Welcome to the inaugural edition of Venom Unleashed! This ongoing column dives into the world of Venom, symbiotes, and all the chaotic brilliance that comes with them. Helming this series is none other than Venom editor and self-proclaimed “Symbiote Wrangler” Jordan D. White.
In this first installment, Jordan spills secrets on All-New Venom, teases exclusive preview art from All-New Venom #2 (releasing January 8th), and we even let you weigh in with a special survey. Don’t miss this inside look at what’s next for the Lethal Protector—and beyond.
Venom-fanatics should bookmark AIPT, as we’ll be back next month to dissect issue #2!
AIPT: Jordan, welcome back to AIPT for your new column, Venom Unleashed! You truly put in the work with Chris Hassan on X-Men Monday for years, and it’s good to have you back at AIPT, filling us in on your editorial work and insights with All-New Venom!
Jordan D. White: Thanks, it’s good to be back! I had a lot of fun chatting with Chris about all things X, so I am looking forward to it. I get why it’s not called Venom Vednesday, but I am a little sad about it. I am assuming you’re not also a Weezer superfan like he was, but let me know if you want to pepper these columns with discussion of They Might Be Giants, NOFX, R.E.M. or Bruce Springsteen.
AIPT: Hey, I love Weezer (and have been to a few shows with Chris, in fact)! Fans should note you even did a Venom/X-Men Monday mashup back in April!
Before we get into All-New Venom, we’re just a week post-Venom War. With post Venom War clarity, how was it pulling that story together?
Jordan: It was a lot of fun. I came onto VENOM while the run that Al and (at that time) Torunn [Grønbekk] were writing was already underway, and things were already barreling towards Venom War as the planned ending of that story, but there were a lot of details that hadn’t been locked in yet. We knew it was going to be a Brock vs. Brock fight for getting to wear the symbiote, and that they had both assembled their crews for backup, but the hows and wheres and whens were all up in the air. There were no zombiotes yet, no Spider-Man back in the suit, I don’t think Al had even landed on the wrestling ring idea yet at that point!
So, I got to dig in with him and help foster fleshing the whole thing out, both in the meat of the main series and coming up with the whole slate of tie-ins—coming up with possible stories spinning out of the main one, and staffing them up with the killer crews we got on those.
The first teaser for Venom War (first revealed in February 2024!).
They were all a blast, but I will say I was particularly happy with the VENOM WAR: FANTASTIC FOUR one-shot, as I am always thrilled to work with Adam Warren on his awesome and bananas ideas (going all the way back to GALACTA: DAUGHTER OF GALACTUS), and also with VENOM WAR: IT’S JEFF just because I didn’t think we would even get approval to do a Jeff one-shot, but we did and it’s also the longest Jeff story Marvel has ever done!
AIPT: No doubt Venom War was fun in a lot of ways, as is proven by your callouts!
Given the wrestling-inspired climax of Venom War, how does that thematic shift prepare readers (if at all) for the tone and style of the upcoming series?
Jordan: That is a good question, and the answer is… not as much as many people assume! The fact is, VENOM WAR is really the culmination of the Father/Son Venom run that kicked off with Al and Ram V in 2021, and ALL-NEW VENOM, despite still being written by Al, is really a whole new run. It’s a completely different direction for the series. It’s obviously fully informed by the events of Venom War—the specifics of where the characters and symbiotes all wind up is followed up on directly here (and in EDDIE BROCK: CARNAGE, which I am sure we will talk more about soon), but what the symbiote is up to and, most importantly, who its bonded to are completely new and fundamentally change the feel, setting, and themes of the book.
AIPT: Truly, 2025 is going to be a transformative year for Venom and symbiote. The descriptor in the title, All-New, has a bit of history at Marvel. Did you consider that when going with this series title?
Jordan: Oh, for sure! It felt appropriate here, given how big of a shift was happening here—there is still a lot of what makes Venom Venom (most notably the actual eponymous symbiote themself) all over this book. But the new direction is also bringing a lot of new to the table, so I think this title is, for sure, a worthy inheritor to that title.
The legacy of All-New lives on with ‘All-New Venom’!
AIPT: What inspired the decision to shift Venom’s narrative from cosmic adventures to a more grounded, detective-style story in All-New Venom?
Jordan: That was all Al. As I said, he was already cooking the brawl to end it all in Venom War when I came aboard, so he already had a thought that in the fallout, the symbiote would have a new host that we don’t reveal ahead of time so we could have a proper mystery book. Out at dinner during a Marvel summit just after I shifted to planning Venom stories, we landed on who that host would be. Once we knew that, it became clear what the book would be and how it was going to work. But the fact is, Venom started out as a very street-level story, with a man obsessed with revenge turning over a new leaf… and eventually grew to cosmic proportions, with that man being able to cast his mind throughout all space and time.
Those stories have been AWESOME at every step… but every once in a while, you need to pull things back just so you have room to grow again. We want to get back to some kick-ass symbiote action in the streets of New York, where it all began.
AIPT: You’re back in the saddle with writer Al Ewing. How has it been working with him again?
Jordan: I am fortunate in that I never STOPPED working with him for these last few years. From SWORD to X-MEN RED to RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO and then over to VENOM, I could not be happier working with Al. His mind is perfectly made for writing these incredible stories, and I love every one of them. And they are not all the same by any stretch. ALL-NEW VENOM has very little in common with those X-Books he did other than how skillfully it’s executed.
Mystery stories are hard to pull off in comics, but Al is absolutely nailing it… but again, that should be no surprise! He puts in the work and makes great comics happen. From the first book we did together—the pulp noir take on ROCKET that we did while I was on the Guardians books—to this day, he always nails it.
You should have seen the elaborate story maps he did for the YOU ARE DEADPOOL miniseries / game that we did. If you have not read that one, I implore you to do so, though know it really works best in print. But track down a copy—it’s incredible and so well thought out.
Did you play?
AIPT: Thinking outside the box seems to be Al’s modus operandi!
Can you share insights into how the four potential new hosts for Venom—Rick Jones, Luke Cage, Robbie Robertson, and Madame Masque—were selected and what unique perspectives they bring to the story?
Jordan: Well, like I said, we started the whole process by picking who the actual host is. From there, we needed to fill out the rest of the suspects, and Al worked up a whole spreadsheet to give all of the potential people we threw out as possibilities grades so as to end up with the best possible options. Going through these ones in the order you said their names—so as not to tip my hand at all—let’s talk about these suspects.
Rick Jones is a Marvel mainstay from way back when who has been an important part of Hulk, Captain Marvel, Captain America, and Avengers history… but one who doesn’t currently have a home in the books. Why not give him a spider link as well?
Rick Jones
Luke Cage is a really well known hero and one who was given a really unique place in the Marvel Universe when he became mayor of New York City… but he also is not meant to be out vigilante-ing while in office. Maybe this is a way to get around that?
Luke Cage
Robbie Robertson has been a staple of the Spider-Man supporting cast for decades, and MAY even have sussed out Peter Parkers secret. Is he sick of just reporting crime instead of doing something about it?
Joe “Robbie” Robertson
And finally, Madame Masque—she’s a super criminal! She couldn’t be cleaning up crime in the Venom suit, could she? Although… the crime he’s cleaning up DOES seem to be people who betrayed her and landed her in custody.
Madame Masque
Those are the suspects, as Dylan Brock sees it when the All-New Venom makes his debut. Dylan is determined to find out who’s got his symbiote and get it back.
AIPT: I think everyone can admit making any of these characters the new Venom is a tantalizing prospect.
How does the symbiote’s decision to abandon the Brock family and seek a new host impact its identity and role within the Marvel Universe?
Jordan: At the end of VENOM WAR, I think the symbiote is still not sure that the time he’s spent with the Brocks has actually been GOOD for them. It cares deeply about Eddie and has almost got him killed numerous times—most recently at the end of Venom War itself. The same is true for Dylan… but Venom considers Dylan their child. Dylan is Eddie and Anne’s son, but he’s also the symbiote’s son. So they absolutely cannot keep putting him in danger constantly.
Dylan is in a much safer place when the series begins—one I think readers might be surprised by—and I think the symbiote is very happy to keep him in that safe place while it goes off with its new host to make the world a better place. And why it believes this new host is better off for its help… well, that is a story we will get to soon enough.
AIPT: We know who the four potential new hosts are, but for fun, who definitely isn’t All-New Venom? Can you give us a fun reason why?
Jordan: I’ve actually grabbed up the document where Al was grading all the candidates so we can see who was NEARLY in the book. These folks weren’t really in the running to be the real host, but they were in the running to be red herrings. Looks like Rick Sheridan and Melvin Potter were the first knocked off the list. Cardiac, Foolkiller, Puma, and Chameleon didn’t get much further. Rocket Racer and Hypno Hustler were in serious contention.
Rick Sheridan, aka Sleepwalker, is NOT the new Venom!
D-Man was THIS CLOSE to making it, but honestly, he was last seen in such a wholesome place. I would have been sad to screw up his life. The biggest shock, though—or maybe not, if you’re a long-term Al Ewing fan—is that I had to really talk Al out of making Peeper one of the final suspects. Not kidding.
It could have been you, Peepers!
AIPT: Okay, Jordan, we’re wrapping things up here, and to get to know you better, I need to know, if you could wear any Symbiote for a day, which would it be and why?
Jordan: OH MAN. That is a good question. It’s a really tough one, too. Like… some symbiote abilities would be AWESOME to have… but so many of them come with SO MUCH baggage. Let’s start simple—Carnage is out. I don’t want to kill everyone that I see. I love cats, so Sleeper is a temptation, except I don’t really want to be piloted however he sees fit. Anti-Venom is tempting—though I don’t think I look good in white.
And yeah, I know, Venom has grown a lot and probably likes Spider-Man only a little more than I do, so we would probably get along… but at the end of the day, I think I would have to go with Spider-Gwen’s symbiote as it seems able to be brought fairly well under control? Sure, she had some trouble at first, but everything seems good at this point. It’s just super convenient clothing. Nothing could possibly go wrong!
And that’s it for the first edition of Venom Unleashed!
The next edition will return on Thursday, January 9th, the day after the second issue drops into comic shops.
Before you sign off, take the first-ever All-New Venom fan survey below! Next month, we’ll share the results and maybe even pick a catchphrase!
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