who created venom

Venom was created collaboratively: the character as readers know him is primarily credited to writer David Michelinie and artist Todd McFarlane, building on earlier ideas for Spider-Man’s black costume by several other Marvel contributors and even a fan.

Core creators

• Writer David Michelinie is generally credited with conceiving Venom as a “big guy in the black costume” and developing Eddie Brock as the symbiote’s famous host.

• Artist Todd McFarlane gave Venom his monstrous jaw, teeth, and overall creepy visual style, turning the idea from “guy in a black suit” into the iconic horror-tinged villain.

Earlier black suit concept

• The seed of Venom came from the idea of a new black costume for Spider-Man, proposed by Marvel fan Randy Schueller in the early 1980s and purchased by Marvel for $220.

• Marvel editor Jim Shooter and artists Mike Zeck and Rick Leonardi then developed this black-and-white suit design, which debuted as Spider-Man’s alien symbiote costume before it became Venom.

First appearances in comics

• The symbiote itself first appeared as Spider-Man’s new black costume in “The Amazing Spider-Man” #252 (1984).

• Venom, as Eddie Brock bonded with the symbiote, fully emerged in “The Amazing Spider-Man” #300 (1988), written by Michelinie with art by McFarlane.

Why credit is shared

• Venom’s creation is spread across multiple people: the fan who suggested the black suit, the editors and artists who designed it, and the writer–artist team who turned that suit into a villain.

• Officially, most modern sources list Michelinie and McFarlane as Venom’s co-creators, while also acknowledging contributions from Randy Schueller, Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, Rick Leonardi, and others involved with the black costume and early symbiote stories.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.