I don’t like to run a lot of unsubstantiated stories from IESB. Not because they’re bad people over there or anything, but because they have this habit of running shit without vetting it, or even kicking the tires to see if the story is plausible. That said, this story has the ring of plausibility, even if I wouldn’t stake my mortgage on it.

According to the site, Marvel is developing a solo Venom movie. Supposedly Venom as a solo character was tied up at New Line until recently, but now the rights have reverted to Marvel, who has a waiver from the WGA and can actually hire writers to work on scripts and stuff. Obviously the fact that they’re developing a Venom movie doesn’t mean anything – they have likely files upon files of notes and outlines and treatments for just about every Marvel character under the sun. But if this is a project Marvel Studios is actually pursuing, I would say it’s their first major misstep. Venom’s a terrible character, and he only gets worse when forced into the role of anti-hero. I loved the way he was handled in Spider-Man 3, since the comic book version of Eddie Brock had no thematic resonance with Spider-Man as a character. Of course since Venom appeals to 9 year olds and fans of bad comic books, many people complained about how the character was handled by Raimi; my only complaint about him was the perfunctory way that he teamed up with Sandman (which actually felt very comic book-y, but that’s neither here nor there).

Venom’s a character I would like to see cinematically retired, so let’s hope that this story dries up and blows away.