VENOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was an action packed issue with an interesting villain - and late 70's / early 80's Spidey artist Keith Pollard as icing on the cake! Vancata's inks were well done too - don't know what happened to him. Looks like Xina has returned to having an Asian face, something Wildman seemed to have ignored. It's the old "Jubilee Syndrome" - why can't people draw an Asian to look like an Asian? That is...if Xina is supposed to be Asian!
The humor was light (Xina and Lyla's banter as the highlight) in a mostly gruesome story. I was glad to see Venom in 2099 - the fans seems to be a bit mixed at the time, but I was happy to see some connection to the modern era Spidey. The disconnection has been too much up to now, as far as I'm concerned. What's the harm in an occasionally look back at the way Peter Parker handled life with the webs? When this issue came out, the Peter - Miguel team-up was imminent, so Venom 2099 wasn't too much of a surprise.
Overall, the art was solid, the pacing was good, and the plot advancement ambitious considering the number of events that occurred concurrently, but it worked.
A nice 4-star comic. All this praise, why not go for 5 stars? Hey, it didn't change my life, and frankly 9 years later I had forgotten most of the content, but a very well made comic.