Update: During the Summer Game Fest, Insomniac creative director Brian Intihar confirmed that Marvel's Spider-Man 2's Venom is not Eddie Brock, lending further credence to the fan theory that Harry Osborne will take on the symbiote.
Original story: Last night's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 trailer at the PlayStation Showcase has given us our first proper look at Venom. Peter Parker's symbiotic suit comes with some slimy new powers and a generous helping of bad attitude. That's all par for the course for the classic villain, but some fans think that Insomniac's effort might be gearing for a twist on the traditional portrayal.
Much of the time, Venom's host is Eddie Brock, Peter Parker's disgraced Daily Bugle colleague who takes on the symbiote via their mutual hatred of the webslinger. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, Tom Hardy's Venom movies, Marvel's Midnight Suns, and any number of comics and cartoons have made Brock and Venom almost one-and-the-same character.
But Brock hasn't really shown up in Insomniac's universe yet. A single throwaway line in an optional collectable is the only mention of his existence in the original Marvel's Spider-Man, and with Peter having moved on from the Bugle and Miles' story also needing to be told, there's potentially little room to set up his character. Stepping into that gap, according to fans, could be a very different Venom - Harry Osborne.
That's a thread that Insomniac has been setting up for years. In the post-credits scene of Marvel's Spider-Man, Harry can be seen floating in some kind of medical tank, wrapped up in distinctly symbiotic tentacles. We see Harry again in the Miles Morales post-credits scene, still wrapped in those tentacles.
Harry, of course, is far more closely linked to the Green Goblin than Venom, but the symbiote would certainly be an interesting way of tackling his disease. There's also some (admittedly minor) precedent for an Osborne-centric version of the villain. In the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, Harry saves a fragment of the symbiote as it leaves Peter, and eventually becomes Venom himself.
That's unlikely to be the way Harry and the symbiote meet in the game, but fans are already theorizing that Osborne Jnr will play host to Venom. It's clear from the gameplay reveal that Peter is aware of his friends' plight by the time he gets his black suit - he references Kurt Connors (better known as The Lizard) - being necessary to save Harry, so it's not impossible that Peter claims the symbiote from Harry, who eventually takes it back.
That concept isn't entirely popular among players at this point. Eddie Brock, of course, is an iconic part of Venom, and we've limited attachment to Harry so far. Nevertheless, he remains a crucial figure in Spidey canon, and could be an excellent emotional foil, not dissimilar to the original game's Aunt May.
