Published Apr 2, 2026, 10:15 PM EDT
CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
Comic book history is rife with examples of characters that were introduced as jokes/parodies, and then became actual established characters. The entire history of the Squadron Supreme is built around being satires/analogues for the Justice League, but they soon became their own popular characters.
Similarly, the new alternate reality version of Venom introduced in Venom #252, Eddie Parker, was mainly a joking reference to the fact that the Venom symbiote debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #252, so why not have a Spider-Man themed version of Venom debut in VENOM #252? That Spider-Venom was popular enough that Marvel is now bringing the concept to its main universe, with a brand-new host for this new twisted version of the Venom symbiote, and CBR has an exclusive preview of the first issue, due out next week!
WEB OF VENOM #1
JORDAN MORRIS (W) • Ramon Rosanas & Luke Ross (A)
Cover by STEFANO CASELLI
VARIANT COVER BY LOGAN LUBERA • DESIGN VARIANT COVER BY LUCIANO VECCHIO
VARIANT COVER BY PERE PÉREZ • VARIANT COVER BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY STEFANO CASELLI
ULTIMATE FAREWELL VARIANT COVER BY TBA • VARIANT COVER BY TBA
HOMAGE VARIANT COVER BY TBA • FOIL VARIANT COVER BY TBA
THE EVEN ALL-ER, NEW-ER VENOM?!
There is an even NEWER symbiote-wearing hero on the scene sporting the red-and-blue Spidey-inspired look on the streets of Earth-616…but it’s not Mary Jane Watson, and it’s not Eddie Parker! But it IS someone who Peter Parker knows well…someone both he AND Spider-Man have had many encounters with…someone looking to use this new web-slinging identity to make their much-deserved comeback! The saga of the new fan-favorite Red-And-Blue alien costume takes a whole new turn, kicking a classic Spider character into a whole new direction that they have no intention of giving up!
40 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ …$5.99
In the preview pages of the first issue of this new series, we see the new host of this Spider-Venom symbiote have a conversation with the symbiote as they plan a mysterious rescue mission.
Their first plan is for Spider-Venom to pretend to be Spider-Man, including a hilarious bit where the character says "Thwip" (the sound of Spider-Man's webshooters) out loud, which, of course, is not what Spider-Man actually does. When that doesn't work, though, he attacks the guards.
This includes a major clue as to the identity of this mystery new host of this similarly mysterious new symbiote, as the symbiote notes that the host has "the fasted arm in the world," whatever THAT means. It's typically something you would say about a baseball pitcher, but I can't recall of a baseball pitcher in the Marvel Universe that Spider-Man would know outside of Bullseye, and this character clearly isn't Bullseye.
At the end of the preview, the new Spider-Venom pulls of a Wolverine bit (in a clever homage to Frank Miller's Wolverine #1 cover), which also suggests that this character knows Wolverine, as well.
If you want more clues as to who this new host is, and who they are here to rescue, you will have to pick up a copy of Web of Venom #1 next week!
English (US) · 