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

[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.