"My problem with Venom as a lead character is that he's such a bad guy," Amazing Spider-Man editor Stephen Wacker told
Comic Book Resources in a recent interview.
"It's hard to make him a hero when he's eating people."
However, the site go on to reveal something even more interesting. The identity of the new Venom!
He said that Flash Thompson would be a great host for the Venom symbiote, and the pitch was built from there. Wacker did not realize he was not supposed to reveal that Flash was the new Venom. "You're giving it away!" Remender said. There was general laughter.
I'd figured this one out since it was announced that a member of Spider-Man's supporting cast would be bonded with the symbiote! A great decision by Marvel though I think. You can read the entire interview with both Wacker and writer Rick Remender by following the link at the bottom of the page. Here are a few more excerpts about what to expect from the title courtesy of the site.
"What he's got is advanced technology, he's got the armed forces behind him, but it's just straight-up U.S. armed forces" rather than S.H.I.E.L.D., Remender said. Wacker added that Venom would have a large armament "beyond these giant teeth."
Asked about "building a threat that Venom can't eat," Remender said that making the weapon of the suit itself a danger helps build tension. The writer described Flash as "a true patriot" but "one with a temper." "He cannot let his temper get out of control, or the symbiote will take over," he said. At that point, "the teeth come out" and he may start killing indiscriminately. "The hard resolutions, the murdering that he might have to do, will come at moments you completely don't expect it—unless he loses control."
The suit will need to be removed after a certain time limit, Wacker said, to keep it from bonding with Flash's psyche. Remender added that there's a twenty-mission limit—"they don't want any one person wearing this thing more than twenty times. You've also got a character in Flash who's been disabled serving his country, and now he's no longer bound to a wheelchair but is swinging through the city and bounding through the Savage Land," Remender said, adding additional stakes to the time limit.
"The other interesting thing is Flash, who is historically Spider-Man's greatest fan in the world, now has the powers and could be Spider-Man's greatest enemy in the world."
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