Eddie Brock being part of the supporting cast before he became Venom.
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
From TAS? Yeah, I liked that, along with Eddie working with the Connors in Spectacular. In either case, building up his relationship and antagonism with Peter/Spider-Man before he bonds with the symbiote Peter casts off is a great touch that gives him more substance as a character. I also liked TAS Eddie falling in love with Ashley Kafka and wanting to reconnect with his old ideals, even with the Venom symbiote still bonded to him.
The spider is always on the hunt.
I have to say I prefer the idea of Eddie Brock just being this random guy who gets sucked into the world of Spider-Man and introduced out of nowhere as in the original Michelinie-MacFarlane run.
Having Eddie Brock connected to Peter and potentially dropping in and out of his supporting cast has the air of the usual problems of Peter's supporting cast gradually becoming villains or heroes and getting to be part of the other side of the his double life. Obviously, mileage varies on how much is too much, and not everyone can or will agree.
Sometimes people, complete strangers, just barge into your life all of a sudden, out of random. That was part of the terror in the original Venom story.
Kaine rescuing Baby May.
-Pav, who headcannoned it until it no longer made sense...
You were Spider-Man then. You and Peter had agreed on it. But he came back right when you started feeling comfortable.
You know what it means when he comes back.
"You're not the better one, Peter. You're just older."
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The symbiote coming to earth from a space mission.
Despite my earlier post, I like him as having been friends with Peter like in the Spectacular animated series. Of course, Venom's whole character is based around a vendetta. So there, the more personal the better.
But that series did also add another unnecessary connection: Felicia's father being the burglar. (In fairness, we never got to see where that was going though.)
Well, I prefer the spider-marriage in MC2 to anything I've seen in the 616, RYV universe or the Abramsverse. MC2 had Peter give up being Spider-Man, of course, due to his leg getting blown apart by the Green Goblin. I wasn't as fond of that aspect, but I did like that Peter and MJ saw being a spider-hero as a horrible responsibility, and both reacted in shock and sadness when their daughter showed that she had the same powerset. They knew what it meant for her. Thats just one example of the kind of nice balance that DeFalco struck with the Spider-marriage, with them trying to live normal lives but having the spectre of Spider-Man always overshadow things.
As far as USM goes, I do love a lot of aspects of it. Not sure I'd tag any of the approaches as being completely superior to 616, though. That universe had its drawbacks.
Every day is a gift, not a given right.