Marvel announced earlier today that the original host of Venom and current host of Toxin in the Carnage series by Gerry Conway. Brock will replace current host Lee Price on apparently issue #6, having Price only be venom for a whopping 5 issues.

This new volume comes off the back of a 5-year run of longtime Spider-man supporting cast member Flash Thompson carrying the mantle as Agent Venom and Later Venom: Space Knight. This run redefined the Venom character and made the former villain a real hero, as a both a member of the Secret Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. This change in the status quo also added a level of diversity to one of the largest icons in the Marvel Universe, since Thompson was a double amputee thanks to his time in Iraq.

Diversity seems like a major goal in Marvel Comics right now seeing as almost all of their major legacy characters have been replaced with younger more diverse people (see Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc.), So the decision to replace their diverse character with another "boring straight white male" seems like such a weird decision that doesn't seem to fit with their current editorial mission. However, Marvel is no longer just a publishing house, they're now a multi-media entertainment company. We also know longtime Venom antagonist Spider-Man is getting his first solo Marvel Studios Film this summer, so does this mean that we will see Brock appear in "Homecoming"? Marvel has a long history of returning characters to their status quo right before a major media appearance, So maybe this is something we should expect?

Personally, as a longtime Spider-Man fan, I'm disappointed to see Marvel continue to reference and want to return to the worst era in Spider-history: The Clone Saga. We have now seen Marvel do yet another "epic" clone event which now featured the return of Ben Reily (Also getting his own book), and now even Venom is returning to the state he was at in the 1990's. Does this mean Marvel is out of ideas? They have no idea what to do with Venom (Even though Thompson was only 5 years old and the fanbase had responded really kindly to him) They have to dig up "Lethal Protector"(A story the promotion material for issue #1 had said was "No more!")

This seems to me like even more proof that Marvel knows they don't have to try to sell comics anymore. Being subsidized by Disney means they don't have to work as hard to sell books as DC does. The clear commitment to fans DC is making in it's current Rebirth is made even more obvious by this example of Marvel doing the opposite.

Thoughts on Brock returning to Venom? I know some people are fans