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5 things to know about the movie

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Ten years in the making, Venom is finally ready to make his big-screen solo debut. As one of Marvel’s most notorious (and beloved) anti-heroes crawls his way onto the big screen, there are also many questions surroundin­g the project. Like, where’s SpiderMan?

As Tom Holland’s teenage superhero made his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War, Sony was left clutching the rights to some 9,000 other characters from the Spider-Man universe, and Venom is how the production house plans to test the waters for their own shared cinematic universe, woefully dubbed Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters.

Here are five things you should know about director Ruben Fleischer’s Venom.

Who is Eddie Brock/Venom?

Eddie Brock (played by Tom Hardy), the man who makes one half of Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis Venom, was first seen in comic books in 1988, created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. In the comics, Brock is a disgraced journalist who is fired after accusing the wrong man of being a serial killer. Angry and suicidal, he happens to be at the same church where Peter Parker used a bell to repel his alien symbiote costume. Sensing Brock’s emotions, the symbiote bonds with Brock, gifting him Spider-Man-like powers, and turning him into Venom. In the film, Brock is still a journalist but the circumstan­ces of his bonding with the Venom symbiote has been largely changed to adapt for Spidey’s absence.

Who is the villain?

Since Brock/Venom play an anti-hero role here and Spidey is nowhere to be seen, these boys need someone to fight, and like any good Marvel story, there’s a shady organisati­on lurking in the corner.

Not unlike the Hand or the Hydra, exists the Life Foundation, comprised of millionair­e survivalis­ts who foresee a doomed Earth and want to outlive the impending Apocalypse. The organisati­on is headed by Carlton Drake (played by Riz Ahmed, an excellent choice to bring some much-needed diversity into the world of superheroe­s and villains). Technologi­cally advanced and morally unscrupulo­us, the Life Foundation have gotten their hands on an alien symbiote and are using it to do illegal experiment­s on humans, in a bid to try and increase life expectancy. In the comic books, the Life Foundation kidnaps Venom to extract five of his seeds to make new symbiotes: Agony, Phage, Lasher, Scream and Riot. It has been reported that these symbiotes have been given a big role to play in the film, and will be Venom’s primary antagonist­s.

Who are Michelle Williams and Woody Harrelson playing?

Art house darling Michelle Williams broke the internet way back in 2017 when she announced she signed on to Venom, which even for a super(anti)hero film, at the time, seemed like a misfire. Over the last few months, the actress has gone on to defend her decision to join the movie.

Williams will play the role of Anne Weying, a lawyer and Brock’s ex-wife in the comics. The four-time Oscar nominee has, however, updated her role for current times, she insists. The film makes changes to her story as well. Instead of playing Brock’s ex-wife, Williams has been upgraded to girlfriend status. For how long it will stay that way, only time will tell.

IMDb says Woody Harrelson has been cast to play one Cletus Kasady, whom we all know is Brock’s one-time demented jailmate who accidental­ly fuses with one of Venom’s seeds to form Carnage, who is to Venom what Venom is to Spider-Man. Mortal enemies, a Venom versus Carnage fight is what geek dreams are made of. But if reports are to be believed, Carnage will have a much smaller role to play in the current film, setting the character up to be the main antagonist in the sequel, if and when that happens.

Which comic book arc is the movie based on?

From the footage so far and director Fleischer’s comments, it has been establishe­d that the movie largely takes inspiratio­n from Venom: Lethal Protector, a six-issue limited series published in 1993, written by David Michelinie and illustrate­d by Mark Bagley, coincident­ally also the first arc to have shed light on Brock’s back story. The comic book series itself features Spider-Man heavily, and while it seems like an uphill task to even attempt a Venom story without Spidey, Lethal Protector points to a large presence of the Life Foundation, headed by the aforementi­oned Ahmed’s character, and the five symbiotes the shadowy organisati­on spawns. The series also makes for an excellent quick read if you want to get a taste of Venom’s deranged psyche.

Will Spider-Man make an appearance?

This one’s a solid MAYBE. In January this year, Collider’s Jon Schnepp spoke on their Heroes podcast reporting that Holland was seen shooting for Venom for at least two days. While this does not confirm Spidey’s presence in the film, we can at least hope that Peter Parker (in civilian clothing) might do a cameo.

Another fan theory doing the rounds comes straight from one of the more recent TV spots for the film, in which something resembling a white spider symbol is seen forming on Venom’s suit, while he looks like he’s stuck in some electrical force field. For those in the know, this clearly points to the Venom symbiote merging with Spider-Man himself, which is how Venom originally adopts the symbol onto his suit. So, fingers crossed? — S.M.

 ??  ?? Riz Ahmed.
Riz Ahmed.
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 ??  ?? Tom Holland as Spider-Man.
Tom Holland as Spider-Man.
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Woody Harrelson.
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Michelle Williams.

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