Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 6: Venom
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagely
Inks: Art Thibert and Rodney Ramos
SYNOPSIS
We start out with Peter in his basement being depressed
about being dumped by MJ. After some more moping, he finds some family videos
and some of his father’s work. He watches a video that has his parents, The
Brocks (?!?!?), and his aunt and uncle. Aunt May tells Peter that Eddie, The
Brocks’ son, is in the city attending one of the colleges. Knowing this, Peter
heads to the college and meets up with his old family friend who is trying to
follow in his father’s footsteps. Gwen even gets in with the little group.
Sometime later, Eddie shows Peter a project their fathers were working on
that’s supposed to be a cure for cancer: a bio-suit called Venom.
Eddie has some theories on what happened to both of their
parents since they apparently died in a plane accident. Peter does some
research of his own on his father’s notes and videos. It turns out that his
father was pressured by the higher-ups on the project. Enraged, Peter decides
to continue his father’s work and takes a sample of the Venom from Eddie’s lab
while Eddie is out with Gwen. While examining it, he accidentally spills some of
it on himself and the Venom envelops him and creates a new black suit for
Peter. Spider-Man heads out in his new duds and uses the new tricks from his
suit to fight crime. During a heated situation with a crook, Spidey transforms
into a monstrous version and almost kills the crook. Peter’s able to stop
himself and is eventually able to get free of the Venom’s influence.
Woah is right... I only wish he had another black suit in this universe.
He realized that the suit is essentially a leech. He
immediately heads back to the lab in order to destroy the sample but Eddie (who
realizes Peter is Spider-Man) finds him there. Peter tells Eddie that the suit
is a danger and that it needs to be destroyed. After they argue for a bit,
Peter heads off and destroys the suit. Unfortunately, Eddie had another sample
of the Venom and uses it on himself. The suit turns him into a monster and has
him kill a janitor. Elsewhere, Peter and MJ talk for a bit.
The next day, Peter is at school when he sees Venom (Eddie)
outside. Peter heads out to confront Eddie in his clothes and hoodie. They have
a pretty epic fight with carries over to another part of the city. The police
also get involved and the fight ends when Eddie is seemingly killed by Peter. Sometime later, he meets with NICK FURY and
they get into a heated argument. Fury tells him to calm down and that if
there’s no actual body, then Eddie might still be out there alive. Peter
confirms this to be true when he finds out that Eddie moved out of his dorm and
has taken his father’s research on Venom. After an awkward conversation with
Dr. Curt Connors (who also know Peter’s identity!?!??), Peter leaves the school
and feels that Eddie is still out there.
Ouch.
OPINION
This was really good. I know that’s a bit repetitive with
these posts, but I’m just being honest. Almost everything with this trade is
gold. First off, I liked what they did to the Venom concept. Just about
everything is thrown out for this new version of Venom. It takes a different path with the sci-fi
horror trope. Instead of an alien symbiote, Venom is now a cure gone
terribly wrong. I also like how Venom’s strongly tied to Peter’s past since it
was a project his father worked on. Now I’m not saying that this version is
better than the original version. I personally think both versions of Venom are
great, but they’re great in different ways.
I also like this introduction to Eddie Brock. This version
of Eddie is treated in the same way as the symbiote is treated. Instead of
being rivals, the two are childhood friends and it’s pretty sad to see how it
all turns out. Eddie might be a childhood friend but he’s also a complete
douche. What he tries to do with Gwen is pretty unacceptable. We actually see
this concept in other media. On the TV show, Spectacular Spider-Man (Rest in Peace), Eddie
and Peter were friends in school. I also thought it was cool that we got to see
this Peter in the black suit if only for a little bit.
The other elements of the story were good. I liked seeing Peter
deal with what his father accidentally unleashed on the world. I also enjoyed the
small moment between him and MJ. Even though they aren’t talking anymore,
there’s still something there between them. We also get a pretty cool scene
between him and Nick Fury. It was one-part funny and one-part serious. The one
part I thought was pretty weird was Peter’s conversation with Curt Connors. It
was weird because we’ve never been introduced to Doc Connors in the series. I
believe the two went toe-to-toe in one of the Ultimate Team-Up books or
something. He also knows Peter’s identity, which is also weird because it’s not
really set up like the other reveals.
The artwork is awesome as usual. The transformation scenes
for both Peter and Eddie were pretty creepy and drawn well. The action scenes and quiet scenes
were great. The fight scene between
Peter and Venom was also pretty awesome. I liked that Peter just keeps his
civilian clothes on when he goes up against Eddie. I also like the Venom
costume. It looks more monstrous than the original one did.
I do have a little nitpick with the artwork. On the covers,
it shows the classic Venom. In the story itself, we really don't get that. Peter does look like Classic Venom when he goes berserk.
Eddie, on the other hand, doesn't get that luxury. I thought that was a little
interesting. Maybe they decided to go a different way with with Eddie's look. Either
way, the artwork was still awesome.
Revealing/Unmaskings of Spider-Man: 2
Then we have
Doc Connors knowing the identity. That’s one I really don’t get. First, we
hadn’t gotten a clue that Spidey faced the Lizard before this. I also don’t get
how he realized Peter was Spider-Man. I guess it’s in that story. Oh well… at
least it does lead somewhere later on. It also looks like Doc Connors is doing the drinking for us all, so don't drink or eat too much. You'll have to wait for the next volume for that.
Total Revealings/Unmaskings of Spider-Man: 8
HIGHLIGHTS
-The transformation scenes – Both transformation scenes for
Peter and Eddie were pretty creepy. It’s even made worse since the suit
apparently eats their clothes. That’s why Peter’s without a suit for the rest of
the trade.
-Spidey in the black suit – that whole sequence is one-part
fun and one part scary. It’s all good when he’s fighting villains, but it all
goes bad when the suit gets hungry.
-Spider-Man vs. Venom – The fight between the two was well
drawn. I also liked the inclusion of Richard Parker’s video during the fight.
-Peter’s and Nick Fury’s conversation – Peter meets with Fury
to see if there’s a way to remove his powers. We see Peter at his lowest here.
Fury does his best to calm him down.
Overall, this is a good story. It’s fun, it’s tragic, and it
kind of makes you think a bit. Well, I think it’s time to take a break from
Spider-Man and get back to the Not-So-Merry Mutants: the Ultimate X-Men. Peace, God Bless, and try not to create any
cures that might be potential weapons of mass destruction.
No comments:
Post a Comment