Not especially. You can go to any Hot Topic or Wal-Mart and the odds of seeing a black Venom T-shirt in with the comic apparel are pretty good (I've owned two in my lifetime). Maybe none of his stories in particular are famous the way some Spidey stories might be, but the character himself certainly has permeated the zeitgeist, as you say. This movie wouldn't have left the ground unless that had happened, and it's been in development hell for
years.
And the reason you think this is lame is evident in your line of reasoning - that you consider him as a character who's fundamentally tied to Spider-Man. I say no; he's hit a such a level of cultural awareness and popularity that there's no reason to assume he couldn't strike out on his own. You don't get Doctor Octopus or Lizard T-shirts sold at Wal-mart or whathaveyou.
The argument against the film that he needs Spidey to stand on his own feet - intrinsically tied to the notion "he's just a Spider-Man cast member", a notion long since past, is one I see come up time and time and time again, and it's only ever brought up by people familiar with comics. I don't think Joe Public really cares, and will just be happy to see a cool character show up.
It's crazy easy to modify an origin for cinematic purposes, and exposure to a modified origin in cinema form can influence or change the popular perception of the character. At one point they
nixed the entire extraterrestrial aspect and made it a cancer suit. Eddie and the symbiote's original history as Venom is such an involved one that it would need pruning down in any case, even if they were only including him in Spider-Man films.
Originally Posted by Shadaloo
Not especially. You can go to any Hot Topic or Wal-Mart and the odds of seeing a black Venom T-shirt in with the comic apparel are pretty good (I've owned two in my lifetime). Maybe none of his stories in particular are famous the way some Spidey stories might be, but the character himself certainly has permeated the zeitgeist, as you say. This movie wouldn't have left the ground unless that had happened, and it's been in development hell for years.
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