J. Jonah Jamesone Figures Out Venom's Secret Identity

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #800 by Dan Slott, Nick Bradshaw, Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stuart Immonen, Marcos Martin, Victor Olazaba, Cam Smith, Wade von Grawbadger, Edgar Delgado, Java Tartaglia, Marte Gracia, Muntsa Vicente and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.

J. Jonah Jameson has always been a thorn in Spider-Man's side. Ever since The Amazing Spider-Man #1, the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Bugle was a foil to the wall-crawler, who saw him not as the hero he was but the menace he believed him to be. The two characters had a long, fun antagonistic relationship that didn't exactly pit one against the other, but never on the same side either. Jameson's never been known for his calm demeanor, and he has taken his frustrations out on New York's most dedicated superhero time and time again. But finally, after decades of being kept in the dark, J. Jonah Jameson finally learned Peter Parker's secret identity in last November's Spectacular Spider-Man #6.

However, this wasn't your standard superhero secret identity discovery. After all they had been through together (and apart), Parker entrusted Jonah with this secret, trusting the blogger and journalist enough to keep it to himself. And, over the last few months, Jameson has proved true to his word. Not only has he kept his mouth shut, he's found a new level of respect for Parker, both in and out of the webbed costume.

And then, the Red Goblin arrived. When Norman Osborn bonded with the Carnage symbiote, everything changed. It changed so much, in fact, that it's led Jameson to figure out another long-standing secret that was under his nose for years: The secret identity of Eddie Brock, aka Venom.

In writer Dan Slott's final Amazing Spider-Man storyline, "Go Down Swinging," Peter Parker's life is once again a living hell. Norman Osborn has come into possession of the Carnage symbiote, transforming himself into the Red Goblin, a hybrid creature that combines the strengths of both villains, and none of their weaknesses. To make matters worse, Osborn now knows that Parker and Spider-Man are one and the same, and he is going after literally everyone Spidey loves.

And it's all Jonah's fault. A few issues ago, Jameson was taken prisoner by Osborn, who tortured him into revealing Spider-Man's secret identity.

As the Red Goblin proceeds to attack Parker's friends and family one after the other, a remorseful Jameson attempts to fix his mistake. Considering the threat that is involved, of Osborn's power heightened by the Carnage symbiote, Jameson figures that it would be a good idea to fight fire with fire -- to fight a symbiote with another symbiote. In order to help, he only has to find Venom, and get him to join the fight against the Red Goblin.

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This makes Jameson think of Eddie Brock, the one reporter who, once upon a time, used to sell him pictures of Venom, just like Parker used to sell shots of Spider-Man. "Nah. It can't be that simple," Jameson says, incredulous at the revelation creeping into his head -- but it is.

As he weighs the possibility he may have actually had two photographers who used to be on his payroll who are actually super-powered beings. "He wouldn't be stupid enough to be running the exact same scam!" he exclaims. "Would he?" Then, he picks up the phone, and calls Brock. After a brief threat of outing him, Eddie confirms Jonah's theory by joining the fight.

Like Parker, Eddie Brock joined the Daily Bugle a very long time ago, and he kept up a charade with Jameson for years. Now, Jameson has demonstrated that he's not only smarter than we believed him to be -- he's smarter than even he ever realized. After years of being played for a fool, the former Editor-in-Chief proves he didn't become the head of a respected newspaper for nothing. Armed with the knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity, it didn't take him more than a minute for him to put two and two together and figure out the identity of Venom as soon as he realized it might be possible he'd had more than one masked menace under his nose all these years.

Of course, the real question is what this means for Jonah moving forward. Will future writers undermine his recent character development, or will he continue to play a supporting role in Peter's life rather than revert to one as an adversary? Jonah has always been the hero in his own story, though the reader more often than not saw him cast as the villain. Now, however, we're able to view him much as he's always seen himself and, as we see at several points in this issue alone, he's pretty good at it. Batman has Alfred and Superman has Lois -- it's about time Jonah helped Peter run interference so he can the day as Spider-Man rather than add another unnecessary level of complication to his costumed career.

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