Venom goes back to his glory days in Lethal Protector

Venom: Lethal Protector #1 variant cover
Venom: Lethal Protector #1 variant cover (Image credit: Lucio Parrillo (Marvel Comics))

Prepare for a 'Venom: Year One' style story in 2022, from the character's co-creator David Michelinie, called Venom: Lethal Protector

(Yes, that's right - the same name the first Venom series in 1993 went by - also written by Michelinie.)

Working with artist Ivan Fiorelli, Michelinie is turning back the clock to when Eddie Brock was a despondent newspaper reporter first crossing paths with the symbiote that would become Venom.

Venom: Lethal Protector #1 cover (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

"Getting to do a multi-issue story with the original Venom was like sitting down to dinner with an old friend - who wants to eat your brain for dessert!” Michelinie says in the announcement. "It was both fun and exciting, and I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it."

According to Marvel, Venom: Lethal Protector isn't just a trip down memory lane, but a hint at "what's to come in his future!"

Michelinie and Todd McFarlane created Venom in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, picking up from when Spider-Man brought the symbiote back from Battleworld during the original Secret Wars event. The symbiote attempted to subvert Peter Parker to his will, but after the hero was able to resist the sinister urges, the sludgy alien monster found a more pliable host in Eddie Brock.

Paulo Siqueira has drawn the main cover for Venom: Lethal Protector #1, with variants coming from Bill Sienkiewicz, Lucio Parillo, Joshua Cassara (a Stormbreakers variant), and David Nakayama. Check them out here:

The new Venom: Lethal protector is part of a growing number of flashback series Marvel is currently publishing such as X-Men Legends, Maestro: World War M, and Ben Reilly: Spider-Man.

Venom: Lethal Protector #1 (of 5) goes on sale on March 23.

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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)