wktf's and Sam Wilson's Reviews 6/8/07

[wktf]

Wktf’s Reviews

This week I come to you from the road. Until writing comic book reviews pays the bills (or even pays at all) I’ve still gotta do my full time gig which, frequently, involves travel. Fortunately, nowadays, hotels have high speed internet connections.

Our four part “Origin of Venom” trade reviews continue this week’s final two installments. If you haven’t yet read the first two reviews then check last week’s reviews and then come on back. We’ll wait. This week I picked up last week’s issue of Wolverine as I’d heard there was some good feral mutant interaction with both The New Avengers (and especially with Cage) and The Astonishing X-Men (his snippiness about Scott’s sleeping with Emma’s a bit old at this point) as Logan decides whether to go on a manhunt for Nitro. I wasn’t disappointed. In addition to the three reviews below, I also picked up Fantastic Four: First Family, the Doomsday Omnibus tpb, which should look great between my Superman/Doomsday bookends, Modern Masters Volume Seven: John Byrne, and the Punisher vs. Bullseye tpb my son’s been waiting to be released. On to the reviews!

Wonder Woman #1
DC Comics
Written by: Alan Heinberg
Drawn by: Terry Dodson

One Year Later got off to a stunning start both with the Batman and Superman titles, picks up with the third leg of DC’s mighty trinity, Wonder Woman, previously restored to glory oh those many post-Crisis on Infinite Earths years ago by the legendary George Perez. While Superman was depowered at the end of Infinite Crisis by the Red Sun through which he, Superman II and Superboy Prime flew, and Batman left Gotham in the care of the now clearly very unstable Harvey Dent while he rediscovered his crime fighting roots with Robin and Nightwing, it’s Diana who had the toughest row to hoe of the big three after the Infinite Crisis dust settled. Like her two partners in justice, she became orphaned on Earth when Paradise Island was removed by the Greek gods to save it from the OMAC onslaught. But, even more than that, the once publicly beloved Diana now had been vilified by having her dispassionate execution of Max Lord broadcast by the OMACs for the entire world to see. When Infinte Crisis ended, she found herself in the unusual position of being hated by some and at least distrusted by most others for her brutal actions. And, so, once the aforementioned dust settled, she left to find herself and discover her place in this new world.

DC Comics has taken a page from Marvel’s playbook in bringing celebrity writers from other media to write their books. Marvel has Reggie Hudlin, Charlie Huston and Joss Whedon and, now, DC has “Lost” writer Alan Heinberg giving new direction to Wonder Woman. And his first issue is promising. Not outstanding but a fun read and promising for future issues. Diana has been gone for a year and, with this issue, we learn that she abdicated her role as Wonder Woman and passed the lasso and armor to her sister, Donna Troy, who makes as grand an entrance as Terry Dodson can draw looking more like a Greek goddess than Diana ever did. This is a seriously impressive double splash page. She’s learned from Sarge Steel, Director of the Department of Metahuman Affairs, that a terrorist wants an audience with Diana only and is holding the Deputy Secretary of Defense (one of the oldest names in comics, going back to the golden age, and a long time “associate” of Wonder Woman) hostage in the Museum of Natural History until he gets to see her. Donna is filled with doubts about her ability to fill her sister’s role and carrying a big chip on her shoulder in wanting to prove herself at the same time. To rescue this old friend of Diana’s, Donna must face off against a new and improved Cheetah, Giganta, and the most dangerous of Lex’s allies during Infinite Crisis who takes her down with some ease.

Is Diana in this story? Yes, she is. Is it clear what she’s doing or how she’ll assume the mantle of Wonder Woman again (come on, you know she’s going to)? Sort of, but her new role is a bit perplexing as she at one time was wanted for murder. If the Superman and Batman arcs are any indication we should start getting some resolution as to Diana’s Wonder Woman status in 3-5 issues. But, in the mean time, we’ve got a mystery on our hands, a hero who’s in serious danger, a blast from the very distant past (even if he’s a ruse disguise), and a seriously beautifully drawn comic with plenty of action and a good cliff hanger to keep me coming back for more. Yes, this new Wonder Woman comic is very promising, though it lacks some of the excitement of the Batman and Superman arcs, but enough to make me want to keep checking it out. This is a really good jumping on point for anyone.

Detective Comics #820
DC Comics
Written by: James Robinson
Drawn by: Leonard Kirk & Andy Clarke

Batman #653 from two weeks ago completely gave me chills. As we know, one happy outcome of the famous “Hush” storyline was that Harvey Dent’s face had been reconstructed and, as a result, his fractured personality had healed. But the prior chapters of this One Year Later story arc, whose title is “Face the Face,” had been filling our heads with doubts about Harvey. Thus far, we’d learned that Batman departed Gotham City for a year and left it under Harvey’s protection. Up until Batman #653 we’d been in the dark about exactly what happened and how Harvey came to take over Batman’s charge. And, recently, some Bat-villains, including KGBeast, Magpie, Orca, and the Ventriloquist/Scarface have started dying in very curious ways, primarily with two bullet holes in each victim. Could it be that Batman underestimated Harvey’s ability to handle this pressure, as he did with Azrael after the “Knigtfall” story? And while in last month’s Detective Comics Harvey not only had been hearing voices, he’d been talking back to them, in this last issue of Batman, which was part 6 of “Face the Face,” Harvey lost his mental battle with his cunning and manipulative Two-Face persona and not only poured acid down the left side of his face and body, he used a knife to clearly divide the two sides of his, once again, hideously disfigured face. It was an awful scene.

And here we are at part 7 of the 8 part “Face the Face.” Batman and Robin are facing down the Scarecrow, which means they’re surrounded by fear gas and facing enemies from their psyches. Robin must face a Robin from another Earth and then the Superboy who murdered his best friend. Batman must do battle with Thomas Wayne dressed in the Halloween costume from the 1950s story that helped inspire Bruce’s identity. But the almost calm and precise way both heroes confront and defeat their fears is eerie as opposed to dull. Like they’ve both learned so much about themselves in this past year that they really are different people now. And Batman’s heartfelt apology for his rudeness to Officer Harper, very much like his earlier reconciliation with Bullock, shows this truly is a different, far more interesting Batman. And this Batman is also a detective who has uncovered evidence calling into question the evidence against Harvey Dent. But, as we know from Batman #653, any hope of working with Harvey has long past. This, plus the back up story that continues Jason Bard’s investigation into Orca’s shooting yields the great irony of this arc: Harvey may have been framed but it just doesn’t matter now. This story, and this entire story line, is filled with pain, confusion and lost opportunities. The one hope seems to lie in the conversation between Bruce and Tim as they speed along in the Batmobile. But we don’t know what Bruce is implying at this point.

Batman the detective. Batman the martial artist. Batman the intellectual. Batman the knight creature. Batman the team mate and partner. This story and all the great art has returned Batman to the height of his character and, again, has made him the most compelling hero in the DC Universe.

Civil War: Front Line #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Paul Jenkins
Drawn by: Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber & Kei Kobayahi

As many of you may remember, Civil War #1 knocked my socks off. If Infinite Crisis gave us universe-threatening menaces on a huge galactic scale, Civil War #1 presented a tale of intimacy and seeming betrayal in a story that resonated close to home. Goliath said it best to Ms. Marvel, referencing recent events in Captain America, Fantastic Four and Wolverine, “After Philly getting bombed, the Hulk trashing Vegas…Wolverine saying he was gonna kill the President? This is the start of the witch hunts, honey, they’ll be coming after us with torches and pitchforks.” The New Warriors disaster with Nitro is the apex of the trauma and Captain America reported to Iron Man that the FEMA chief said there could be eight or nine hundred deaths, many of whom are children, from this disaster. And now a new movement is on coming directly from The White House. Should superheroes be registered and regulated, like police officers and doctors? The universe of Marvel heroes is divided on the subject while the public seems less so. The Human Torch has been beaten nearly to death by an enraged crowd. Captain America has gone rogue. In Amazing Spider-Man the President has enlisted Tony Stark, as Iron Man, to rally heroes for registration (MJ and Aunt May’s support of Peter is quite touching, by the way). And we’ve seen in She-Hulk how members of The New Warriors now are vilified not only by the public but by members of their own team. The stage has been expertly set for a cauldron to boil over in an event that pits heroes against each other rather than against a common villain.

Civil War: Front Line, I believe, is supposed to be about the combination of peripheral stories involving the Civil War plot and how the press is covering these events. This book offers three separate stories, all penned by Paul Jenkins but separately illustrated by the talents listed above. The first focuses on Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle and Daredevil fame and Sally, another reporter who’s also an alcoholic and, it turns out, has kind of a thing for Spider-Man. John Fernandez, a news man killed in the Stamford disaster, is buried at the beginning of this book and various members of the press attend Joe Robertson’s eulogy for there comrade. The rest of this story shows us Ben being Ben, fighting with the right wing direction JJJ is giving his staff, and Sally in an unexpected and kind of interesting surprise interview with Spider-Man who also gives her a tip to attend Iron Man’s big press conference. Attend she does and, as Spidey promised, it was worth her while. The second story is about, believe it or not, Speedball who, despite Joe Quesada’s ranting about killing him off, is not dead. Not dead, but seriously injured, thrown hundreds of miles, and saved by his powers. However, he’ll have to decide after this story if he’s lucky to be alive. The third and final piece is a short concept story that harkens back to the Japanese concentration camps on U.S. soil during the Second World War. Is Jenkins trying to equate the superhero registration act to the imprisonment of U.S. Japanese citizens? The strong implication is that superheroes, like the Japanese Americans, must cooperate with the government to help with national security. But, in drawing this analogy is Jenkins trying to warn us that the act is inherently evil?

Well, this was an interesting concept book. That said, both the writing and the art simply aren’t that strong and Iron Man’s press conference here, rather than in the Civil War book, itself, smacks as a marketing ploy to get us to buy more comics which I find a bit distasteful. Anyway, this comic was lackluster at best and I’m not sure I’ll be back for a second issue or not.

[wktf]

A decent week this week, topping the list of course is the relaunch of Wonder Woman by “Lost” (the ABC TV show) writer Alan Heinberg and artist Terry Dodson (wktf reviewed it above), also from DC we have The Outsiders and the always entertaining Y the Last Man. From Marvel we got a pair of decent “older readers” books, The Punisher and my pick of the week, Nick Fury: Peacemaker. Well, enough chit-chat, let’s get on to the reviews…

The Outsiders #37
DC Comics
Written by: Judd Winick
Drawn by: Matthew Clark

For those of you who haven’t been following “The Outsiders”, they have recently been through some tough times. On top of being fed all of their bad guy intel by Deathstroke disguised as Batman, one of their own members went crazy and tried to kill all of them and the Teen Titans (Indigo, the android from the future who turned out to be a Braniac). Nightwing quit the team in disgust, Starfire and Captain Marvel Jr. signed on and Jade and Arsenal blew up their old headquarters. Then there was “Infinite Crisis”, which split the team up as Donna Troy grabbed Starfire and a few others to go off and do some cosmic battling, and Nightwing stayed behind to lead the assault on the alternate Earth’s (Earth 3 I think, I don’t know, who can keep track?) Lex Luthor’s artic stronghold. Then “one year later” happened, and the team once again went through another major change.

This new, “one year later” team of Outsiders is supposed to be more proactive (kinda like they first set out to be). Only different this time, I guess. Anyway, they are going to get their hands more dirty and go after some big fish and actually try and do some good in the world dealing (yeah, okay, kinda repetitive, but not, be patient). Anyway Nightwing is back in charge; Grace, Thunder, Shift and Katanna (an original Outsider) are all back, and new to the team: Captain Boomerrang. Well, Captain Boomerrang’s son anyway, the new Captain Boomerrang, who we last saw in the pages of “Identity Crisis”. So this new team decides to set wrongs with a heavy hand, and the first person they go after is a no good African dictator who likes to kill people and probably has some kind of mental powers as well. The team sends Thunder in deep undercover to get close, and she uncovers the dictator’s stash of sarin gas only to have her cover blown. The rest of the Outsiders come in for support, but they soon find themselves in conflict with a metahuman who appears to be under the dictator’s employ, a superspeedster who hands the team a nasty whuppin (all this happens in issues #35 and 36). The team soon gets it together; Captain Boomerang shows us his stuff, and that superspeedster? Well, it turns out he isn’t just a merc working for a power mad African dictator; he is Jay Garrick, the original Flash (only looking 30 years to young). Issue #37 opens with Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern and now the Black King of the covert organization Checkmate, claiming the unconscious body of Jay Garrick, or at least a clone of Garrick. The team unwillingly concedes to that and Alan Scott also gives them a quick lecture on how this new business the team is in is not exactly legal, and Checkmate will be on their a$# if they slip up. It becomes kind of a theme this issue when Superman shows up (!) and tells Nightwing pretty much the same thing. All this and we found out who is behind the Flash clone. Think a “Pinky and the Brain”, but the Brain is really, umm, a brain and Pinky is really a giant talking gorilla.

So “The Outsiders” is a little different then from when it first started out. It’s nice to have Nightwing back in charge, and it’s nice to see a little harder edge to the team, even though that is they way they were supposed to be from the get go. It’s also cool having an oldschooler like Katanna in the mix, and I gotta say, I really dig the new character (well, new to the DC universe anyway) Grace (the super strong, super tough former bouncer chick). I think Winick is kind of a douche, but he does well with “The Outsiders”. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to fans of the ‘80’s Teen Titan’s series, which “The Outsiders” is very akin to.

Fury: Peacemaker #5 of 6
Marvel Knights
Written by: Garth Ennis
Drawn by: Darick Robertson

For the second Time Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson tack the legendary Marvel Character Nick Fury (the first time being in the often overlooked Marvel MAX series Fury), but instead of his modern adventures they take him back, all the way back. They take him to a time before he even hooked up with the “Howling Commandos” (no, not that lame werewolf title, you know, the “Howling Commando’s”: Gabe, Dum Dum, etc), back to when he was just an infantry SGT in the United States Army during World War Two. If you have ever read any of Ennis’s “War Story” books from Vertigo, you know the man has an affinity for the genre, and who better to script Nick Fury’s pre-Howling Commando WW2 adventures?

Peacemaker opens with Fury and his unit in North Africa. Relatively new to the war, they are currently getting their keisters handed to them by the Germans. The combat is unlike anything he was prepared for and a lot of people die and Fury is pushed and pushed hard. He sees all his men killed before him due to faulty intelligence and the negligence of his superiors, and in issue two a small regimen of British soldiers find him wandering aimlessly, shell shocked and despondent over his roll in the war. Lucky for Nick these British soldiers happen to be part of Her Majesties Special Air Services (SAS, British Commandos), and they take Nick in and teach him an entire new way to wage war, and let’s just say issue two is pretty much the opposite of issue one and you’re going to have to check it out for yourself to see what I mean. Issue three has Nick back with Allied High command, who puts him on assignment with the same SAS guys whom Nick met in North Africa (funny that) to assassinate a Nazi Field Marshall, some prodigy who is a pretty big thorn in the Allies side and killing him would make invading Germany a heck of a lot easier. When Nick and the boys eventually make it to his hiding place though, they find the Field Marshall has flown the coop. Why? He’s left to assassinate Adolph Hitler with full support of the German high command, hopefully ending the war with a full German surrender. Fury and the SAS listen to the Field Marshall’s chief of staff tell them why exactly the regular German Army wants Hitler dead, and well, for those of you who don’t know history be prepared because history pretty much kicks you in the face, and in issue five Nick and his British comrades have a decision to make. Should they continue with their mission and assassinate the Nazi Field Marshall, or help him possibly end the war? All this, and the boys cross swords with a German Tank. Yeah.

Honestly, I would love to see this series spin off into a new “Nick Fury and his Howling Commando’s” series with Garth Ennis at the helm, and damn if Darick Robertson’s art is perfectly suited for this book. Who knows? If this book sells well, it may. Is it good? Hell yeah, even though this series got off to a slow start, issue four kicks you in the nuts and makes you pay attention, and issue five grabs you by the nuts and makes you pay attention. I personally can’t wait to see what comes out of issue six....

Y the Last Man #46
DC/Vertigo Comics
Written by: Brian K. Vaughn
Drawn by: Goran Sdzuka

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, Y the Last Man is this century's Preacher for DC/Vertigo. It’s epic, engrossing, and suspenseful and has a definite conclusion, but will definitely go for as long as it has to before it gets there. In a nutshell, “Y” is about Yorick brown, the last man on Earth. See, there was this huge plague, and it killed all male creatures on Earth, except for Yorick and his pet monkey, Ampersand. Yorick isn’t your average Joe though, his mom was a congresswoman, and after the plague she was the highest member of the United States government left alive so she then became the President. After the plague hit (the men died within days) Yorick carefully made his way to DC to figure things out. His mother promptly sent him on a mission to save mankind (no pressure) with Agent 355, a highly trained operative of the US Government who belongs to an agency called “the Culper Ring”. No idea what they’re about, but they’re mysterious. So Yorick makes his way cross-country with Agent 355 to a Dr. Leslie Mann in San Francisco, the Earth’s foremost expert on human cloning, only all her research gets destroyed. She has back up research in Japan, so off they go in hopes to save humanity. Along the way they have run into by Amazons, crazed right-wingers, the Israeli’s and Pirates (yes, Pirates). No one said saving the world would be easy…

Recently in “Y” Yorick, 355, Dr. Mann and the Australian Naval Officer Rose have made their way to Japan to search for Ampersand, Yorick’s monkey and supposedly the only other living male on the planet. In issue #44 Yorick and 355 come into contact with the Police (?) and the Yakuza, now run by a Canadian pop princess (seriously), Dr. Mann and Rose get into some trouble, and a forgotten side story is resurrected when Hero, Yorick’s sister and Beth (Yorick’s other “Beth” who had a one night stand with, and subsequently made her pregnant) meet up with the Russian Cosmonaughts from earlier in the book to deal with the son (!) one of them had while in orbit. Issue #45 has 355, Yorick and a Japanese Madame with a robotic stable (seriously) gearing up to raid the Yakuza to get back Ampersand, and Dr. Mann and Rose meet with Dr. Mann’s Chinese grandmother (hmm, that makes Dr. Mann half Chinese and half Japanese, kinda like Oren Ishi-I from “Kill Bill”. Huh. I just thought of that…) and get attacked by a ninja, which leads us to the current issue, #46. Yorick and 355 sit around in a hotel room getting to know each other a little better while their she-pimp friend makes a little side deal with the Yakuza, Dr. Mann and her mom squabble while under attack by a ninja and we find out that Ivy-league *******s do know how to sword fight. Oh yeah, it is on in this issue…

So enough already, pick up the book. With a new storyline starting, now is the perfect jumping on point. There are tpb’s collecting all the storylines thus far. It’s a no-brainer. It’s good, well written, well drawn, and damn entertaining.

[wktf]

With Spider-Man 3 now in full movie production, and one of the movie’s villains slated to be Venom, we thought we’d review the multi-faceted, intricate, multiple story lines that, taken as four separate trades, represent four distinct and important arcs but, taken together, yield the sequence of events that lead to Venom’s origin. In truth, despite his pretty substantial fan base, neither of us have ever had any great love for this character. Venom is most definitely a product of his time, the late 1980s early 1990s, and his two-dimensional characterization and gross overexposure seemed to make him less than relevant after only a few years. And, up until Mark Millar’s recent innovative reinvention of the character in MK Spider-Man, we’d seen neither hide nor hair of him in years, really. But the twisting and turning tales that lead to his origin, that took place over an incredible period of four years, from 1984 to 1988, make for some of the most entertaining and intricate comic book reading around, especially when you read them all as the long, persistent and inexorable path to the creation of this Spider-Man staple villain.

So now that, last week, we reviewed Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars and Spider-Man: The Saga of the Alien Costume, the first two of these four trade books, let’s take a look at the final two!

Sam Wilson’s Review

Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff
Marvel Comics
Written by: Peter David
Drawn by: Rich Buckler

FYI, the “Death of Jean DeWolff” tpb is long out of print, but the story can be found in a new collection, the Wizard Masterpiece Edition: Spider Man. That being said, let’s talk about Captain Jean DeWolff. You all know I’m not a Spider-Man regular. I’ve read him off and on, but nothing more than a couple issues here and there, and yes, I read Ultimate Spider-Man, and yes, I know it’s not the same thing. So what’s my point? The “Death of Jean Dewolff” is a fantastic story. It’s the first story I ever read that brought Peter David to my attention, and it showed a Spider-Man not seen often (at least to me), someone other than the wisecracker clown prince of superheroics.

Jean Dewolff was a police captain for the NYPD who was more or less Spidey’s “Jim Gordon”. She became acquainted with Spidey on a case, and encountered him every now and then while she was on the job. Spidey wasn’t used to friendship from the police, so his relationship with Dewolff was important. One day the unthinkable happened, while handing a couple of muggers off to the police, Spidey finds out Dewolff was shotgunned to death in her own apartment. At first Spidey is in shock, he teams up (sorta) with detective Stan Carter to help track down this brazen assassin. On the side, we see attorney Matt Murdock (if you don’t know who he is, I aint saying) see, no watch, no, okay, well anyway he was in the same room of a judge friend of his only to “witness” him being gunned down by a crazed individual calling himself the “Sin Eater”. This of course, brings Daredevil into our story, because soon we found out this “Sin Eater” also killed Captain Dewolff (after a ballistics are matched on both shootings).

Okay, so we got Spidey, DD, and a psycho shotgunning dude who calls himself the Sin Eater. So they team up, find the bad guy, and all is well right? Of course not. As Spidey digs deeper into Capt. Dewolff’s murder, he find out she might have had romantic feelings for him. Spidey is without a chica right now, and he realizes if they both would have explored those feelings, it coulda led to something. When Spidey finally catches up with our bad guy, they duke it out in a crowded street, an innocent civilian takes a shotgun blast and ends up dying. This pushes Spidey over the edge. He goes looking for the Sin Eater with a fury, beating information out of skells and cutting a swath through NYC like he never has before. On the side, Daredevil carefully conducts his own investigation, and eventually teams up with Spidey. They find the Sin Eater, and then everything hits the fan.

I’m not going to say what happens next, because if you haven’t read this story, it’ll take away the shock. Sometimes acting out of character, especially when it’s done by such a well-established character like Spider-Man, can rub fans the wrong way and seems contrived. I did not feel this way with this story. Peter David gives hints of this story’s climax from the beginning. That’s why it’s so realistic, and shocking. Sure, Peter has experienced loss before, but no one illustrated what it can do to the psyche as well as Peter David did. For a minute Spidey isn’t larger than life, he’s just another guy feeling a human emotion, and his friends have to help him through his pain. The “Death of Jean Dewolff” has been reprinted before in tbp form, but like I said earlier has been long out of print. For $29.99, you can pick up the Wizard Masterpiece Edition: Spider Man and get that story, plus a few more. It’s definitely worth it.

Wktf’s Review

Spider-Man vs. Venom
Marvel Comics
Written by: David Michelinie
Drawn by: Todd McFarlane

Okay! Here we are, at the finale of our two week, four part Origin of Venom reviews! Having covered off on Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars and The Saga of the Alien Costume last week, and my esteemed colleague’s review of The Death of Jean DeWolff just above, we now come to the end of the four year trek, from 1984 through 1988, to the Amazing Spider-Man stories that launched one of Spidey’s most popular and deadly villains. This trade collects all the David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane creative team’s Venom stories. It begins with the very last page only of Amazing Spider-Man # 298 where we see a mysteriously dark, shrouded figure first standing in front of Spider-Man news clippings tacked to his wall and stewing in his thoughts of revenge. Then come the last two pages of issue # 299 where Mary Jane, now married to Peter, returns to their apartment and is greeted inside by an incredibly muscular but insanely sinister version of her own husband in his black costume and uttering those famous words from The Shining, “Hi honey…I’m home!” We then move to issue #300 where Peter enters their home to find Mary Jane trembling in fear on the floor and, so, it begins.

These very first Spider-Man vs. Venom stories are so well known at this point it seems almost unnecessary to go into any depth detailing what happens. We know, from The Saga of the Alien Costume (you did read my review from last week, didn’t you?) why the costume hates Peter. In this volume, we learn why Eddie Brock, the symbiote’s new host, hates him as well. It turns out that Eddie was a columnist for The Daily Globe, one of The Daily Bugle’s competitors, when the Sin Eater story from The Death of Jean DeWolff (see my partner’s review, above) was breaking. Eddie reported that a man named Emil Gregg had confessed to being the Sin Eater; however, Emil was nothing more than a compulsive confessor. The real Sin Eater (I can’t reveal his identity and spoil my colleagues review, sorry) was as revealed by Peter Parker in The Daily Bugle. In the mean time, following its escape from FF headquarters, the alien symbiote had tried to rejoin with Spider-Man in Web of Spider-Man #1 only to be driven off by the powerful sonic vibrations of a church tower bell. Brock, now disgraced and fired, while contemplating suicide on his knees in a church, was found by the symbiote that joined with him and, so, an evil alliance was formed. Venom had full knowledge of Spider-Man and his secrets, all of Spidey’s powers, significantly more muscle, and didn’t trigger Peter’s spider sense. In fact, he was unstoppable in a direct confrontation with Spider-Man. Imagine Spidey’s shock as he suddenly faced, out of nowhere, a brand new adversary who was his most dangerous as well.

Amazing Spider-Man #300 introduced Venom to the world, and the world responded with huge enthusiasm to this maniacally lurid and warped villain. But it was issues #315-317, also collected here, that gave us the Venom that we all know today. I have to confess I’m in the minority in that I’ve never been a big Venom fan or a fan of Todd McFarlane’s rather cartoony art style. But rereading this trade I found myself impressed with these issues both by how creepy Venom was and how well Spider-Man is drawn (despite those oversized but-eyes), especially the contorted positions in which he could move his body. In McFarlane’s hands Spider-Man is an almost supernaturally spider-like hero. But Venom, ugh, that broad smile with those large pointed teeth, that insane and murderous attitude, the way he speaks of himself as “we” in the third person, and the way he barrels along almost like the Rhino with his massive frame and super strength all combined to create a truly frightening villain. When he’s skipping along the Long Island beach in this trade’s last battle and ranting, “He’s going to die! Oh, happy, happy, happy!” you know this guy’s a deadly whack-job who means business. David Michelinie has always been one of my favorite writers. I loved his work on Iron Man, The Avengers and, yes, Amazing Spider-Man. He tends to be forgotten when people think about great comic book writers of the 1970s and 1980s but he shouldn’t be, and this volume is a testament as to why.

So, even if you’ve hit your saturation point with Venom, this is a trade worth owning. In going back to the character’s roots, if I’m any indication, you still can be impressed with how innovative and dangerous he was and how perilously close Spider-Man always is to being completely outmatched and overpowered in their encounters. Retailing originally for $15.95 this title, sadly, seems now to be out of print. But a quick scan of eBay and Amazon.com shows that it’s readily available. So, if you’re one of the few who doesn’t own this trade, I recommend picking it up. I can’t say the same thing for other Venom trades but this one’s a sure thing.

[melike]

Wow..you guys do good work - you know, this weeks comics havent even come out over here yet (although i am still reading through Aprils and Awaiting Mays so im miles behind). How do you read them all so quickly?

<goes off to read>

[melike]

Not to be picky (again) But Alan Heinberg was first on Young Avengers at Marvel - so hes not really a fresh tv to comics writer..and I dont think hes the writer of Lost..he did do The OC and i THINK hes on Greys Anatomy now. You may be thinking of the guy doing Ult Wlvy vs Hulk...

<runs back to continue reading>

[JDH]

They just look at the pictures.

[melike]

Hmmn.. regarding CW: frontline - i thought as much. The fact that Speedys in it was very tempting for me as i am a big speedball fan (yep, i'm the one.) BUt it doesnt sound great. Oh well - i couldnt afford it anyway.

[Sam Wilson]

Originally Posted by melike

Not to be picky (again) But Alan Heinberg was first on Young Avengers at Marvel - so hes not really a fresh tv to comics writer..and I dont think hes the writer of Lost..he did do The OC and i THINK hes on Greys Anatomy now. You may be thinking of the guy doing Ult Wlvy vs Hulk...

<runs back to continue reading>

melike, you are correct, I was the one who made that error, and Joe I'm sure was just assuming my info was correct. I got that "lost" writer on the brain because I was looking at some original art from Ult. Wlvy vs. Hulk (and I'm also mad that series is so freakin' late), and I must have gotten some wires crossed somewhere. I don't watch the OC, but I do read the Young Avengers which is a fantastic book. Anyway, don't you have some damn cartoons to draw?

[Sam Wilson]

Originally Posted by jdh.goodgrief

They just look at the pictures.

that's not true. Sometimes I read both the first and the last pages of the book...

and melike, speedball? Speedball? Dude.

Hey, you guys reading Fury:Peacemaker? It is a "black and tan" creative team (ennis and Robertson). I love that book.

Jess, call your boy dillon and see if you can score me that cover...

[JDH]

Originally Posted by Sam Wilson

that's not true. Sometimes I read both the first and the last pages of the book...

and melike, speedball? Speedball? Dude.

Hey, you guys reading Fury:Peacemaker? It is a "black and tan" creative team (ennis and Robertson). I love that book.

Jess, call your boy dillon and see if you can score me that cover...

I haven't read Fury - I'm not much of a spy guy, apart from when superheroes are involved. Plus, the last Fury MAX limited kind of put me off trying another. But, then again, you steered me right on NextWave...

(Oh, and I like Speedball too - original costume only. I wish he'd passed that Avengers test way back when...)