Venom #1 Variant by Todd McFarlane Revealed

This November, Venom is back and he’s badder than ever! As creators Mike Costa and Gerardo Sandoval bring the sinister symbiote into Marvel NOW!, celebrate this exciting launch with a variant cover by legendary artist Todd McFarlane (AUG168725)! Continuing our eye-popping tradition of remastered and recolored marvelous moments comes an iconic instant classic! Relive Eddie Brock’s first full appearance as Venom – masterfully recolored by superstar colorist Richard Isanove. As the Venom symbiote returns to the Big Apple, it’s time for a new Venom. No more Flash Thompson, no more “Agent of the Cosmos”. But who’s the one wearing the costume this time? More importantly – who’s in control? One thing is certain – Venom is back, and it’s good to be bad….

Uncover the mystery in the explosive first issue, VENOM #1 – coming to comic shops and digital devices this November!

VENOM #1 (SEP160951)

TOP SECRET ARTIST VARIANT (AUG168725)

Written by MIKE COSTA

Art & Cover by GERARDO SANDOVAL

FOC – 10/31/16, On-Sale – 11/23/16

Meh.

Oh no... now that I'm starting to like Venom, he will be an ugly and lame symbiote thing? ...sad...

[and the cover is horrible! What have you done to the real McFarlane???]

Eww.

Urk..

Btw, is it me or Comic Vine doesn't publish the lists of new comics of the week anymore ?

Yeah, not gonna pay a ridiculous amount of money for a lackluster variant. Sorry

wow, weak.

@essenemg: Yeah, I've noticed that too

And is it just me or is that variant the same interior art from Amazing Spider-Man #299 recolored?

They don't anymore for some reason.

Thats pretty lame.

Anywho any speculation on who this new guy is? Since its not Eddie or Flash did the Venom Space Knight give any hints?

I like it. It looks exactly like how Brock looked during amazing spider-man 300. Its not the most bad ass look for venom but its a good nod to what he use to look like.

McFarlane lost it go back to your toys

Not enough views.

The symbiote is being whore around again I see.

They barely post anything anymore. Podcasts and Best Stuff are the only things they put out regularly.

@essenemg: Comicvine doesn't do a lot of the things they used to. Just previews, podcasts, and Gamespot content.

No, the most important question where is Flash Thompson then?

Yeah, I like it too. He looks like the Venom from the 90s :D

IIRC Mania was suppose to make an appearance in space knights. Not sure if she ever showed her but I am guessing it is either her or there is no host and its just the symbiote.

Was never a fan of Flash venom so I might pick this up to see what the new venom is like

This cover is a big fat MEH.....I'm waiting for the reveal of the Dell Otto cover. With a 500 print run, THAT will be the variant to get hands down.

eh, I've always liked te original Venom but I want Agent Venom to come back ;(. Anyways, I rarely come on comicvine. First the reviews stopped, and now no weekly pulls? It's jst going downhill.

I might check this out just from curiosity. I want to see how Marvel will totally ruin Venom for me once again.

Man, when you read McFarlane Venom variant...that is NOT what you expected to see..A bit disappointing, looks more like a Sam Keith foil etched cover from the 90's

wow, something went really wrong here

That image is from Amazing Spider-Man issue 299 the last pageI believe. Which would be his fist full appearance.

I like it. For me, this is how I like Venom, as a horrifying doppelganger of Spider-Man.

I love Todd McFarlane's art. Along with Jim Lee, he helped bring a new art style to comics in the 90s. But... he has one of the weakest designs for Venom imo. Still not bad and it does bring back nostalgia.

As much as I do like McFarlane's original Venom, I honestly prefer the art of Mark Bagley's Venom. His always felt more detailed.
We don't need anyone else but Brock in a Venom costume. All these other story lines have been very bleh. Talk about over using a character until it was just mush. So many bad drawings of Venom in comics attached to so many bad story lines.

Yep, you guys nailed it! As soon as I saw this cover, I knew it was a reproduction of McFarlane's earlier work! I wonder if this was some way to get around having to pay him? Or that he opted not to do a new cover for them? After all, Marvel is now using Angela as Thor's long-lost sister, and the focus on Todd's contribution to her creation has been very minimal. Even if it's an old wound, it was certainly picked at for a Long Time, with over a decade of a legal battle between McFarlane & Gaiman, so even if he plays nice in public, it might sting a little when he sees Angela on the covers to Guardians of the Galaxy & in her own self-titled series' (3 & counting, already!). But, I also wonder if this is even the final cover. Could be this was a premature announcement & they threw something together that should have had the tagline "not final cover".

And regarding the new Venom book in general... as much as I like Flash Thompson as Venom, I liked him better when he had the "Agent Venom" appearance, and before Bendis' "Planet of the Symbiotes" redux completely messed up the existing lore of the symbiotes. Technically, Flash Thompson is currently wearing an all-new symbiote that was given to him. The original Venom symbiote was stripped from him and said to have been an aberration. That their kind are a peaceful race, etc. They could very well allow Flash Thompson to keep his symbiote, but have the original Venom symbiote end up with a new host. And if they want to make a lot of people happy, they could retcon Bendis' "Planet of the Symbiotes" to write it out-of-continuity, the same way he re-interprets past events in his own work. Sometimes he gets it right, he does the original story justice, while also adding a new twist to it; but in the case of this particular storyline he largely ignored past continuity in favor of his own agenda.

I dont like the cover.

that looks....horrible....

Pulling a panel out of a book from 2 decades ago and slapping it on some background and giving it some color touchups is not getting an artist to draw a cover.

Well....this sucks lol they've run Venom into the ground...Geeze Marvel just kill this crap already lol Hurry up & bring back Franklin Richards to reboot your pathetic universe or make Scarlet Witch go mad again. YOu

Marvel: "We've run out of ideas. What can we do!?"

Random terrible Marvel exec: "I know, lets drag the head of Image back in here to do work for us that might bring readers back if we basically tease them with the guy who helped introduce Venom for the first time"

Marvel:

Ssssh....if you talk like that Marvel might never crash and burn and be forced to finally restart this crappy version of their universe. Let the titantic that is the current Marvel sink, we'll build a new one.

Do you think it could be Harry Osborn??? I don't know......when I look at that smile I think of Green Goblin.

They could have done better! This one is awful!

Rehash. Expected much better than that. This is garbage

I happen to like this variant because it's classic venom. However, I do not like how they just reused the same exact panel from ASM 299. It comes across as lazy. I hope having Venom on earth makes him more intimidating again.

That's a parody of McFarlane's Venom. His old artwork. Why would he come back to Marvel after all this time?

Ever sincce the merger w/Gamespot it feels like Comic Vine is going downhill. I stopped following them on Twitter because they changed the account to "Gamespot Universe". If I wanted to follow Gamespot I'd follow Gamespot.

@bl00dwerk: I have noticed there are less articles posted. Sometimes a day or so goes by without an article also I miss comic reviews it seems they only review one or two titles a week now.

Just a re-colour of a panel from 1988. Did they think we wouldn't notice? How lazy can you get.

Yeah...not very impressive

Stop it Marvel.

Just. Stop it.

@bl00dwerk: @br_havoc: its true ...i noticed that this site is going downhill fast ....they said that the gamespot merge wouldnt affect comicvine but it has ....tony and matt are gamespot writers now and theyre letting this site fall off ....less podcasts too ....no more battles less articles ... Even last weeks podcast they sounded like they wanted to be all about gamespot and talking movies entertainment ect....tony still reads alot of comics and reviews them but matt is clueless half the time ....matt is always like didnt have time to read it lol then matt talks about the movie popstar lol wtf....c'mon guys dont lose yourself in the gamestop site crap...remember us at comicvine ....matt read some more books so you dont sound dumbfounded during the reviews ....matt we dont care about the movie Jungle book or Popstar athough both were excellent ... Or wwf...bring back battle of the week ect ...dont fall off ...we're noticing ....ps comics are my life i read them and still work and have two kids ....dont get too busy or too hollywood..

Sad part is i was really hoping for some new Venom art from Mcfarlane. They just reused his old art from back in the day... in also hearing people these will be 1:1000 variant. I wouldnt spend big bucks on this...