whats so amazing to me about the writing for venomous as a villain is that. he rly is running from problems he created himself. like the statement “what purpose could i serve as a teammate? a partner? a father?” when in reality he already Was a beloved hero and partner, he was part of a major coveted hero group with a gf that had a locker full of stickers of his face. but he had so much blind personal self hatred towards his powers of draining energy (ie ‘depending’ on other peoples power), that he got one discouraging statement from somebody he cared about and used it as the escape he had Already been looking for. the desperation for his ‘Own’ power (despite already having it) was what lead him astray. he was the one that thought it wasnt good enough. his own research (and the attempt to hide it) was what made him lose those powers in the first place, and what spurned all the damaging self experimentation that followed. and then after All that this man goes and finds himself a new teammate + partner, AND adopts a feral rat baby that he could and Does try to dote on all the time. but bc hes still being evil or w/e it can be seen as less of a direct responsibility. like. he was fully Capable of being a hero partner and dad, he just genuinely didnt realize it and wasnt satisfied. every single one of these avoidant decisions he made were the only things that actually messed up his life. it was always his own issues with seeing himself as a hero that lead him to become a villain. so tldr; maybe the real shadowy was the insecurity and self loathing we made along the way had as a deeply rooted issue and dealt with irresponsibly sending us down a dark path long before the sandwich incident