Venom #3
Venom Vol. 3 #3 is the thematic and moral fulcrum of Mike Costa's six-issue opening arc: it is the first issue in which the Venom symbiote actively tries to abandon Lee Price, going so far as to begin bonding with an FBI agent before its own sense of duty forces it back. That internal tug-of-war — a morally aware symbiote trapped with a genuinely villainous host — reframed the character's ongoing identity crisis in a way that set up the entire arc's payoff. The issue also deepens the series' central inversion of the classic Venom dynamic: where previous runs asked whether the symbiote could corrupt a good host, Costa's story asks whether a good symbiote can survive a corrupt one.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Venom Vol. 3 launched in November 2016 as part of Marvel's Marvel NOW! (2016) initiative, written by Mike Costa with art by Gerardo Sandoval, colors by Dono Sánchez-Almara, and letters by Clayton Cowles, under editors Devin Lewis and Nick Lowe, with Axel Alonso serving as Editor-in-Chief. The series was a deliberate 'back to basics' reset intended to strip away the heroic Agent Venom / Space Knight era and return the symbiote to a street-level New York setting, though with a narrative twist: this time it was the symbiote, not the host, that wanted to be good. Issue #3, released January 18, 2017, carries a March 2017 cover date and was the midpoint of the tight six-issue Price storyline, after which the series transitioned back to legacy numbering at #150 when Eddie Brock reclaimed the symbiote.
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- Written by Mike Costa with interior art by Gerardo Sandoval, colors by Dono Sánchez-Almara, and letters by Clayton Cowles; released January 18, 2017 (March 2017 cover date).
- Part of Venom Vol. 3 (2016–2018), a Marvel NOW! (2016) ongoing series that ran six original issues (#1–6) before resuming as the legacy Vol. 1 with #150.
- This issue is the first in the arc where the symbiote actively attempts to separate from Lee Price of its own volition during combat with Firebug, nearly bonding instead with FBI Agent Wambaugh.
- The symbiote ultimately saves Price's life after he is shot three times by Agent Bagman — not out of loyalty but because letting its host die conflicts with its own moral code, a key character beat for the alien.
- Agent Bagman's full name ('Coyle Bagman') is formally revealed for the first time in this issue, per the Marvel Database character sheet.
- Firebug, the Tombstone-affiliated pyrokinetic villain introduced in issue #2, suffers an apparent death in this issue after being flung through an apartment wall by the symbiote reacting to fire.
- Eddie Brock, She-Venom (Anne Weying), and Spider-Man appear only in the symbiote's flashback memory sequences — not in the present-day story — foreshadowing Brock's eventual return as host in issue #6.
- Multiple retailer-exclusive variant covers were produced for the issue, including Frankie's Comics Gabriele Dell'Otto wraparound variants and KRS Comics Tyler Kirkham variants, continuing the heavy variant program that began with issue #1.
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Reprinted in Venom #1 (2017)
Key issues in Venom
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