The post-credits scene attached to Spider-Man: Brand New Day has fans dissecting every frame, and while it doesn’t explicitly tease […]
The post-credits scene attached to Spider-Man: Brand New Day has fans dissecting every frame, and while it doesn’t explicitly tease Venom – or even the black symbiote suit – I walked out of the theater convinced Marvel is quietly laying the foundation for one of Spider-Man’s greatest stories.
Needless to say, major spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow.
The film’s animated end credits sequence begins with Ned Leeds’ Spider-Tracker searching for Peter Parker before it fails to find him anywhere on Earth. It continues pulling farther and farther back, leaving New York behind, then our planet entirely, until Spider-Man is finally detected somewhere deep in space. The sequence ends with the familiar promise that Spider-Man will return.
On the surface, it’s simply a tease that Peter’s next adventure isn’t staying in friendly neighborhood New York. Instead, everything about it points toward this year’s Avengers: Doomsday and, ultimately, next year’s Avengers: Secret Wars. For longtime comic readers, that’s where the real excitement begins.
Anyone who grew up reading Spider-Man comics immediately knows why. In Marvel’s original 1984 Secret Wars, Peter Parker discovers what he believes is an advanced alien costume while stranded on Battleworld. The sleek black suit enhances his abilities before eventually revealing itself to be a living symbiote. Peter ultimately rejects it, setting into motion one of the most important rivalries in comic book history when it later bonds with Eddie Brock and becomes Venom.
No, Brand New Day doesn’t show the symbiote. It doesn’t mention Venom. It doesn’t even hint at Eddie Brock. But it does something almost as important: it puts Spider-Man on the exact kind of cosmic path where Marvel could naturally adapt that story without forcing it.
Marvel has also been quietly setting the table for years.
At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock was pulled back into Sony’s universe, but not before leaving behind a small fragment of the Venom symbiote inside the MCU. At the time, it felt like a fun little stinger; a wink to fans wondering if Venom would ever meet Spider-Man. Four years later, with Peter seemingly heading into Secret Wars, that scene suddenly feels a whole lot more intentional.
As someone who grew up during Todd McFarlane’s run on Spider-Man, I’ve wanted Marvel to tell this story more than any other. Not just because Venom is one of my favorite villains, but because the black suit saga is so much bigger than Venom. It’s Peter Parker at his absolute best and absolute worst. It’s about power, temptation, isolation, and ultimately realizing that the thing making you stronger is slowly changing who you are.
Marvel doesn’t even have ot rush it. Give me an entire movie with Peter wearing the black suit. Give me two. Let us actually spend time with that version of Spider-Man before everything inevitably falls apart. Previous live-action adaptations burned through the symbiote storyline so quickly that it never had the emotional weight it deserved. If Marvel is finally going to do this story, I’d much rather they treat it like a slow burn than a quick detour on the way to introducing Venom.
The funny thing is, the more I thought about this after leaving the theater – and even while writing this article – the more I talked myself into a realization.
I don’t think Marvel can introduce the black suit without eventually giving us Venom.
The second audiences see Peter Parker wearing that living black alien costume, the expectation becomes crystal clear. Fans won’t be satisfied if Marvel spends years building toward the symbiote, only to pivot away before Eddie Brock enters the picture. Pandora’s Box will be open. Once you tease that costume, you’re committing yourself to finishing the story.
That’s why I no longer think this is simply about the black suit.
It’s about Venom.
Personally, I’d welcome a fresh start. I actually like Sony’s first Venom movie. I think Tom Hardy is fantastic and completely committed to that performance. The sequels, however, never really worked for me. More importantly, those movies existed largely outside Spider-Man’s world, stripping away the relationship that made Venom one of Marvel’s greatest villains in the first place. Venom isn’t just another symbiote. He’s Spider-Man’s dark reflection. Without Peter Parker, something essential is missing.
Whether Marvel brings Hardy back through the multiverse, recasts Eddie Brock, or finds some other creative solution alongside Sony really doesn’t matter to me. At this point, the idea that the two studios aren’t working together in some capacity feels increasingly difficult to believe. They already crossed that bridge once with No Way Home. They already planted the symbiote in the MCU. Now they’re sending Spider-Man into the exact storyline where comic readers have expected the black suit to appear for more than forty years.
Could I be wrong? Absolutely. None of this has been confirmed by Marvel Studios, and the end-credits scene certainly doesn’t reveal a symbiote hiding somewhere in deep space.
But after seeing Spider-Man: Brand New Day, I walked out feeling more convinced than ever that this is where Marvel is headed. Spider-Man is leaving Earth. The symbiote is already waiting somewhere in the MCU. Secret Wars is looming. Every major piece of the puzzle is now sitting on the table.
Whether it’s Tom Hardy or someone entirely new beneath that alien suit, I think we’re finally getting the Venom story comic fans have been waiting decades to see.
