10 Reasons Why Donny Cates’ Venom Was So Great

Much of the buzz surrounding this run can be attributed to the release of two event miniseries, Absolute Carnage, which saw a resurrected Cletus Kasady on a bloody quest to free the dark god Knull, and King in Black, which depicted the entity’s arrival on Earth, a result of Eddie Brock’s decision in #5 of the former series. These two stories serve as major arcs in the Venom run, even if they don’t technically appear in issues of that comic.

Serving as the protagonist of a successful event book is likely to take any character to new heights of popularity (fingers crossed for Howard the Duck vs Thanos in 2039), but the prior efforts of Cullen Bunn’s Venomverse and Venomized didn’t seem to do the trick. Luckily, 2019’s Absolute Carnage garnered rave reviews across its five issues, as did 2021’s King in Black, which is widely considered to have been a perfect finale after Knull’s debut in Venom #1.

The use of Eddie Brock as a leading man in these two universe-shaking stories drew the kind of attention the character had rarely seen before. For his actions to have such dramatic consequences for the Marvel Universe had not been seen before; the character was typically relegated to smaller stories that affected only his and Peter Parker’s world. Giving him the chance to save the universe alongside Earth’s mightiest heroes allowed Eddie to be respected as one of them, even if he didn’t see himself as one.