The "Venom" sequel unleashes a lot of carnage, but it doesn't have answers for everything you want to
know. Will Anne ever dump Dr. Dan and get with a hero instead of a zero? Will Venom finally meet
Spider-Man? These are the biggest unanswered questions in "Venom: Let There Be Carnage."
In a key scene of the "Venom" sequel, Eddie Brock goes to visit Cletus Kasady in San Quentin.
At first trying to play things cool, Eddie finally loses it when the convicted serial
killer begins comparing himself to Eddie. Kasady killed multiple members of his family;
Eddie, he claims, killed a family member when he was born.
In the comics, Eddie's mother did indeed die from complications during childbirth — a tragedy
compounded when his father, Carl Brock, came to treat the child with an icy, angry detachment.
Much of what Eddie became — athlete, star student,
journalist — was in a desperate attempt to gain his father's approval and warmth.
In actuality, Brock is somewhat in the neighborhood of Cletus Kasady.
While that first death may not have been his doing, an older Brock got drunk in the
comics once and accidentally struck and killed a child with his father's car. In that storyline,
Eddie wanted to turn himself in and face the music, but his dad talked him out of it.
Whichever Eddie Brock storylines are making their way to the silver screen, this much is certain:
Eddie has some serious guilt on his shoulders. Kasady knows exactly which buttons to push,
and when Eddie gets mad, Venom wants to help his buddy out. But ultimately,
this fit of rage only leads to Kasady taking in the symbiote, causing more death and destruction.
"Is Venom gay?" Those are three words you most likely didn't think you'd be asking yourself on
the way out of the theater, but it's a very real question that the movie definitely brings up.
"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" has a scene where the symbiote, on the rebound after a bad breakup
with Eddie, finds himself at a San Francisco rave. After turning down the advances of a woman,
the alien gets up on stage and delivers a rant that includes the declaration:
"I am out of the Eddie closet."
Speaking about the movie's credited writers, Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy, Serkis implied
that the scene very much means what you think it means. He shared in an interview with Uproxx,
"Tom and Kelly were always about Venom coming out and going to a
party that was a very sort of an LGBTQIA kind of festival, really,
I'd call it. So, this is his coming out party basically. This is Venom's coming-out party."
We already know that Venom has a certain degree of gender fluidity.
The symbiote inhabits genders indiscriminately,
and although Venom has come to appreciate Eddie Brock (even at one point declaring love for him),
Venom also seems to enjoy inhabiting old Mrs. Chen's body and having Anne get flirty.
The bottom line? By the end of the film,
Venom seems happy and comfortable with himself. That's all that matters.
"You bet your ass."
"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" doesn't give viewers any idea where Shriek, aka Frances Barrison,
got her powers. Specifically, we're talking about her ability to emit an eardrum-piercing scream
that can kill humans and temporarily disorient sound-sensitive symbiotes like Venom and Carnage.
Instead, the audience meets Frances in a cell at St. Estes Reform School
adjacent to Cletus Kasady, who makes her a paper promise ring
before she is whisked off to her new home at Ravencroft mental institution.
Much of this is because, in a series where everyone else seems to be gaining
powers via symbiotes, Shriek's talents are derived from her status as what has been a
dirty word for movies based on Marvel Comics not called "X-Men": "mutant."
Back around the turn of the century, as Marvel sold rights to various properties to studios,
only 20th Century Fox secured the rights to the mutant corner of the Marvel universe,
which it famously used for its own series of "X-Men" movies.
Now, things appear to be on the path to mutants finally
joining the MCU — but since the "Venom" films are technically Sony productions
in Sony's own Universe of Marvel Characters, you can see where things get muddled.
In the original Marvel comics, Shriek had a horrific upbringing that involved physical abuse,
body-shaming, drug use, and even being shot in the head by a police officer.
All this led to the awakening of her latent mutant abilities,
which include sound manipulation, levitation, and even some psychic powers and mind control.
Based on the explosive end credits scene of this "Venom" movie,
it's not likely we'll get answers about Shriek's mutant origins any time soon.
The first time Venom sees Carnage in the flesh, the black symbiote recedes back
into Eddie Brock's body like he's a frightened Hulk who just saw Thanos walk into the club.
"Oh, shit!"
"Whoa, where are you going?"
"That is a red one!"
"You need to come out right now."
"ROAAAAAR"
As comic fans know, many symbiote species have their own colors,
with Venom being black, Scream colored yellow, Sleeper being green, and so on. The reason why
Carnage is red is because it entered Cletus through his bloodstream. In the comics, Eddie
was in a prison cell with Cletus when Venom's spawn accessed Kasady through a cut in his hand.
In the movie, a somewhat similar event occurs, even if it gets tweaked a bit. Although Brock
and Kasady aren't in a cell together, the serial killer manages to bite into Eddie,
after which he remarks upon the unique composition of Eddie's inner workings.
"I have tasted blood before, and that is not it."
Whatever "it" is, it is compounded when the state tries to put Cletus Kasady to
death via lethal injection. Carnage uses the opportunity to finally seize Kasady,
breaking free from the restraints and beginning his killing spree.
So, why is Venom so afraid of a "red one"? Well, for starters,
anyone can see that Carnage is clearly bigger and seems to have more weapons at the ready.
It's also generally accepted that each spawn of a symbiote is stronger than the one before it,
so Venom knows right off the bat that he's at a disadvantage.
Also, it never helps when the symbiote you're about to go up
against has chosen a host who just so happens to be a ruthless serial killer.
But the significance of him being red, and that being scarier? That's unexplained.
Who knows? Maybe Venom just read the comic books when he was a kid,
and knows with one glance that he's in for maximum carnage.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Looper videos about your favorite movies and TV shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.