After reaching an understanding with arch-nemesis Spider-Man, Eddie relocates from New York City to San Francisco to start a new life for himself. Unfortunately for Eddie, the father of one of Venom's (many) victims has arrived seeking vengeance — and that's not even mentioning the revelation of Venom's newborn "offspring" created for nefarious purposes.
In addition to being the character's first solo series, Venom: Lethal Protector is also notable for delving deeper into Eddie Brock's origins, further expanding the lore of the symbiote, and marking their transition from villains to Anti Heroes.
The success of Lethal Protector cemented Venom's growing popularity as a character, and began a steady run of sequel series that would not end until 1998's Venom: The Finale. Lethal Protector also serves as partial inspiration for the 2018 Venom film, specifically pulling the San Francisco setting and the Life Foundation as an antagonist.
A second series of Venom: Lethal Protector (subtitled Heart of the Hunted for the collected edition), set prior to the original series and also written by Michelinie, was published in 2022.
Venom: Lethal Protector (1993) contains examples of:
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Roland Treece & Carlton Drake.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: The Life Foundation determines that each symbiote contains six "seeds" that can mature into oggspring symbiotes, and forcibly extracts the Venom symbiote's five remaining "seeds" to create the yellow-and-red symbiote later called Scream, the purple symbiote later called Agony, the yellow-and-black symbiote later called Phage, the green symbiote later called Lasher, and the black/grey/blue symbiote later called Riot.
- Comic-Book Time: The Watergate scandal is said to be what inspired Eddie to get into journalism, but for this to be the case in real time, Eddie would have to be a lot older than how he's depicted in this series.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Venom's offspring follow in the trend of Carnage as visual variations on Venom with different colors and slightly different designs, each having their own unique palette.
- Continuity Nod: References to recent and established continuity at the time include:
- Venom and Spider-Man's agreement to leave one another alone, which happened in Amazing Spider-Man #375 earlier in the year.
- Numerous references to Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's marriage, which happened in 1987's The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21.
- Orwell Taylor's son Hugh being killed by Venom in Amazing Spider-Man #315, published a few years earlier.
- Dark and Troubled Past: This series reveals the circumstances that made Eddie the way he is, namely an abusive father who became that way after Eddie's mother died during childbirth and blamed him for it. Because of this, Eddie constantly tried to impress his father through success and accolades, but it was never enough. The final nail in the coffin for their relationship was Eddie's disgrace following a botched investigative case involving the supervillain known as Sin-Eater, which eventually led him to becoming Venom's host.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Orwell Taylor is set up to be this story's big bad, but Carlton Drake and Roland Treece both emerges as much more of a threat to Eddie and Venom and something of a Greater-Scope Villain as the creator of his various offspring and the Corrupt Corporate Executive threatening the secret civilisation that Eddie discovers respectively.
- No Name Given: None of Venom's offspring are actually named in this series, and wouldn't be for quite some time. The symbiote later known as Scream isn't given that name until Civil War: Battle Damage Report in 2006note , while the others (Agony, Lasher, Riot, and Phage) aren't given their names until Carnage, U.S.A. #2 in 2012.
- Not Quite Dead: Venom's offspring are implied to be killed in issue #4, but Venom: Separation Anxiety #1 a year later would later reveal them to have survived or been resurrected.
- Underground City: Eddie discovers one of these under San Francisco, which was apparently sunken into an underground cavern as the result of the 1906 earthquake and appears to be stuck in that era. It has since become a haven for San Fransisco's homeless population, and Eddie is later accepted by them for his heroic acts in protecting them.
