History YMMV / Venom

** Venom is either one of the best ''Spider-Man'' villains of all time and/or one of Marvel's best anti-heroes or a textbook case of everything that's wrong with the NinetiesAntiHero archetype and all the other tropes associated with UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks. Pretty much everyone agrees that [[EvilIsCool his character design is great]], but the actual character himself has proven to be divisive. Many attempts to reinvent the character to add more depth to him also fall into this as well, with longtime fans of Venom as an anti-hero or detractors usually applauding moves to make the character more interesting than being a dark, revenge-obsessed reflection of Spider-Man, while longtime fans of him as a villain feel that giving the character more depth potentially takes away from what made Venom a great ShadowArchetype in their eyes.

** His incarnation in ''VideoGame/SpiderManWebOfShadows-Amazing Allies'' (UsefulNotes/{{P|layStation2}}S2 and UsefulNotes/{{P|layStationPortable}}SP) ''Edition'' is nothing like [[AntiVillain any]] of his [[AntiHero other]] incarnations. Hating Spider-Man for untold reasons, Venom allows [[MadScientist Jackal]] to experiment on him in order to speed up his symbiote suit's growth rate, then spreads his symbiote across Manhattan, infecting hundreds of people, including Spider-Man's friends, and turning them into mindless, hate-filled zombies. After manipulating many of Spider-Man's foes into assisting him in destroying the Wall-Crawler, Venom reveals he plans to allow his symbiote to spread across the planet, infecting every human around the world once Spider-Man is dead.

* NewerThanTheyThink: Even though he's labeled as a "classic" Spider-Man -villain, Venom is just pushing 30 years old, while Spidey himself has already reached 50.

-->'''Flash''': The moment... it hangs, frozen... For a million years. Won't go away. The moment hangs there. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Then]] [[RoyalWe we]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge wake up.]]