Since the beginning Venom has been defined as something different.
A new slick version of Spider-Man’s suit.
A snarling hulking antithesis to Spider-Man.
A new upgrade to a long time villain.
Whatever the Symbiote touches becomes different.
So with that in mind, this inherent otherness and difference, why has Venom’s looks stayed basically the same?
The obvious answer is that its a really good design and like the hero that spawned it, any new variation quickly dies off. But that’s not really the point of this, the point of this piece is to explore what CAN be done with the base design.
Lets break this down into 4 pillars:
The Teeth
The Mouth
The Eyes
The Suit
1 -
The Teeth.
One very obvious feature of Venom is the teeth, the jagged rows that line its mouth.
Its pretty hard to miss.
But after a while the shock and surprise of the wide grin wears off. Its like shark, after a while, its just normal.
That’s what Venom looks like.
But let’s twist that…
Above we see tests for the third Raimi Spider-Man movie.
Now what’s the first thing you notice?
The teeth!
They’re distinctly human. But twisted ever so slightly, they’re jutting out turning it into a pseudo-snout. Its really upsetting in a fantastic way!
You as a viewer know what Venom’s teeth ought to look like, thus there’s a dawning sense of uncanniness that’s super intriguing.
This slant into body horror leads us to…
2 -
The Mouth
What separates the black suit Spider-Man from all the Venoms is the mouth. The gaping maw, filled with rows of teeth as stated above.
There are however times when Venom shuts its mouth.
Usually when trying to mimic Spider-Man…
Or of course the very popular Agent Venom
Giving us an interesting opportunity.
Because if you know something has a mouth, and its closed. You want to see it open. It ties into that point about body horror.
Go for it!
Have your tight lipped open up into a maw, something fit for the Thing or Alien!
A good example of this principle in a monster design is Stranger Things’ Demogorgon
Now this is a true maw, a void of teeth and flesh.
Speaking of flesh
3-
The Eyes
Venom inherited the milky white shapes from Spider-Man, but leaning into the horror imagery we’ve been exploring:
Ian Reynor’s art here took a very trypophobic approach, almost like a fly’s compact eyes.
As someone who isn’t overly fond of things like that, trypophobia occasionally ring its bell in inconvenient times, I can still say with confidence that this is an interesting twist!
4 -
The Suit
Now we must think finally of the suit itself.
As a fan of Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle (especially in Young Justice Season 2) I really like the idea of carapace style suit. Black Beetle being the most relevant for this discussion, and generally just a really great villain from that show.
Alternatively you could compromise, allowing the Symbiote to harden like a shell while maintaining their goop like texture, taking inspiration from ferrometal such as the Klum from Rakka.
With this kind of slick oil that can harden into tools and weaponry.
Combining these ideas into something odd and truly alien.
Another important variation to make note of is the unstable and writhing black sludge of 1610 Ultimate Venom
Claws and teeth swimming through the opaque ooze which somehow was intended to be a cure for cancer.
A true monster.
And that’s what this whole essay is about:
Making a monster out of Venom. All of these suggestions or explorations are focused on taking the initial fantastic time tested design and twisting these features.
You know what Venom looks like. You have a certain expectation, which can be easily subverted by adding these ideas to the core concept.
I don’t want it to seem that I loathe this character or the Venom look.
I just think you can do some weird shit with it, and that’s interesting!
And I wanted to share.
So thank you for letting me,
Thank You For Reading.
Make Venom scary again.