Waaaay back in the summer, I wrote a little blog about John Romita’s “brand new Spider-Man villain,” Anti-Venom. It sounded like the dumbest thing I’d ever heard. It looked like the dumbest thing I’d ever seen. Recently, I read Amazing Spider-Man 568-570 (haven’t pick up the final couple of issues of the arc) and I’m changing my tune. Anti-Venom turned out to be pretty cool.

 Back in the summer, we only got a couple pieces of info on this guy. We had John Romita’s drawing, which, despite that it’s beautiful art, looked like yet-another generic symbiote. And we had the name, Anti-Venom, a laughable idea that screams “we’re all outta ideas” when it’s read out of context. I wish the press releases had given us just a little more to go on, or not mentioned it at all, because Dan Slott and John Romita really surprised me. And considering how disappointed I’ve been with Marvel lately (though I’m waiting for the trades to read ANY of Secret Invasion, so don’t rake me over the coals if it’s good… I just had major issues with Civil War) that’s really saying something.

 I won’t spoil too much because I want to encourage fans to read this arc, especially those who haven’t been reading Spidey for a long time, and fans of Venom, Carnage, and black costume Spider-Man. In a nutshell, Anti-Venom isn’t just another symbiote. It’s Eddie Brock, who hasn’t been Venom for quite a while. Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, has been merged with the symbiote lately, and since Brock lost it, he’s discovered the symbiote left him with cancer.

Eddie has been working with a mysterious  man who runs a homeless shelter, trying to do some good before the cancer kills him. People keep miraculously getting healed at this shelter, and the same thing happens to Eddie– when this guy touches him, the cancer is eradicated, but it also seems to be placed with something else.

Suddenly, he becomes Anti-Venom, and he’s really more of an anti-body. Eddie now has the ability to eradicate his old symbiote, which he tries to do as soon as it attempts to merge with him again. He also tries to do the same to the traces of the symbiote left inside Peter Parker… the problem is, he might also eradicate the very radioactivity that gives Parker his powers!

I guess I should have known that Romita wouldn’t work on anything as silly as what Anti-Venom originally sounded like to me, but like I said, after Civil War and killing off Captain America, I haven’t been able to put much past Marvel. And this isn’t nearly as brilliant as the original black costume and Venom stories, but it’s certainly well-written and worthy of the team that worked on it. If I had known Anti-Venom was going to be Eddie Brock, I never would have written that other blog. It’s great to see one of my favorite characters doing something intersting again, and thanks to this arc, I’m finally putting Amazing Spider-Man on my pull-list for the forseable future.

Also check out Venom: Dark Origin, a new five-part mini-series that tells Eddie Brock’s past from childhood, and gives us the Venom saga completey from Brock’s perspective.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

I fell in love with Venom when I first started reading comic books about three years ago. I grew up in a house without comic books and it wasn’t until I went away to college that I discovered what I had been missing. So I’ll admit that I haven’t actually read very many comics, but I have read enough to know that Venom is the best thing that ever happened to Spider-Man’s books. Not only is the character awesome and his storylines enthralling, but he also just happens to look wicked-cool. I thought I’d share a few of my favorite examples of Venom cover art here to share the greatness that is Venom.

5 – Amazing Spider-Man #378 (1993)

This excellent cover shows Venom and Carnage going at it during the great Maximum Carnage plot (one I actually have read). I really like how this cover shows the contrasts between the two – Carnage’s symbiote flows more and can keep its form though detached from the host (as when Carnage hurls blades at his opponents) while Venom’s form is more solid and portrays more muscle.

4 – Amazing Spider-Man #346 (1991)

Venom is hungry for Spidey in this cover. I love the effect of Spider-Man reflected in Venom’s eyes.

3 – Web of Spider-Man #95 (1992)

Venom teaming up with Ghost Rider is a great idea, and the two of them look fantastic on a cover together. I really like how Venom is gigantic and hovering in the background.

2 – Venom #1 (2003)

This is Venom’s tongue gone wild. Although if you look closely, you’ll notice that Venom himself doesn’t look quite right (this was the only time Venom was semi-decently drawn in this series), the crazy and impossibly-long tongue really works for Venom. I think it’s being used in this cover the same way Spawn’s cape is used on many of his covers.

1 – Venom: Carnage Unleashed #3 (1995)

This is the absolute best Venom cover I have seen yet. Once again, we have Venom and Carnage together, but this time the fight is up close and personal. Carnage is ripping the symbiote away from Venom’s head as if it were a cheap plastic Halloween mask. Just look at the expression of pleasure of Carnage’s face juxtaposing the intense pain mirrored on both the head of Eddie Brock and the head of the symbiote.

I personally think Venom art was best in the ‘90s. Recently, artists have been taking (I think) too many liberties on his appearance, making his figure ridiculously bulky, disproportionate, and alien-looking. I liked it better when you could still tell that Eddie Brock was a human. I know the Venom symbiote itself was alien, but he bonded to a human host, and I think that form should be the dominant. Especially now that Mac Gargan (who used to be Scorpion) has the symbiote, I have a hard time getting past the art to read the character. So now, I’d like to show a few examples of how I think Venom should absolutely not be drawn.

5 – Ultimate Spider-Man #38 (2003)

This is what Ultimate Venom looks like when drawn badly. It looks like an honest attempt at good Venom art that simply failed miserably. At least he still looks human – even if his head was drawn by a fourth-grader.

4 – Venom #12 (2004)

He looks a bit top heavy. I’m not sure he can even stand up. If this were an Amalgam, I would guess they combined Venom with Bane. Venom on Venom serum. How ironic. Or not.

3 – Spectacular Spider-Man #1 (2003)

I can’t believe someone got paid to draw this. Venom looks grotesque and disproportionate. There are ways to make Venom look scary and creepy without making him hideously ugly. He doesn’t look agile enough to stand up on his own feet much less be a match for Spider-Man. And are his teeth all sticking sideways out of his mouth?

2 – Spectacular Spider-Man #5 (2003)

Oh look. Same series. Venom is now a tar monster. Tar monsters have never made good villains. Maybe someone should have told this artist.

1 – Venom #15 (2004)

Is this a picture of Venom or Juggernaut’s helmet? I sure can’t tell.

At least there’s hope: the Spider-Man 3 movie actually got Venom right, though I wish we had gotten to see more shots of him as Venom on the screen. Perhaps some of the artists will base their drawings more off of the movie and good Venom art will make a comeback. Venom fans can only hope.

Qapla’

–Sarah