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Warning: spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #27 are ahead!

Mary Jane Watson has been the host of the Venom symbiote for some time now (as in, since 2024), and as you might imagine, it was only a matter of time before both she and the symbiote embraced their more lethal nature. To her credit, MJ has been a remarkably stable host for Venom, as we've seen in Al Ewing and Carlos Gómez's All-New Venom mini-series and later in Ewing, Gómez, and Ed McGuinness's Venom series. She hasn't eaten anyone or caused too much mayhem, which is a testament to both her levelheadedness and her strong support network of allies like Flash Thompson's Agent Anti-Venom and Rick Jones. But even those with rock-solid consciences crack at a certain point. And in The Amazing Spider-Man #27, the final issue of the Death Spiral crossover series, MJ's Venom met her breaking point. 

In the last few pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #27 from Joe Kelly, Carlos Gómez, Ed McGuinness, and Francesco Manna, MJ's Venom grabs the crossover's villain, Torment, dragging his body against the side of a building before throwing him down onto a roof, after he was about to hurt Aunt May and Mary Jane's own beloved aunt, Anna Watson. For context, Mary Jane's father, if we can even call him that, was an abusive man who left his daughter with emotional wounds she's bravely worked to heal in adulthood. Luckily for MJ, her Aunt Anna was able to step in as a mother figure for her. This is all to say that when Torment attacked May and Anna, he gave himself a one-way ticket to the afterlife via Venom Airlines. 

Once on the roof, Torment rambled on about wanting to "help Peter" before making a threat against his life, at which point Mary Jane's Venom dropped him off the roof of the building, where he fell to his death. Now, killing someone this way is relatively tame for Venom as New York City's Lethal Protector, but it's a shocking moment for both the symbiote and MJ because they've been trying to rein in their more violent instincts. After seeing Torment dead on the sidewalk, Venom asks, "Was that you...? Or me?" implying that it's unclear whether the symbiote or Mary Jane or both of them were responsible for dropping Torment's body. 

You might be wondering: Mary Jane Watson, murderer? Venom writer Al Ewing has been setting up this turn of events for MJ and the symbiote over the past year. In 2025's All-New Venom #9, MJ and Venom nearly murdered Doc Ock by drowning him in symbiote goo before Flash Thompson intervened, telling them, "That's not you. That's not either of you." After a moment, Venom said, "No. No, you're right. That's not who we want to become," before releasing Doc Ock. Sadly, with The Amazing Spider-Man #27, it seems that Mary Jane and Venom have become what they feared most.

Even though this issue was the conclusion of the Death Spiral event, it seems like it's just the beginning of a new, more troubling era for Mary Jane Watson as Venom. It seems like no one else saw Venom drop Torment to his death, but we don't know for sure quite yet. And I would imagine that Peter Parker himself wouldn't be enthused by Mary Jane murdering Torment, either. What is clear is that consequences are likely ahead for both Mary Jane and Venom. 

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's...

• Best Spider-Man comic books 
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Just watch out for that radioactive blood.