Hope This Tutorial Helps, Anon!! A Lot Of This Is A Result Of Experimentation And Seeing What Looks Best

It’s a leap of faith. That’s all it is, Miles. A leap of faith.

The only way I will accept Spiderman coming into Venom 2

Babysitter Peter Parker gets asked to babysit for Eddie and is handed black goo slime child, Sleeper. (Venom can already tell something is different about Peter, so they decide Peter is Good Choice.)

Baby Sleeper climbs on ceiling? No problem for Peter, sticky feet, Parker!

Baby trying to slip out window? Not so fast with web slinging teen boy!!

Baby won’t stop crying?? GREAT, neither will Peter!!

Contest to see if Sleeper or Peter’s webs can stretch further. 

Eddie comes home to find Peter on the ceiling with Sleeper, does not react. Peter freaks out and tries to explain that he’s actually not weird or crazy and Eddie, completely blank faced, just goes, “Kid, I have an alien living inside my body 24/7. You being a superhero or supervillain is only like the sixth most shocking thing to ever happen to me.” And he gives Peter a 100 dollar tip and wishes him a good night.

For reference: colors produced using dyes available in the Middle Ages. [source]

(Spider-Man Noir / Pulp Deadpool) slow dance

I have no words to describe the feeling of being in this magical forest with these ancient, magnificent beauties

punkodelish

Dylan is a Mary Sue

*look I know that the symbiote has a name and Venom is both it and Eddie. So I hope you don’t get annoyed when I refer to the symbiote as Venom because writing symbiote 100 times gets annoying and I hope you get what I mean when I call it that.

I’ve been trying to write this like nine times because I don’t want to bash this character. When I wrote the post about how I didn’t want Dylan Brock near Miles, I intentionally left out the reason why because I like the character. I hate the purpose and narrative mind behind him. And plus I don’t want to seem like I bash white cis het male characters when the characters I do trash on are bad because writers tend to make them intentionally bratty. I don’t like Spider-kid, Damian Wayne when written without consequence(he is white passing), Jason Todd,or Alpha. Like giving a character a shitty attitude doesn’t make him endearing especially on a male, I’m sorry. Characters like Tim Drake, Alex Power, and Dick Grayson work because there is something genuine in them that they want to be the good of the world.

Anyways, Dylan is fun to me because he has this precocious roguishness that isn’t malevolent nor out of place. His abuse is actually abuse that isn’t made to serve as his training or whatever nor does it warps his views. And his fandom in Eddie/Venom actually makes sense because he is a kid that was abandoned by his mother and left with an emotionally and physically abusive man who would cut him down. A dark passenger like Venom appeals to him because Venom is like the codifier of misguided anger for misguided teens.

But there is a reason why he is written that way: he is a Mary-Sue. Now I don’t care about the gender preconceptions of Mary Sue vs Gary Stu nor do I try to prescribe to reclaiming Mary Sue in some vain attempt at liberal feminism. Mary Sue is bad writing unless everyone gets to play(Mary Sues work in video games). Mary Sue is something writers in most mediums that tell stories should avoid if they want said character to succeed or evoke if you want said character to be disliked. And Dylan Brock is an example that doesn’t work and is largely getting away with it because he is cute.

1. The Immaculate Conception of Dylan Brock

This is when I knew some Sue shit was unleashed on Venom fans. I don’t have to google it but I can guess that Cates has a Catholic background. Whether he is one or raised one, it is apparent in whatever meaningful writing depth he provides outside of meaningless action. And it works because Eddie Brock, being anti-Peter Parker, is Catholic. Hence the brooding and self-loathing and abusive paternity and motifs of redemption and suffering and shit. But this was not only fucked up, but a little too on the nose.

Dylan wasn’t conceived naturally. In fact, Anne Weying was raped by the symbiote and impregnated with Eddie’s DNA. So Dylan is actually the child of the Venom and Eddie Brock. “But Anne is his mother.” Look, Cates didn’t actually consider Anne so I won’t either. Outside of the fact that it doesn’t make sense chronologically since Peter was like in his early 20s when he had the Symbiote and is at most 29 now, Anne is just a vehicle for Cates’ to necessitate the purity of Dylan Brock. Dylan is the pure child of Venom, born from the womb of Eddie’s first girlfriend/fiancé/wife/whatever and the first human woman to wear a symbiote, I think. I mean she didn’t even have sex with Eddie and boom, mini Eddie Brock is wrapped in cloth and left at the meager doorstep at the sacred house of Eddie. Praise Venom, y’all.

Jokes aside, I don’t know how Venom fans just didn’t go, “Iight, Imma head out” after reading this page. Just shows the conviction of fandom.

But I digress. Now let me regale you just how improbable this is which again only serves to ordain Dylan is the truest son of Venom in all the ways possible and also highlight the very unfortunate implications of this fuckery. Symbiotes bond is how they reproduce. When they reproduce with their host, the end result up to this point has always been a symbiote. For Mass Effect fans, it’s the Asari thing except with goo. Before you ask, yes Symbiotes sexually satisfy their hosts unlike the majority of human men*cough*. Point is that Dylan should be biologically impossible but somehow he is a human symbiote hybrid. And the unfortunate implications of such of incident shouldn’t go unnoticed either. Venom and Eddie have several children and prior to this, all of them have been symbiote. Cletus and Red also have children too and again symbiote. In fact, all symbiote bonds produce symbiotes as far as male hosts are concerned...except for the brief bond of Ann Weying and Venom Symbiote. Gee I wonder why she got a different result? Well there are a few female hosts and surprising none of them have spawned a symbiote child. So logically it can be assumed that woman + symbiote = forced impregnation of symbiote. Well this shit got dark. The symbiotes just became the Jeffrey Epstein alien species. But since Cates swears up and down that is not what is happening, he is going for the God/Virgin Mary angle for some reason.

It’s almost like he is the descendent of the Symbiote God. If only there was such a thing.

Welllllll shit.

2. Dylan is incorruptible and all-powerful without knowing why or how

Okay, backstory time because I never properly explained Knull, another of Cates shoddy creations. Knull is the galactic god emperor of the Symbiotes who created the Symbiotes as a weapon to rule the galaxy. Aside of the fact that his existence retconned the previous backstories of the symbiote, he has the ability to domesticate the symbiotes and make them subservient to him.

Guess who else has this ability.

Dylan is symbiote Jesus, hallelujah. This explains the Church of Carnage/Knull/Grendel/who gives a shit. He is the true son of Abraham and Carnage is the false prophet of Venom. It’s what Christianity considers Islam to be or some shit and both Dylan and Sleeper are about to nail the 95 thesis on the door of Carnage in the form of the greatest mixtape you ever heard.

Look, I too am astounded of the sentences my mind comes up with when I so thoroughly hate a writing like I hate Donnie Cates’ Venom.

Dylan goes beyond being just a special snowflake that was forcefully and crudely implemented. He is the pre-ordained established opposite of the nature of corruption that Knull created the symbiotes for. To Knull, the symbiotes are his thralls. To Dylan, the symbiotes are his pets. To Knull, the symbiotes are a tool to become omnipresent. To Dylan, the symbiotes are individuals who need to be liberated if good. To Knull, there is no such thing as a good symbiote. To Dylan, there is and it’s Venom or sleeper or what have you. Dylan is the forgotten son and the New Testament for symbiote kind.

And he doesn’t know yet.

Okay, this is a common Mary Sue trait to absolve culpability of a Mary Sue character. It’s to say that they are not to blame for being special. It’s like the writing form of don’t hate me because I’m beautiful except somehow more obnoxious. Dylan’s obliviousness to this what is essentially an entire alien species religious revelation is like trivialized because their prophet is a 12 year old. It’s like waiting for a savior only to be told he is a carpenter.

Imma let that last one just marinate for a minute.

Look, Cates did a lot of rewriting and retconning just for his self-insert to become his favorite series and hero to be the second coming. He created this lore for Venom only for his avatar to be the prophet. The intentionality of his obliviousness to how important this is just glazed over the fact like it isn’t a big deal. Just like Cates glazed over the whole rape and forced impregnation thing because somehow that doesn’t warrant a follow up.

3. Dylan Brock is fanboy Cates

Okay before I begin, self-inserts aren’t bad nor are they inherently Mary-Sues. Kong from Ultimate Spider-Man is Bendis’ self-insert. Boomerang from Amazing Spider-Man was rewritten to be Spencer’s self-insert. JJJ is a self insert for Stan fucking Lee like...self-inserts are great. To the degree that they aren’t unnatural to the narrative or overbearing.

Dylan Brock’s previously stated precociousness comes from the idea that Donnie is writing the inner teenager that he was as a kid reading Maximum Carnage for the first time. And I get it, man, live your truth and all. Like yeah, force and subjugate other fans of this series to your childlike inquiries like how Symbiotes poop, I mean it’s not like their fandom is important or anything.

First Dylan is a fanboy of Venom just like he is. And while that makes sense meta-wise, in-narrative it doesn’t because...okay Venom fans are about to tear me apart for this but it’s like someone being a fan of Ted Bundy. His heroics usually came with a body count is all I’m saying and I doubt it would be praised but then again Wolverine has an in-universe fandom so what do I know. Back on topic, Dylan’s fandom and praise of Venom to get him out of the dark place that is his father’s abusive household.

And this is why it’s so hard to hate him because of all the fucked up shit Cates put in this book, Dylan feels like the one character that is genuine and pure in that innocent kind of way. No one hates Dylan and how could you? We all get it. And it helps that Dylan has a completely different voice than every other Cates has written from every other character. Like I can hear the excitement in his voice when he pesters his hero for questions and I’m reading his words. The idolization is pure when he meets Normie, the god son of Spider-Man, and it creates this dynamic of Spider-Man fans vs Venom fans. It’s fun in a way.

But it’s just that. When Cates writes Eddie, he is not only writing to retell Cates own personal past demons but also in the lens of how he viewed Eddie as this tortured soul who just got the wrong interview from a copycat that costs his job. The second banana of a greater and more prominent hero. Born to the wrong person. That none of what happened to Eddie was his fault or really his doing even when he was at his worst wearing Venom, it was Venom who tempted him.

Dylan is that pre-teen who sees the best in everything Venom is: The dark avenger of the abused and neglected. And I don’t want to speculate whether Cates fits the category or not because that ain’t my business, I can see why Dylan would be a compelling self-insert if it weren’t compounded on top of Cates’ forceful insertion into Venom and subsequently Spider-Man lore.

Like you remember Carly Cooper? Dylan is exactly like Carly Cooper. And this is why I like to think of Cates’ run as the equivalent of One More Day. Cates’ retconned a crucial element of Venom to make Dylan necessary to the core of Venom. He retconned the one thing that made Venom and subsequently Eddie go beyond just being a twisted revenge story.

The erasure of Mary Brock, Eddie’s sister and Eddie’s cancer. One is the motivation and the sole good Eddie has ever known. It’s his motivation to move past is mistakes. And Cates then turns the one bond in the series into something...horrific.

Okay, Dylan replaced his sister and Venom itself. His being becomes Eddie’s motivation to be a better person rather the struggle to see himself as more than his upbringing. It’s like reading Spider-Man and finding out Uncle Ben was on crack. Uncle Ben didn’t die. He faked his death. Yeah, that is what this was. So he could evade taxes or some shit. This is exonerated Eddie in the worst way and turned him into a manipulated pawn of Venom. Let’s completely retcon the marriage of MJ and PeterVenom and Eddie, Cates pitches to editorial.

Dylan becomes more than just some kid who idolizes Eddie. He becomes the sole motivation of Eddie himself now. Eddie’s past is now completely erased or made irrelevant to uplift Dylan’s importance to Eddie. It’s too a point that the Symbiote kids of Venom aren’t Eddie’s kids anymore. It’s like Eddie was in an interracial relationship and the one non-brown baby with blue eyes is his one true kid and others are mulatto chocolate eugenic mishaps or some shit that his ass don’t want to deal with anymore. I mean disowning Carnage I understand but come on?

Cates’ self insert changed the entire nature of the series. And for what purpose? To give Venom a legacy just as Peter has one. And that is the problem with Dylan.

@ubernegro

More symbabies please? I love your ficlets!

The gravel beside the hedge crunches and two worn trainers shuffle into view. Sleeper tenses, trying to scoot back further under the hedge.

The shoes shift, one threadbare knee comes into view, and then a large dark eye.

Sleeper whimpers softly to himself, tensing to run-

The eye blinks, then drops down a bit further- the dirty face of a young boy. He makes soft little squeak-kissing noises, rubs his fingers together.

It’s not- threatening. Not yet, anyway. Sleeper shivers, it’s still raining outside. He doesn’t want to run.

“Here bunny.” The boy reaches very slowly under the hedge, still rubbing his fingers together. “It’s okay.”

Sleeper’s nose twitches, it don’t mean anything to him- but the host wants to come closer- the little fingers suggest the boy has food, and the rabbit is hungry.

He hesitates, but when the boy’s hands stretch in almost far enough to touch his fur, he scuttles back into the roots of the bush.

“Okay.” The hand pulls away. “Just stay here.”

He stands up, and the tatter trainers crunch away. Sleeper huffs in relief, suddenly aware of how fast his little rabbit’s heart is beating. The host stirs fretfully in the back of their mind. It’s hungry, it’s never gone so long without hay.

There’s a little wispy grass under the bush. Sleeper gives it a tentative nibble, it’s tasteless and stringy, and the rabbit looks longingly at the thick lawn just beyond the hedge.

There’s a clatter of pebbles, and the trainers are back. Sleeper shoots back into the roots, huddling down in the shadows.

“I’m here.” The boy sounds out of breath. “Just thought- you might be hungry? And rabbits like vegetables?”

He kneels down again, and reaches his hand out- not as far in as before, but Sleeper’s nose twitches at the strange, faintly alien smell.

But not alien to the host’s mind.

Food.

The boy opens his hand, revealing a few slightly crushed lettuce leaves. “We didn’t have any carrots.” Apologetic.

The host desperately wants to lean in and nibble. Sleeper hovers; is this safe? People wouldn’t be giving food to animals they wanted to kill, right? But what about- poison?

He really wants his parents here.

“It’s okay.” The boy whispers, “You can eat, it’s safe.”

He remembers Eddie gently moving him out of the way of a cluster of bottles- ‘ah-ah, that’s poisonous. Not safe, not for kiddies.’

Poison isn’t for children to use, so the lettuce is probably safe. Sleeper shuffles forwards, far enough to lean in and snatch a mouthful.

It’s wet and floppy, slippery between his teeth. Sleeper grimaces, but the rabbit is delighted, munching and munching, and when the boy’s hand moves away, just a little, they shift forwards to keep eating.

Back and back and suddenly Sleeper stops. They’re out in the open, on the gravel. The boy is squatted beside them, adding little strips of lettuce to the pile in his hand.

“It’s okay.” And his voice is soft, gentle. He’s not his parents, but- it’s soothing all the same, and Sleeper really, really wants to believe everything is okay right now.

The boy’s free hand lowers, and touches them on the shoulders. Both Sleeper and the rabbit freeze, but the boy doesn’t grab them, doesn’t hurt. His hand is gentle, running through their fur in gentle strokes.

“‘m not gonna hurt you.” The boy continues, stroking them over and over, pausing the scratch behind their ears. It feels so good, almost like being held by Venom and Eddie, Sleeper slumps down, rolls on his side and closes his eyes. The panic is fading, and under it, he’s exhausted.

They hear the coming rain before they feel it, a low rhythmic beat on the roofs and tree leaves. The heavy drops splash on their ears, on the soft coat of underfur at their belly. Sleeper starts up, trying to fluff up his rapidly soaking fur.

The boy pulls up his coat to shield them. “Hey,” he whispers. “Want to come in with me? It’s dry in there, and I can get you more food.”

Sleeper looks up and down the street. A car passes in a haze of rain, slashing up a wave of gutterwater. No Venom, no Eddie. They can’t stay here all night.

He hops closer to the boy, and when he reaches down, doesn’t try to run. The boy picks them up gently, one arm under their bottom, bracing all four paws on his chest. It’s- not great, but okay, and the boy is warm and dry.

“Well done.” The boy whispers, and hurries into the house.

They clatter in through the front door, and Sleeper catches a glimpse of a dark room, a chair and the shimmering screen of a TV- then they’re going up the stairs at top speed. The boy ducks through a door, and quickly closes it behind them.

“Okay.” He whispers, and switches on the light. Sleeper blinks as the sudden blaze of light hurts their eyes.

It’s a small bedroom, a bed half hidden under old clothes, more clothes strewn over the floor. A little desk is huddled by the window, buried in books. The boy shoves the clothes off his bed, and makes a little nest in the blankets. “Here, it’s warm, I’ll just go and-”

“BOY!” A roar from downstairs.

The boy tenses, “Just- stay here, okay? I’ll- sort something out-”

“GET DOWN HERE!”

The boy puts them in the nest, strokes them again quickly. “I’ll be right back. I’ll get you more lettuce, okay?”

“DO YOU WANT ME TO FETCH YOU?”

“NO, DAD!” The boy yells back. “Just- don’t move, please. If he sees you-” he winces. “I won’t be long-”

“GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE DYLAN.”

Sigh...

SIGH