In 1988’s Amazing Spider-Man #300, Venom debuted as a ruthless, psychotic stalker and quickly became Spidey’s top villain. Within five years, he was so popular that Marvel semi-rehabilitated him into an antihero with his own series. But by the end of the decade, the character had become overexposed and was removed from active circulation. In the wake of the release of Venom: The Last Dance, we look back at one of the strangest evolutions of the Iron Age and ask the big questions. How did David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane turn a four-year-old completed subplot about a new costume and a newly retconned supporting character into the basis of a franchise? Why did Marvel give Venom a string of consecutive limited series instead of a traditional ongoing? And how are his powers even actually supposed to work?

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