Man’s story.

Next time we’ll discuss is what the originally intended origin for Venom tells us about the character we ultimately wound up with.