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 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!

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.