A Tale of Teeth and Tongues

Many moons ago our very own George Berryman asked a pivotal question…why does   Venom have those teeth and that tongue anyway?

Specifically George asked:

It occurred to me…his name is Venom. He eats life force, the symbiote feeds off of your life force and sucks it out of you slowly right…That’s how he lives…Why does he have giant teeth and a giant gaping maw and talk about wanting to eat brains?

Well George is in luck because I have a few possible answers to that question which has very obviously plagued him for all these decades.

Artistic Licence

The first answer is very simple albeit also rather facetious.

Because the artists drew Venom like that.

Todd McFarlane was the first artist to draw Venom and he gave him a mouth and some (comparatively small) fangs.

However, it was the artistic renditions of Erik Larsen which gave Venom his (for better or worse) now iconic teeth and tongue look. Larsen’s take is in truth far more exaggerated than most renditions to follow in his wake. Venom never looked more monstrous or grotesque than under Larsen’s pen.

The next major artist to draw Venom is perhaps the man who’s rendition became as iconic as McFarlane’s, if not moreso. I am of course speaking of Spidey artist extraordinaire, Mark Bagley. He retained the tongue and teeth look of Larsen but significantly toned them down (along with other artistic aspects of the character). Under his pen Venom’s teeth went back to resembling fangs but they were now larger and pointier. His maw, whilst still there, was now three times its original length and his tongue was both more conservative and not as frequently seen.

For whatever reason, the tongue and teeth look caught on and remained a staple of Venom throughout his history thereafter, even when the symbiote gained new hosts.

Organic Arsenal

I suspect though George and others in asking the above question was seeking a more in-universe explanation. Fear not for I have some of those too.

If you think about it, much like his claws/talons, I’d imagine the teeth at the very least grant Venom some practical weapons to use against his opponents and compliment his pretty vicious and brutal fighting style. From the get go Venom favoured brawling above strategy not that he was incapable of it.

Say what you will about the run unto itself, but the teeth did indeed prove a (temporarily) lethal weapon against the Sandman in the Mackie/Byrne Reboot era when Venom formed a vendetta against Marko and other members of the Sinister Six.

As for the tongue Daniel Way’s godforsaken 2003 Venom solo-series showcased at least one offensive use for it when it choked out Ben Grimm.

However a more likely reason for Venom’s teeth and tongue is for them to serve as tools of intimidation. After all they make him look like a monster as testified by innumerable character’s who’ve been frightened by him.

Symbolism?

All this being said though honestly I’ve always felt the teeth and tongue’s presence as part of the character’s look was more symbolic than anything else.

The idea is that Venom is Spider-Man’s old costume turned into a villain. So Venom looks like Spider-Man did in his black costume…except he doesn’t.

He’s a distorted reflection of him, a nightmarish twisted perversion of his look which is partially why the character worked visually.

His build was very different from Spider-Man’s as he was very bulky. His fingertips weren’t so much dexterous digits used for wall crawling so much as talons used for slashing, stabbing, etc.

He even had a mouth growing out of the mask itself (which a horrified MJ mentions to Peter in ASM #300). The teeth and the tongue simply built upon that symbolic idea of Venom looking like a nightmarish version of Spider-Man.

At the same time the teeth and tongue could be said to reflect the host of the symbiote himself, Eddie Brock. Despite what he claimed Brock was an extremely twisted individual who believed himself to be a hero when his actions in contrast told the story of an extremely demented, pathetic and violent individual who is very obviously NOT a hero.

Which makes sense visually since superficially Venom (because he has Spider-Man’s old costume) resembles a hero (i.e. Spider-Man) but the distortions convey to you he isn’t   Spider-Man at all. They convey that he is in fact a monster.  The teeth and tongue are a part of that monstrous look and outwardly reflect Brock’s ‘inner self’ (for lack of a better term), as well as potentially his violent hatred for Spider-Man and his own twisted world view.

Well that just about wraps us up. I hope George can finally rest easy now I have answered a question that has surely kept him awake at night over the years.