I’m on record as really liking the black costume on Spider-Man because it makes him look more like a spider, man. It’s also easier to draw because you don’t need to do all those webpatterns. Get the white spider symbol correct, give a blue tint to the outer part of the body so it doesn’t blend into anything black (including itself), and you have a really good costume. The problem is by the time fans warmed up to it the creators were already trying to get rid of it after fans complained. Also Todd McFarlane but I don’t care what he thinks.
Going from “costume responding to Peter’s thoughts” to ” brain-eating symbiote” is quite the journey, but the following video by Overly Sarcastic Productions is more of an overview of Venom and the black costume, and how his early appearances have become a part of multiversal continuity. Like or hate him (and Sam Rami hated him but was forced to use him anyway), the various versions of the black goo symbiote are part of Spider-Man’s history and backstory. While Red and Blue don’t go over the entire history of Venom specifically and the symbiotes in general, and I wish it had been a full symbiote retrospective in comics, TV, and video games (this came out because of Venom’s debut in the Sony Spider-Man 2 game) but it’s still an interesting brief history and way too long for a quickpost. Also, I have thoughts I want to add. The title of the video is “The Symbiote: Spider-Man’s Perfect Flaw”, as they go over why Venom, or more specifically Peter’s history with the black costume have become part of Peter Parker’s story.
If Blue likes the symbiote coming to the Sony gameverse he must have loved Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows, a game where everyone gets hit with symbiotes like it was an episode of Popcross Studio’s “Venomized” series. I’m kind of curious about it, but seeing as I don’t even like playing Venom in the Ultimate Spider-Man game (except when I get to beat the daylights out of Wolverine…hate that guy ordinarily and this is the Ultimate Universe Wolverine who deserves my loathing) I’m not sure how well I’d get into it. Someday I should at least watch a playthrough. I’ve watched many games I either won’t or won’t be able to play. In Web Of Shadows symbiotes take over numerous superheroes and other citizens. Peter has to occasionally risk using a symbiote himself to fight them. Use the symbiote too often or for too long and you turn Peter evil (possibly into the symbiote leader but I haven’t played the game), but the good ending I think is all the symbiotes gone. I bet you get to beat up Wolverine again. That alone would be worth it.
The 90s Spider-Man cartoon by Fox Kids and Saban Entertainment is the best Spider-Man adaptation, though the next voice actor, Rino Romano of Spider-Man: Unlimited, is my favorite Peter/Spidey. (That did have an episode where Peter is forced to rescue the symbiote to save Eddie’s life, but it’s not in the same vein of what’s being discussed here.) The symbiote warping Peter’s mind and making him more aggressive does make it seem like more of a personal threat to Peter than just “it won’t let me go to sleep”. There are some advantages to that. Say if Peter is knocked out the symbiote could still save the day, perhaps without as strong a moral fiber as Peter, but he could teach it by example to be better. Here, the “suit” is just evil and needs to be gotten off before it destroys Peter and everything he stands for as a superhero. I guess the symbiote feeds off of strong emotions in this version (brains are not an approved Saturday morning food item, even on 1990s Fox Kids) and it makes the symbiote more of a threat and less of a gross-out.
Oh, and you really should hear Christopher Daniel Barnes reading that line.
It works better in context but there’s a reason Barnes is also one of my favorite Spider-Man VAs. He might not make the two identities that distinct vocally (come to think of it Neil Patrick Harris is the only one to really try for Mainframe’s series) but he does manage to get their “personalities” separate. Peter isn’t usually jokey and Spider-Man is a bit more confident.
I honestly can’t speak to the black suit arc when it comes to Sam Rami’s Spider-Man 3. I know Peter just being a jerk isn’t the same as the aggressive battle for his morals that the Fox Kids and Spectacular cartoon did but outside of that my problem wasn’t with the unnecessary addition of Venom. Rami himself hated Venom and was forced by Marvel or possibly Sony (this is when they first had the licence they continue to protect even when they can’t make a good Peter Parker film) to include him. No, I still don’t want to see it because of Sandman being retconned as Uncle Ben’s killer. It’s somehow WORSE than the Joker killing Bruce’s parents in Tim Burton’s Batman. With Batman’s origin we know about Joe Chill though not a lot about his history unless you’re a die-hard bat-fan and know something I don’t. With Ben’s killer? I don’t even think we know his name. Again, maybe a die-hard Spider-Man knows about a story involving him but he and Joe Chill are really just plot devices, a nameless killer who dries the hero to become the hero.
Uncle Ben’s death at the hands of a guy Peter could have tripped without powers drives the whole power/responsibility message into him and leads him to fight crime rather than appear on TV. Making him one of Peter’s gallery of villains isn’t just pointless it’s unnecessary. The personal connection to his life already came in the first movie with Norman Osborn and with Harry taking his place as Green Goblin in the sequel. This was the most unnecessary retcon Rami could have made, and that includes the organic webbing. Yes, the kid with a knack for chemistry and engineering with the biological instincts of a spider couldn’t possibly create silly string in a superhero universe. Please, Sam. You’re supposed to be a fan. I didn’t even know about Hobgoblin being in the movie.
As far as Spectacular Spider-Man goes, I have to admit my own bias. I didn’t a review when it first came out but of course that came out at a really bad time in my life, which didn’t help my assessment of it. (Also it was the first two hospital stays from the Crohn’s, which started the chain of events that led to the creation of BW Media Spotlight in the first place.) Had I reviewed it, my problems were in the regular adaptation. Greg Weisman opted to set the show at high school but included the supporting cast Peter wouldn’t pick up until college. Gwen went from an outgoing yet intelligent woman to a nervous geeky girl because Peter having an attractive girlfriend seems impossible to modern Spider-Writers. Eddie Brock is practically the Ultimate universe version. It only barely feels like Spider-Man (not as bad as the Disney XD series, which feels like they slapped Spidey into an original concept I would have enjoyed otherwise), so it’s tough for me to really get into it. It’s on the Throwback Toons YouTube channel so maybe I’ll try again someday, but these issues still ruin my enjoyment versus Blue’s. I barely remember the Venom arc as a result.
That said, Josh Keaton does a good job portraying the slowly darkening Peter work. When still bully Flash Thompson is the voice of reason (and is probably the easiest Flash for me to believe eventually gets redeemed like in the comics) you know you’re going too far.
I can’t deny this version is very well done. It’s Greg Weisman after all. While I can disagree with some of his adaptation choices when it comes to Spidey and Young Justice, the man knows his superhero stories and there’s a reason Gargoyles wasn’t his only success.
What’s YOUR favorite version of the Black Costume arc? Could there have been a way for Peter to keep the “costume” without losing his soul? That might have been interesting to see.
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