YMMV / Venom (Remender & Bunn)

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Making Flash Thompson into "Black Ops. Venom" was largely repudiated at the time it was announced, with many long-time fans wanting the Venom symbiote to go back to Eddie Brock. As Agent Venom accrued his own legion of fans as a result of Rick Remender and Cullen Bunn's tenure, a long-standing rivalry has developed within the Venom fandom over whether Eddie or Flash is the superior Venom — which has even been referenced in the comics themselves.
  • Bringing Eddie Brock back as Toxin was poorly received at the time it happened, as many fans wanted Eddie to return as Venom and disliked how the Toxin symbiote was characterized during the "Savage Six" arc. Eddie-as-Toxin returning in the "Toxin with a Vengeance" arc was also seen as a step backwards in Eddie Brock's characterization, with him largely returning to his Lethal Protector characterization, and many purists were outraged that Eddie was depicted eating someone and alluded to having done so before as Venom. In more recent years, fans have warmed to "Broxin" and some even consider him to have been a superior host to Patrick Mulligan.
• Complete Monster: Crime Master III, Bennett Brant, thought to have been killed, was actually taken in by a criminal organization who chose him to become the new Crime Master. Starting his reign of terror by kidnapping a child on Halloween, Crime Master teaches the boy to kill, convinces him to to kill his parents, and raises him as his new assassin, Jack O'Lantern V. Desiring to become a crime boss, Crime Master hires a scientist to weaponize some Antarctic Vibranium. When the scientist double-crosses him and uses the Vibranium himself, Crime Master is pleased to see his product in action and to get the free advertising. Crime Master sends Jack to capture the scientist, allowing him to kill innocent bystanders in the process. Believing that promoting chaos is good for his business, Crime Master wants to repeat scenes of horror such as this across the globe to make a profit. Crime Master has Jack kidnap Betty, the girlfriend of Flash "Agent Venom" Thompson—and Brant's sister—and straps her to a bomb, only promising to release her if Venom delivers some Vibranium to him, a promise which he does not plan to keep. After Venom tries to assassinate the Crime Master, the latter orders his underlings to kill all of Flash's friends and family.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Andi Benton was created as a last-minute addition to the cast, as Cullen Bunn had originally intended to turn Eddie Brock into "Demon Venom" by having him bond to the now-demonically-augmented clone of the Venom symbiote. Unlike many examples of Affirmative-Action Legacy characters, Mania was well-received by the fans and quickly became Cullen Bunn's Creator's Favorite as well. She was less well-received by Marvel's executives, who kiboshed all but a couple of Bunn's ideas for stories featuring her and told Dan Slott and Mike Costa to depower her due to feeling that there were too many heroic symbiote characters.
• Fan Nickname: Eddie Brock's appearance as Toxin was given the initially-derogatory fan-nickname "Broxin" to further distinguish him from the Toxin symbiote's original host, Patrick Mulligan.
• Tough Act to Follow: Cullen Bunn became the co-writer of Venom Vol. 2 alongside Rick Remender with Issue #17 and took over as the writer of with Issue #23. While some of Bunn's creative decisions — bringing back Toxin and co-creating Mania — have since been well-regarded, his section of the run is widely criticized as inferior to Remender's.