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!

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.