I gotta be honest: I don't much care for any of these attempts to deepen the lore of the symbiotes. I think that Venom (the symbiote) works just fine as a parasitic organism that just happened to hitch a ride on a prominent Earth mutate. Everything else has hit me the wrong way, although I prefer the [i]new[/i] new retcon over Bendis' take.

[hider=Spoilers]The [I]Thor: God of Thunder[/i] bit feels entirely tacked on, and the symbiote "dragon" is fine -- Thor's fought all kinds of crazy shit -- but having it be on Earth and have been with SHIELD secretly is just meeeeeeeeeeeh.[/hider]