I will tell you this in case you do not already know: 2018 marks the 30th anniversary of Venom. It was in the second quarter of 1988 that Eddie Brock debuted as Venom, as written by David Michelinie and drawn by Todd McFarlane. Since that time, Venom has enjoyed many iconic story arcs, many self-titles comic book mini series and ongoing titles. He has enjoyed appearances in video games, animated series and movies both animated live-action. While 2007 gave us Topher Grace’s interpretation of Venom in Spider-man 3, October of 2018 will give us a self-titled, “Stand-alone” movie starring Tom Hardy. In current comic books, everyone is getting a taste of the alien Symbiote as nearly everyone has become Venomized. Now, we learn – courtesy of the folks at BleedingCool – that superstar writer Donny Cates will be writing Venom.
Edit: When asked, Donny said, coyly, via Twitter that this is just a rumor. “Ah, I see. Yeah, look. VENOM is maybe my favorite Marvel character ever, and I would LOVE to write him someday. Honestly that’d be a dream come true. But sadly, this is just a rumor. And an odd one at that. BUT stay tuned for a cool announcement this week about my next thing!”
FEB 20th edit: Donny Cates on Twitter: “Hey remember when I said I wasn’t taking over VENOM? Well, it turns out I’m a huge liar! That’s right friends, just in time for his 30th anniversary… VENOM #1 from me and the amazing @RyanStegman!! This is my dream book guys. Come check it out this May!!“
Yes, that Donny Cates. The same Donny Cates that wrote God County, Babyteeth, Redneck, the current (and consistently selling out) volume of Thanos. He is a proven hit-maker and it will be interesting to see what direction he takes Venom. But, whatever direction that happens to be, I am quite sure it will be a smash hit and quickly scooped of comic book shop shelves rather quickly.
If you’d like to brush up on your historical knowledge of Venom and the alien Symbiote either before the Cates Run or prior to the feature film later this year check out the video at the top of this article.
