Highlights
- Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is making a big change to how Venom is usually depicted.
- The size of the symbiote creature Venom was seemingly originally determined by the build of its host, but recent iterations have shown that the symbiote's form is not always defined by the host's physique, making the potential host of Venom in the game more ambiguous.
- Insomniac's depiction of Venom in the game possibly draws inspiration from Ultimate Spider-Man, with a muscle-bound Venom and an unremarkable frame for its potential host.
One of the more exciting and engaging elements of decades-long superhero media is how characters develop over time, and that typically includes an abundance of costume changes or substantial physical reinterpretations from continuity to continuity. Peter Parker hasn’t ever had any truly alienating looks since the character’s inception, at least none that were kept around for long, but the costumes he has swapped to have certainly been both beloved and divisive all the same. Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, however, may be making quite a big change to how Venom is usually depicted.
Venom looks incredibly faithful to the source material even if Insomniac had no obligation to do so, and as a result he will appear as a muscle-bound monstrosity with an unhinged jaw, jagged teeth, and a long tongue. The only characteristic of Venom that is unique at all is the white spider insignia stretched around his torso, but even that is a safe reinterpretation. This may be favorable to Insomniac deciding to make a wildly innovative design for the antagonist, but depending on who Venom’s host is in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 he could feature a fairly large departure from typical iterations of the character in size alone.
Eddie Brock Jr. was Originally Part of Why Venom is a Hulking Brute
Symbiote lore in the comics has been rewritten and repurposed many times now, but Venom’s initial design choices were simple. Todd MacFarlane wanted Venom to be massive, or at least much larger than Spider-Man. This was achieved with Eddie Brock Jr. also possessing a hulking physique, and thus the correlation was made that the symbiote also became a brute with Eddie as its host. Spider-Man’s build was still arguably bulky in this run of the comics, but he was always meant to have a leaner figure regardless.
Lately, though, the symbiote's form hasn't always been defined by a host's build. Eddie has looked a number of different ways, such as a skinny individual in Ultimate Spider-Man, while as Venom he is still enormous. Therefore, the host needing to be a particular build isn’t necessarily mutually exclusive nowadays, but it is still an important distinction that helps determine who a host may be. It’s still possible that Harry Osborn may not be Venom, and that Insomniac is leaning heavily on that suspicion to make a true reveal land with impact, but the way the story is lining up suggests that an ailing Harry with no definitive musculature will bond again with the symbiote once Peter is able to dispose of it in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Harry Osborn is Nowhere Near the Size Venom Traditionally is
Insomniac seems to be drawing inspiration from Ultimate Spider-Man by having its Venom be muscle-bound while its host has an unremarkable frame, giving Insomniac much more leeway when it comes to how its symbiote creatures are depicted. It will be interesting to see if Venom is large for a particular reason, or if Harry and the symbiote’s bond being that much more intimate and established means they can tap into its full potential sooner. It’s clear from gameplay shown thus far that the symbiote has extensive substance reaching far beyond that of the suit it materializes for Peter, lashing out thick, lengthy tendrils that he can use to attack enemies or leap around with.
The symbiote essentially has a lot of substance to produce and can easily take any shape it wants, and shape-shifting capabilities from the animated series making their way into the game would also be fascinating. Either way, Harry doesn’t need to be lifting weights himself in order for the symbiote to take a bodybuilder’s frame when bonded to him, though that was the original correlation in Venom’s first appearance with Eddie as a host and is the same correlation Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Venom and Eddie perpetuated.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches on October 20, exclusively for PlayStation 5.
