Sure, it’s wonderful news that Tom Holland will be continuing as Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the one missed chance from this arising is that he won’t be seen with Tom Hardy’s Venom.
Venom started out Sony’s Marvel Universe with a bang, as the film grossed over $850 million worldwide, with further films like Morbius due out soon. This means there were several potential Spider-Man/Venom stories we won’t get, and all we can do is come up with angles that would’ve made this dynamic a winning one for Sony. With this in mind, here are 10 storylines we could have seen between Tom Hardy’s Venom and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
Venom As The Mentor
Since any references to the MCU were a no-no, there couldn’t have been mentions of Tony Stark, who was a permanent fixture in Peter’s life. This would have left this character - someone who absolutely needed to have a mentor - without one of his distinctive traits. Here’s where Eddie would have been used.
Seeing as this version of Eddie is around a decade and a half older than Peter, he could have filled in the position of being his mentor. Plus, both of them have almost exactly the same kind of powers, meaning Eddie would’ve shown Peter the ropes, and we would’ve been treated to several scenes of them swinging around New York city together.
Battling Carnage Together
It’s clear that Carnage will be the antagonist in Venom 2, so there’s no doubt that Spider-Man would’ve featured heavily in this struggle. Rather than have Spider-Man in his own movie, his introduction could’ve been in the second Venom film as a supporting character.
Carnage is generally more powerful than Venom, which is why Eddie would’ve been shown seeking Peter out in order to have the both of them go up against the threat of Carnage. This would easily have established Tom’s Spider-Man in this universe, seeing as Carnage is an apex villain whose defeat would bring validation to this team-up.
The Origins Of Holland's Spider-Man
Eddie had had a long career before Venom started out, and he was famous for dealing with big-time cases for years. Using this backstory, we could’ve been shown that Tom’s Peter had been Spider-Man for quite a while himself, with Eddie having been around the scene of the incident where the spider bit Peter.
This would have set them up to meet with both of them now having powers, and there wouldn’t have been a need to establish an angle for them to be acquainted with one another, not when Eddie would’ve been responsible for inadvertently setting the spider on Peter in the first place.
The Symbiote Chasing Peter
As the Venom symbiote loves to have a host who can endure its possession, it’s easy to see that it would bail on Eddie and prefer Peter to be the new host. With the powers of Spider-Man at its disposal, the symbiote would abandon Eddie.
In this scenario, Eddie would want to protect Peter from the harmful influence of the symbiote and seek the latter out to warn him. The story could go either way from here; Peter could reject the symbiote, or he could have been shown preferring its powerful presence in tandem with his spider powers.
"Jerk" Spider-Man
Spider-Man 3’s major criticism was the “jerk” Peter Parker, who came across more as a delusional loser than a cool guy the film was trying to paint him as, and Tom’s Spider-Man could have done better on this angle
After getting under control of the symbiote, Peter would be shown getting his newfound powers to his head, leading him to become more of an antagonist than a protagonist; this would cause Eddie to intervene and force the symbiote out of Peter and show him how to control the symbiote, rather than letting it control him.
Eddie Becoming Evil
It’s only in recent times that the Venom character has been played off as a protagonist, as the original stories had him be Spider-Man’s archenemy. We have to admit we do miss the times when Eddie and Venom were simply bad guys rather than being anti-heroes, and Tom’s Spider-Man could have been up against a villainous Eddie.
Since there would not have been a need for a good guy Venom if Sony’s Spider-Man universe had its main hero, the story could have seen Eddie embracing the dark side of the symbiote, leading to Spider-Man swinging in and taking Venom out for good and establishing himself as the city’s new hero.
Investigating Together
Eddie and Peter are traditionally rivals at the Daily Bugle, but Tom Hardy’s Eddie was already shown to be a big-time reporter for a youngster like Tom Holland’s Peter to be a threat to him. So, the story could’ve swerved tradition by having these two work together.
Eddie would’ve been the one to plan the investigative reporting, while Peter would have filled in as the photographer. As one can imagine, this would lead the two of them to the seediest of places where they would come across potential bad guys like the Kingpin and be forced to use their superhero personas to fight out of tight spots.
Heading To Venom's Planet
The symbiote decided to stay on Earth because it was (like Eddie) a loser on its home planet, which was why it was more preferable to be somewhere like Earth where everything seems possible. Plans could’ve easily changed, though, and the sequel could’ve seen Peter and Eddie heading to the symbiote’s planet.
This would’ve been a great opportunity to replicate the adventure Spider-Man had in Avengers: Infinity War, as space-related stories are always a hit with audiences. The overall plotline could’ve seen Venom and Spider-Man heading to the symbiote’s planet to prevent any future symbiotes from harming Earth.
Multiple Venoms And Spider-Men
The post-credits scene of Venom was a trailer for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, leading to many fans excitedly wondering if these were all part of the same Multiverse. If this angle was given the go-ahead, then we would’ve had the biggest fan-pleasing scenario: The return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men.
Along with the team-up of the three Spider-Men, there could’ve been multiple versions of Venom showing up as well (excluding Spider-Man 3’s Venom, of course), setting up an awesome plot where multiple versions of Spider-Men and Venoms work together to stop a Multiverse level of threat. Maybe even Madame Web could’ve made an appearance.
Eddie Revealed To Be Responsible For Uncle Ben's Death
Spider-Man 3 had retroactively made Sandman out to be the killer of Uncle Ben, and a similar method could’ve been used to make Eddie responsible for the uncle’s death in this universe.
We’ve never found out what happened to Tom Holland’s Uncle Ben, so it would’ve been an easy route to show that Eddie had unknowingly set up Uncle Ben’s death by having him come between a dangerous investigative reporting job. This would also have set up the Venom and Spider-Man conflict, as the latter would want both answers and revenge over the death of his uncle.