Venom Unleashed #20: Torment’s rules, broken bonds, and the bodies piling up

We’re back with another edition of Venom Unleashed, and with Death Spiral nearing the endgame, the questions are getting sharper and the answers more revealing. This time, the Spider-Man and Venom teams dig into how Torment chooses his victims, what really defines a “connection,” and where MJ, Dylan, and Eddie stand as tensions continue to rise. There are hints at what’s coming next, plus a few teases that suggest Torment’s story might not end here.

This week, the column features answers by senior editor Jordan D. White, editor Nick Lowe, and writers Al Ewing and Joe Kelly!

That’s not all. Scroll down for exclusive preview panels from upcoming Venom issues you won’t find anywhere else.

Torment questions:

Sean asks: How does Torment judge non-blood relationships? He killed Shocker because he was the cousin of someone who married a Watson and presumably will target Aunt May even though she’s technically not related to Peter, but said he wouldn’t normally have killed Paul because he wasn’t connected to anyone, despite his relationships with MJ and Dylan. How does a non-blood relative make their way on someone else’s spiral, and why didn’t Paul qualify?

Jordan D. White: He keeps up with the marriage filings. He is a big government paperwork buff.

Nick Lowe: What a fun question. You will see some more of this in BODY COUNT, but suffice it to say that Torment’s powers are not just DNA-related. They have something to do with connections. As for Paul, I wonder if he would have been a target had he and MJ not broken up!

Al Ewing: I think Paul would have been on the bubble if MJ had stayed with him – Torment might feel that he’s too small fry, or he might have taken Paul out to bump his numbers up a little, given the late arrival of MJ’s spiral in his plans. We saw Torment needed a little persuading as things ended up, but was that just because Dylan was getting away? Maybe he’d have gone for the “freebie” otherwise – a one-person spiral’s got to be on the bucket list.

Joe Kelly: I think they could have been great roommates. Just sayin’. Sitcom gold.

Bryan H asks: How does Torment’s whip thing work?

NL: The tips are very sharp, and he can get it moving very fast, so the whip can do a lot of damage. When he retracts it, the tips all nest so he can put it into the back holster.

AE: It’s such a toyetic weapon – I always envision it moulded in the plastic they made He-Man figures out of.

JDW: Does he ever make a sonic boom with them? That’s what I want to know.

JK: I imagined it as an extremely well-engineered whip made from razor fencing. Sort of like Daredevil’s Billy Club – real-world stuff but with Marvel engineering. A normal person would be shredded if they even held it.

Clonegeek asks: Why hasn’t Torment gone after MJ’s sister, Gayle, or her nephews?

AE: Torment only got sent after MJ quite late into his campaign, right at the end of DEATH SPIRAL #1, so he’s really playing catch-up on that end of the spiral. MJ’s lucky that Gayle and her kids live so far away from NYC – in a world where she and Peter and Eddie weren’t super-people, Torment would have a lot more time to methodically plan out his murders, but as it is he’s doing a lot of running to and fro. Is this super-serial-killing all it’s cracked up to be? A question I’m sure he’s asking himself right now.

NL: Also, Torment is a bit inscrutable at this point. You will learn more about it in BODY COUNT, and maybe we can answer this more thoroughly then.

JDW: I wanted to get Kristy in here, but it didn’t work out. I actually thought she would make a great love interest for Dylan, but it seems she was aged up into college already.

JK: We talked about MJ’s extended family a lot. Felt like they were too big to easily introduce in a story this dense – like they’d eat up screen time. But, never say never! They could show up and or get mercilessly slaughtered by a maniac at any time. Comics.

Cousin Carlos asks: Can we expect to see more of Torment in future stories? He’s cool.

NL: Keep reading, True Believer!

AE: He’s definitely got potential. What other heroes have big, intricate family trees? Maybe he’s the next X-Villain in the making – imagine him going to space to off Corsair, then taking on Vulcan…

JDW: I love it! WAIT! Have him target Shatterstar and break his brain!

JK: He really grew on me as a character, and the visual rocks. I want more Torment!

Jon asks: Did you have any other potential Torment victims aside from Paul?

NL: Of course! You met one last week, and the big two remain! The Aunts!

AE: As we were batting this around, we did consider a few outlying relatives, but the story contracted a little spatially as we went to keep the pace up. Also, I didn’t really want to do an “Oops, All Funerals!” issue of Venom. (Which doesn’t mean Anna’s off the hook – I can jam a couple in there.)

JDW: I didn’t want Kristy to die, even if she is too old for Dylan.

JK: We killed sooooo many people in this story… yes, there could have been more.

Infamousjeb asks: Any possibility of a Bailey Bushkin Files Marvel handbook with all of Marvel’s serial killers!

NL: That would be really cool!

AE: That puts me in mind of the old Marvel RPG “monster manuals”, giving us FASERIP stats of all the heroes and villains. (Ask your grandad about FASERIP, kids.) Is Torment’s serial-killing ability Amazing, or Uncanny? Bailey would know.

JDW: Would have been nice to do more with Bailey. I hope she pops up again!

Death Spiral questions:

Chris from Every Spider-Man Ever asks: Love the event so far. Is the nearly-killed first cousin on Peter’s dad’s side or on Peter’s mum’s side?

NL: Keep reading, True Believer!

JK: What Nick said!

Xena asks: In the issue, Venom said to Eddie, “I hope we never see you again”. I’m confused. Was that supposed to be MJ talking? Because if that’s MJ, then it’s fine, but going by Ewing’s issues, then that should be the symbiote.

AE: Sometimes they’re in agreement, and this was one of those times. Eddie really shook Venom up by joining up with Carnage – after everything Carnage has done over the years, it’s understandable that that’d feel like a huge betrayal. And with a killer on the loose, someone close to them dead, and other relatives in danger, everyone’s feelings are running hot. Can Eddie be forgiven once things cool down? We’ll see.

NL: MJ and Venom’s relationship has really developed, and their agreement could lead to a lot of interesting things!

JOHN asks: Seeing the interactions that took place up until now in Death Spiral, can Venom and Spider-Man be considered friends, or at least non-enemies?

AE: I think at this point they’ve come to understand one another. Venom’s learned a lot about himself and humanity in his time on Earth, and for now, I’d say he and Spidey are a lot closer to friendship than they were – although Venom being bonded to someone Peter cares a lot about is going to make him protective. Will this friendship last? Well, that’s another question.

NL: They covered a lot of distance around King in Black. Like Al said, their relationship has grown a lot.

JDW: It’s a complicated “family” they have here.

JK: Families be like that.

Anonymous asks: Dylan Brock is a really endearing character, and I really love the idea of MJ as an adoptive parent and maternal figure. Do you see Death Spiral as the starting point for a lasting and meaningful guardian/child relationship between them? Or were they only meant to briefly cross paths in each other’s lives?

JK: I like them a lot together too. One of the things that we don’t address much is that MJ was a “wild child” back in her day and had a troubled home life as well. They relate to one another on that level, which makes for a great foundation.

AE: I think Dylan makes a great supporting character – he’s a lot more complicated and difficult than other Marvel kids his age, which means he can pull his weight in the drama, and that makes his presence in MJ’s life (and by extension Spidey’s) a bonus for stories rather than a drag on them. I think he and MJ can really bring out some fun character beats from each other and from the rest of the Spider-cast, and obviously, there’s a lot of material to mine there.

Fer_Skywalker asks: Now that MJ doesn´t want to see Eddie ever again, does that mean his other half thinks the same? Eddie gave everything to save Earth, always looking for Dylan, as Cates showed us on KiB events.

AE: Eddie’s the kind of character people get very keen to sand the rough edges off, but I don’t know if that does him any favors – if he’s got a Get Out Of Jail Free card now for any time anyone’s mad at him, that’s the end of him as an interesting character. I still think he’s got some juice in him myself, but the price of keeping him around is that occasionally one of the other characters in the room is going to say something mean to him. So yeah, I think Venom was speaking for both of them there; maybe in time the symbiote will cool off and want to see Eddie again. Or maybe Eddie can do something to break through Venom’s current anger. The story continues.

JDW: Hear, Hear!

General Questions:

ZapVenom asks: Any chance of good old Cletus coming back? It’s been a while since we last saw them.

NL: It sure has. I think Cletus is too mean and indomitable to ever be gone for too long.

JDW: I am just gonna come out and say it–in a world where EDDIE BROCK: CARNAGE got a longer run, we for sure were gonna have Cletus be a target down the road. Alas. But that said… I very much think Cletus has legs as a serial killer NOT in a symbiote who could pop up ANYWHERE in the Marvel Universe.

JK: Cletus from The Simpsons was in Spider-Man? I missed that crossover.

JoLo asks: Can Dylan heal like a symbiote? Because we know that Dylan got stabbed on his thigh from a previous issue.

NL: As you saw here, he definitely can’t heal too much quicker than we can. Unless it’s something he still has to learn!

AE: It’s also possible that the thigh wound was more of a flesh wound than it looked – but Dylan’s powers and abilities are going to be a plot point not too far in the future, so now’s a good time to speculate on what that symbiote half of his can do.

And that’s a wrap on the 20th edition of Venom Unleashed!

Check out EXCLUSIVE art below, and check back here on AIPT April 22 as the final Death Spiral edition survey will be posted so you can ask your questions!