Al Ewing and Carlos Gómez's All-New Venom has so far revolved around the secret identity of Venom's "all-new" host.
Following the clues alongside Dylan Brock, we've ruled out various suspects over the months, including the characters originally named as the four main possibilities: Luke Cage, Madame Masque, Rick Jones, and Robbie Robertson.
While fans became nearly certain the new symbiote hero was the hugely unpopular Paul Rabin, this week's All-New Venom #5 reveals the shocking truth that it's his girlfriend and occasional superhero Jackpot, Mary Jane Watson.
Talking to AIPT, Venom editor Jordan D. White was asked why Marvel Comics decided to have MJ become the Venom Symbiote's latest host.
"We started with the idea of a mystery host, and there was a dinner where we started throwing around ideas for who the host could be," he started. "So while we didn’t kick off the whole idea of the book with MJ in place, it was at that first planning dinner that we locked her in, and she’s been the center of the book ever since."
"What the conversation looked like...well, it started with just spitballing really random ideas, but once the idea of MJ came up, we started circling her until we could not deny it was the best idea."
"I think, like a lot of really great ideas, the first reaction was, 'No! Obviously we cannot do that, that would never work!' But the more we thought about it, the more the reasons not to do it revealed themselves to be reasons to do it," White continued. "The things that made us say 'No' were the very things that would be most interesting to explore for her character."
While Mary Jane was seemingly chosen relatively early on in the process of crafting All-New Venom, several suspects didn't make the cut. It's a shame too because they're far more compelling possibilities than Robbie Robertson and Madame Masque, for example!
"Very early on, I think both Kraven and Norman Osborn were names that we threw out that seemed really appealing," White said. "This was before the whole 'Trial of Madame Masque' angle came about - Al came up with that as it was a great way to fit the four characters that we landed on."
"But yeah - with Kraven, I think the main reason we didn’t go with it was that there have been stories about Kraven in a symbiote before. The same is true with Norman as well, and additionally, they had a lot of plans to use him in Amazing Spider-Man at the same time our book would be happening," the editor concluded.
Issue #6 of All-New Venom will reveal the story of how MJ became Venom, and we have a new piece of artwork from the series hinting at what looks to be a unique dynamic between the two heroes.
THE ORIGIN OF THE ALL-NEW VENOM! Now we know WHO the All-New Venom is...the question is HOW? What happened after the events of the Venom War? Why did the symbiote choose this host - and why can't they separate? Jackpot confronts Venom - and she may not like what she finds out!
ALL-NEW VENOM #6
Written by AL EWING
Artwork by CARLOS GOMEZ
Cover by ADAM KUBERT