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Winston Zhang
28 March
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Monday, June 30, 2008

21:31:00

Whelp! The day after I said I had nothing to post about, I suddenly get some ideas. I'll just jump straight in:

What I see around me is alot of people who hide their true characters for one reason or another, but mostly to fit in. It sure seems like most people's true personality is a turn-off for other people. Perhaps it's just a matter of not being selfish. Perhaps they really do have putrid personalities and know that they have to hide them. Who knows?

This is why I find it very refreshing when I meet people who are very honest with themselves, staying true to their inner selves. It's a very rare thing to see such people, so unabashedly true to themselves. Sadly, most of the time such people are misunderstood. I think I'm one of them, but that's off-topic.

I'm gonna be talking about an 'example' here. A comic character, actually, so this might all seem a tad bit removed from reality.

Nowadays, with the success of the film franchise, almost everybody knows about Spiderman. What's his name, what's the motto he lives by, who brought that motto to his mind in the first place etc etc. Well, sometimes this sheer commercialisation of the Spiderman character irks me to no end. People don't understand him (it?) well enough.

All they see in the movies is a teenager upon whom has been thrust this amazing power and all the responsibilities that go with it, on top of the topsy-turvy world of teenage life. That's accurate, yes, when checked with the more historically-established storyline of the comic books ('The Amazing Spiderman', 'Peter Parker Spiderman' etc etc), but those happened a long time ago. I used to religiously pick up issue after issue of a Spiderman comic at a newsstand near my old house, way back when I was still in Primary School. Still got em all, in fact (They're all really tattered though haha).

Last I read, (long time ago, remember) Peter had long since married Mary Jane, and they lived with Aunt May. They never had children due to various problems, almost all villian-based. The point here is, Spiderman is a way more mature person than in the movies, facing problems waaaay beyond the context of a teenager's life.

(On a sidenote, I don't like the fact that the Green Goblin was the first villian in the franchise. He's quite possibly the villian who has done the most psychological damage to Spidey, killing his first girlfriend and being responsible for the kidnapping of Aunt May amongst other things. He should've been somewhere down the line, as a true antagonist. But then I suppose you can't really fit such cerebral content into a movie aimed at an audience who just want action and some semblance of a storyline.)

Anyway, going back to the topic I began this post with. With people seeing the need to wear masks when facing other people, it's very refreshing to see a character so completely uncaring about the welfare of his target. Yes, I'm talking about a fictional character here, but then it still is nice to be able to channel your rage fully but without hurting anyone in real life. Who am I talking about here?

Venom.

Personally I feel that he is THE Spiderman villian. There are so many contrasting motivations to his character that it really is very interesting to try and guess what goes through his mind, a whole jumble of maniacal and shrewd thoughts, all in one mind.

Venom was poorly portrayed in Spiderman 3. Look at the actor who played him! When an actor's only notable point in his career thus far is playing a character loved/laughed at for his utter loser-ness (Eric Foreman from That 70's Show), he SHOULD NOT be playing such a complicated villian. That's not to say he can't act in a Spiderman movie. Cast him as Shocker, for all I care. BUT DEFINITELY NOT VENOM.

Anyone who's followed Venom's path of destruction will know that while he has superhuman strength and is completely insane in the head (he'll do just about anything to kill Spidey), he's still able to think out intricate plans in his quest to take Spidey's life. In short, he's a master serial killer, only police guns and bullets won't even scratch this mad mutha. And that, is masterful character development and story-telling.

He's even worked with Spidey a few times against a greater evil (Carnage, for one). Don't take it as a sign of weakness, he just wants to be able to be the very person who takes Spidey's last breath. Parker's death is not enough for him; it must be at his own hands.

Anyway, as time goes on Eddie Brock (the host of the symbiote) becomes less and less obsessed with killing Peter/Spidey, but of course the symbiote wants to carry on. And there we see yet another change in the character of Venom: Single-minded in his quest to kill Spidey, yet reluctantly being dragged along for the hunt at the same time.

It's all really mind-boggling, and sometimes, just rarely, I wish I could rage as only Venom can, striking fear so deep in people. His cerebral side makes him an all the more intriguing character. And no one will ever portray him justifiably. No one but a maniac could.

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Okay, done with that. I have alot of ideas that I wasn't able to put into words properly, so I left them out. I'm none too pleased with the structure and flow either, but the main point here was to talk about, well, Venom.

So, quite displeased with the writing.

Anyway, I didn't mean to come off as a total comic-nerd, haha, but I suppose that's another of my favourite pastimes.

Shall end here then =)