All-New Venom #5-6

[laughing_tree]

So we were coming up with all kinds of names, both for the red herrings and for the potential host, and we kept circling back to Mary Jane. She's full of story potential — she's one of the great characters in comics, full of so much life and complexity. As soon as we gave ourselves permission to treat a good idea like a good idea, we just got more and more excited about the possibilities. -- Al Ewing

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

Nice Marvel Boy callback.

[zachbeacon]

Guess the flashback happened off-panel in Venom War?

Glad the symbiote was able to save MJ from Paul's incompetence.

Also happy Robbie was able to put things together; he's been neglected as a character for a while.

So Rick doesn't have any agency in this partnership? He's just an oblivious host? That's disappointing.

[remial]

I blame paul for all of this

[cygnia]

Honestly, I could see Ewing have Paul be a sleeper agent of Mephisto -- and make it work,

[cainofdreaming]

Why not be Mephisto? Go the whole hog, I say.

[ixajaw]

I think this would be the best-case scenario tbh.

[thanekos]

It wouldn't even be his most elaborate production, thanks to Infamous Iron Man: " The Maker was Mephisto in disguise, and Cynthia von Doom was a construct of his! So yes, those scenes of ' the Maker ' and ' Cynthia ' talking to each other like co-conspirators were basically a sock puppet show. "

[scorntx]

It's a good twist, even if it is cheating a tiny bit, but the explanation's solid.

Even more so for anyone who wasn't spoiled before issue 5 came out.


... why did Paul design the spinner with death as an option at all?

[super_fly]

it may be a necessary component for the device to work: if it's magic that usually comes with a price, and being luck based you can't have good things happen without a chance for something bad.

[deh_tommy]

And MJ said he installed safeguards into the gauntlet so it never could get too wild with the powers like seen above (specifically so it would never reach three skulls), but the gauntlet was accidentally sabotaged when Venom infected it back in Venom War.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I feel like I've seen fan art of this well before this was even a thing.

[tcampbell1000]

I feel sure I have, as well!

[cainofdreaming]

Yeah fan art, that's what I've seen too. Not porn. Nope.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I sincerely can't tell if you're trying to insinuate something, or are just speaking for yourself. ;P

[cainofdreaming]

Oh, I'm totally speaking for myself. As in I surely haven't seen any porn of this. If such even exists. I wouldn't know.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ah, okay then.

TBQH, I don't remember any of the art particularly well, so some of it might have been? Knowing some of the people I'm friends with, it's entirely possible, but I seem to recall Venom bonded to MJ, just enough to say "Oh, this seems familiar" when looking at the story above.

[thanekos]

There's that, and also two Spider-Man adaptations (the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon from 2012, the game Spider-Man 2 from 2023) that've done " circumstances forcibly bond MJ with a symbiote ".

[tcampbell1000]

No cap, I loved this. It was even a plays-fair mystery in a broad sense: we got plenty of MJ and Paul before the reveal, but I automatically discounted it because MJ's Venomphobia is one of the few bits from the 1990s that's actually stuck to her character in the years since. But Ewing had a plan to address that and even make it help drive the story, because of course he did.

I'm not much of a Peter-MJ shipper--I don't mind them together but I don't mind them apart, either. Paul has just enough Peter Parker in him (the guilt/responsibility, the tech ingenuity, the brunet nerd who starts looking kinda hot when the glasses come off) that I can see the basis for the attraction, in broad strokes. My problem with Paul up to now is that beyond those broad strokes, he's been a boring nothingburger of a character--somewhat less so since becoming MJ's "guy in the chair," but that was still jumping from one plot-mandated role to another.

But now? I'm invested! Poor guy is really trying to be a good dad despite being less certain than ever that he'll retain that status--with a hint of the trauma of losing his other kids. He and MJ might just be donezo over this--if the next issue had him flying off to New Zealand, it wouldn't be out of place--and I actually don't want him to go!

Ewing makes this all look so goddamn easy, you wonder why everyone isn't doing it like this. (Answer: it's not easy at all, and sometimes editorial makes it much harder. Whoever's clearing obstacles out of Ewing's way deserves a raise.)

[zylly]

I agree on the fair play. The more I think about it it, the more the mystery does work. I was originally annoyed, because they gave us four suspects, with the assumption it was one of them… but that theory was only ever floated by in universe people. We just all went with it.

[blues32]

I'd still like Paul to have never existed. Like the result of a Kang plan being wiped clean from time.

[blues32]

Hah! Nobody likes you, Paul. Not even you, let's face it.