Venom’s Ultimate Variant Fixed His Terrible Origin

While Venom remains one of Spider-Man's most popular villains, the Ultimate universe improved him by fixing his ridiculous origin story. While the mainstream Venom began as Spider-Man's former costume rejected once he learned of its extraterrestrial origin, the Ultimate Spider-Man series reinvented not only Venom's creation but also his relationship to Peter Parker and his iconic host Eddie Brock, leaving behind a more personal, dangerous and horrifying enemy in the process.
Following the events of Secret Wars, Peter Parker sought to repair his tattered costume by using an alien machine that could read his thoughts and create clothing. It produced a black sphere that gave him a black and white version of his costume similar to Julia Carpenter's Spider-Woman. Peter enjoyed the advantages of this costume upon returning to Earth but after noticing a series of unexplained events, he sought the help of the Fantastic Four who revealed his costume was an alien symbiote. While Peter rejected the symbiote completely, it found a suitable host in disgraced reporter Eddie Brock, uniting in their hatred of Spider-Man as Venom. While Venom had certain advantages over Spider-Man due to the symbiotes' former connection, Peter was able to defeat Venom although he would constantly return to threaten both Spider-Man and his loved ones.
In the Ultimate universe, a parallel Marvel dimension outside of mainstream continuity, Venom was reimagined as a genetically engineered bio-suit created by Richard Parker and Eddie Brock, Sr. While the suit was originally intended to help cure cancer, the project was taken away by their benefactors, Trask Industries who saw its military possibilities. When Peter discovered records of his father's work, this prompted a reunion with his childhood friend Eddie Brock Jr. who lost his parents in the same plane crash that took Peter's parents. Eddie revealed a sample of their father's work that he'd been working on in secret, something Peter would accidentally experience firsthand as his new Spider-Man ensemble. But when "the Suit" proved too dangerous, Peter was forced to reveal his secret identity to Eddie and convince him that it had to be destroyed despite their personal feelings. Unbeknownst to Peter, Eddie had a separate sample stored away which he bonded with, creating an unstable monstrosity that Eddie was barely able to control before confronting Peter at Midtown High.

Ultimate Spider-Man's creators Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley stripped away Venom's extraterrestrial origin and undid something that would be considered one of Spider-Man's sillier mistakes. Instead of Spider-Man accidentally wearing a dangerous alien, this version of Venom had a deeper and more personal connection to Peter. Not only was the entity linked to his biological father but it tied into a greater theme about creative people being exploited by big businesses, Peter seeking to right this wrong to their families being what bonded him to Venom originally. This also created a new, more personal reason for Eddie to become Venom, he felt Peter had lied to him about being Spider-Man and sought to destroy his inheritance and birthright. When Eddie bonded with the bio-suit, he lacked the genetic connection that Peter had, requiring him to regularly consume people in order to keep the suit from devouring him as well.
Overall, Ultimate Venom was an amalgamation of his mainstream popularity, his threat to the Marvel universe but now with a new connection that made him one of Ultimate Spider-Man's more personal villains. Venom was also a primary protagonist in the Ultimate Spider-Man video game and was last seen being used by the megalomaniacal Maker in his battle against the mainstream Eddie Brock. The Ultimate Venom was able to overcome the limits of his mainstream origin and become a different yet still terrifying threat altogether.
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