I mean, if we're being technical, Venom was a hardcore villain until '93 when he became a soft anti-hero. Not like Deadpool, who, aside from his first appearance, immediately veered away from villain territory. The majority of the time even still in the early and mid 90's, though, Venom was still very much a bad guy. Late 90's clarified the anti-hero aspects more, but it wasn't until the mid-2000's that it was firmly established that his old hardcore villainous days were a thing of the past, traded in for muddled greys and dramatic internal conflict.