#al ewing

Venom Vol. 1 #259 (2026)

Magneto quoting a mishnaic proverb as well as a pasuk from the Torah is something that I didn't know I needed until now.

Mary Jane should not be a super powered person whatsoever. Nor should Alfred. And it was lame when they did exactly that with Alfred all the way back in the Silver Age. Her competency as a civilian is part of her appeal that made her stand out. By just making her a superhero she is...what? What is she? she is just a generic superhero. The cheap 'novelty' is merely 'Whoa! You've never seen Spider-Man's GF as a superhero have you?' Fun perhaps as a one off story like in Spider-Island, but not as the premise of a series, even a short lived one. And Venom?

Again, principles. Venom shouldn't just be able to be anything because then he means nothing. Venom should either be a villain for Spider-Man or a dark anti-hero reflection of Spider-Man. Where Spider-Man avoids killing Venom is a lethal protector. Where SPidey cracks quips Venom cracks macabre jokes evoking violent imagery. Where Spider-Man is falsely labelled as a menace and sometimes wonders if that's true (even though it isn't), Venom really is a menace and has a near absolute conviction that he is protecting the innocent.

But now he is bonded to Mary Jane. Yeah? So what? "Whoa, the guy who terrorised Mary Jane (like 3 times at most) is now bonded to her! Wow you've never seen that before have you?" Correct. I haven't, except in RYV. And I only saw it there because it wasn't done in canon. And it wasn't done in canon because it is a creatively bankrupt idea just like 99% of 'lets invert this character's alignment' stories have been.

For goodness sake, MJ isn't even involved with Peter right now, which would have made the concept of her being Venom THE most intersting thing it could be. His lover and his enemy (who is allegorical to a jilted lover) are one and the same. The drama from that would have at least been more juicy compared to this rubbish where she is just...my ex who is with my ex who is also my ex enemy...okay.

Call me nuts but frankly, I have a lot more respect for writers who can make something new and engaging out of the characters in their traditional status quos rather than when those are completely upended or inverted or where you have made Character A into Character B.

Like it's way more impressive to flesh out MJ with a backstory that fits what we knew of her vs making her into a superhero, let alone Venom.

It is way more impressive to say 'hey Peter is all grown up and loved science, what if he teaches science at his old school' vs 'Whoa! What if he's a tech bro CEO! Or Evil. Or in SPACE!'.

It's way more impressive to take Doc Ock and give him an origin story that expands his characetr to explain him as the product of a toxic version of Aunt May, a smothering mother, taking nothing away whilst adding immense depth vs 'Look! Look! Now Doc Ock IS Spider-Man!'.

It is way more impressive to explore how, at the end of the day, Norman Osborn is a sad, lonely pathetic vindicitve old man and express that through a story where he tries to goad Spidey into killing him because he can't face just shooting himself rather than 'Wowza! Norman Osborn is now evil Iron Man guys! Wowza Norman is now Hush guys! Wowza Norman is Carnage now guys! Wowza Norman is a good guy now guys! Wowza Norman is now Spider-Man guys!'

And don't even get me started on Spider-Gwen and Gwenpool and new Gweenpool

Character A with moral alignment B is now Character C with moral alignment Z smacks of creative bankruptcy and cynicism, writers and editors who have lost confidance in the characters as characters in their own right so they generate cheap shock value from them being other characters for extended periods of time. Because they cannot fathom anything new to do with them as their normal selves that is in line with the history that far better writers than they are built.

Yeah I said it.

Al Ewing is NOT that great guys.

Joe Kelly is NOT that great guys.

Dan Slott was NEVER that great guys.

I get it. You have predominantly grown up on USM (old or new) or post-BND shite and you therefore weren't baptised in Spider-Man stories where, guess what, Doc Ock was Doc Ock, Green Goblin was Green Goblin, Venom was Venom, Mary Jane was Mary Jane and Spider-Man was Spider-Man.

But I did. Most of the fanbase that made Spider-Man popular enough that everyone else got their movies, cartoons and video games did.