Friday, January 9, 2009

Venom: Dark Origin #1-5

If I had never read another Venom story, this might have been more entertaining. The series basically re-tells the origin of Eddie Brock and Venom, but I can't help but think that it was better told back in the 80s in the Amazing Spider-Man comic. I actually think Zeb Wells went too far humanizing Brock, I actually found myself a bit less interested in him than I had been when I first discovered the character back in the Venom TPB where I first encountered him. I did enjoy the trait he added of making Brock a habitual liar, but that wasn't really worth a 5 issue series to discover. The basic problem was that this series was pretty faithful to what we knew about Venom, and we really didn't need to know more. Again, for a new reader, it would probably be entertaining. If you've read Spider-Man for awhile though, this is just a re-hash.

Angel Medina draws a scary Venom, really amping up the gooeyness and teeth. Again, I'm afraid I prefer the McFarlane/Larsen look of the bulked up Spider-Man with a scary face. I find him more frightening as a dark reflection of Spidey rather than a totally alien monster. I realize my opinion is mostly based on my experience with old comics, but there just wasn't a need for this re-telling.

Average

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