10 Fascinating Comic Moments That Almost Happened

9. Venom Was Almost A Woman

She Venom
Marvel Comics

Venom is the combined form of two beings that hate Peter Parker. One is the alien symbiote that was originally disguised as Peter's costume, the other is Eddie Brock, a journalist who Peter disgraced when he disproved one of his stories. However, while the concept of Venom has always been the same, the original idea for the symbiote's host was originally a completely new character and a woman.

According to writer David Michelinie, Venom's original origin story was that, while pregnant, her husband was killed by a cabbie who was distracted by a Spider-Man fight. The stress caused her to lose her baby and gave her a pathological hatred of Spider-Man which drew the symbiote to her.

This version of Venom even technically appeared in the comics. In Web of Spider-Man #18 Peter is nearly pushed in front of a subway train by a mysterious hand and later in #24, that same, obviously female, hand grabs his leg. The intent was for that to lead into the eventual revelation that Venom was trying to kill Spider-Man and her symbiote was blocking his spider sense. However, Michelinie's idea was then shot down by editor Jim Salicrup who was worried readers wouldn't see a woman as a physical threat.

There are very few high-profile female villains in comics, something that potentially could have changed with the addition of a major female antagonist to one of the world's most popular heroes.

 
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