Venom's co-creator brings him back to his Lethal Protector days to take on one of Marvel's most evil villains

Venom: Separation Anxiety #1
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Eddie Brock became the original Venom all the way back in 1988. And now in 2024, writer Dave Michelinie, who co-created Venom alongside legendary artist Todd McFarlane, is returning to the character's heyday of the '90s in Venom: Lethal Protector, a new flashback limited series that pits Venom against one of Marvel's most malevolently manipulative villains, the Purple Man.

Alongside artist Gerardo Sandoval, Michelinie is digging into a previously untold chapter of Eddie Brock's history in Venom: Separation Anxiety, which borrows its name from the classic '90s event for a story set at the height of Venom's Lethal Protector era.

We've got an advance preview of pages from May's Venom: Separation Anxiety #1 showing Venom in his classic symbiote form, looking particularly menacing in Sandoval's style, which evokes many of the anti-hero's more monstrous qualities. 

Check it out:

"Amazing Spider-Man legend and Venom co-creator David Michelinie triumphantly returns to tell another all-new, heart-pounding, brain-eating tale set in Eddie Brock’s earliest days!" reads Marvel's official description of Venom: Separation Anxiety. 

"This time, he’s teaming up with Venom and Death Of The Venomverse artist extraordinaire Gerardo Sandoval! Venom has made a new enemy. And their bond will be tested like never before when a foe with the power to alter reality itself threatens to tear Eddie’s world apart, starting with his symbiote!"

Purple Man is well-known to MCU fans as the villain of Jessica Jones season 1, played with terrifying menace by fan-favorite actor David Tennant. In comics, he was recently seen in the crossover Daredevil: Devil's Reign, in which Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, stole his mind-control powers and stored them in a cane.

Venom: Separation Anxiety #1 goes on sale May 15.

Eddie Brock tops the list of the best Venom hosts of all time. 

George Marston

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)

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