Classic Venom
**Spoiler Alert**
Venom: one of Spiderman's most recognisable villains and now some of his earlier appearances are collected in this trade. The book contains several 90's issues all about Venom and his relationship with his heroic counterpart. The first few follow the story of the symbiote escaping from prison and hunting down Peter Parker. After an encounter with the Styx and Stone, Brock believes his other to be dead but we discover that is not the case in the second arc. Eddie, while sharing a cell with the murderous Cletus Kasady, is visited by his old friend and the two reunite (during this time, Venom spawns a baby but we'll get to that a bit later). Going back after after Spiderman, he defeats the wall crawler and takes him to a remote island where he can happily stalk his prey. Of course, Spiderman escapes but Venom is not aware of this and finally feels content. Unfortunately, the hero must go back for his foe after a new symbiote kills numerous innocent people. The symbiote in question: Carnage, the child of Venom bonded to Cletus Kasady. The pair team up and, after a fair few battles, both of the aliens of taken into custody. In the next issue, Brock claims the symbiote is dead and wishes to have another trial. Matt Murdock becomes his lawyer but ends up fighting him alongside Spiderman when it turns out to be a trick. Yet again, Venom is captured and put back into prison. And this is pretty much the flavour of the rest of book: Venom escapes, Spiderman wins. Plus, we see Venom's origin story in the final issue. So, there you go: The Vengeance of Venom.
Being a Venom fan, I enjoyed this book as it's a good way to get to know the character's history. It's an easy way of following a large amount of Venom stories and most probably the cheapest way. The book also contains Carnage's début which added to the importance of the book. Although the stories were fairly repetitive, I enjoyed each of the issues and there was plenty of action to make up for the average artwork. The numerous team-ups were another positive to the trade and if you've ever wanted to know why Spidey is a level above other street-level heroes then you've just got to read the issue were Daredevil is...how do I say it politely...thrashed by Venom.
I can see why you could complain though. As I said, the stories aren't particularly inventive and the artwork is average. This doesn't spoil the book too much for me but if you don't really care about the character it's named after then I wouldn't be too quick in picking it up. Nothing plot-wise is really going to amaze you so the main reason for reading this would be due to the cast starring in it.
Overall, I think you should purchase this if you are a Venom fan (or someone who wants to be a Venom fan) as its main focus is Venom but if not then there's no harm in giving it a miss.
