Symbrock: when a grimy human disaster and a chompy goo alien are in love
October 25, 2018 6:30 PM   Subscribe

How Venom's Unspoken Symbiote Love Story Beat Out the Internet's Most Popular Pairings. Trashed by film critics, the comics superhero movie Venom has nonetheless won vocal approval from the Internet: "as of Monday, October 15, 'Symbrock,' the most popular ship name for the romantic pairing of Venom hero Eddie Brock and his chaotic hanger-on Venom, was the number-one most-talked-about ship on Tumblr." Intentional or not, "Venom is a god damn queer rom-com," with erotic and romantic themes straight from the comics. The fantastic primer Eddie Brock’s Body: An Artistic Overview of the Venom Symbiote traces the history and hotness of Venom, including the origins of THAT TONGUE. (Movie spoilers, comics spoilers, and NSFW links within.)

VENOM, The Comics
VENOM, The Movie
  • The Mary Sue: Venom, Subtext, and the Race for On-Screen LGBT+ Representation: "The only major superhero film with a canon LGBT+ hero is [Deadpool 2] with Negasonic Teenage Warhead [...] With that in mind, it’s sort of easy to see why Venom generated this much fandom excitement. It doesn’t talk down to LGBT+ fans, and while it certainly doesn’t go the full monty, it also doesn’t shy away from the inherent queerness of the Eddie/Venom relationship. They move as one, try to save each other, and in the end form a strong bond and respect that makes both of them less terrible. Also, it was Venom’s idea to kiss Eddie. We are so desperate for a canonical LGBT+ romance onscreen in a superhero film that Venom has, somehow, become the queerest of all the films just by embracing the innate couple-y nature of the protagonists."
  • Tumblr, Venom (2018) is a Romcom, and here's why: "with a bit of googling, I found out that most articles have referred to the same source when it came to the romcom plot structure: a book 'Writing the Romantic Comedy' by Billy Mernit. According to him, all romantic comedies can be broken down into seven story beats. How many of those would you guess does Venom follow? Hint: it’s all of them."
  • io9, Venom's Sexuality Is a Sticky, Fluid, Freudian Mess: "Venom allows Eddie to tap into parts of himself that are dark and dangerous—animalistic to the point of being horrific, but at the same time, the experience of being bonded to the alien is ultimately a pleasurable one, something that Eddie’s loathe to admit to anyone, in part because no one else can really understand what it’s like."
  • Polygon, Fan art of Venom and Eddie Brock’s relationship celebrates the romantic side + io9, The Internet Loves the Love Between Eddie Brock and the Symbiote: mostly-safe-for-work fanart posts!
  • AO3, [VID] Gonna Make It After All: 🎵You can have the town, why don't you take it?🎵

VENOM, The Tumblr Discourse (all Tumblr posts may be NSFW, flashing GIFs, and/or Tumblr-locked)
Non-Toxic Masculinity Eat the Rich
  • "It is a fucking MOOD that we've all collectively decided head-chomping codependent monster romance is the comfort read we need right now"
  • "In the spirit of Venom (2018), I say we gather all of our billionaires and shoot them into space in a rocket that is set to explode"
  • "the only reason venom is getting bad reviews is because he would 100% eat the rich & people are scared that he would singlehandedly overthrow capitalism"
  • "our government might be falling apart at the seams but you know what's holding together my sanity? symbrock is canon"
posted by nicebookrack (88 comments total) 48 users marked this as a favorite
 
they are boyfrans
posted by poffin boffin at 6:33 PM on October 25, 2018 [24 favorites]


flagged as fantastic

I need to see this movie but mostly because the fanbase of monsterfuckers rolling gleefully across my feeds has given me such joy
posted by sciatrix at 6:34 PM on October 25, 2018 [10 favorites]


*CACKLES*
I was into venom as a kid because why not- and I was on the fence about seeing it because I'm a little burnt out on superhero flicks and fuck Sony... BUT the fandom reaction convinced me- AND I REGRET NOTHING 10/10 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR
Give Tom Hardy a goddamn Oscar.
Also every piece of symbrock fanart/fanfic I see or read adds two months to my lifespan.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:36 PM on October 25, 2018 [16 favorites]


Apparently this makes me a monsterfucker and you know what? I'm down.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:36 PM on October 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


Also: Tom Hardy is a monsterfucker!
In an interview pre-movie with him and Riz Ahmed, someone asked him what would happen in a Predator vs Alien vs Venom situation his answer was I KID YOU NOT: Gangbang.
Riz Ahmed looked more than a little shocked at that answer and Tom Hardy had that wonderful look on his face where he wondered if he had just said that out loud.
ONE OF US.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:47 PM on October 25, 2018 [37 favorites]


as a somewhat relevant aside, i am always delighted when a new area of fandom discovers the wonders of tom hardy and then makes the tragic decision to revisit some of the earlier works in his oeuvre, many of which are extremely bad, extremely weird, or both; and further, their shrieks of horrified glee when they discover the glorious images and text from his old myspace page.

tom hardy, the gift that will never stop giving
posted by poffin boffin at 6:48 PM on October 25, 2018 [32 favorites]


glorious images and text from his old myspace page.

hee hee hee hee
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:50 PM on October 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


Count me as yet another person who's been reblogging Venom stuff, at first ironically, but now, like, earnestly. Anyway, I regret to inform you that at this juncture, I cannot deny that I am Into It.

I feel this venn diagram accurately represents why fandom has decided they, too, are into it. I for one am incredibly charmed by how weirdly wholesome a lot of the fan art and fic is. Like, my assumption before seeing the movie was that it would generate a fandom imprint of edgy and depraved monsterfucking, a repository for all manner of weird xeno kinks and assorted alarming uses of that tongue, and yeah, sure there's some of that, but also a whole lot of fluff.
posted by yasaman at 6:52 PM on October 25, 2018 [8 favorites]


LOL, I've been seeing the gleeful monsterfucker chorus (self-identifications as such) ever since The Shape of Water apparently unleashed a collective id somewhere, and Venom is apparently adding onto a banner year. It just makes me grin because it might not be my thing--right now I have no investment in comics Venom and haven't seen the movie yet myself--but those kids are having so much fun and the total glee is completely infectious.

It is a little disconcerting when the very nsfw humor memes come floating across my dash courtesy of my sixteen year old baby sister, but then again that's the price I pay for being mutuals with family.
posted by sciatrix at 6:53 PM on October 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


Bah, this is Upgrade erasure and I will not stand for people overlooking that a Venom movie somehow was made with a Tom Hardy clone before the real one came out.
posted by Apocryphon at 6:53 PM on October 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


Oh, and another tumblr post that I feel pretty well encapsulates the appeal:

Half of Venom fandom: “What if you had a sentient doggie who loved you and could talk?”

The other half of Venom fandom: “What if your id could eat your enemies and fuck your brains out?”
posted by yasaman at 6:55 PM on October 25, 2018 [23 favorites]


humanity at large has failed us and now we will fuck the monsters and no one can stop us

although i do think the whole "the babadook is a gay icon" was probably the start of the recent spate of monsterphilia in general.
posted by poffin boffin at 6:55 PM on October 25, 2018 [10 favorites]


as a somewhat relevant aside, i am always delighted when a new area of fandom discovers the wonders of tom hardy

my current favorite is the recent discussion of Tom Hardy and the lobster tank scene
posted by sciatrix at 6:56 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


There is no way in hell the movie can be anywhere near as good as the fan art.
posted by Artw at 6:57 PM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


oh yeah how could I forget the babadook! also the clownfuckers thing, but I associated that one with more of the whole raging drama about whether or not it was acceptable to hc pennywise as queer and whether any given permutation of that was somehow homophobic

the clownfuckers did not seem to be having any fun at all
posted by sciatrix at 6:58 PM on October 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


I mean, we're living in the gilded age power-fantasy and masturbatory self-exploration and gratification. Everything that goes into 90s era Venom's appeal: the dangerous loner, the variable body, the sharp and the gross and the maximalist body-horror. X-treme comics making good on all of the "I'm a monster' psycho-sexual baggage from the Universal monsters age tied up in a black rubber costume that's equal parts tight latex bondage gear and exploding latex gore FX. Take all that and filter it through the kinetic overload of high speed First Person Shooters and hot-and-cold running Pornhub and the Symbiote is the unsleeping auto-erotic face of modern romance.
posted by es_de_bah at 6:58 PM on October 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


makes the tragic decision to revisit some of the earlier works in his oeuvre, many of which are extremely bad, extremely weird, or both

Look. I am a Trekkie. OK. So my first introduction to Tom Hardy was Nemesis and I don't feel I should apologize for that OK.

There is no way in hell the movie can be anywhere near as good as the fan art.

I felt as you did, and then I saw the movie and I became a galaxy brain.

my current favorite is the recent discussion of Tom Hardy and the lobster tank scene

OSCAR
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:59 PM on October 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


ugh i blocked out the gross pennywise thing bc of the pedo connotations. i am pro pennywise erasure.
posted by poffin boffin at 7:02 PM on October 25, 2018 [5 favorites]


NOT DOWN WITH THE CLOWN.
posted by Artw at 7:04 PM on October 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


yes yes shove pennywise back into the sewer where he belongs BRING ME MORE ENTHUSIASTIC MONSTERFUCKER JOY
posted by sciatrix at 7:05 PM on October 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


"why yes I do make my own memes what else would you have me do in this economy"
posted by poffin boffin at 7:20 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


New cute venom form
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:29 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


we interrupt your regularly scheduled inktober to bring you: This
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:31 PM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


This collection of links can't come at a better time. I still haven't seen the movie but honestly? I'm enjoying learning via fannish osmosis. Also I was on ao3 last night, and I can't hate a fandom that's generating 160% increase in wholesome tentacle porn.
posted by cendawanita at 7:32 PM on October 25, 2018 [8 favorites]


Hokusai is shook
posted by roger ackroyd at 7:35 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


I have a half-baked theory about how this whole monsterfucking renaissance is at least partially a reaction to how awful it is to be a woman in 2018. Like, we would rather gleefully fuck literal monsters than engage with the male half of our own species.
posted by merriment at 7:39 PM on October 25, 2018 [41 favorites]


at least the symbiote was honest about its intentions
posted by poffin boffin at 7:43 PM on October 25, 2018 [13 favorites]


I wasn't even going to see this movie, why would I ever see this movie, but I was just casually on Tumblr and now not only have I seen it but my AO3 history is now full of things I'd have an even harder time explaining to people than when it was all Hannibal stuff, fics with tag lists that go like:

"Xenophilia, Autoerotic Asphyxiation, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Interspecies Romance, Masochism, eddie isnt even like a sexy masochist he just gets off on being genuinely uncomfortable, Medical Inaccuracies, Recreational Drug Use, Smoking, Canon Compliant, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Animal Death, Bizarre Coping Methods, Implied/Referenced Cannibalism, Developing Relationship, Body Horror, Blood and Gore"

I have no idea what this says about me, that I was so easily taken in by this, but apparently now I'm going to admit this in public just so that nobody else feels alone. But, like, the actual relatable queer part of this was the whole "I love you even though there's nothing but tater tots in your freezer" thing.
posted by Sequence at 7:45 PM on October 25, 2018 [18 favorites]


I have a half-baked theory about how this whole monsterfucking renaissance is at least partially a reaction to how awful it is to be a woman in 2018. Like, we would rather gleefully fuck literal monsters than engage with the male half of our own species.

I have literally given my partner this explanation when he asked why so many women seemed to be into the Shape of Water fishman.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:47 PM on October 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


The ao3 tags also include such gems as: "he’s sad but then he takes care of a cat and a plant and gets an alien bf", "Canon-Typical Weird Stuff Eating" and "venom is a softie" Like you could make an FPP just on Ao3 tags alone it is GLORIOUS.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:47 PM on October 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


i used to think that there was a cinema-meets-real-life chance that humanity could be somehow united by the threat of extraterrestrial invasion but now i know that under those circumstances, women and gays would be like "we will be your alien brides if you agree to hungrily devour the rest of the men" instead.
posted by poffin boffin at 7:49 PM on October 25, 2018 [37 favorites]


Yeah, I was very agnostic on this movie until this post, but the combination of Tom Hardy (<3), queerness, male masochism, body horror, and anti-capitalism has convinced me this is going to be extremely my thing.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:49 PM on October 25, 2018 [7 favorites]


which naturally i support wholeheartedly and without reservation
posted by poffin boffin at 7:50 PM on October 25, 2018 [5 favorites]


i used to think that there was a cinema-meets-real-life chance that humanity could be somehow united by the threat of extraterrestrial invasion but now i know that under those circumstances, women and gays would be like "we will be your alien brides if you agree to hungrily devour the rest of the men" instead.

Ahem.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:51 PM on October 25, 2018 [14 favorites]


Other good tags from Venom fic: "An Obsene Amount of Food", "not kidding about that rating", "gay love can pierce the veil of death and save the day", "Eddie Brock’s depression times", "Venom is the real love of Eddie's life don't worry", "Venom is a whiny dramatic blob", and of course: "Venom is a little shit and Eddie loves him for it"
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:54 PM on October 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


also good:

"Venom is too powerful for a gender fite me"
"Venom is just a hungry bitch"
"Venom-dom?"
"casual consumption of bad people's faces"
"tfw u share a body but still manage to get the 'mutual pining' tag"
"Can Venom be fluffy?", "He sure tries"

(I love that the most popular additional tag is Fluff by a country mile)
posted by sciatrix at 8:08 PM on October 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


Venom is basically your two psycho-exes hooking up and forming an extremely weird and co-dependent relationship.
posted by Grimgrin at 8:15 PM on October 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


Well now that people are Intrigued enough to watch it I feel like I need the warning disclaimer that VENOM IS NOT A GOOD MOVIE; PLEASE GET DRUNK BEFORE WATCHING FOR FULL ENJOYMENT: the pacing is horrible, with the first 30 minutes dragging and the last third of the film whipping past plot holes with no explanation; heroes and villains alike do dumb shit for paper-thin reasons because the plot demands it; the dialogue is literally out of an Edgy ExxxTREME '90s comicbook; Michelle Williams's terrible wig is only the second-most terrible hairpiece in the movie. But MY GOD the movie is so fun and so queer and so CHOMPY, and once Tom Hardy as Eddie gets involved with Tom Hardy as Venom the movie is worth twice the price of admission, because both Tom Hardys give it HIS ALL to the utmost weirdo limit. OSCAR!

When I say that I would watch Tom Hardy as Eddie/Venom read the phonebook, I mean that Venom (2018) is the phonebook and I will pay to see as many sequels as they make with Tom Hardy's Eddie and Venom squabbling over getting dinner at McDonald's versus breaking into skyscrapers to eat CEOs, while also expressing their violent devotion to each other.
posted by nicebookrack at 8:16 PM on October 25, 2018 [22 favorites]


My ex who is also my good friend lurks here and the minute I commented in this post she texted me to ROAST ME about Venom since I dragged her with me to watch it two Sundays ago. I deserve it entirely and I REGRET NOTHING.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:18 PM on October 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


I realize my last post was a little giddy and unfocused and didn't really show its work. Let me break it down. I think Venom is the perfect sexy monster for our time.

The horror comics and films of the 1920s-50s were all about sexual suppression. Your classic monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Gilman, etc. These are all expression of goopy, hairy sexual power. Polite society was teaching kids to think in terms of clean, straight-laced, cys, polite modern chastity and these monsters were standing in for all the gross, dangerous, bestial, confusing secret sexual energy kept under wraps by modern society. All that stuff you're not allowed to talk about becomes the stuff of scary stories to tell in the dark. All that internalized shame and fear about the generation's natural sexual thoughts made these monsters first something to be afraid of THEN SOMETHING TO IDENTIFY WITH. THEN MAYBE SOMETHING TO FIND ROMANTIC. Ceonsors pushed back.

Shoot forwards to the 2000s, and you've got sexy teen vampires and warewolves and zombies all over the YA literature landscape. Kids would rather ship at Hogwarts than their local mall, even though or perhaps because it's shot and scored like a big haunted castle.

The long transition period for all of this crested in the early 90s. During this time, the Comics Code was dropped and disregarded and violent horror tropes came screaming back into the mainstream. This is when Vertigo saw a beautiful heyday with Gaiman and Ennis and Ellis and Moore all doing amazing work bringing back the ghoulish styles that hadn't been allowed since the 50s and mashing up that lost art with the punk sensibilities of the day.

This is also when you saw big mainstream success with hyper-gore edge-lord characters like Spawn, Ghost Rider, Punisher, and Venom. Venom was the culmination of all of these trends. He was instantly recognizable as a black-metal version of the Spider Man brand. His body was a sleek and tight sexualized, with all the taught minimalism of modern super-hero design, but also comically over-sized with jagged edges at the hands and face, satisfying all the explosive, visceral messiness of hardcore gore. He's a walking Nine Inch Nails song perfectly blending shiny black S&M with the crunching of gears and the churning of guts. He's an HR Giger super hero. The messy horror orgasm teased out of half a century of tortured slasher-flick eroticism.

That was Eddie Brock in the 90s. Fast forward to the late 2010s, after a generation has discovered themselves sexually not be experimenting with other teens in basements and bedrooms, but by exploring the vast weird corners of the web. A generation that took sexy monsters as read, almost nonchalantly. The Symbiote is still relevant, though. The Symbiote can stretch and split, making remaking itself, making and remaking you into any crazy twisted shape you imagine. The ultimate in sexual fluidity. No limit except your own dirty imagination. It's as monstrous as it ever has been, and as sexy.
posted by es_de_bah at 8:25 PM on October 25, 2018 [16 favorites]


Man, I am a billion-word veteran of fanfic written and read, shipping the slimmest subtext...

I find 0 sexual tension/subtext in Venom. He's just a guy with a smart worm in his liver.
posted by taterpie at 8:40 PM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


The internet, uh, finds a way.
posted by Apocryphon at 8:41 PM on October 25, 2018 [7 favorites]


Tom Hardy hangs yet another mask over his fireplace!
posted by mwhybark at 8:41 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


I missed the canonization of the relationship in the comics, but it was always implicit in the comics, even before they were Venom proper. Not that long after the symbiote's origin in Secret Wars as Spider-Man's new costume (no complicated origin then, Peter needed a new costume and this random alien machine just sort of pooped it out), when he got back to Earth, he'd take his costume off after a busy day of crimefighting and throw it over a chair, and fall asleep. So, in the middle of the night, the costume would slide off the chair, creep across the floor to Peter's bed, and, uh

crawl onto his body

and

you know

envelop him

and then they'd swing off into the night to do things together that Peter wouldn't remember in the light of day

(and the webbing wasn't from Peter's mechanical webshooters, it was something that the symbiote would just, um, exude)

secret origins, indeed
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:59 PM on October 25, 2018 [11 favorites]


es_de_bah, I fucking love your whole comment AND it reminded me of links that fell off my list when I was copy/pasting the main post. So more bullet points for you all! posted by nicebookrack at 9:09 PM on October 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


Normally I'm, ummm, unimpressed with the waves of straight boys secretly banging each other because subtext thing. (I unfortunately have a few too many real-world "Chasing Amy" experiences to trust that the subtext behind the subtext is all fun and games.) But I have my own boy meets eldritch horror stuff in a git repo that I've been struggling to polish.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 9:09 PM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


Why are we not sharing recs? Like half of my recent bookmarks are venom. And I just added the OTP4 to my front-page. Because Dan is the best.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:34 PM on October 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


Also, I would very much like a Venom cartoon series. My kid was fine with him eating people (we watched a very edited version so the gory bits were all off-screen) and loved Venom SO MUCH but then she calls our most vicious black cat who will claw your eyeballs randomly no-joke her sweet baby.

The cosplay Venom costumes and make-up going around already are amazing. I can't wait to see what the animatronics cosplay people get up to with special effects IRL costumes.

I've already seen (but can't find the link) a knitted Venom scarf that looked amazing - wrap him around your neck and snuggle!
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:39 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


(i don't have any because i was surfing on incognito)
posted by cendawanita at 9:39 PM on October 25, 2018


Brunch on Laguna is objectively the best Venom (2018) fanfic because it features Doctor Boyfriend Dan being flawless and Eddie/Venom being possessive over pancakes. (Plus OT4 vibes.)
posted by nicebookrack at 9:41 PM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


i am unwilling to expose you all to the depths of my consentacles related depravity

but here are some recs that do not feel like the equivalent of handing you a paper bag full of xeno porn:

wrapped around your finger by arahir: very sweet
intra-personal negotiation by wildehack: venom and eddie communicate with each other across some cross-species barriers
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Monster by persepoline: Eddie and Venom flirt.
posted by yasaman at 9:44 PM on October 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


Even the mountain of depraved consentacles fic is all OVERWHELMINGLY FLUFFY, it's marvelous. Co-signing all 3 yasaman recs!
posted by nicebookrack at 9:49 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


don’t give up, don’t hang on (to anything i’ve said) - therm0dynamics (I think this is locked to AO3 but so worth it) Eddie/Carlton Brock HEAR ME OUT it's very weird and yet it works and there are monsters in all shapes and sizes.

Six Months Missing - xzombiexkittenx - Riot's time with the old woman, grudging respect.

Origin Story - Miscellany - post-Infinity War with Venom

Compartmentalising - Luki - Parasite, not symbiosis.

Good For You - magisterpavus - tentacle porn and tragic backstory, what more can you need?

romantic tomography - pigeonstatueconundrum - DR DAN IS THE BEST

Tangled in the Willows - Owlship - Furiosa/Eddie/Venom, do I need to say more?

One Week Notice - WonderAss - Strange AU that veers off and goes interesting (why not use the actual scientist? I have questions and yet it still works)
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 10:00 PM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


So far the Tumblr post that sums up this experience for me has been "What we have all learned is that nobody can draw Tom Hardy", and it's... really true. That said, the art has been so cute and the shipping so gleeful that WHO EVEN CARES.

This fandom is a comfort place after the horrific idiocy and nightmarish malice the news has become, and I am enjoying reading about Venom eating tech bros and politicians and guys with swastika tattoos.
posted by Rush-That-Speaks at 10:21 PM on October 25, 2018 [14 favorites]


'gritty' being an adjective that people use to describe Venom is making it hard to find something at the moment..
posted by Space Coyote at 10:47 PM on October 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


'Symbrock,' the most popular ship name for the romantic pairing of Venom hero Eddie Brock and his chaotic hanger-on Venom

Well, actually...


the correct name for this ship is Venom, because that's what Eddie + Symbiote is; Venom is not the name of the Symbiote, it's the name of their pairing and has been ever since they were first introduced in Amazing Spider-Man 300.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:50 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


There is no way in hell the movie can be anywhere near as good as the fan art.

I learned that lesson with Devilman Crybaby, a remake of the original seventies Devilman and which flooded my Twitter timeline with cute, fluffy depictions of gay women and the monster girls who loved them, as well as equally cute and fluffy depictions of the hero & villain together and sure, it was all horror but all these lovely people got their happy ending, right?

RIGHT?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:53 PM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


Venom (2018) has a happy ending, which makes it superior to all lesser unhappy monster romances‼

And MartinWisse, you are correct about the name of the comics Venom and symbiote. BUT the movie symbiote introduces himself to Eddie as Venom (spoilery vid clip), so the Movie and Comics Venoms are not going to match exactly in naming/gender/personality/etc.

("Why is an alien named Venom in English?" Because this is one of the thin parts of the plot you're meant to handwave!)
posted by nicebookrack at 12:08 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


That vid clip makes me want to see the movie again. WELP tomorrow is free.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 12:18 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


"I am Venom and you are MINE" platonically, I own you and devour you and ride you platonically
posted by nicebookrack at 12:30 AM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


Interview at Dorkly: Meet the Fan Artists Making Venom the Internet's Sexiest Monster

WARNING/INCENTIVE: detailed Venom sex toys ahoy!
posted by nicebookrack at 1:03 AM on October 26, 2018


YES HELLO HI MONSTERFUCKERS!!! I saw this movie yesterday and banged out 5k of fic I haven't posted because I'm pretty sure I switched tenses six times I was so excited and I'm gonna go see it again tomorrow and probably spend my weekend writing Venom fic

NO REGRETS

only consentacles (and the love of a symbiote who thinks eddie's super cute and deserving of love, which, AGREED, and eddie's love for venom's everything, which, AGREED)
posted by E. Whitehall at 1:54 AM on October 26, 2018 [10 favorites]


I had been planning on giving the movie a pass because even though I'm a comic book reader and general nerd. And then the movie opened, and Tumblr fucking exploded, and as this weird shit keeps rolling across my dash, I keep getting more and more tempted to go see it.

So, yeah, maybe I'll check it out this weekend.
posted by rmd1023 at 4:19 AM on October 26, 2018


I'm saying this as an avowed athiest, but y'all need Jesus.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 4:28 AM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


MetaFilter: YES HELLO HI MONSTERFUCKERS!!!
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:38 AM on October 26, 2018 [9 favorites]


yes bc if jesus can multiply fish imagine what he can do to the guy from the shape of water
posted by poffin boffin at 6:27 AM on October 26, 2018 [10 favorites]


let she who has never angrily critiqued a fishman-themed dildo for general anatomical inaccuracy throw the first stone
posted by sciatrix at 6:30 AM on October 26, 2018 [13 favorites]


yes bc if jesus can multiply fish imagine what he can do to the guy from the shape of water
posted by poffin boffin at 15:27 on October 26

"And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishes of men."
posted by lollymccatburglar at 6:40 AM on October 26, 2018 [7 favorites]


Did we cover Magical Girl Venom?
posted by Artw at 7:49 AM on October 26, 2018 [2 favorites]


RE: Tom Hardy is a monsterfucker above: Tom Hardy & Riz Ahmed Q&A video Venom vs Predator vs Alien

Completely unrelated yet delightful: Tom Hardy cuddles rescue dogs
Thanks to Tom Hardy's love of dogs plus his dog-dad role in The Drop, "Eddie/Venom cuddling puppies" and/or "Eddie cuddling puppy!Venom" have become popular subgenres of fan art.
Dogs are friends, not food / Happy Meal! / protect puppy! / Mr. Belvedere the kitty! / help I'm dying from cute
posted by nicebookrack at 9:18 AM on October 26, 2018 [4 favorites]


I was already going to see this movie despite the bad reviews because of Riz Ahmed, but now I am definitely going to see this movie. It sounds like a hot mess which is nevertheless fun to watch, if not for the reasons that the creators intended.
i am always delighted when a new area of fandom discovers the wonders of tom hardy and then makes the tragic decision to revisit some of the earlier works in his oeuvre
This experience has been my trajectory with almost every new favourite actor -- apparently I'm particularly drawn to obscure middle-aged character actors, and that makes for a long and often questionable IMDB page.

(My favourite recent Tom Hardy thing is Peaky Blinders, which is also great for other reasons. I recommend it to everyone.)
posted by confluency at 11:50 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


like apparently everyone else, I had basically no interest in seeing this (the trailers looked appalling but jfc my tumblr dash has exploded, and now.....yeah, I probably will end up seeing this, even if it's not until Netflix/Amazon/whatever. (I've seen that venn diagram just posted as is, without Venom in the center, so......dang. yeah, okay, I guess I'm going.)
posted by epersonae at 1:30 PM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


Tom Hardy last year, after noticing the downtick in Hardy-themed fan works: I need to make another offbeat romance, it's been too long since Inception.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:59 PM on October 26, 2018 [4 favorites]


So, everyone is aware of Taboo, right? I mean, it is the show about which Tom Hardy is on record saying "It's not a period drama until someone gets naked."

(FYI: So NSFW. So very, very NSFW. All the content warnings. None of the characters in the show is a good person; my spouse and I occasionally debate who's the least bad. It's called Taboo for a reason.)
posted by Lexica at 4:19 PM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


idk everything i saw about that made it look like grotesque colonialist garbage and i couldn't bring myself to watch it
posted by poffin boffin at 5:00 PM on October 26, 2018 [2 favorites]


That link about Taboo informed me that Tom Hardy's dad is named Chips Hardy which is, well, of course.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:18 PM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


Yeah so, three years ago I bought this shirt (the answer to my struggle deciding between the "monster boys" or "monster girls" shirts) and it's still my favorite piece of clothing that I own. I've long been behind the theory that gays love monsters because we have always been the monster; I am utterly unsurprised by the avalanche of Venom monsterfucking love and I am SO HERE FOR IT.

Brb reading all of those fics, and I haven't read fanfiction in probably four or five years.
posted by brook horse at 7:30 PM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


"The best thing about the Venom movie is how tired and relatable Tom Hardy’s Brock is. [...] getting a symbiotic alien goo monster actually improves his quality of life?"


"Me: Wow tom hardy’s eddie brock is so relateable

Critics: wHAT DO YOU MEAN he’s a hungry, stressed, bisexual, monster-fucking, unemployed, auditory-overstimulated, disillusioned, anti-capitalist in a shitty apartment with a drinking problem!!!

Me: yeah"
posted by nicebookrack at 7:00 PM on October 27, 2018 [4 favorites]


Finally saw it, and yeah, it's not even subtext, really.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:49 PM on October 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


Finally watched it! Hahaha, Malaysia is in it (where the symbiote crashlanded) and we're all Chinese lmao #crazyrichasians
posted by cendawanita at 11:30 PM on October 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


You know what? I was firmly in camp Looks Terrible Do Not Want, and then I read this thread. Y'all changed my mind, I went and it was great.

Like, ok, it wasn't a blockbuster marvel thang, but if you go in with super low expectations anda couple drinks in ya, it's a blast. I was thoroughly charmed.
posted by greermahoney at 11:35 PM on October 27, 2018 [4 favorites]


it wasn't a blockbuster marvel thang

Good! Those things are getting tiresome. Granted the world was at stake in this movie too, but at least we knew people in it and had a reason to give a fuck.
posted by ODiV at 11:08 AM on October 28, 2018 [2 favorites]


I too went to see Venom because of this thread, and the only thing I regret is my food order. This movie should be paired with unhealthy-but-delicious food, in quantity. Or at least tater tots.
posted by mersen at 5:14 AM on October 29, 2018 [5 favorites]


Venom demands POUTINE
posted by nicebookrack at 10:04 AM on October 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


The Mary Sue, Symbrock May Help Keep Spider-Man Rights in Sony’s Hands
"Venom, despite being a silly movie, was a fun flick that made audiences realize that a PG-13 Venom can work when it’s really a romantic adventure between an alien lost from his homeland and a social justice warrior reporter who cares about the homeless community."
posted by nicebookrack at 10:29 AM on November 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


‘Venom’ Just Opened Huge in China After a Bonkers Marketing Campaign Presented the Beast as the Perfect Boyfriend
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:49 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


i think you mean after an HONEST AND TRUTHFUL marketing campaign
posted by poffin boffin at 9:15 AM on November 13, 2018 [6 favorites]


I did check it out and it was pretty much everything I wanted it to be. Fun, violent, silly, and basically a throwback to before comic book movies had to be so VERY EPIC. Two losers, bonding together. "On my planet I am kind of a loser, like you."
posted by rmd1023 at 2:23 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


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