That would have been cool. I always liked Venom and Brock... but on a very basic level his origin was dumb. Brock hated Spider-man for proving he sucked at his job.... he didn't MAKE him suck at his job... he just did what he did and the fact that he sucked became obvious. It was a very weak and very irrational hatred to build an epic villain on.
Now if one of his fights had cost Venom's host to lose a child (pre-born OR post... could have been Brock's kid killed in a crossfire) Then that's a very legitimate hate that isn't going to go away. I could easily see it being a fight between Spider-man and Hobgoblin or whoever... and first thing Venom does is kill Hobgoblin... AND Spidey is the last target for his/her vengeance.
There's something about a hatred that actually has some basis in truth that would be LOT more compelling than "wait a minute... maybe Spider-man doesn't destroy innocent lives... Nahhhh GET HIM!!!'
I think so. I skipped the general part of HOW she lost them (If I recall correctly. She was on her way to give birth to the hospital alongside her husband, but the cab driver got distracted by Spider-Man fighting a villain and crashed) in case someone could come up with something better in the how. (Because I feel that is still a bit of a weak link. Spider-Man is not directly responsible. But eh, something like that could cause irrational hatred on anyone)
Pretty much, yes.
That's actually a good point, and in retrospect, why Spider-Man "betraying" Venom after Venom helped him deal with Carnage in Carnage's first full appearance wasn't necessarily the worst thing he could've done, at least at that time. Regardless of Venom's popularity with the fans/readers and his supposed code of protecting innocents, he was more than willing back then to kill whoever got between him and killing Spider-Man, so it made some sense that Spider-Man wouldn't (and perhaps shouldn't) fully trust him. He sure has come a long way since then, though.
The spider is always on the hunt.
What if John Jameson was not a respected astronaut?
What if Beyonder made it so that Peter got his powers early?
A random thing that would be interesting to explore would be how characters could be affected by the things that would change their behavior (concussions, PTSD, drug addiction, etc.) Granted, "What if Robbie Robertson was a pothead?" or "What if Mary Jane had taxoplasmosis?" are not exactly easy sells to an editor.
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
On the theme of characters going on different paths, what if Felicia Hardy became a reality TV star, as an upper-class girl with a wealthy infamous father, instead of a cat burglar?
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
What if Peter Parker became American Spider instead?
In this universe, Parker doesn’t get bitten until Captain America comes back on the scene and it turns him into the modern day Cap sidekick.
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets