Venom 3 Can Break a Strange Sony Trend

Venom 3 marks a new age for the character and his enemies. But this new outing may finally break a long trend with Sony's Marvel movies.

Over the years, comic book movies have taken things to a new level by delving into the psyche of its characters, like in 2008's The Dark Knight. These movies have also played into the excitement and fun of the genre and connected an entire world, like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But in the case of Sony Pictures, comic book movies have taken on a unique trend and capitalized on mediums otherwise barely explored. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse revolutionized animation, whereas Venom showed that villains could carry a narrative for a franchise.

Venom was a unique entry for comic book movies because the character's history was highly connected to Spider-Man, and to omit that aspect of Venom's origin felt like a mistake at best. Nevertheless, the movie proved to be enough of a delight that a sequel was greenlit, as well as a new era of villain-led comic book movies. But since villains need enemies as well, it's introduced a difficult-to-break trend that has continued to plague every entry. Even still, Venom 3 could be the movie to finally break the trend of Sony Picture's antithesis villains.

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No matter the villains in question, Sony Pictures has managed to carve out a niche corner of comic book movies where villains are more than explored -- they're celebrated. Now, the likes of Morbius have become a household name and proved that it didn't matter if there was a success -- the deeper levels of its characters would still be explored. Kraven the Hunter is the next in line for Sony to tackle, and with that, the character's first trailer has teased a new breed of villain with Rhino playing a larger role. It was also interesting to note that no villain like Kraven would challenge the character, save for his father. As a result, it stands to reason that Kraven the Hunter could, at the very least, introduce the idea of forgetting antithesis villains.

In the case of Venom, the character's connection to Symbiotes has meant that many antagonists he's faced were tied exclusively to Venom and his homeworld. But just because the character has had an extensive history with Symbiotes, it doesn't mean that there has to be another enemy that's just like him. Therefore, Kraven the Hunter could be the fuel to help show that Venom 3 could also buck the trend of a villain that's just like the protagonist but more evil.

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While Sony's Marvel movies have featured their fair share of antithesis villains, other comic book movies have done the same. Iron Man was a prime example as the first supervillain the hero fought was Iron Monger, a much larger enemy that more closely resembled Tony Stark's Mark I. Iron Man continued to deal with the issue of armored villains until Iron Man 3 finally gave him a new type of enemy. The Incredible Hulk and Doctor Strange dealt with a similar problem, as the Hulk faced the Abomination and Doctor Strange faced Kaecilius. But even still, Sony's Marvel movies took these types of enemies in a new direction and showed how it could and couldn't work.

Venom created a clever and satisfying origin for the character without including Spider-Man. But Venom's birth was still tied to an enemy as the symbiote superior Riot bonded with Carlton Drake and challenged Venom for power. The problem was that Riot's silvery metallic texture clashed with Venom's inky black look and made their battles hard to follow. As such, Riot was almost too much of an antithesis to Venom. However, in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Cletus Kasady and Carnage's personality was far too comedic. But both characters also had a corny sense of humor that constantly diminished Carnage's fear factor and made his ability to eat and drain his enemies anything but chilling. While it worked in making Carnage more faithful to the source material, the character's presence was diminished thanks to the introduction of Riot in the previous movie.

Even though there were still some minor inconsistencies with Venom's antithesis villains, Morbius' villain suffered from a compelling story that was overshadowed by a similar aesthetic to Morbius. Milo was Morbius' close friend and fellow victim of their rare blood disease. Both characters eventually became living vampires, but Milo was thriving with the power to the point of mania. His immediate turn to villainy was admittedly tragic, but his design was too similar to Morbius', which didn't help to make the character stand out. In the end, Milo became too much of an antithesis and proved the importance of making sure an enemy, whether they're similar, is distinct enough to stand out from the protagonist.

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Venom 3 has the potential to break the mold in Sony's Marvel movies as a massive collection of enemies has been introduced that could offer Venom a new challenge. While there's still a chance that Detective Mulligan could return as Toxin, an ally to Venom, he could still be seen as a villain at first. But with Morbius, Kraven and even the Vulture established in this universe, it could lead to Toxin and Venom working together to take on unique types of villains. Yet, Venom 3 could still answer a question that's been asked ever since the first movie.

With Spider-Man: No Way Home establishing new variants of the character, it could mean that a hero like Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker could appear, perhaps as the Spider-Man of Venom's universe. If so, it could explain that his absence after Gwen Stacy's death left a void for characters like Morbius and Venom to rise up and, with his potential return, could make Spider-Man and Venom enemies. No matter the outcome, however, Venom 3 has an important task to avoid another antithesis villain and offer a threat that Venom doesn't fully understand.

Nicholas Brooks has been writing professionally for over a decade, covering many aspects of pop culture from film and video games to comics and anime. Writing has remained his passion in that time and loves to theorize and pick apart unique connections in franchises like Marvel, Jurassic Park and much more. In his spare time, he could be found working on his bookstagram, collecting figures, reading comics or watching movies with his girlfriend.