Venom

Here comes trouble!

Stories by Peter David & David Michelinie
Artwork by Todd McFarlane & Rich Buckler

These Marvel Pocketbooks are a cool way to gets all of the history and important stories of the Marvel universe in one tidy collection. They are decently priced (£3.99 each but I got a 3 for £5 deal) and they're a nice size that does away with bulky storage. (Mind you the search for the perfect storage for us comic fans goes on). However the size does create a niggle because it makes the words pretty small and uncomfortable to read at times. (I use a magnifying glass in some sections).
Still its a small price to pay for having the world of the Amazing Spiderman in handy bitesized chunks.
So anyway onto Venom: Birth Of A Monster. I love the alien symbiote villains, both Venom & Carnage, and this is how the former came into being. It all begins with the Sin Eater who roams the streets of New York killing those he finds 'guilty' of crimes. Of course he's nothing more than serial killer himself, using his 'all crime deserves death' mantra as some kind of warped reason to kill. When he murders Spiderman's good friend, Police Captain Jean DeWolfe, the webslinger teams up with Daredevil to bring the lunatic down.
I won't regurgitate the entire tale here, its much better you read it as it ought to be read but suffice to say you won't be disappointed. Its a great storyline and eventhough Venom doesn't make an appearance until near the end, he is wonderfully vicious when he does. One thing that suprised me was the size of Eddie Brock. He has a massive build here when I alway imagined him to be kinda weedy.