Ultimate Venom: Part 1

[cyberghostface]

Out of all the 'Ultimizations' that Bendis has done over the years, I think Eddie Brock/Venom was one of the best. Bendis had always been hesitant to use Venom but the demand had been great and then EIC Bill Jemas pretty much had to push him to do it. To Bendis's credit, rather than holding his nose and putting out a mediocre depiction (like Sam Raimi did with the character) he did a full on rehaul of everything about the character and made him work.

Also this story is, while building off on the characters, a stand-alone story (which was probably intentional given that Marvel wanted new readers to pick this up) so you don't need to be up to date with everything that has come before.

The first part follows the first three issues, from #33 to #35.

Prior, Peter had broken up with Mary Jane (don't worry, it was only temporary) mainly due to the stress she was going through; the Green Goblin had thrown her off a bridge, and Peter had gotten shot by the police when there was a Spider-Man impostor running around robbing banks.

So Peter, while bemoaning his current situation, finds a box with some old tapes and photos of his parents when he was younger.





Note the coloring error in the first panel below: they messed up May and Peter. Oops.




Peter calls up Eddie Brock and the two decide to meet each other.





Peter tells Eddie about his current state with Mary Jane, and Eddie responds that five years he won't even remember her or any of his high school hardships.



Eddie takes Peter to the Reed Richards Science Center.



Peter asks what it is, and Eddie tells him that their parents intended it to be the cure for cancer.





Eddie explains that both of their fathers were employees for Trask, who later stole their work. Later, both of their parents were on a plane which later crashed. The remaining "suit" that Eddie has was something their parents were working on during their same time. Finally, Peter asks whose DNA was used for the project. Eddie tells him that it was Richard Parker's.

Next day at high school, Eddie Brock arrives to pick Pete up in a fancy red car. Gwen comes along.



Eddie Brock says the timing was suspect, yes, but he doesn't believe that someone so horrible would cause an entire plane to crash into the Atlantic out of greed.











#35...

Now Spidey's swinging around in his spiffy new black suit. He's having a lot of fun as his new suit makes him more powerful than ever; he can now take bullets without getting hurt (a big deal, given how he was recently shot).







Spidey later sees a robbery in which the owner is shot to death in front of his wife and son. Peter pursues the burglar into an empty warehouse.












Peter later falls into telephone wires, and is zapped, obliterating the suit. Peter lands smoking into a graveyard.

Comments

[mistersandman]

Oh, I like this a lot. Was this the inspiration for how they handled Eddie on the Spectacular Spiderman show? It sure seems that way.

Also, I like how Richard Parker looks a lot like adult 616 Peter.

[cyberghostface]

I believe so, yes.

[big_daddy_d]

Was this the inspiration for how they handled Eddie on the Spectacular Spiderman show?

The irony being that I believed that for the most part, Spectacular Spider-Man adapted Ultimate Spider-Man, of course it has the obvious 616 based stuff but still.

[long_silence]

I'm still pissed that it was canceled and is being replaced by an Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.

[cyberghostface]

Yeah. It was such a great show.

[big_daddy_d]

You and I both my friend. You and I both.

[baxter2814]

SO true. /Gargoyles fan here!/

[skalja]

... Not really. It's basically the original Lee/Ditko run thrown in the blender with a few chunks of Ultimate continuity, a smidgen of the classic 70s and 80s plotlines, a dash of Untold Tales and a hefty dose of fresh take.

[cyberghostface]

They also seemed to be inspired by the movies at points. One thing I thought was interesting was when they gave him the black suit was basically the movie version (I.E. basic Spider-Man costume, just black and white) and then as the symbiote grew stronger then it slowly turned into the classic look.

[aaron_bourque]

The 90's Spider-Man cartoon did it first.

[cyberghostface]

If you're referring to Eddie's character, the 90s cartoon didn't do it first. Eddie was never friends with Peter there, he was always a rival photographer.

[big_daddy_d]

This was definitely one of my favorite Ultimate Spidey stories. Hell I wish they went this direction in Spider-Man 3.

[mrstatham]

Yeah, it would've definitely made more sense than Peter being okay with an alien suit that he doesn't even know is an alien and doesn't really bother investigating it until about halfway into the movie.

[selke]

I'm having an idiot day. Did that robber kill his uncle or is Peter imagining it?

Also, I like this. It's a clever way to go about it.

[cyberghostface]

It's a different burglar (the one who killed Ben was white, this one is black), but the Venom suit is making him think they are the same.

[tsunamiwombat]

Am I alone in thinking Eddie was coming onto Peter when they first met?

"Isn't he a bit young for you Brock?"

I dunno, I thought maybe that meant, y'know, Eddie might be gay and his roommate was being an asshole about it.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, definitely a vibe there.

[artsybuzzard]

If so, Eddie's actually bi, because later on he /definitely/ puts the moves on Gwen (who's still a teenager in high school, Peter's age) and calls her some nasty stuff when she turns him down. The usual crap about how he expected her to want it because she hung out with him and came to his room.

Eddie's kind of a turd, really.

[espanolbot]

Hm, well he does come onto Gwen later, and then he gets annoyed over the fact that despite her thinking he's cool, that she wasn't going to sleep with him. This is what tips her off that he might not be the cool person Peter remembered him as way back when.

[mrstatham]

I really liked the concept of Ultimate Venom. Not really Eddie, per se - He's an asshole just like his 616 counterpart, only slightly more justified in what he's doing. And he's Venom unintentionally, too.

But I think the concept of an altruistic project devised by Peter and Eddie's fathers that goes horribly wrong and is abused, is way, way stronger than the 'alien blob that's a bit of a crybaby because Peter abandoned it'. Also, Venom manages to be far scarier than the 616 version ever was, even in these pages here. It makes more sense that it's way easier for the suit/monster to enhance Peter's negative tendencies because he's so young and his uncle's death didn't happen years ago.

And Eddie's the same - because he's barely older than Peter, he's much less rational than the 616 version should've been.

But yes, this was a great story. I don't think Ultimate Spider-Man was consistently as amazing as everyone gave it credit for - there's a lot of slow, boring issues inbetween the great stories, especially in later issues, but at this point in the game, Bendis was hitting a home run nearly every time. The initial origin story was really, really strong. The Kingpin story was great for how it turned out - The Doc Ock/Kraven story was cool, and the Goblin story (especially Norman's delusions) were all amazing. This was just the cherry on top at this point, although I remember people screeching about how it would suck, at the time.

[big_daddy_d]

The Kingpin story was great for how it turned out

Kingpin is one of my favorite arcs. Hate that he's dead now. Wanted to see more Spidey/Kingpin encounters.

[mrstatham]

In that instance, I think it was good that they at least replaced him with someone as interesting in Mysterio.

It was a bit of a waste, but considering the Ultimate Universe's occasionally more realistic approach to things, it only makes sense; You don't get to the top of a New York crime empire by leaving your rivals alive but injured - You leave them dead, otherwise you're just asking for reprisals.

[cyberghostface]

Meh, I've found Mysterio's IMO to be a Villain Sue and one of Bendis's least interesting characters. I get that Bendis wanted to do something 'cooler' than how he was in the 616 universe but he's just so bland. Kingpin was one of Bendis's best-written characters and I'm hoping that Kingpin is no more dead than he was when Silke stabbed him to death.

[fifthie]

because he's barely older than Peter, he's much less rational than the 616 version should've been.

IDK, I've known plenty of people 616 Eddie's age who managed some pretty A-grade irrationality.

[mrstatham]

True, very true. I just usually find 616 Eddie's motivations very poor, myself - he's the kind of guy who needed a slap around the face and pointing out that putting together rather immoral articles and exposing faux-criminals is entirely his fault, so he's only got himself to blame. Some people might find that compelling in a kinda hoisted-by-his-own-petard kind of way. I just find it kind-of dull.

But then, I've never liked 616 Eddie much. The character was interesting when he first became Venom, but then the Lethal Protector stuff (which they seemed to be trying to bring back with Anti-Venom) was pants. I can't stand him these days, especially with the way Slott was writing him as some sort of deranged do-gooder perpetually muttering about healing people.

[darkknightjrk]

" I don't think Ultimate Spider-Man was consistently as amazing as everyone gave it credit for - there's a lot of slow, boring issues inbetween the great stories, especially in later issues,"

I think the reason why it gets a lot of praise is the fact that Bendis has been able to, outside of a few bummer arcs, consistently solid and interesting for over 10 years. That's why I really can't shit on Bendis that much--yeah, his event comics aren't the greatest, but no one can deny he can pull out some great work, IMO.

[mrstatham]

I think I agree, I just don't think every single issue was amazing as some made out, really. There were great arcs - The Clone Saga was a freaking masterpiece in the UU compared to the drawn out garbage the 616 version eventually became. Carnage and Venom were scary and horrible and weirdly compelling because of their ties to Peter.

I just think the book slowed down an awful lot, especially in the later issues and especially in Bagley's later issues. Ultimate Knights and Silver Sable and stuff like that, which to me, weren't as interesting as some of the earlier stuff or the bits where Immonen took over from Bagley. That's not to say they sucked, but compared to when Bendis and Bagley were on their game and scoring a hit every issue early in their run, some of the later stories just seemed poorer, to me. Not awful, but not great. It seemed at a point we got into a wash, rinse, repeat cycle with Peter and MJ breaking up, getting back together, and then Peter fighting a villain, someone dying, and him mourning for an issue.

But it's still better than the I-don't-know-fucking-what-that-is the 616 Spider-Man title has become.

[long_silence]

Wait... shouldn't Ben have a separate tombstone?

[notactuallyauser]

Big collective family tombstones aren't unusual. It's think it's a little odd for it to be as depicted, though - Mary&Richard died first, did they just leave the right hand side blank until Ben had died, or something? The ones I've seen tend to stack the names. And where are they going to put May?

[damianwayne]

Possibly Richard and Mary had separate ones, and it was Ben's dying wish to establish a family tombstone. May wants to be cremated and her ashes spread over Ben's grave? Who knows?

[mrstatham]

From the way that tombstone is set up, you could easily fit May's eventual details underneath Richard's really.

[notactuallyauser]

Certainly, but then it ends up breaking the symmetry.

[elita_5]

Not necessarily, Long_Silence. It's fairly common for families to have shared plots, especially if they're cremated. My mother and aunt are buried in the same spot as my grandparents (from my father's side), and their headstone has room for several more. Most of the stones that I've seen in our cemetery are like ours--with whole families carved on one stone.

The only thing I find odd about this is the design.The group stones I've seen have couples side by side, not offset like they are here with Peter's father in the center and his wife at an angle to him.
And the font is waaaay to big for a headstone that is obviously intended to have multiple people on it.

There's no room for Mays' name to be carved next to Ben. I suppose they could put her below him, but that would really look bad when compared to Pete's Parents (or rather, vice versa), and funeral homes usually have enough sense to suggest a more unified design.

[blackruzsa]

I liked this kind of storyline, but I didn't know until now this wasn't the standard for every Spiderman version (silly me, watching too much Spectacular Spiderman, darn I miss that show).