It's official: Venom has finally outgrown Spider-Man. Everybody knows the story of Venom; the alien costume brought to Earth by Spider-Man, transformed into one of his most dangerous foes. Bonded to the vengeful and vindictive Eddie Brock, the Venom symbiote became obsessed with destroying Peter Parker's life.
It didn't take Marvel long to realize Venom's potential, and by the early '90s, they had decided to transform the tongue-slavering symbiote into an antihero rather than an outright villain. The Venom: Lethal Protector miniseries kicked off with a truce between Eddie Brock and Spider-Man, with Venom moving to San Francisco. Still, those first attempts to establish Venom as a standalone character in his own rights were feeble and faltering. It didn't take long for the better-known and more popular Spider-Man to head to San Francisco in pursuit of Venom, and the wall-crawler regularly had secondary roles in Venom ongoing series. Venom largely felt like a Spider-Man sub-brand, explaining why film rights for him are packaged with the webheads.
All that has changed over the last few years, largely because of writer Donny Cates. He revealed the ancient history of the symbiote race, binding them to a cosmic threat known as Knull, the god of the symbiotes. Knull lived in the void before the Big Bang and fought against light and life since the beginning of time. He is the one who created the symbiotes, and he is also responsible for forging the Necrosword, a weapon so powerful it can kill the very gods. This arc reframes Venom, taking him away from his usual street-level vigilantism and making him a key player on a cosmic stage.
Supporting this approach, Cates has established further thematic distance between Spider-Man and Venom by revealing there have been symbiotes on Earth long before Eddie Brock. In fact, during the Vietnam War, the US Government ran a secret task force of symbiotes. Cates has further moved some Spider-Man villains into Venom's own rogues' gallery, developing Carnage as a servant of Knull and focusing on the mutual vendetta between Venom and Carnage. It's telling that, while Spider-Man did indeed appear in the recent "Absolute Carnage" event, in truth this was a Venom event. It feels like a milestone moment for Venom, suggesting he has finally outgrown Spider-Man.
This has apparently been confirmed by this week's Venom #25, which is pitched as another milestone issue - and doesn't feature Spider-Man. Instead, Venom finally realizes the stakes are too high, and he approaches the Avengers for help. It doesn't appear to suggest Venom is becoming an Avenger anytime soon, although that would hardly be a surprise and there look to be interesting sparks between Eddie Brock and Captain Marvel; but it clearly positions him for a major Avengers team-up in which he allies with Earth's Mightiest Heroes for a cosmic adventure. It looks as though Venom has stepped out of Spider-Man's shadow - and there's no going back.