Marvel Comics has announced Venom: Separation Anxiety, a new five-issue limited series written by Venom co-creator David Michelinie.
Due to launch this May, Venom: Separation Anxiety teams Michelinie with Death of the Venomverse artist Gerardo Sandoval. Michelinie’s latest Venom retro series pits the Lethal Protector against none other than Zebediah Killgrave, better known as the Purple Man. The debut issue features a cover by Paulo Siqueira. Siqueira’s artwork pays homage to Charles Vess’ iconic cover for 1984’s Web of Spider-Man #1.
Check out Paulo Siqueira’s cover art for Venom: Separation Anxiety #1 below:
What is Venom: Separation Anxiety about?
“When the iconic villain [Purple Man] uses his terrifying mind control powers to torment Eddie and steal his symbiote for himself, everyone’s favorite symbiote slugger may need to ask for unlikely help to get it back AND save his sanity!” Marvel wrote in its official announcement. “LONG LIVE … THE KING IN PURPLE!”
“I’m always delighted to write a new Venom story in a retro background,” Michelinie said. “With ‘Separation Anxiety’ as the required theme, the problem became how to do something that’s already been done — have Eddie Brock separated from his symbiote ‘other.’ So I thought, what if there was a deeply creepy villain with a decidedly bloodthirsty agenda who was able to take bits of Eddie’s symbiote away every time the two touched, with that enemy slowly growing stronger as Venom slowly grew weaker? And that was the nugget that became ‘The King In Purple.'”
Who is Marvel’s Purple Man?
Created by Stan Lee and Joe Orlando, Zebediah Killgrave/Purple Man first appeared in 1964’s Daredevil #4. While originally an adversary of the Man Without Fear, the mind-controlling supervillain is now known as the archenemy of superhero-turned-private investigator Jessica Jones. David Tennant played a version of the Purple Man named Kevin Thompson/Kilgrave in the Netflix original series Marvel’s Jessica Jones, starring opposite series lead Krysten Ritter.
Venom: Separation Anxiety #1 goes on sale Wednesday, May 15 from Marvel Comics.
