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Venom Epic Collection
Venom Epic Collection, Vol. 4: The Madness
The lethal protector continues his symbiotic crusade! When Venom bonds with a second parasitic life-form, will Eddie Brock succumb to the madness of yet another voice in his head - or can he conquer the enemy within? The bounty hunter Mace and the Sunrise Society may well bring an end to Eddie's vigilante career! If not, perhaps the demonic vigilante called Vengeance will be Venom's undoing when the Stalkers target the two dark warriors! The sinister symbiote clashes with some of Marvel's greatest powerhouses in super-powered showdowns with Iron Man, the Hulk, Darkhawk and Nightwatch. But can even Venom stop the Juggernaut?! Collecting IRON MAN (1968) #302, DARKHAWK (1991) #35-37, THE MADNESS #1-3, THE ENEMY WITHIN #1-3, INCREDIBLE HULK VS. VENOM #1, THE MACE #1-3, NIGHTWATCH #5-6 and NIGHTS OF VENGEANCE #1-4.
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480 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 2023
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March 27, 2024
There's several individual mini-arcs, single issues, and foreign series collected in this edition, so I'll talk each one separately.
Iron Man #302 & Darkhawk #35-37: The book includes a small segment of Iron Man #301, which is the moment in the final pages where Venom appears, and on issue #302, written by Len Kaminski, and pencilled by Kevin Hopgood, the confrontation between Iron Man and Venom is fully displayed. Not much to say about this one; Venom tries to kill Tony Stark because he thinks 'Stark Industries' is corrupted, costing countless lives, but he fails, and Iron Man arrives and both character's fight, until Iron Man convinces him that he never hurt anyone. It was a nice showdown between the two characters, and Hopgood pencils were decent, shining mostly with each frame Iron Man appeared. The Darkhawk issues were the complete opposite, and being a hero I am unfamiliar with, I didn't know what to expect out of that crossover/confrontation with Venom. Broderick Bazin tries to manipulate Jason Powell into killing his brother, Chris, but Jason turns on him. Chris subdues Broderick. Grace receives an SOS call from the believed to be dead, Mike Powell revealing his location. Chris over hears and changes into Darkhawk to rescue his father, Mike, being held captive in San Fransisco. There, local resident Venom, is dishing out punishment to thugs in order to get an answer to who has been attempting to capture him. Darkhawk arrives on the scene and attacks Venom. Venom accuses him of being hired to capture him. Very convoluted story, but interesting if you have been following the plot of this series. It was written by Danny Fingeroth, and pencilled by Tod Smith, who I should say, felt a little inconsistent in his artwork; at times his work feels smooth, at times feels funny in the shapes and physics. Being honest, this didn't provoke any interest for me to check on the character of Darkhawk, and judging by the way Fingeroth wrote him, he feels more like a side character that you might use as a "special appearance" in another more popular character's series.
The Madness: Perhaps the most direct continuation of 'Lethal Protector', the story follows Eddie Brock dealing with the alien symbiot, Venom, while also exercising his newest job as San Francisco's anti-hero vigilante, now helping an activist called Beck, who will eventually develop a closer and intimate relationship with Eddie while, at the same time, The Juggernaut, and his crime-partner, Black Tom Cassidy, are in charge of kidnapping Beck by the corporation she's trying to sabotage, and a confrontation against Juggernaut will cause Eddie/Venom to suddenly being possessed by a cancerous substance called "The Mercury Virus" which is lead psychologically by other cognitive entities, known as "Paranoia", "Necromancer" (who is purposefully similar to 'Ghost Rider', and the ruler of "The Realm of Insanity", known as "Madness". At first they seem to make Venom strong enough as to stand toe to toe against Juggernaut, but slowly they'll start to mess up with Eddie's mind, as much as Venom is already doing that. A weird story, to be honest, but one that kept me interested precisely because of how odd it was getting throughout it's 3 issues. The weirdest aspect of it was Kelley Jones' art, which for anyone familiar with the 90s extravaganza it won't be a surprise; Jones' pencils are exaggerated, to the point of really messing the proportion almost to a cartoon level, while not as ridiculous and laughable as Liefeld's, Jones has a tendency of throwing into the mix plenty of wider volumes, that are complimented by an excessive use of shadows. For a character such as 'Batman' this works terrific, and one might assume for Venom it should also be the case, since Jones also dominates the monstruos and darkest characters in a great physical fashion, the problem is, this isn't a story worthy of the noir-techniques used by him. Ann Nocenti is the writer in charge and she is definitely the better aspect of this, however, I would digress this isn't her best contribution to Marvel Comics (being Daredevil her arguable best work). Despite all it's craziness, "The Madness" works as an insight to Venom's domination over Eddie Brock's psyche, offering a troublesome and creepy perspective as how his mind is in constant torment due to its foreign manipulation. It's not the best take on the character, but is a fun-disposable entry on the anti-hero's solo library that is way more interesting than the art might suggest on plain sight.
The Enemy Within: The one I was the most interested in reading. "Enemy Within" is a direct continuation of "The Madness", but rather, in a chronological sense, since those events aren't mentioned at all in this newer 3-issue arc in the "Venom" series. The story still is set in San Francisco, and this time, during Halloween night. Out of nowhere, strange and demonic goblin-like creatures are appearing, killing random people at certain places, and attacking Eddie Brock. Not only that, but suddenly, both Morbius, "the Living Vampire", as well as "the Demogoblin" are teleported from New York, all the way to California, making Venom believe they have something to do with those creatures, when in reality, they might be linked to a politician gaining strength amongst the people of San Francisco. Written by Bruce Jones, and illustrated by Bob McLeod, this title wasn't exactly what I thought it would be with all the creepy goblins running around, killing people, and terrorizing the city. It was darker than I expected, and to be fair, I still don't understand why Morbius, and Demogoblin were thrown into this mix. I mean, I have nothing against the team-up, is the daily bread in comic books, but in here I didn't feel the addition was completely justified (or even explained), so it never stop feeling random. Jones' story was supernatural and horror-oriented at first, but I admit, the mystery increased once we reach the third issue, when the secret of the Goblins' origin was revealed, and ultimately, it felt satisfying. McLeod's pencils were pretty reminiscent of the 90s, but they almost posses an 80s vibe to them, it almost makes them stood out compared to the previous titles in this compilation, so I guess it is a compliment to the artist, even if I personally didn't enjoy his take on 'The Living Vampire'. Nothing too ambitious or revolutionary with this one, but it was fun, and it's conclusion is quite gratifying for the plot presented.
The Incredible Hulk VS Venom #1: Just like Iron Man #302, this is pretty much similar, clashing both character's to have a little fight at first, and then, gather forces to fight a common threat, in this case, a potential villain who warns a news broadcast that he'll provoke an earthquake in the San Francisco area, a clear reference to the Zodiac Killer back in 1969 when he sended letters to the papers warning them about his crimes. Peter David wrote this crossover, and Jim Craig did the pencils, and overall, for being a single issue-crossover, it was decent, mostly interesting due to the villain called Dr. Bad Vibes, although, the payoff for when that villain is revealed in the end was sort of a comedic punchline, but lame nonetheless. It was mostly the interaction between Hulk and Venom what made this read enjoyable and cheesy. Craig's pencils were okay but a little too messy and over-the-top, just as you might've expect out of a 90s title, but there was also a coolness about them. It was a fun-harmless addition to this collection.
The Mace: A mysterious character known as "Mace" has a special camouflage ability, and he's being chased by a group of armored individuals, known as "The Sunrise Society" lead by an Iron Man-looking character, refered to only as "The Officer". 'Mace' would run to San Francisco, where he'll find Venom, first as a threat, then, as a potential ally against the high-tech soldiers. I was surprised to see Beck coming back, after her introduction in 'The Madness', and also, pleased to know she continued her relationship with Eddie, even though she's considerably scared by Venom. Also, while Carl Potts' script felt familiar and generic as the rest of these 'Venom' mini-series, the real highlight came from Liam Sharp's pencils; so far, he's the better artist in this collection, and the one that truly dominated the style put on these 'Venom' series. I don't know, it was the best artwork given to 'Venom' so far. As for the story, as I said, Potts does another "Venom crosses over with a newly introduced character, first to fight, and then to join", and here and there we see him fighting some burglars, and low-lifes in some alleys. Nothing relevant, and nothing groundbreaking. I kind of understand why these titles stock to no more than 3 issues.
Nitghwatch #5-6: Similar to the 'Darkhawk' issues, I found myself struggling following this story, although, this time it was shorter, and less convoluted. For starters I wasn't fully invested, mostly due to how little I knew about this character, at least, the only one I was truly aware of was "Cardiac", but he seems to be a side character, the actual protagonist was Kevin Trench, who wears the mantle of "Nightwatch", a somehow supernatural outfit that gives him powers, but his whole deal is that he is a time traveler. Venom enters the picture when Trench discovers a corporative conspiracy that is attempting at replicating his suit, which leads him to believe they were the responsible for creating it in the first place, Venom just happens to crash by because this all takes place in San Francisco. I personally struggled a bit while reading this (but not as much as with Darkhawk), mostly due to my unfamiliar knowledge of these characters, and to be fair, Mark Tenney's pencils weren't that great in the first place. Terry Kavanagh does the script and it was, okay, the biggest problematic is that the reader needs to have read the previous 4 issues to have a small sense of what was going on, specially since the villain that appears here, 'Sunstreak' had an entire origin story prior to her first appearance on issue #5. As part of the whole collection it is passable, and an easy read (compared to Darkhawk, at least), but the real deal came with...
Nights of Vengeance: A four-part issue that crossovers Venom with the alternative version of Ghost Rider, Vengeance, a character I admit I haven't read much about, but here, the team-up doesn't take much to start. The story has Sean Knight, a government agent, running away from a group of mercenaries in which he infiltrated, known as "The Stalkers", however, these individuals have been compromised, taken over by a parasitic alien race that seems to work on a bio-technological level, and who have kidnapped the members of the underground city Venom is vowed to protect, included his romantic interests, Beck and Elizabeth. It's now up to both, Venom, and Vengeance, to join forces, and rescue the innocents, but these aliens are committed to hunt the anti-heroes, so the task won't be easy. Arguably the least repetitive out of all the crossovers in this collection. Nights of Vengeance fortunately avoids any sort of dispute and physical fighting between it's two protagonists, which comes as a relief after several titles in here that abused that formula. Instead it goes for an immediate confrontation with the enemy in turn, and strangely, this one was a little more interesting than the previous enemies introduced in here; an techno-alien parasite that immediately recalls the likes of 'The Predator' for it's hunting traits, and 'John Carpenter's The Thing' for the way it absorbs and posseses it's hosts. Written by Howard Mackie (one of the few writers in this collection I'm actually familiar with), and illustrated by both, Ron Lim, and Al Milgrom, this wasn't a groundbreaking read, but it was smoother on the way it delivered it's story, and the art was solid, even if something as "Vengeance" might be a little exaggerated from a design perspective. I liked that there's a subtle hint at the Symbiote race from modern comics, I don't know if Mackie intended to mention this hint with further exploration of the theme, but at least it was the first time Venom became aware of his origins, and that added to the character.
I wouldn't be able to consider the material gathered in this collection was outstanding or a "must-have" product, but for any fan of the alien symbiot, this might do the trick. I'm not that huge a fan of Venom being "good", or at least, not the recurrent villain of Spider-Man. I mean, it didn't lasted long, and eventually he returned to his villain deeds, but in these mini arcs they even tried to make him a "funny" character, and at times, it definitely didn't work. The way I see this is a sort of time capsule of the early 90s spectacle on both, story and art, I know for plenty of people this is not a particular good time for comic books, but I grew up in it so, it's pretty nostalgic seeing all this crazy imagery, and random storytelling traits. I'm not sure if I recommend reading any of this, but the edition is excellent, and "Epic Collection" once again demonstrates how great of a collection-format this is, and perhaps the best reprinting compillations Marvel Comics has came up with in decades.
Iron Man #302 & Darkhawk #35-37: The book includes a small segment of Iron Man #301, which is the moment in the final pages where Venom appears, and on issue #302, written by Len Kaminski, and pencilled by Kevin Hopgood, the confrontation between Iron Man and Venom is fully displayed. Not much to say about this one; Venom tries to kill Tony Stark because he thinks 'Stark Industries' is corrupted, costing countless lives, but he fails, and Iron Man arrives and both character's fight, until Iron Man convinces him that he never hurt anyone. It was a nice showdown between the two characters, and Hopgood pencils were decent, shining mostly with each frame Iron Man appeared. The Darkhawk issues were the complete opposite, and being a hero I am unfamiliar with, I didn't know what to expect out of that crossover/confrontation with Venom. Broderick Bazin tries to manipulate Jason Powell into killing his brother, Chris, but Jason turns on him. Chris subdues Broderick. Grace receives an SOS call from the believed to be dead, Mike Powell revealing his location. Chris over hears and changes into Darkhawk to rescue his father, Mike, being held captive in San Fransisco. There, local resident Venom, is dishing out punishment to thugs in order to get an answer to who has been attempting to capture him. Darkhawk arrives on the scene and attacks Venom. Venom accuses him of being hired to capture him. Very convoluted story, but interesting if you have been following the plot of this series. It was written by Danny Fingeroth, and pencilled by Tod Smith, who I should say, felt a little inconsistent in his artwork; at times his work feels smooth, at times feels funny in the shapes and physics. Being honest, this didn't provoke any interest for me to check on the character of Darkhawk, and judging by the way Fingeroth wrote him, he feels more like a side character that you might use as a "special appearance" in another more popular character's series.
The Madness: Perhaps the most direct continuation of 'Lethal Protector', the story follows Eddie Brock dealing with the alien symbiot, Venom, while also exercising his newest job as San Francisco's anti-hero vigilante, now helping an activist called Beck, who will eventually develop a closer and intimate relationship with Eddie while, at the same time, The Juggernaut, and his crime-partner, Black Tom Cassidy, are in charge of kidnapping Beck by the corporation she's trying to sabotage, and a confrontation against Juggernaut will cause Eddie/Venom to suddenly being possessed by a cancerous substance called "The Mercury Virus" which is lead psychologically by other cognitive entities, known as "Paranoia", "Necromancer" (who is purposefully similar to 'Ghost Rider', and the ruler of "The Realm of Insanity", known as "Madness". At first they seem to make Venom strong enough as to stand toe to toe against Juggernaut, but slowly they'll start to mess up with Eddie's mind, as much as Venom is already doing that. A weird story, to be honest, but one that kept me interested precisely because of how odd it was getting throughout it's 3 issues. The weirdest aspect of it was Kelley Jones' art, which for anyone familiar with the 90s extravaganza it won't be a surprise; Jones' pencils are exaggerated, to the point of really messing the proportion almost to a cartoon level, while not as ridiculous and laughable as Liefeld's, Jones has a tendency of throwing into the mix plenty of wider volumes, that are complimented by an excessive use of shadows. For a character such as 'Batman' this works terrific, and one might assume for Venom it should also be the case, since Jones also dominates the monstruos and darkest characters in a great physical fashion, the problem is, this isn't a story worthy of the noir-techniques used by him. Ann Nocenti is the writer in charge and she is definitely the better aspect of this, however, I would digress this isn't her best contribution to Marvel Comics (being Daredevil her arguable best work). Despite all it's craziness, "The Madness" works as an insight to Venom's domination over Eddie Brock's psyche, offering a troublesome and creepy perspective as how his mind is in constant torment due to its foreign manipulation. It's not the best take on the character, but is a fun-disposable entry on the anti-hero's solo library that is way more interesting than the art might suggest on plain sight.
The Enemy Within: The one I was the most interested in reading. "Enemy Within" is a direct continuation of "The Madness", but rather, in a chronological sense, since those events aren't mentioned at all in this newer 3-issue arc in the "Venom" series. The story still is set in San Francisco, and this time, during Halloween night. Out of nowhere, strange and demonic goblin-like creatures are appearing, killing random people at certain places, and attacking Eddie Brock. Not only that, but suddenly, both Morbius, "the Living Vampire", as well as "the Demogoblin" are teleported from New York, all the way to California, making Venom believe they have something to do with those creatures, when in reality, they might be linked to a politician gaining strength amongst the people of San Francisco. Written by Bruce Jones, and illustrated by Bob McLeod, this title wasn't exactly what I thought it would be with all the creepy goblins running around, killing people, and terrorizing the city. It was darker than I expected, and to be fair, I still don't understand why Morbius, and Demogoblin were thrown into this mix. I mean, I have nothing against the team-up, is the daily bread in comic books, but in here I didn't feel the addition was completely justified (or even explained), so it never stop feeling random. Jones' story was supernatural and horror-oriented at first, but I admit, the mystery increased once we reach the third issue, when the secret of the Goblins' origin was revealed, and ultimately, it felt satisfying. McLeod's pencils were pretty reminiscent of the 90s, but they almost posses an 80s vibe to them, it almost makes them stood out compared to the previous titles in this compilation, so I guess it is a compliment to the artist, even if I personally didn't enjoy his take on 'The Living Vampire'. Nothing too ambitious or revolutionary with this one, but it was fun, and it's conclusion is quite gratifying for the plot presented.
The Incredible Hulk VS Venom #1: Just like Iron Man #302, this is pretty much similar, clashing both character's to have a little fight at first, and then, gather forces to fight a common threat, in this case, a potential villain who warns a news broadcast that he'll provoke an earthquake in the San Francisco area, a clear reference to the Zodiac Killer back in 1969 when he sended letters to the papers warning them about his crimes. Peter David wrote this crossover, and Jim Craig did the pencils, and overall, for being a single issue-crossover, it was decent, mostly interesting due to the villain called Dr. Bad Vibes, although, the payoff for when that villain is revealed in the end was sort of a comedic punchline, but lame nonetheless. It was mostly the interaction between Hulk and Venom what made this read enjoyable and cheesy. Craig's pencils were okay but a little too messy and over-the-top, just as you might've expect out of a 90s title, but there was also a coolness about them. It was a fun-harmless addition to this collection.
The Mace: A mysterious character known as "Mace" has a special camouflage ability, and he's being chased by a group of armored individuals, known as "The Sunrise Society" lead by an Iron Man-looking character, refered to only as "The Officer". 'Mace' would run to San Francisco, where he'll find Venom, first as a threat, then, as a potential ally against the high-tech soldiers. I was surprised to see Beck coming back, after her introduction in 'The Madness', and also, pleased to know she continued her relationship with Eddie, even though she's considerably scared by Venom. Also, while Carl Potts' script felt familiar and generic as the rest of these 'Venom' mini-series, the real highlight came from Liam Sharp's pencils; so far, he's the better artist in this collection, and the one that truly dominated the style put on these 'Venom' series. I don't know, it was the best artwork given to 'Venom' so far. As for the story, as I said, Potts does another "Venom crosses over with a newly introduced character, first to fight, and then to join", and here and there we see him fighting some burglars, and low-lifes in some alleys. Nothing relevant, and nothing groundbreaking. I kind of understand why these titles stock to no more than 3 issues.
Nitghwatch #5-6: Similar to the 'Darkhawk' issues, I found myself struggling following this story, although, this time it was shorter, and less convoluted. For starters I wasn't fully invested, mostly due to how little I knew about this character, at least, the only one I was truly aware of was "Cardiac", but he seems to be a side character, the actual protagonist was Kevin Trench, who wears the mantle of "Nightwatch", a somehow supernatural outfit that gives him powers, but his whole deal is that he is a time traveler. Venom enters the picture when Trench discovers a corporative conspiracy that is attempting at replicating his suit, which leads him to believe they were the responsible for creating it in the first place, Venom just happens to crash by because this all takes place in San Francisco. I personally struggled a bit while reading this (but not as much as with Darkhawk), mostly due to my unfamiliar knowledge of these characters, and to be fair, Mark Tenney's pencils weren't that great in the first place. Terry Kavanagh does the script and it was, okay, the biggest problematic is that the reader needs to have read the previous 4 issues to have a small sense of what was going on, specially since the villain that appears here, 'Sunstreak' had an entire origin story prior to her first appearance on issue #5. As part of the whole collection it is passable, and an easy read (compared to Darkhawk, at least), but the real deal came with...
Nights of Vengeance: A four-part issue that crossovers Venom with the alternative version of Ghost Rider, Vengeance, a character I admit I haven't read much about, but here, the team-up doesn't take much to start. The story has Sean Knight, a government agent, running away from a group of mercenaries in which he infiltrated, known as "The Stalkers", however, these individuals have been compromised, taken over by a parasitic alien race that seems to work on a bio-technological level, and who have kidnapped the members of the underground city Venom is vowed to protect, included his romantic interests, Beck and Elizabeth. It's now up to both, Venom, and Vengeance, to join forces, and rescue the innocents, but these aliens are committed to hunt the anti-heroes, so the task won't be easy. Arguably the least repetitive out of all the crossovers in this collection. Nights of Vengeance fortunately avoids any sort of dispute and physical fighting between it's two protagonists, which comes as a relief after several titles in here that abused that formula. Instead it goes for an immediate confrontation with the enemy in turn, and strangely, this one was a little more interesting than the previous enemies introduced in here; an techno-alien parasite that immediately recalls the likes of 'The Predator' for it's hunting traits, and 'John Carpenter's The Thing' for the way it absorbs and posseses it's hosts. Written by Howard Mackie (one of the few writers in this collection I'm actually familiar with), and illustrated by both, Ron Lim, and Al Milgrom, this wasn't a groundbreaking read, but it was smoother on the way it delivered it's story, and the art was solid, even if something as "Vengeance" might be a little exaggerated from a design perspective. I liked that there's a subtle hint at the Symbiote race from modern comics, I don't know if Mackie intended to mention this hint with further exploration of the theme, but at least it was the first time Venom became aware of his origins, and that added to the character.
I wouldn't be able to consider the material gathered in this collection was outstanding or a "must-have" product, but for any fan of the alien symbiot, this might do the trick. I'm not that huge a fan of Venom being "good", or at least, not the recurrent villain of Spider-Man. I mean, it didn't lasted long, and eventually he returned to his villain deeds, but in these mini arcs they even tried to make him a "funny" character, and at times, it definitely didn't work. The way I see this is a sort of time capsule of the early 90s spectacle on both, story and art, I know for plenty of people this is not a particular good time for comic books, but I grew up in it so, it's pretty nostalgic seeing all this crazy imagery, and random storytelling traits. I'm not sure if I recommend reading any of this, but the edition is excellent, and "Epic Collection" once again demonstrates how great of a collection-format this is, and perhaps the best reprinting compillations Marvel Comics has came up with in decades.
February 1, 2024
The four stars are for the actual “The Madness” miniseries. I made an attempt to read the rest until I decided that I don’t have enough time on this planet to force myself to read mid-tier ‘90s superhero comics.
Anyway, I didn’t realize Kelley Jones was the artist for this miniseries (I had just wanted to read the story because the visual of Venom with a bunch of tiny Venom-heads on his shoulders is funny) and it’s a shame he didn’t work with the character more often. His specific strand of grotesque stylization meshes really well with Venom and the Juggernaut here. Ann Nocenti is one of the few good superhero writers of this era and she does a good job of justifying Venom as a solo antihero character. Also they give Venom a girlfriend in this one and as a certified monster/human ship dynamic fan I have to give her special accolades for that. A good time at the superhero comics, if only the other stories in this collection were as good.
Also as a side note, I don’t like Jim Craig as an artist but his depiction of Venom with a protruding alligator-like jaw is great. How Venom is able to talk with said jaw is questionable, but it’s fun character design regardless.
Anyway, I didn’t realize Kelley Jones was the artist for this miniseries (I had just wanted to read the story because the visual of Venom with a bunch of tiny Venom-heads on his shoulders is funny) and it’s a shame he didn’t work with the character more often. His specific strand of grotesque stylization meshes really well with Venom and the Juggernaut here. Ann Nocenti is one of the few good superhero writers of this era and she does a good job of justifying Venom as a solo antihero character. Also they give Venom a girlfriend in this one and as a certified monster/human ship dynamic fan I have to give her special accolades for that. A good time at the superhero comics, if only the other stories in this collection were as good.
Also as a side note, I don’t like Jim Craig as an artist but his depiction of Venom with a protruding alligator-like jaw is great. How Venom is able to talk with said jaw is questionable, but it’s fun character design regardless.
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