Even with all of the hype around Avengers: Infinity War, the new Venom trailer did not go unnoticed when it had a late night debut earlier this week. And while the first Venom teaser didn’t show us the alien sym-BI-ote, the new footage didn’t hold back on its comic book origins and gave us an extended look at Tom Hardy as both Eddie Brock and his alter ego. This may be the most accurate rendition of Venom we’ve seen to date, but the internet’s still not happy with this Marvel adjacent film. Today’s Nerdist News is breaking out the sonic canons to explain why fans just aren’t satisfied.

Join guest host Amy “Does Whatever a Spider Can” Vorpahl as she goes over some of the reasons why the new Venom trailer is getting a frosty reception. Some of the excuses are a bit silly, like getting angry over the pronunciation of symbiote. There are some justifiable complaints about the trailer’s dialogue, but the biggest issue that fans seem to have with Venom is that Spider-Man isn’t in it.

Sony isn’t hiding its attempt to launch a shared universe of Marvel’s Spider-Man characters without Spidey himself. But the problem with that is Venom is intrinsically linked to Peter Parker. Spider-Man was the first person to bond with the symbiote, barring some retcons with Deadpool. When Spidey rejected the symbiote, it found Eddie Brock, a disgraced journalist with a grudge against Spider-Man. Together, the symbiote and Brock became one of Spider-Man’s greatest villains. And when Venom proved to be popular, Marvel remade him as an anti-hero.

As portrayed in the trailer, Eddie Brock isn’t the dark reflection of Peter Parker. He’s more like a crusading journalist who doesn’t appear to have the flaws of his comic book counterpart. By removing Spider-Man from the equation, Sony has had to completely rework Venom’s origin story. When the changes are this extreme, is it really the same character from the comic? Or is this Venom just someone who shares the same name and powers? We’ll find out when Venom hits theaters on Friday, October 5.

What do you think about the new Venom trailer? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Images: Sony Pictures/Marvel

More of the latest Nerdist News!

• What does Marvel skipping SDCC’s Hall H mean?
• We know Peter Dinklage’s role in Infinity War!
• Why Deadpool 2‘s Peter is the movie’s linchpin!

Avengers: Infinity War premiered last night, and while full reviews aren’t allowed until tonight at 6PM ET (check back here for ours!), the first reactions are out, and the movie sounds completely overwhelming. That’s not to say there’s not any criticism to be gleaned from these early reactions, but those who have been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its characters from the beginning are going to have a lot to process in this movie, at the very least.

So let’s dive right in with the very first reaction—or at least, I’d assume it was, since the tweet appears to have broken the very embargo date and time contained in it. Kevin Smith just couldn’t contain himself:

I am overwhelmed. The movie is epic beyond compare. LOVED it. My legs are still shaking. It’s a gigantic @Marvel masterpiece. So much to say but I’ll stay Silent Bob til Monday so as not to slip in spoilers. Suffice to say it’s gonna be a looooong year until @Avengers 4… pic.twitter.com/aHnsgj5MK0

— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) April 24, 2018

As for some (non-spoilery) specifics on what to expect, it sounds like the Guardians of the Galaxy will feature prominently, which is no surprise when one of them is Thanos’ “favorite daughter,” and it sounds like the movie makes good on press tour talk of Thanos himself getting a lot of focus:

Thanos is the main character of #AvengersInfinityWar and Josh Brolin is great. But the best pairing in this movie is Thor + the Guardians and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

— Terri Schwartz (@Terri_Schwartz) April 24, 2018

#AvengersInfinityWar is the MCU’s biggest soap opera ever, and that’s not a bad thing. Feels more like a sequel to Guardians, and you’ll get to see what makes a Mad Titan tick. We will have A LOT to unpack soon.

— Mike Sorrentino (@MikeJSorrentino) April 24, 2018

After 10 years of investment in this series & these characters, boy does #AvengersInfinityWar knock you on your ass. Humor, sky high stakes & a truly overwhelming amount of emotion in it. Russos did a great job spreading screen time for the ensemble but my MVPs – The Guardians.

— Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) April 24, 2018

The Russo brothers directing team has previously said that doing this movie simultaneously with Avengers 4 allowed them to pick and choose who got more focus and screen time in each, so if the Guardians aren’t your thing, you might find next year’s sequel more to your liking. You might also not be impressed with Infinity War if smash the action figures together isn’t exactly your favorite superhero blockbuster format, and you’ve been more appreciative of some of the more character- and story-focused offerings.

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR is basically CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR times 20, except with less hero-on-hero fighting. I think people who loved the airport fight in CIVIL WAR like I did will go nuts for this film, and people who were bored will be 20 times as bored here. #InfinityWar

— Tasha Robinson (@TashaRobinson) April 24, 2018

#AvengersInfinityWar: Despite some truly thrilling moments, feels like less than the sum of its parts. A definite step down after that epic run of GotGV2 / Spidey / Thor 3 / Black Panther, but what else did I expect?

— Angie J. Han (@ajhan) April 24, 2018

But there was also plenty of just general praise to go around, as there usually is in early reactions if the movie is anywhere close to good:

You guys. I’m still processing everything we just watched. I’ll have to see #InfinityWar at least two more times. Holy crap. #Amazing #AllTheFeels #InfinityWarEvent pic.twitter.com/z6NzbP1AKm

— Amiyrah Martin (@AmiyrahMartin) April 24, 2018

Buy a ticket for a second viewing of #AvengersInfinityWar now. The movie delivers, it’s huge, and no one in your theater is going to be able to sit quietly through this one. Expect the unexpected. pic.twitter.com/8eobaAYrSF

— Jill Pantozzi ♿ (@JillPantozzi) April 24, 2018

I saw #AvengersInfinityWar earlier tonight and I can say that it delivers. There’s a lot of really fun character interactions, some cool action moments (Thor’s powers, Iron Man’s suit), and a few powerful emotional beats. Most of the humor is 👌🏻 Also Captain America is 💥 pic.twitter.com/WoZNPDpGXk

— Molly Freeman (@mollyrockit) April 24, 2018

Laughter. Fights. Tough decisions. Triumph and emptiness. @Avengers has it all. I feel the weight of what I just saw and the journey of the last ten years bearing down. Mama needs a drink. Wow. #infinitywar #ThanosDemandsYourSilence

— Grae Drake (@graedrake) April 24, 2018

Really can’t believe what I just saw. Gah people are gonna lose their shiz. My fave thing: the humor mixed w/ crazy action.

— Kara Warner (@karawarner) April 24, 2018

I promise all of you: you must see this opening weekend. Opening night, even. You’ll regret it otherwise. Remember i said this. #avengersinfinitywar https://t.co/vFX0bpHcqh

— KelleyLCarter (@KelleyLCarter) April 24, 2018

#AvengersInfinityWar is my second fave @Marvel movie after #BlackPanther. The superhero interplay is hilarious and surprising at every turn. The action is monumental. And there are actual stakes this time around. Kevin Feige is not f-cking around with this one.

— Nigel M. Smith (@nigelmfs) April 24, 2018

#AvengersInfinityWar wrecked me and it’s probably going to wreck you. Can’t wait to see it again.

— Kirsten (@KirstenAcuna) April 24, 2018

#Avengers #InfinityWar: Wow. Just…WOW! I was NOT expecting THIS! What a ballsy movie! Blown away! See this NOW! Do not get spoiled! Can’t believe what I just saw!!!! pic.twitter.com/dITeGTHTsu

— Jenna Busch (@JennaBusch) April 24, 2018

Just got out of the #AvengersInfinityWar premiere. The movie is incredible, epic beyond compare. It’s everything you want it to be. Iron Man and Captain America fuck within the first fifteen minutes. Marvel fans are going to love this one – EASILY top five.

— ben mekler (@benmekler) April 24, 2018

Another thing: I’ve been reviewing films for decades now, and I have never heard an audience react to the end of a film like the #InfinityWar audience reacted tonight. It was an astonishing experience. (And it’s another reason I want to see the film again in a packed house.)

— Tasha Robinson (@TashaRobinson) April 24, 2018

Pff, everyone knows it’s Captain America and Bucky or nothing. There’s also, of course, a post-credits scene, although there’s apparently only one—but you’re really going to want to stick around for it:

#InfinityWar may be the most expensive Hollywood movie ever designed to mess with its audience. People sure are going to sit through a lot of credits!

— erickohn (@erickohn) April 24, 2018

Infinity WOW! #InfinityWar. Lots of payoffs. Stay till the very END. That’s all I’m saying. pic.twitter.com/ch7adyFK21

— Brian Tong (@briantong) April 24, 2018

(image: Marvel Entertainment)

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Apple is providing free battery replacement for certain 13-inch MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar) laptops. In a limited number of units an unnamed component may fail, causing the built-in battery to expand, according […]

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I first began following Justina Ireland’s writings about a year ago, after reading the first issue Fiyah Lit Mag, for which she is an editor. As fierce and touching and slightly funny as the stories are in Fiyah, Justina is the same. She’s a stand-up advocate for Young Adult fiction and how to improve the inclusion of marginalized writers in “the mainstream.” So when she announced her latest book, Dread Nation, I hit pre-order right quick. I was not disappointed. This book is as stand-up, fierce, and wryly funny as anything I’ve read in a while. I was entertained every step of the way.

The Plot

Dread Nation is the two-part story of Jane McKeene, a student at Miss Preston’s School of Combat for Negro Girls. There are lots of combat schools for negroes, but Miss Preston’s is one of the best. Why combat schools? Well, you see…the undead. In Ireland’s alternative history, during the battle of Gettysburg, all those dead bodies didn’t stay dead. They rose up as deathless monsters, fighting both the Union and Confederate armies. This stopped the War of Northern Aggression in its tracks. Check the promo video:

In the aftermath of the War, the United States has remained united. The Southern states have been overrun and the Northern states have shrunk to isolated walled cities. Slavery has been officially abolished, but in its place, there is now mandatory schooling for Negroes and Indians, where they are taught how to kill the undead. These new soldiers are then sent out to defend good white people. It doesn’t take a genius to see that this is really slavery under a different name.

Jane McKeene is training to be an Attendant, that is a Black servant to a white woman, part bodyguard, part chaperone, part personal slave. It is a good calling. But all Jane really wants to do is get back to her momma in Kentucky. Jane’s relationship with her mother is one of the backbones of the book, illustrated in the opening “letters” of each chapter, which establish Jane’s background and are often in stark, and ironic, contrast to the happenings of the chapter. For example, here’s the opener from Chapter 3:

“I know you probably worry about the number of undead out here in the East, but Baltimore County is the safest in all the country. They say so in the newspaper, and you know the paper would never lie.” — Ch 3

The irony of the intros is a fruitful literary technique used to perfect effect.

Jane McKeene

I hesitate to call Jane “spunky” because of how typical that sounds. She’s not “spunky,” but she does have spunk — energy, spark, dare, drive. Her personality is very much like Tom Sawyer of Mark Twain’s work. Jane goes so far as to carry a copy of Tom Sawyer in her pocket for part of the book. Jane is imperfect but very much a delightful heroine. She is constantly fighting on multiple fronts: against the expectations of white people around her, against her own impulses, and against the undead.

“…the easiest lie to tell is the one people want to believe. ” — Ch 5

Joining Jane in school is her enemy turned friend, Katherine (never Kate), another girl at Miss Preston’s who skin and hair allow her to pass for white, if she wanted to. Also there’s Red Jack, a local scoundrel and former boyfriend of Jane’s, who along with Jane’s curiosity, pull the three of them deep into a drama involving all of Baltimore. A drama that then draws them out of the city and beyond to much more dangerous locations.

Rise Up

Dread Nation is suitable for most readers, definitely down into the mid-teen age ranges, yet the themes around slavery, freedom, and self-determination work well for adults too. I would love to see Dread Nation taught in schools along with Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, juxtaposing who the two stories center and how they upend the social hierarchy in different ways

One of the strongest threads of the book is about how these 3 Black young adults use the perceptions of the white people around them to their advantage. They, and the other Black characters in the book, demonstrate both a deadly practicality in the face of white savagery, and a cunning, proactive ability to manipulate white prejudice to survive. We so often get images of Blacks as victims, waiting to be saved — there are no victims in this book. Only people playing the victim while others fight to get by.

“I never cared much about being an Attendant. All I ever wanted was to be free.” — Ch 17

In some ways this is a story about passing. About lying for the right reasons and learning what the right reasons are. About using your gifts to survive and help those you love do so too. Jane has lots of gifts on display; she’s clever, strong, willful, honest, and she can kill the undead with a pair of scythes in a very unladylike way. She’s afraid, but she doesn’t let fear stop her; she doubts, but she relies on her friends to get her through. And at the end, when she finally reveals all of her secrets to the reader, I fell completely in love with Jane. She’s a heroine on par with any other, and I’m excited to see where the story takes her next.

You can buy Dread Nation now where ever you get your books. Also, follow Justina Ireland for any more information, supplemental materials, YA conversations, and announcements for her future work: http://justinaireland.com/home. You’ll thank me.

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