10 Best Venom Comic Series, Ranked

Venom began as one of Spider-Man’s elite villains. An alien symbiote that bonded with Spider-Man but was ultimately abandoned, leaving Venom to develop a deep-rooted hatred for Peter Parker and find a new host in Eddie Brock. Brock and Venom instantly made a perfect pair and terrorized Peter Parker for years, trying to take their revenge.

Over the years, Venom has become one of the most popular villains in Marvel. The symbiote has produced several spin-off series and has been included in nearly every piece of Spider-Man media. However, Venom and Eddie Brock have come a very long way from their days as villains and have come full circle to be not only heroes but gods.

10 Separation Anxiety Showed Eddie and Venom’s True Bond

Creative Team: Howard Mackie, Ron Randall, Sam Delarosa, Ken Lopez, and Tom Smith

1994’s Separation Anxiety was one of the first series to explore Eddie and Venom’s bond with each other, taking it further than simply an alien needing a host. After losing the Venom symbiote in a battle with Ben Riley, the Life Foundation takes both Venom and Eddie but are rescued by the other symbiotes created by the Foundation.

By stripping Brock of the Venom symbiote, Mackie allowed readers to explore why Venom and Eddie are a perfect match together and strengthens their bond by keeping them apart. Separation Anxiety was also the first time readers got a closer look at the other Life Foundation symbiotes, such as Scream and Riot, making them actual characters and confirming that not every offspring of Venom is evil, like Carnage.

9 The Amazing Spider-Man Started It All

Creative Team: David Michelinie, Todd Mcfarlane, Bob Sharen, and Rick Parker

Venom burst onto the scene in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #300, making the alien symbiote more than just a cool costume and bringing him to the forefront of the Spider-Man universe. Initially bonded with Peter, Venom had many of the same powers as Spider-Man and could test the webhead like never before.

While not a solo Venom series, his early days trying to kill Peter Parker are an essential part of the character’s history and put him on the trajectory of stardom that allowed the character to grow past being just another member of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. The series also introduced many essential elements to Venom’s mythos, still seen today, such as the ability to create other offspring and introducing his most iconic villain, Carnage.

8 Cullen Bunn Takes Venom To Hell

Creative Team: Cullen Bunn, Joe Caramagna, and Declan Shalvey

Writer Cullen Bunn took over Rick Remender’s Venom series in 2012, introducing Flash Thompson as the new Venom host, Agent Venom. Flash, a high school bully turned war hero, took on the role of Venom after losing his legs and was given the symbiote to continue fighting as a Secret Avenger. Bunn takes Venom out of New York to a new environment where he faces new threats and challenges to establish Flash Thompson in his new role.

Bunn beautifully built on Remender’s foundations by taking Flash in a more mystical direction, battling Mephisto and demons in hell, and chasing Carnage through the subatomic realm. The series also introduces a new member to the symbiote family, Andi Benton, who bonds with the symbiote Mania and teams up with Agent Venom on his adventures through hell. Along her adventures with Flash, Andi and her symbiote become possessed by the Hell-mark, giving them the potential to be one of the strongest hosts in the symbiote universe.

7 A New Symbiote Is Born

Creative Team: Dan Slott, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, and Dean White

After his long history with Venom, Eddie Brock develops cancer as a result of being bonded with the symbiote for too long and sells Venom on the black market. Brock starts working at the F.E.A.S.T charity center under Martin Li, aka Mr. Negative, to atone for his past crimes. Li tries to heal Eddie of his cancer but inadvertently creates the Anti-Venom symbiote when his powers merge with small amounts of symbiote still left in Eddie’s blood.

The creation of Anti-Venom changed the landscape for symbiotes forever. Unlike other symbiotes, Anti-Venom does not have a mind of its own, allowing the host complete control. It can also detect illnesses and toxins to heal others, repelling other symbiotes and breaking them from their host. Later merging with Flash Thompson, Anti-Venom has been a crucial addition to the symbiotes as their world has continued to expand.

6 Venom Becomes a Grandfather

Creative Team: Peter Milligan, and Clayton Crain

Symbiote biology is tricky, especially when the parent is a violent serial killer. Venom Vs. Carnage saw the classic battle between father and son yet again but with the twist of Carnage having his own baby. Symbiotes can reproduce asexually, and the relationship between parent and offspring is a cold and hostile one. This is amplified tenfold when the most violent symbiote, Carnage, gives birth to Toxin.

Being of the same lineage as both Carnage and Venom, Toxin is stronger than both of them combined. Toxinis also the 1,000th spawn of Venom’s genetic line, making him even more violent. While Toxin has had a complicated history since his introduction, his birth led the way for other symbiotes to be spawned, such as Sleeper, and began to expand the symbiote family.

5 Agent Venom Becomes A New Kind of Hero

Creative Team: Rick Remender, Lan Medina, Tony Moore, Tom Fowler, Shawn Moll, and Stefano Caselli

Rick Remender’s run on Venom brought the symbiote away from Eddie Brock and gave it to Spider-Man’s high school bully Flash Thompson, who had become a war hero and suffered the loss of his legs in battle. Inspired by the heroics of Spider-Man, Flash took the Venom symbiote and became Agent Venom to continue fighting for the U.S. government as their personal symbiote soldier.

Remender’s time on Venom took a deep and reflective look into Flash’s past trauma as a soldier and a child of a dysfunctional family as he learns to get back up and stay in the fight. While Venom initially began influencing Flash’s mind with its violent tendencies, the two learned they needed each other. Flash made Venom a true hero and not just a villain trying to do good, a progression that would be essential moving forward.

4 Venom is The Lethal Protector

Creative Team: David Michelinie, Mark Bagley, Sam Delarosa, Al Milgrom, Richard Starkings, and Marie Javins

Lethal Protector was Venom’s first solo series, and the run started him on his path out of Spider-Man’s shadow. Having forgiven some of his hatred for Spider-Man, Venom and Brock go to San Fransisco to be the city’s Lethal Protector for the weak and forgotten. While not always perfect, it was the first time readers saw Venom in a hero role, and it brought a much-needed depth to the character that allowed him to endure throughout the years.

While the series doesn’t completely distance itself from Spider-Man, it introduces many essential elements to build Venom’s world, such as The Life Foundation’s interest in symbiotes and the first appearance of Venom’s offspring, Scream, Agony, Lasher, Riot, and Phage. If not for the Lethal Protector series, Venom and Brock would never have had the chance to grow past being another villain of the week and may have faded into comic history.

3 Symbiote’s Secret History Revealed In Vietnam

Creative Team: Donny Cates, Juanan Ramirez, Felipe Sobreiro, and VC Clayton Cowles

Beginning in the pages of Donny Cates’s 2018 Venom run, readers were introduced to Rex Strickland, a Vietnam soldier who bonded with a symbiote and the rest of his platoon to battle an ancient child of Knull that came to Earth in the 1960s. Strickland was eventually killed, but his symbiote regained his memories from the symbiote hive and continued as an army veteran for decades.

Strickland’s backstory was later expanded in the one-shot Web of Venom: Ve’nam, where Nick Furry and Wolverine aid Rex in defeating his platoon, which has become overtaken by Knull. Rex’s introduction established that symbiotes had been on Earth long before Peter ever donned the black suit, with Rex being one of the only symbiotes at that point to survive without a host and break from the hive.

2 Venom Becomes A God

Creative Team: Al Ewing, Ram. V., Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Alex Sinclair, and VC Clayton Cowles

Al Ewing began his Venom saga in the aftermath of Cates’s King In Black event, which changed the world of symbiotes forever. Taking all of the lore and history set up by Cates, Ewing ran full speed ahead in a series that has made Eddie Brock and the symbiotes cosmic forces of the universe and redefined what it means to be The King in Black.

Following Knull’s defeat, Brock becomes the new King in Black, and the Venom symbiote bonds with his son Dylan. Eddie is sent on a journey through time to learn how to use his new godly powers as he is pursued by another King in Black from the future, Meridius. The series has taken Brock to the end of time and beyond in search of what it means to be the god of the symbiotes, leaving limitless possibilities for what the future might hold for Venom and Brock.

1 Donny Cates Changed Venom Forever

Creative Team: Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, VC Clayton Cowles

After Mike Costa’s 2016 Venom run saw the character return to his roots as a villain before ultimately returning to Eddie Brock, Donny Cates began his Venom run on a quest to redefine the character forever. The series takes Brock and Venom on a journey of self-discovery as each learns dark secrets of their past and faces the ultimate evil in the form of Knull, the god of symbiotes.

Cates reconstructed the concept of symbiotes from the ground up, giving them a history and larger purpose in the Marvel Universe. The Cates run also gave Eddie a deeper purpose, including his son Dylan, forcing him to confront hard truths about his past as he tries to protect Dylan from suffering the same fate. The 2018 Venom run pushed Eddie Brock to new heights never before thought possible and changed the status quo for all Venom stories moving forward.