Going back to the idea of the Klyntar being a force for good, Brian Bendis made the bold decision to take Flash Thompson - then Venom - and make him a Guardian of the Galaxy.
It was amazing.
The stuff that had been done with Thompson up until that point was already genius, with Rick Remender giving the character the Venom suit to embark on clandestine operations for the US government. For Flash especially though it was brilliant, as the character's heroics had always been inspired by Spider-Man; giving him the chance to do right with a venomous motif just seemed to make sense.
And so, exploring the lore surrounding the suit and Flash in particular made for an equally intelligent book. The Avengers placed Thompson - formerly a member of the Secret Avengers - as a part of the Guardians so the two groups could maintain close contact, and while the former bully might seem an odd fit for the group, the mythos created by Bendis lent the series an organic feel.
The character was also the subject of a short-lived solo series called Venom: Space Knight, which is brilliant title no matter how you spin it.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
