How popular is Spider-Man? Well, even his sworn enemy, Venom, is changing his appearance to look more like him!
SPIDER-MAN IS SO POPULAR THAT…
It hasn’t always been so, but right now, at least, Spider-Man is THE Marvel character supreme! It’s not Wolverine or Cyclops or either of the Captain America’s! Spidey rules!
I mean, there are almost as many “Spider” characters as there are members of the “Super” family! And that’s a lot!
Halloween costumes are starting to appear in the stores, and Spidey is THE Marvel hero kids appear to want to dress up as this holiday! (Of course, Superman is the big guy for the DC kids, especially given the reason movie he starred in!)
Spidey Underoos are all over the place in local kids apparel sections. In the local comics shops, you find more books featuring the “web-slinger’ than any other person from the House of Ideas! By far!
But what really caught my attention is the recent news that even Venom, the in with the jet black alien costume, is apparently going to adopt the Spidey color scheme, coming soon to a local comics store near you!
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
The word has hit the always-accurate Internet that, in a very few months, Venom will cast aside the black costume scheme that the character has been known for the last few decades and will look a lot closer to the famous Spidey suit!
It’s going to happen in the “renumbered” Venom #252 (an issue number Spidey fans may recall as the same one that the alien costume took over in Amazing Spider–Man). This whole “event” spins out of the Battleworld mini-series, which is reminiscent of how the black costume spun out of Secret Wars, is it not?
Granted, this “Spidey suit” has a craggier look to it than the original, Jack Kirby-designed costume has ever had. But we have to remember that this is the creation of a symbiote that truly hates Peter Parker even though it is now joined with Mary Jane, his wife of a pre-Mephisto era. The long, slobbery tongue is the most recognizable part of Venom!
Complicated much? This is Peter Parker’s love life, and it doesn’t get any more tangled up than that!
How long will this change last? Given that Venom wore at least some variation of that outfit for about 40 years, it may stick around awhile! On the other hand, MJ does like to change her outfits on a regular basis (as a model and all), so it might come and go depending on her mood! But we’ll see!
Fans who buy Underoos or Halloween costumes and such may need to pay close attention to be sure they are buying a Spidey version or a Venom outfit, moving forward! They do closely resemble each other, seems like!
I STILL DISLIKE THE BLACK COSTUME!
Long-time readers of this column may remember that I have never been a fan of the black outfit. (I only liked the version worn by Flash Thompson when he was Agent Venom!)
In fact, I met a good friend grousing about the new black costume!
I was standing in a local comics shop, and I started grumbling about it out loud when another comics fan standing near me agreed that this was silly stuff. We started talking about it, and we talked for several hours, keeping going even though the store had closed down for the day. Luckily, we had moved the conversation outside the store by then.
We stayed good friends for a long time after that, in fact! The symbiote had brought us together as friends, and I understand we weren’t the only friends who found common ground over it!
I’m going to carefully avoid the whole Peter/MJ debate for once, but let me just say that that was still one of Marvel’s worst mistakes because we could still enjoy seeing a happily married couple for a change! Really!
So, will Venom look like a poorly xeroxed version of Spidey for long? Given that many Marvel events tend to last no longer than 6 months to a year, I doubt it! But you never know…
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