Spider-Man’s brief tenure with the Venom symbiote has become a key touchstone for the character, and now a cosplay imagines how both Peter Parker and his clone Ben Reilly might look if they fully mastered the symbiote’s power. With one classic look and one that’s entirely new, these cosplays show one potential future for both Spidey and the Scarlet Spider, and they look spectacular in doing so.
Brampton Spider-Man (@xsymbiote_spideyx) has debuted two amazing Spider-Man cosplays in collaboration with artist and image editor @pixelens. These cosplays are black versions of both a new Spider-Man costume design as well as Scarlet Spider’s classic costume.
The first design modifies Peter Parker’s classic black look, extending his chest spider like webbing over his forearms, with matching spider motifs on both arms and legs and an added white cape. Ben Reilly’s design meanwhile is an accurate palette-swap of his original costume, with his blue cut-off hoodie now in white.
Spidey Looks Great in Black
Introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #252 by Tom DeFalco, Roger Stern, Ron Frenz, Brett Breeding, Glynis Wein, and Joe Rosen, Spidey’s black costume is, unbeknownst to him at the time, the alien Venom Symbiote. After he discovers that it’s alive and has been joyriding in his body while he’s sleeping, leaving him exhausted, Peter abandons the symbiote, which bonds to Eddie Brock instead to become the character fans now know as Venom. While Venom originally seeks revenge on Peter, he quickly morphs into the anti-hero role that’s been a staple of the character ever since.
Brampton’s use of Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider, is also a great character match for the symbiote. Ben is a clone of Peter, created by the Jackal, Miles Warren. During the infamous 1990s Clone Saga, Ben becomes the main Spider-Man, with both him and Peter convinced that Ben is actually the original. In Marvel’s modern era, Ben has struggled to find a solid identity, alternating between heroism, anti-heroism, and straight-up villainy. His lack of self-worth and dramatic personality shifts make him a perfect Venom host: a broken individual struggling to find an identity for himself outside the context of other people’s designs on his life.
Venom and Peter Parker Make Sense Together
The fact that Peter Parker can’t master the Venom symbiote like in Brampton’s cosplay is also a great character beat. It’s established in later appearances that the personality of a symbiote’s host impacts how the symbiote acts. The Venom symbiote took Peter on late-night heroics because it was reflecting Peter’s drive — his heroic impulse at its most self-destructive. In most adaptations however, the costume is more actively sinister, making Peter more aggressive and just plain mean. This also works because Peter is these things at times. Especially in early stories, Peter is more obviously flawed, self-centered and caustic. Venom never made Spider-Man evil, it just brought out what was already there.
