Venom's chilling appearance will never spark warm fuzzy feelings, no matter what he does to change things around. One look was particularly haunting, though, despite it being a product of the symbiote's attempt to make itself less intimidating. It turns out that changing his razor-sharp teeth makes Venom more terrifying than ever.

In The Amazing Spider-Man #374 by David Michelinie and Mark Bagley, a chase with Spider-Man puts Venom face-to-face with a clown entertaining a group of children. Understandably, the kids are terrified, and the symbiote makes a surprising attempt to calm one young girl's fears by offering her a smile with human teeth in place of his usual knife-like grin.

Venom's sharp teeth and sleek, black skin make up his iconic look, but his ability to shift and change his appearance means nothing technically needs to be permanent. The choice to shave down his many fangs altered his whole look instantly, but it only served to make him more nightmarish.

Venom Traded in His Sharp Teeth for a Terrifyingly Human Smile

The Amazing Spider-Man #374 by David Michelinie, Mark Bagley, Randy Emberlin, Bob Sharen, and Steve Outro

Even the most casual comic fans can pick Venom out of a line-up. His alien appearance is unforgettable, and it's never been intended to bring comfort. Anyone opposing him can see with a single glance that the symbiote has an arsenal of ways to rip them apart with minimal effort. His long, pointed teeth have always been one of the most eye-catching parts of his design, and Bagley's attempt to make Venom look less threatening did the exact opposite. By continuing to sport an abnormal number of (now human) teeth in a stretched jaw, he became utterly disturbing and uncanny.

ittedly, Venom has taken on several other unsettling looks over the years. Venom 2099, with his massive, haunting red eyes in a skull-like head, is another standout, along with Mac Gargan's gargantuan appearance and cannibalistic antics as the symbiote's host. Still, a human smile is somehow worse than even Venom's most objectively disturbing moments, and the look continued to pop up in other places. Venom sports a more sapien-like grin in Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man for similar reasons as his Amazing Spider-Man #374 appearance, as the series is geared more toward children. Whether that look achieves the goal is debatable.

Venom’s Altered Smile Says Something Important About the Character

His Strange Comion Makes Him Even More Complex

Despite the human teeth actually being more frightening than his more animalistic designs, the decision to opt for them says something interesting about the character. Venom was particularly nasty in his earliest days, making a comionate moment an interesting turn of events. The symbiote, who claimed Eddie Brock as a host at the time of his new smile, genuinely wanted to make himself less intimidating for the children in question. He could have ignored them entirely but instead chose to stop and try to offer a little comfort. Nevertheless, Venom's human teeth are significantly more disturbing than the symbiote's famous fangs.

The Amazing Spider-Man #374 is available now from Marvel Comics.