Venom?

I know Land Captain is still on the job until Sunday, but I couldn't let this strip pass without comment. I know (or at least, I'm reasonably certain) that Spider-Man has fought the Hulk in the strip. Or at least, he's claimed he's fought the Hulk before and that's good enough for me. Venom, though? Seriously Venom? Venom has not once been in this strip until today, I'm thinking, and the fact that he's in there today means something is going down.

There's the chance that someone convinced Stan Lee to put Venom in the strip, and this is the cop-out result. Or Stan Lee is trying to lure in the younger crowd (HINT: MORE ACTION, LESS GOOGLING) and put in Venom to appeal to their sensibilities with the knowledge that no one would ever know Venom actually hasn't appeared in the strip. He might also be picking and choosing parts of Spider-Man's post-Lee history to put into the strip which is problematic to say the least.

Of course, there is the possibility that Venom HAS been in the strip before. If that's the case, then for a few months, we had a slobbering murderous psychopath in the comic pages. That is something I wish I had seen.

TIL: It's always nice to see the Hulk.