I've been reading comics since I was little and Venom was always one of my favorites. Co-created by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, Venom was introduced as one of Spider-Man's greatest nemeses in the late 1980's in The Amazing Spider-Man #300. He was almost literally a shadow version of Spider-Man since the symbiote used to be bonded to Peter Parker and thus was able to evade his spider sense, a trait that made him even more dangerous.
Venom's appearance in 2007's Spider-Man 3 marked his big screen debut. It was a mixed bag to say the least. His look had some echoes of the original design, but was pretty much seen as a misfire all around. It's more evident when you know that director Sam Raimi didn't have any plans to include Venom in the first place, but was forced into it and that shows. Spider-Man 3 had many other issues besides Venom, but it was one of the most glaring.
Fast forward to 2018 and Sony's forthcoming Venom looks like it will finally correct that wrong and do the character justice. Whether the movie itself will be any good or not remains to be seen. On the design front at least, they've done a solid job thus far. Venom's face is pitch perfect and truly looks like the comic book come to life.
This version of the character is physically imposing and looks much more intimidating than the previous film version. It's not a perfect design as he's missing the hallmark white spider symbol on his chest, but given that this version of the character does not yet have any connection to Spider-Man, that's understandable. Everything else looks to be good to this point. And being played by one of the best actors in the business, Tom Hardy, means Sony has high hopes for this movie.
Venom is said to be loosely based on the Lethal Protector mini-series, which was significant as it was Venom's first series as the lead character. In Lethal Protector, Venom goes up against five other symbiotes, one of which is named Riot. At the time of this writing, the only other symbiote to be shown is Riot, although there will likely be two others shown at some point (including a possible appearance by Carnage). I think the movie has a lot of potential, but I will remain cautiously optimistic until it's out in the wild.
