Venom’s Most Underrated Host is Back

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The following contains major spoilers for "Black, White... And Blood" from the pages of Venom: Black, White & Blood #4, on sale November 26 from Marvel Comics.

A wildly underrated and largely forgotten host to the Venom symbiote is back to prove just how much better he was than fans remember.

"Black, White... And Blood" (by Al Ewing, Kei Zama, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC's Clayton Cowles) opens to find none other than Lee Price grabbing a cup of coffee at a local cafe and trying to enjoy a brief moment of respite. Unfortunately, a would-be assassin has far different plans in mind. Worse still, Lee is entirely unaware of their presence, which makes it that much more fortunate that the Venom symbiote very much is.

Venom: Black, White & Blood #4

Written by AL EWING; RICH DOUEK; and CHRIS BACHALO
Art by KEI ZAMA; ROBERT GILL; and CHRIS BACHALO
Inks by JAIME MENDOZA
Colors by RACHELLE ROSENBERG; ANDRES MOSSA; and CHRIS BACHALO
Letters by VC's CLAYTON COWLES
Design by SARAH SPADACCINI
Main cover art by PHILIP TAN
Variant covers by JUAN FERREYRA; and GERARDO SANDOVAL & ERICK ARCINIEGA

Introduced in the pages of 2016's Venom #1 by writer Mike Costa and artist Gerardo Sandoval, Lee Price's tragic story began early as he burned his childhood home down and killed his abusive father (and unwitting mother) in his youth. After blaming the crime on an innocent mutant, the following years saw Price bounce from protective services to the military before being grievously injured in combat and returning to a country that had little care for him.

When Price accepted a job from Mac Gargan out of sheer desperation, it set him on track to bond with the Venom symbiote. This kicked off a short-lived career as an antihero, or antivillain, as Price could never quite settle on which side of the line he fell. After losing the Venom symbiote, Price set his sights on becoming Mania, which he did only long enough to establish a budding criminal empire and lose his life for his troubles.

Since then, Lee Price has only returned during the events of 2024's Blood Hunt event, which saw a vampiric army lorded over by the ancient Varnae nearly take over the entire world. During part of the villainous alien vampire known as Threkker's personal plot, Price was reanimated to serve as a host to the Venom symbiote. Fortunately, Venom was able to destroy Threkker before allowing Price to settle back into his grave and begin resting in relative peace once more.

Venom: Black, White & Blood #4 goes on sale November 26 from Marvel Comics.