In one of the biggest flying-pigs moments I’ve witnessed in quite some time, Marvel is finally bringing one of the titular characters from Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects into the mainline comics next month. For those who don’t know, Marvel Nemesis was the first game in a short-lived partnership between the House of Ideas and EA, and was being pitched as a replacement of sorts for the popular Marvel vs. Capcom series. Here, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (and some villains) are pitted against a new group of super-beings called the Imperfects amid a massive alien invasion.
However, Marvel Nemesis was met with tepid reviews when it reached consoles in the fall of 2005, and eventually, Marvel and EA cut ties. In the process, a planned sequel titled Marvel Chaos was scrapped, and the Imperfects themselves faded into obscurity, never to be brought into any other official Marvel media save for a six-issue tie-in comic prequel for the game itself.
Hazmat the Imperfect Is Making His 616 Debut In Venom #1
Until now. Screenshots from the upcoming Venom #1 were recently released alongside an interview with writer Charles Soule. One of these images caught fans who remember Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects off guard by depicting what looks like the poisonous Hazmat battling Eddie Brock and his Symbiote counterpart.
In the game’s backstory, Doctor Keith Kilham was a scientist working with the US Defense Science Board and researching various deadly diseases and toxins to hopefully find some sort of vaccine for them. Fate had a different idea, though; the lab Kilham was working in was attacked by terrorists during a dangerous biological test, leading him to use his untested vaccines on himself to survive. He did, though he was mutated into a living virus that can fire poisonous slime at his enemies. The newly-formed Hazmat would then be recruited by Niles Van Roekel, the creator of the Imperfects who is actually the leader of the alien invasion.
Interestingly enough, Hazmat’s moveset in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is a copy of Spider-Man and Venom, and in one section of the story campaign he is dispatched to take out the latter. Now it looks like Venom is getting a rematch in the pages of his new comic series in a move that literally nobody could have seen coming. Will Hazmat’s appearance lead to the return of the Imperfects as a whole? Will they eventually be added to other Marvel media like Marvel Rivals or the MCU?
In the meantime, Venom #1 will go on sale on October 14, with a story by the aforementioned Charles Soule and artwork by Tommaso Bianchi.
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