What’s Inside:

Eddie Brock and his symbiote and his mullet have moved to San Fransisco, fighting crime as a self-described “Lethal Protector”. But when Venom stumbles upon a conspiracy involving the city’s homeless population and a mega-rich and mega-corrupt company with powerful, robotic diggers at its disposal, he may realize he’s not up for the challenge of the hero business. 

Venom has to deal with the diggers, a group of mercenaries out for his tar-like hide, and Spider-Man himself, who confronts Venom due to a misunderstanding.

And that’s just the first issue! Lots goin’ on.

Why I Kept This Issue:

This comic starts off great, with a scene that still makes me “LOL” since before “LOL” was a thing. 

Venom interrupts a stick-up in progress, violently and graphically executing the culprit:

Lost in his sadistic monologue, he remembers that he’s trying to be a hero:

I still think that scene is one of the most amusing scenes in my entire collection. It just gets funnier every time I read it, but I’m a bit touched in the head, so…

Anyway, Mark Bagley isn’t just my favorite Spider-Man artist, but my favorite Venom artist too. Forgoing the crazy tongue and acidic drool, but giving him a bit more uniqueness than just “Spidey with a smile” that was McFarlane’s original design, Bagley’s Venom is sharp and solid. His face even has a structure that makes sense some how. For me, Mark Bagley’s Venom is the best Venom.

Attached Memory:

I took this issue to school with me in middle school one day. It was the day we were picking partners for a robot project in shop class. Because I decided to go to the bathroom and read this comic in a stall, I was tardy and so missed my chance to pick my only friend in the class as my partner. No one else was willing to pick me, in fact, they went out of their way to avoid it, picking anybody but the weird, sissy kid. 

The teacher had to pair me with a partner instead. Since no one else was available, I was stuck with a weird, quiet girl who had a crush on me. I was dreading the next couple of weeks.

But everything turned out okay. She wasn’t nearly as quiet and weird once I got to know her, and I think getting to know me helped to deflate her crush a bit (story of my life). 

By the end of the project, we had made a pretty kickass wooden robot which used hydraulics to pick up this little spork right here and move it over here.

Condition of My Copy: Autographed by Mark Bagley at C2E2 2014! (It’s right up there on Venom’s shoulder muscle thingy)

See Also: My memory of Spider-Man and Batman for more Mark Bagley awesomeness.