Tom Hardy’s Venom may not have had Spider-Man in it, but it did have a few references to key figures in the web slinger’s history.
A pair of Blu-ray bonus clips takes a closer look at some of the Easter eggs that appeared in Venom. Heat Vision got an early look at the clips.
First up, Eddie (Hardy) and Anne (Michelle Williams) break up early on in the film, outside the law offices of Michelinie and McFarlane. It’s an homage to writer David Michelinie and artist Todd McFarlane, who created Venom. (See the clip in the video above.)
Now for a more obscure reference: Eddie lives in the Schueller apartment complex, which is named for Randy Schueller, an unsung hero in Venom history. Schueller was a hardcore Spider-Man fan and wrote to Marvel Comics in the 1980s suggesting that Spidey get an upgraded black costume, courtesy of Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards. To his surprise, the Marvel editor-in-chief at the time, Jim Shooter, wrote him back to say the publisher would like to buy his idea for $220 ($566 in today’s dollars). Shooter said Schueller would be given a shot at scripting the story, though that didn’t work out.
Eventually, the black Spider-Man costume was introduced as part of the classic Secret Wars storyline — and later that alien costume concept developed into Venom.
“Since Marvel paid me for the story, I have no real gripe, but I do feel bad that they didn’t give me any kind of acknowledgment in the comics,” Schueller wrote in 2007. “But no, I got nothin’! That’s my one disappointment in this whole story.”
Perhaps this Blu-ray Easter egg (below) will help heal that wound.
Venom comes out on digital Dec. 11 and on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD Dec. 18.
