Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #2

This issue of The Amazing Spider-Man contains two stories, one a little better than the other in my opinion. The first story, Anti-Venom Returns by Dan Slott and Chris Bachalo, is where the good action is. Anti-Venom starts off as a vigilante, fighting the good fight against Mr. Negative and his Inner Demons. The twist at the end leaves you wondering what Anti-Venom will do next. The second story, A Night Out With Wolverine by Zeb Wells and Paolo Rivera, shows us a side of Wolverine that we do not often see. In it, Wolverine tells Spider-Man, in his own special, drunken way no-less, that he should not let any opportunity pass him by or he might miss a big one. The question I had in my mind throughout the story was, “Why would Wolverine want to go to a bar with Spider-Man of all people?” The answer may surprise you.

Below are the details of each of these stories, so do not read ahead if you are planning on picking up this issue!

SPOILER ALERT!

Anti-Venom Returns!

By Dan Slott and Chris Bachalo

Anti-Venom starts out as a vigilante, saving a young, drugged-up chick from herself by removing the poison from here veins and getting her to go to the F.E.A.S.T Center. He then goes after the people who sold her the drugs in an effort to rid New York City of their kind. In doing so, however, he runs into Mr. Negative and his thugs, known as the Inner Demons. He finds them in an OS-CORP truck loaded with drugs and is ready for a fight. Fortunately, he finds out that they were hi-jacking truck and never intended to deliver the goods to OS-CORP. So Anti-Venom and Mr. Negative are on the same side, but Anti-Venom believes that Mr. Negative is poisoning the city. After a quick-n-dirty fight with the Inner Demons, Anti-Venom vanishes and Mr. Negative orders a search. The truck is then taken to the F.E.A.S.T warehouse, where Mr. Negative is discovered. After finishing his business with his associate, Mr. Negatives changes back into….Martin Li! After having seen this, Anti-Venom goes nuts, later realizing that he’s the only one that knows the truth behind Martin Li and that since he’s a monster no one will ever believe him.

A Night Out With Wolverine

The story starts with Spider-Man and Wolverine walking around New York on a cold, winter night. When they arrive at a bar Wolverine takes off his mask. Spider-Man refuses to do the same in order to preserve his secret identity. The two walk in and get a table, and then Wolverine tries to hit on a chick at the bar. Her boyfriend takes offense to this and approaches him. A fight quickly breaks out, and once its over the chick walks her boyfriend out of the bar. Wolverine grabs a whiskey meets Spider-Man at their table. After downing a few shots, Wolverine tells Spider-Man a story where the morel is  not to let any opportunity pass him by, or him might miss a big one. The angry boyfriend then returns with a shotgun and blasts Wolverine in the head. It doesn’t phase him of course, but the Spider-Man grabs the dude’s gun and saves him from a pissed-off Wolverines claws. Once he came to his senses, Wolverine apologized for what he had done. The two then exit the bar and Spider-Man asks why Wolverine had chose him as his drinking buddy, especially since he doesn’t drink. Wolverine replies saying that it was his birthday and that he didn’t want any of his X-Men friends to judge him.  Happy Birthday Wolverine!

Welcome To Hoxford #1

This is an interesting new series written by Ben Templesmith. I picked it up because I am a huge fan of prison lore. I like any TV show, movie, whatever that has a story that is at least partly based on or around prison. Such would be Prison Break on Fox, which I love, and Oz on HBO. With this deep interest in the subjectmatter, I read Welcome To Hoxford and absolutely loved. It’s the start of what could be a great new series. The story starts off at an unnamed prison with an inmate, Raymond Delgado, who is suffering from multiple personality syndrome. Because of his condition, he, along with other clinally insane inmates, are taken to a new penitentiary, Hoxford, that is built and run especially for them. Once they arrive, Hoxford Comissioner Gordon gives them a welcoming speech in which he tells them that there is little chance that they will ever see the outside world again. Gordon enters the facility with a nurse, Dr. Jessica Ainly, who has come to take care of Mr. Delgado. Gordon explains to her that they are fully staffed and that Raymond will be taken care of. After she leaves, we meet one of the Hoxford inmates, Jones, in the shower. He’s giving Burly Bill a bit of a hard time, until Bill loses it and knocks him out. After he regains consciousness, Delgado literally gets his chomp on. He bites Jones, and then a couple officers come in and escort Jones out of the area and into a meatlocker. This issue ends with a literal BANG! The two officers blast Jones to bits.

Venom: Dark Origin #1 of 5

Being a huge fan of Venom and his various spawn, when I saw this at the comics store I just had to pick it up. The subtitle, “Dark Origin,” says it all. This is part of a limited series that explores how Venom came to be the heaping mass of liquified evil we all know and love. This issue starts with a young Eddie Brock who is helping a little girl and her dad find her lost kitty. LIttle do they know, but Eddie actually has the cat hidden in a box in his basement. We soon learn that one of the contributing factors to Eddie’s dark nature is that his mother died while giving birth to him. Because of that, he’s had a whole in his life that he’s found hard to fill. We then see Eddie as a teenager in high school, trying to get the attention of a cheerleader named Sarah who is seemingly not interested in him. Eddie then gets caught in the boys locker room wearing anothers guys jacket, and gets beat up because of it. Next we see Eddie in the ESU Admission’s Office, where the Dean is going over his transcript. While making a phone call, he meets a girl who helps him find his place. However, they walk into an alley and run into a group of thugs. Suddenly out of nowhere, Spiderman comes in takes care of the thugs. Having not seen this fight, the girl Eddie is with thinks Eddie got rid of the thugs. The issue ends with a widely-grinning Eddie taking full credit.

The Punisher #61

This issue starts off in Tierra Rota where Gabriela Nunez is celebrating her quiceanera with her family. Suddenly a van pulls up and a group of masked men come out and kidnap her. Next, we see The Punisher as he walks around in New York City and eventually into a bar. There we a shadowy figure who has been expecting The Punisher. When Frank Castle leaves the bar, so does this shadowy figure, right behind him. Apparently this shadowy figure is a man from Tierra Rota, a town that is under siege by criminals who kidnap and slaughter the towns young girls. The man risked everything in order to find The Punisher and request his aid. After explaining to him the situation that his town is in, The Punisher tells the man from Tierra Rota that he is not the man for the job. The old man accepts his decision and heads home. Back in Tierra Rota, we see a group of people hiding in a local restaurant, La Casa, and suddenly a couple black vans pull up. One of the men in the restaurant decides to do what he can for the group and fend off the terrorists. Unfortunately, this brave man gets blown to bits. News of this hits New York, where The Punisher reconsiders the shadowy man request. We then see a little girl at home in Tierra Rota. As one of the terrorists goes to grab her, a shotgun shell blasts clear through his head. The issue ends with The Punisher in Tierra Rota holding a smoking shotgun.

The Amazing Spiderman #569: New Ways To Die: Book Two

This issue begins where the last one left off, with Norman Osborn and his Thunderbolts ambushing Peter Parker in an attept to get at Spiderman. The group then leaves, and we next see Eddie Brock at the F.E.A.S.T Homeless Shelter with Martin Li Mrs. Parker. Eddie has great news for them. Apparently his system has somehow been purged of the symbiote. Anyways, at Osborn Manor, Norman sends the Thunderbolts out on a reconnaissance mission to find Spiderman, who is actually right under their nose at Osborn Manor. After Spiderman gets rid of Osborn’s troopers, Osborn sends out a call to the Thunderbolts to fall back to base. Songbird and Radioactive Man copy the order. Venom, however, has other plans. He has found his original host, Eddie Brock at the F.E.A.S.T Homeless Shelter. When Spiderman realizes his Aunt May is in sudden danger, he decides to get there as fast as he can. Venom, in the mean time, gets inside and grabs his target, Brock, and the symbiote tries to overtake Brocks body again. However, Eddie’s body refuses to combine with it and the sybiote gets burned, much to the surprise of Venom. The issue ends with the introduction of Anti-Venom!

My Comic Stores of Choice

Since I’m posting about comic books now, I thought I should post a shout-out of sorts to the stores that provide the comics I read. While I’m at home in OC, Cali, I go to Comics Toons and Toys. This is a great store with a large selection of comic book, graphic novels, and the like. If you would like to check it out, it’s located at:

13542 Newport Ave
Tustin, CA 92780
Phone: (714) 730-2117

In Tempe however, I’ll be going to Atomic Comics. I can’t say how good of a store it is, as I have yet to go there. I chose this store simply because it is the closest comics store to where I live. For those interested, Atomic Comics is located at:

4001 E Broadway Rd, Phoenix, AZ‎ - (602) 431-3994

The Amazing Spiderman #568: New Ways To Die: Part I

Since this is the start of a new Spiderman mini-series, this issue starts with a brief look into who Spiderman/Peter Parker is. That’s why this is a good place to start if you are new to the world of comics, and you like Spiderman. Anyways, the real action of this issue starts when we are introduced to yet another goblin, Menace. After a quick and dirty battle between Spiderman and this new goblin, we find out that Peter Parker is having trouble finding work, so he seeks Harry’s advice. Heeding this advice, Peter sells his photo’s of Spiderman to a newspaper that is competing with the DB, Front Line. While at the Front Line office, we find out that New York Mayoral Candidate Randall Crowne is behind a series of illegal sweatshops. Since things aren’t going so well for his campaign, the candidate decides to hire Norman Osbourne and his Thunderbolts to straighten things out. The Thunderbolts are made up of Venom, Songbird, and Radioactive Man. Anyways, mysteriously enough, we see that Eddie Brock in Martin Li’s homeless shelter, having been cured or the Symbiote. The issue ends when we see Peter Parker being ambushed by none other than Norman Osbourne and the Thunderbolts.