Separation Anxiety

Venom is a fictional character, a symbiote life form in the Marvel Comics universe. The creature is a sentient alien with a gooey, almost liquid-like form. It requires a host, usually human, to bond around for its survival. In return the Venom creature gives its host enhanced powers. If Venom fully bonds with its host it takes full control and the host will be taken over by the symbiote. In effect, when the Venom Symbiote bonds with a human to form a super-villain, that new dual-life form itself is also often called Venom.

Gavok wrote a post about Venom after reading Separation Anxiety (Venom #23-26) written by Howard Mackie and drawn by Ron Randall.

In a bout with splitting hairs, I always found it interesting that they named a videogame after this story. For one, the game’s story isn’t based on Separation Anxiety, but Lethal Protector. Second, the game is meant to be a sequel to Maximum Carnage, even though that story came after Lethal Protector. Third, even though Carnage had nothing to do with Lethal Protector, they toss him in as the final boss for the hell of it. Hey, they did have those sprites lying around from the last game.

Onto the comic. Eddie is meant to be shipped to a research facility in New Mexico and spends some time held in an overly sci-fi restraint device. Despite being without his symbiote and being completely prone, he has dozens of guards aiming their guns at his vital organs in case something happens. They’re that scared of him.