Marvel Writer Officially Addresses Yelena Belova’s Ace Identity Amid Venom Romance

Published Oct 17, 2026, 10:04 AM EDT

Hannah covers horror, sci-fi, and games at Collider, where she writes news and features, reviews new releases, and interviews the people who make them. She’s helping build out Collider’s gaming coverage, with Pokémon as one of her specialties. If she isn’t writing about a monster, she’s probably watching one on a tape from her VHS collection.

Eddie Brock’s relationship with the Venom symbiote already makes dating a complicated proposition. Anyone getting involved with the longtime Marvel antihero has two personalities to account for, including an alien whose idea of handling a problem can involve eating it. For writer Charles Soule, that unusual arrangement is part of what made a romance worth exploring in his new Venom series with artist Tommaso Bianchi.

During Marvel’s Spider-Man panel at New York Comic Con, Soule discussed bringing Eddie and the symbiote back to New York for a story that puts their personal life alongside their work protecting the neighborhood. His plans include a relationship with Yelena Belova, the Widow familiar to movie audiences through Florence Pugh’s MCU performance. However, that announcement also prompted a question from an audience member about how the romance fits with the character’s asexuality.

Asked about Yelena being generally understood as ace and what informed his decision, Soule explained that the relationship represents unfamiliar territory for everyone involved. “The story that’s happening here is about, I don’t want to spoil too much, but it’s about novelty for all three of the people involved in the situation,” he said. He continued:

“An ace character, or an ace individual, right? My view of that is just like with anything else. It’s like a spectrum of choices, right? And so this situation is novel, and so choices that Yelena and Eddie and the symbiote have made in the past perhaps don’t apply in this one. They’re finding things in the scenario that they haven’t found before, and it’s taking them all to new and interesting places.”

Yelena Belova Is Dating Both Eddie Brock and the Venom Symbiote

Image via Marvel Comics

Soule kept the particulars of that exploration under wraps, including how Yelena will describe her own experience within the story. His answer framed the relationship around what these three characters discover together, without revealing how it develops. Asexuality does not inherently preclude romantic relationships, and the panel discussion did not establish the specifics of Yelena’s romantic or sexual attraction in the new series.

Earlier in the panel, Soule emphasized that the symbiote has its own place in this relationship. “The thing that I really wanted to underscore with the way it works in the book is that she’s not just dating Eddie Brock,” he explained. “She’s dating the symbiote too.” He also described adding what he called “spice” to the series, while discussing the freedom that comes with writing an alien monster, an approach that extends to Bianchi’s artwork, which Soule said should make Venom feel unsettling even when standing still.

The series also brings the character to Alphabet City, where Eddie and the symbiote stake out territory they call “Venom Town.” Between protecting that neighborhood and navigating a relationship involving three distinct individuals, Soule has plenty planned for the reunited pair. “I mean, we’ve all read a lot of Venom books, Venom’s incredible, but what’s the point of doing it if you’re not gonna go to new places?” he said.

Venom #1 is available now, following its October 14 release.