So I was into Spider-man a lot when I was younger, and I remembered absolutely LOVING the Venom/Spider-man conflicts, but I have no idea where in the comics the whole thing got started. I know the whole story with Eddie Brock and all, but I would like to know more. I own like a comic-book anthology thingy (is that the proper terminology?) that I bought at Barnes and Noble when I was like ten which is Spider-man. It features the whole setup for the start of Spider-man getting cloned by the Jackal. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about any anthology book thingys of this sort that feature the setup of the whole Venom thing?
I don’t know thw full back trail, but I believe the ‘Marvel Secret Wars’ followed by the ‘Saga of the Alien costume’ was the very beginning.
The Alien Costume compilation is apparently out of print, so good luck hunting down a copy. The gist of it is that Spider-Man discovered the alien parasite during the Secret Wars, wearing it for about a year (real time, not book time) before Reed Richards discovered its true nature. Richards captured it, but it was subsequently freed and hunted Peter down. Their “final” showdown was in Web of Spider-Man #1, which I believe is where Venom first appears. Been a while since I read all this stuff though. I can give you more details if you’re interested, but it’s worth your while to track down that run of Amazing Spider-Man, because there was a lot of other good stuff going on with the Hobgoblin and the Rose.
As well as I can remember:
The alien symbiote came back to Earth with the astronaut Jameson and spiderman found it somehow. He used it’s shape changing abilities for a costume and I think it also enhanced his strength. Then it started trying to control him and he got rid of it. A convict found it and he becomes Venom (I don’t remember his name.) Carnage is the offspring of the symbiote and is self-sufficient I think…I’m a little hazy on that point though. :smack: Remember! :smack:
Actually, Venom bonded with Eddie Brock, a newspaper reporter who was previously discredited out of a job by Spider-Man (Brock wrote a sensationalist “expose” during a serial killer’s crime spree, and Spidey later revealed that the killer was someone else). Brock was at a church, angry at Spider-Man and praying for salvation, when the rejected-by-Spider-Man symbiote sensed his anger and bonded with him.
Carnage came about a few years later; I was told (though I didn’t read it firsthand) that Venom was in prison and shared a cell with a serial killer. Someone broke Venom out of prison, and during the escape, a part of the symbiote was left behind (perhaps for reproductive purposes). That bonded with the serial killer, who used his newfound powers to go and slaughter more people, which required Spider-Man and Venom to team up and stop him.
Personally, I can’t stand any of the alien symbiote stuff, and wish it’d all go away. It’s the second-dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in the Spider-Man comics, losing only to the rightly-maligned “Spider-clone” bruhaha.
I think the only time Venom was done right was ASM 299-300. There was no big, long tongue hanging out of a fang filled mouth. Just a big, beefy man in the Black costume. Then MacFarlene drew the smile. Very creepy, very effective. This is why TM is a good artist.
rjung, for the record, there was no Spider-clone fiasco, just like there was no Mighty Morphing Power Parents. Nope. Didn’t happen.
Yep… now I remember Cassidy. The little red-haired guy. Thanks for the link. Now I’ll not get any work done today!
You’re thinking of the moonstone that turned Jameson into Man-Wolf. And AFAIK, Spidey got no enhanced strength from the alien costume.
The once-controversial Talking Venom action figure
“I want to eat your brain!”
I’ve got one of these, but it needs a new battery.
Cassidy is also either related to or just really good friends with the Juggernaut.
The Juggernaut’s partner is Black Tom Cassidy, a relative of Banshee (Sean Cassidy), the Irish X-Man. Carnage was the red-haired serial killer Cletus Kasady (I think that’s the spelling), and as far as I know, they aren’t related.
In other news: I’m a moron. :smack:
Sigh.
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Sean Cassidy: the X-Man Banshee, Irish citizen.
Tom Cassidy, Sean’s cousin, is the villain Black Tom Cassidy, former partner of the Juggernaut, who is Prof. Charles Xavier’s half-brother.
Cletus Kasady, on the other hand, is an American serial killer who became bonded with one of the Venom symbiote’s offspring, and became Carnage, gleeful homicidal supervillain at large. -
COMIC BOOK VERSION: At one point, the godlike alien Beyonder started the Secret Wars by assembling a planet out of chunks of other planets (some of which were inhabited) and kidnapping a load of superheroes and supervillains to fight it out there.
The Heroes made their base in an abandoned alien fortress. When some of them got their costumes torn during a fight with bad guys, they used a gadget they found that seemed to make new costumes to replace them.
When Spidey tried it, though, all it did was ooze out a blob of black goo. When he touched the blob, it oozed onto his skin and rapidly created a new black Spidey Suit! The suit had many advantages over the old one – it had extradimensional pockets, for one thing, and could instantly change into his street clothes, and back again, and manufactured its own webbing!
…but it didn’t much like being taken off and hung up at night. It started oozing onto Spidey as he slept, and going out and swinging around and fighting crime while he snoozed. On at least one occasion, the symbiote attacked a complete stranger and made HIM swing around town dressed as Spider-Man!
Spidey checked with Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, who examined the thing and told him it was an alien being trying to bond with him permanently! After quite a struggle, he finally rid himself of the creature in the attic of a church. How Peter Parker got home in his underwear remains unclear.
Enter Eddie Brock. Brock was a writer/photographer at the Daily Bugle, and he was stressed out, going through a divorce, trying to prove himself as a reporter. When he found out the Sin-Eater’s real identity, he published the whole thing, big scoop!
Unfortunately, he was wrong; he hadn’t checked his sources thoroughly. Spider-Man caught the real Sin-Eater, and Peter Parker got the story. Thus, Brock had reason to hate both Parker and Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Brock, fired and disgraced, wound up in guess what church, praying for strength (he was contemplating suicide).
…whereupon the alien costume attacked Brock and bonded with him. The costume gave him powers similar to Spider-Man’s, and more – Brock was physically bigger and stronger than Parker, and with spider-powers, he was still bigger and stronger. Furthermore, the costume provided him with camouflage abilities, and cloaked him from Spider-Man’s spider sense.
Lastly, the costume told him that Spider-Man was Peter Parker!
The reason Parker got rid of the costume was because it was trying to permanently bond with him; supposedly, removing it once it had bonded would be fatal. However, Brock has been separated from the suit on several occasions without dying.
On one of these occasions, the suit got free and came for Brock in prison. As Venom smashed a wall and escaped, it left a little dribble of goo in the rubble… which was found by Brock’s cellmate, one Cletus Kasady, a total homicidal nutbar. Turns out the goo was the symbiote’s offspring… and when it bonded with Kasady, the two became Carnage, total superpowered lunatic killer!
Another of Venom’s offspring bonded with a Roxxon employee with big hooters and became Shriek, but I know next to nothing about this, as it happened around the time I quit reading comics in the early nineties.
- CARTOON VERSION: Col. John Jameson, astronaut, brought the Venom symbiote back to earth on his space capsule. Other events followed the comic continuity, but much less violently – this was a kids’ cartoon, after all. Carnage never appeared in the kidvids.
Yup. I remember the cartoon version instead of the comic one. I could have sworn that Carnage was in the cartoon though. I bow to your superior knowledge though.
That was uncanny!
He was in the cartoon. I don’t think they showed him killing though.
Can anyone give a breakdown of how the recent Venom series went? From what I gathered, it was the Venom suit wandering around without Brock looking for a new host. What was the deal there?
Around that time, I also read a Spider Man comic that had to deal with the suit having abandoned Brock because apparently he had cancer, and the suit was getting ready to spawn again, and needed a new host. Apparently, after bonding with Brock again, its offspring died and now it’s even more pissed. My question: if Venom’s already spawned a bunch of offspring already (wasn’t there one storyline with like, five venom offspring?), how would bonding to Brock again lead to the death of it’s children? Or is this some new sort of symbiot?
(as if you can’t tell, I don’t read Spider Man comics, but I do pick them up every now and again).
Oh, and how is Carnage fitting into the Ultimate Spider Man storyling?
Good summary MWK, with one minor correction. Spidey didn’t try the custome machine and get a lump of black goo. Rather, he mistakenly used a completely different machine. When he realized the other characters were getting normal clothing, and that they had used a machine other than the one he’d tried, he shrugged it off.
No, the X-Men are uncanny.
Spider-Man is amazing. 
He’s spectacular on occasion, too.