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Venom Epic Collection
Venom Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Symbiosis
Venom goes Epic! When Spider-Man learns that his black costume is secretly an alien symbiote, he rejects the suit - and the spurned creature soon finds a new host! Disgraced reporter Eddie Brock has reasons of his own to hate Spider-Man, and together the two merge into the twisted engine of revenge known as Venom! And so begins a rivalry for the ages! Venom has the same powers as Spider-Man, but is bigger, stronger, doesn't trigger his spider-sense...and he knows Spidey's secret identity! Against such a dangerous, determined and deadly foe, how far will Spider-Man have to go to survive?
COLLECTING: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) 258, 300, 315-317, 332-333, 346-347, 388 (B STORY); WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (1985) 1; AVENGERS: DEATHTRAP - THE VAULT (1991); DARKHAWK (1991) 13-14; MATERIAL FROM AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1964) 25-26; WEB OF SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1985) 7-8; SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1979) 12
COLLECTING: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) 258, 300, 315-317, 332-333, 346-347, 388 (B STORY); WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (1985) 1; AVENGERS: DEATHTRAP - THE VAULT (1991); DARKHAWK (1991) 13-14; MATERIAL FROM AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1964) 25-26; WEB OF SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1985) 7-8; SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1979) 12
472 pages, Paperback
First published November 4, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 1, 2021
A really well constructed collection that features every Venom appearance in chronological order, including short stories, which were plenty, elegantly introduced with short narrations by the editors who decided to add only the pages where Venom was featured instead of the whole issue, which was the case of some other epic collections, and I much prefer it this way, it allows the reader to focus on the featured character without forcing them to read a bunch of unnecessary material, keeping the book shorter and without filler.
Venom Epic Collection is the perfect pick for completists, and in my opinion a better choice than Venomnibus, another collection that skips all of this early content and jumps straight into the limited series for some reason, this one feels more complete.
This first volume features the artistic process that turned a one-shot villain into the Marvel classic we know today, but make no mistake, the character of Eddie Brock and Venom were very much in the development stage here, and sometimes they came out a bit too goofy for my taste. The highlights of the book for me, was the island getaway story, the period when Eddie was visiting Aunt May, and the origin of Carnage.
Coming up next, Lethal Protector.
Venom Epic Collection is the perfect pick for completists, and in my opinion a better choice than Venomnibus, another collection that skips all of this early content and jumps straight into the limited series for some reason, this one feels more complete.
This first volume features the artistic process that turned a one-shot villain into the Marvel classic we know today, but make no mistake, the character of Eddie Brock and Venom were very much in the development stage here, and sometimes they came out a bit too goofy for my taste. The highlights of the book for me, was the island getaway story, the period when Eddie was visiting Aunt May, and the origin of Carnage.
Coming up next, Lethal Protector.
May 21, 2022
So this was my first proper foray into comic books and I loved it!
I confess: I'm pretty sure I didn't even know he existed before the film was created. But somehow I developed an interest and when I finally saw the film a month or so ago I loved it. So it felt pretty logical to choose him as my first focus. It's that Bad Boy vibe, ya know?
Anyhoo, this Epic Collection is such a great way to get to know a character. It compiles all the issues and snippets that dealt with Venom and how he came to be one of Spiderman's toughest enemies, so this is a comprehensive story that flows fairly smoothly. The other characters experience other things outside of this collection, so don't be alarmed by Peter's constantly changing circumstances, but it's a relatively complete story of Venom.
I really enjoyed the guest appearances of other heroes, too - Fantastic Four, Avengers ... also some guy called Darkhawk who did nothing for me at all, to be honest.
This is a colourful collection that details the initial animosity between Venom and Spiderman, and covers comics from 1984-1992. It was quite interesting to see how the art evolved, and to witness Venom's artistic evolution.
This was a really fun volume and I enjoyed it so much that I bought the second collection almost immediately. I see plenty more Venom in my future!
I confess: I'm pretty sure I didn't even know he existed before the film was created. But somehow I developed an interest and when I finally saw the film a month or so ago I loved it. So it felt pretty logical to choose him as my first focus. It's that Bad Boy vibe, ya know?
Anyhoo, this Epic Collection is such a great way to get to know a character. It compiles all the issues and snippets that dealt with Venom and how he came to be one of Spiderman's toughest enemies, so this is a comprehensive story that flows fairly smoothly. The other characters experience other things outside of this collection, so don't be alarmed by Peter's constantly changing circumstances, but it's a relatively complete story of Venom.
I really enjoyed the guest appearances of other heroes, too - Fantastic Four, Avengers ... also some guy called Darkhawk who did nothing for me at all, to be honest.
This is a colourful collection that details the initial animosity between Venom and Spiderman, and covers comics from 1984-1992. It was quite interesting to see how the art evolved, and to witness Venom's artistic evolution.
This was a really fun volume and I enjoyed it so much that I bought the second collection almost immediately. I see plenty more Venom in my future!
October 20, 2021
You know I love it. It collects everything from the start that you need to know about the alien. Its a great stand alone way to understand the progression from Peter to Eddie. Its about love, its about hate... its about revenge. Its awesome!!!
March 20, 2021
I want to give it 5 stars. It's an important group of stories and it is presented perfectly for anyone needing a refresher course on the origin of Venom. I took a star off though because will the are it fantastic at times - McFarlane and Larsen at their Marvel best. There are some stories handled by c-team or even d-team artists that Marvel liked to throw smaller jobs to in the late 80s and early 90s.
It was nice to go back and reread all the early stories of the costume with Spidey and then the birth of Venom. Reading Eddie Brock/Venom today you forget just how insane and Spidey-focused he was in the early appearances. You will get 2 issues of Darkhawk which is okay but nothing special.
I'd love to see more villains get the Epic treatment so we can revisit their transformations and growth over a period of years.
It was nice to go back and reread all the early stories of the costume with Spidey and then the birth of Venom. Reading Eddie Brock/Venom today you forget just how insane and Spidey-focused he was in the early appearances. You will get 2 issues of Darkhawk which is okay but nothing special.
I'd love to see more villains get the Epic treatment so we can revisit their transformations and growth over a period of years.
October 26, 2021
I’ve always enjoyed Spidermans multi media entries like the Sam raimi movies and the recent insomniac video game, so I figured that it would be a good idea to check out a collection focused on Venom, one of the most famous villains in all of comics.
This epic collection certainly lives up to that moniker. We get pretty much every appearance by the dark symbiote from 1984-1992, including a two part dark hawk special that confused the fuck out of me (it doesn’t help that it starts up at part four of a six part series).
And it’s neat seeing how they develop Eddie Brock and venom, although by the end I was quite exhausted with the collection. Part of it is simply due to how comics were written at the time—- any issue could be someone’s first comic book, which means there’s a LOT of explaining and re explaining of Venoms origins in a ton of these. It gets annoying, no other way around it.
Additionally, there’s a lot of “venom finds spidey and they fight, venom loses and swears revenge.” It’s inherently repetitive, although I’m sure reading every issue of spidey in order might help alleviate that.
It’s a fun collection, worth checking out.
This epic collection certainly lives up to that moniker. We get pretty much every appearance by the dark symbiote from 1984-1992, including a two part dark hawk special that confused the fuck out of me (it doesn’t help that it starts up at part four of a six part series).
And it’s neat seeing how they develop Eddie Brock and venom, although by the end I was quite exhausted with the collection. Part of it is simply due to how comics were written at the time—- any issue could be someone’s first comic book, which means there’s a LOT of explaining and re explaining of Venoms origins in a ton of these. It gets annoying, no other way around it.
Additionally, there’s a lot of “venom finds spidey and they fight, venom loses and swears revenge.” It’s inherently repetitive, although I’m sure reading every issue of spidey in order might help alleviate that.
It’s a fun collection, worth checking out.
November 11, 2022
Symbosis is the origin of the Eddie Brock iteration of Venom, who is not very interesting as of yet. Having said that, there's lots of throwback art here from the likes of Erik Larson and Todd McFarlane, and this is exhaustively curated, with lots of early rarities like his appearance in Quasar during Acts of Vengeance, and the relatively rare Avengers: Deathtrap graphic novel.
December 17, 2024
“alas poor spider-man i killed him well” is probably my favorite panel
December 28, 2020
I'm just going to admit straight up that I'm a fan of Venom. When I was growing up in the 90s, he seemed to be THE Spider-man villain or at the very least an evil version of Spider-man, who had a looser set of morals, a bulkier frame and a sleak black and white suit.
This Epic collection begins by showing Peter's increased surprise as the alien suit he got during the Secret Wars crossover begins to seemingly have a mind of its own. The collection then moves to Venom and Eddie Brock's appearances as a Spider-man villain. While Venom seems unwilling to hurt innocents, it contradicts this by using logic that those innocents are in the way of it getting revenge at Spider-man. So we see the beginnings of what will become the Lethal Protector but it isn't consistent. What is consistent though is that Michelinie writes the brunt of these stories, with McFarlane and Larsen on art, and it provides consistency the character needs. However (and this isn't applicabel to this collection), this unfortunately later gets lost during the constant rotating teams when Venom had an endless stream of miniseries.
As these stories take place before the Venom minis, what is interesting is reading these stories from the Spider-man books with Venom as the focal point. Reading these in Spider-man epics, Venom will pop through then disappear for the next Spider-man villain and Pete's usual mix of money issues/ marriage woes/ worries about Aunt May. We get touches of those but it is interesting to see here the changes to Venom, which are mostly with his ever growing tongue. I would say the weakest issues here are the Darkhawk ones, as those require an understanding of that character and his supporting cast, which I found a bit confusing.
But overall if you're a Venom fan, there's a lot to like here. The Eddie Brock version always worked best to me as a villain. And as an occasional ally when a character like Carnage appeared.
This Epic collection begins by showing Peter's increased surprise as the alien suit he got during the Secret Wars crossover begins to seemingly have a mind of its own. The collection then moves to Venom and Eddie Brock's appearances as a Spider-man villain. While Venom seems unwilling to hurt innocents, it contradicts this by using logic that those innocents are in the way of it getting revenge at Spider-man. So we see the beginnings of what will become the Lethal Protector but it isn't consistent. What is consistent though is that Michelinie writes the brunt of these stories, with McFarlane and Larsen on art, and it provides consistency the character needs. However (and this isn't applicabel to this collection), this unfortunately later gets lost during the constant rotating teams when Venom had an endless stream of miniseries.
As these stories take place before the Venom minis, what is interesting is reading these stories from the Spider-man books with Venom as the focal point. Reading these in Spider-man epics, Venom will pop through then disappear for the next Spider-man villain and Pete's usual mix of money issues/ marriage woes/ worries about Aunt May. We get touches of those but it is interesting to see here the changes to Venom, which are mostly with his ever growing tongue. I would say the weakest issues here are the Darkhawk ones, as those require an understanding of that character and his supporting cast, which I found a bit confusing.
But overall if you're a Venom fan, there's a lot to like here. The Eddie Brock version always worked best to me as a villain. And as an occasional ally when a character like Carnage appeared.
July 9, 2021
Great read about the backstory of Venom. Old-school, because it is old. But nice, as the stories really fit together well.
October 18, 2023
A fantastic collection which includes the origin of Venom and all his appearances up until 1992. It starts off with some excerpts from Secret Wars where Spider-Man obtains his black costume, and then follows with the issues where Spider-Man learns his costume is alive and his battle with it.
Venom's first full appearance is #300. Eddie Brock hates Spider-Man, who he views as responsible for a lot of the failures in his life, and when he bonds with the alien costume, who also hates Spider-Man for abandoning it, the two become Venom. The first appearances of Venom show him as a major threat and give a Terminator type vibe. He knows Spider-Man's secret identity and stalks him relentlessly. He's completely psychotic and obsessed and you don't see how Spider-Man and his loved ones are going to get through this unscathed. It's a really great read that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
This time period is also when there was a lot of focus on the art. In fact, I would say that this period of Spider-Man is defined by the artists more so than the writer. The first few issues with Venom are illustrated by Todd McFarlane (of Spawn fame) and the later issues are illustrated by Erik Larsen.
This is a definite 5 star book. It does have 2 unremarkable Darkhawk issues in it, but the rest of the issues are excellent and more than make up for it. A must-read for Spider-Man fans, and especially Venom fans.
Venom's first full appearance is #300. Eddie Brock hates Spider-Man, who he views as responsible for a lot of the failures in his life, and when he bonds with the alien costume, who also hates Spider-Man for abandoning it, the two become Venom. The first appearances of Venom show him as a major threat and give a Terminator type vibe. He knows Spider-Man's secret identity and stalks him relentlessly. He's completely psychotic and obsessed and you don't see how Spider-Man and his loved ones are going to get through this unscathed. It's a really great read that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
This time period is also when there was a lot of focus on the art. In fact, I would say that this period of Spider-Man is defined by the artists more so than the writer. The first few issues with Venom are illustrated by Todd McFarlane (of Spawn fame) and the later issues are illustrated by Erik Larsen.
This is a definite 5 star book. It does have 2 unremarkable Darkhawk issues in it, but the rest of the issues are excellent and more than make up for it. A must-read for Spider-Man fans, and especially Venom fans.
December 31, 2021
This is a good archive regarding the backstory of Venom, for it contains all of his early appearances, including a few repetitive retellings of his origin story. There lies my main criticism with this collection. Growing up, I always thought of Venom as the "anti-hero," "anti-Spider-Man." He was a character who had depth and struggled with protecting the innocent while going "too far" against the guilty. After reading this collection, Venom feels very flat. He is only driven by his vengeance against Spider-Man. He fights Spider-Man and either loses or runs away or Parker escapes. Then Venom vows his revenge once more. The plot's too repetitive and driven only by this vendetta begins to hurt the Venom character. The collection is enjoyable if you're a fan, but it also leaves you wondering how Venom became such an icon, with such a silly, one-note motivational desire.
Grade: C
Grade: C
July 2, 2026
A collection that follows Venom from his creation as a living alien suit in 1984 to his more fully fleshed identity as a symbiote with a personality circa 1992.
The first part of the volume consists mostly of a few scattered excerpts from various Spider-Man comics (speed-running Peter Parker's soap opera of a life) until Venom's more firmly researched and established. Afterwards, he bonds with Eddie Brock and starts hunting down Spider-Man for a series of revenge-driven battles.
The volume is solid for what it is: a history of Venom from the very beginning; but '80s comics weren't known for their exceptional quality and A+ storytelling, nor for their original and well thought-out storylines, so we get a number of scenes that can be summarized as "Ahahaha, Spider-Man! It is time for revenge!!! [*bang, bang, slam, slam*]"
The first part of the volume consists mostly of a few scattered excerpts from various Spider-Man comics (speed-running Peter Parker's soap opera of a life) until Venom's more firmly researched and established. Afterwards, he bonds with Eddie Brock and starts hunting down Spider-Man for a series of revenge-driven battles.
The volume is solid for what it is: a history of Venom from the very beginning; but '80s comics weren't known for their exceptional quality and A+ storytelling, nor for their original and well thought-out storylines, so we get a number of scenes that can be summarized as "Ahahaha, Spider-Man! It is time for revenge!!! [*bang, bang, slam, slam*]"
October 8, 2022
It's hard not to read this with the lens of what Venom is in the modern era. One interesting aspect to reading this now is seeing just how...cheesy(!) the first appearances of Venom were. To think that he would become such a huge comic presence is very strange to think, Yes, he had the benefit of being drawn early on by two superstars of 90s comics: McFarlane and Larsen. However, the writing and storylines in Spider-man comics at the time were very odd. I also never realized just how much Larsen influenced the appearance of Venom: the extended, teeth-filled mouth, the complex, snaky tendrils, the unhinged blank eyes.
The stories here are fairly repetitive, and I would just recommend this for the Venom completists out there as the stories aren't actually all that good.
The stories here are fairly repetitive, and I would just recommend this for the Venom completists out there as the stories aren't actually all that good.
December 22, 2022
SUPER tough to rate because on the one hand:
There's a few things in here and about this that kinda frankly suck. The Nighthawk two-parter being a big one.
On the other hand:
It's SUPER comprehensive, and that's a rare thing in comics, very often, and hell, these days, even the omnibuses are put into real shit orders where it's obviously just trades slapped end-to-end and you have to bounce around in order to read anything. Also, there's some really GOOD stuff...and some stuff that's fun kind of because it's cheesy and bad, so ultimately, I feel like you get a good bang for your buck here, so to speak.
If you're a Venom fan, this is pretty essential reading.
There's a few things in here and about this that kinda frankly suck. The Nighthawk two-parter being a big one.
On the other hand:
It's SUPER comprehensive, and that's a rare thing in comics, very often, and hell, these days, even the omnibuses are put into real shit orders where it's obviously just trades slapped end-to-end and you have to bounce around in order to read anything. Also, there's some really GOOD stuff...and some stuff that's fun kind of because it's cheesy and bad, so ultimately, I feel like you get a good bang for your buck here, so to speak.
If you're a Venom fan, this is pretty essential reading.
March 30, 2023
A bloated read with some stories (like the one with Avengers) that just drag.
It's still a serviceable collection of stories and it contains most of the best stuff from the Birth of Venom with some mindless bore added as well even though narrative here is, expectedly, all over the place. My recommendation for this one is the same as for The Birth of Venom: If you're a fan, go for it.
As both books collect earliest Venom stories it's fair I say which one should you read first if you can't decide between one or the other: read this one if you just want more Venom; if you want some build-up, read The Birth of Venom.
It's still a serviceable collection of stories and it contains most of the best stuff from the Birth of Venom with some mindless bore added as well even though narrative here is, expectedly, all over the place. My recommendation for this one is the same as for The Birth of Venom: If you're a fan, go for it.
As both books collect earliest Venom stories it's fair I say which one should you read first if you can't decide between one or the other: read this one if you just want more Venom; if you want some build-up, read The Birth of Venom.
June 4, 2022
Amazing Spider-Man is my favorite comic book series so I read this collection as an easy way to view those issues without damaging my original copies of the comics. I have to give credit to MacFarlane. His art is different and engaging. Unfortunately he only draws a few of these stories and the rest of the art is mediocre. I prefer to read the issues in sequence so I doubt I’ll read a collection like this again. It was too much Venom, and he is not one of my favorite Spidey villains. His power set is too vague and far-ranging.
January 14, 2024
90% of this was fantastic...er should I say Amazing...
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Spider-Man issues 5* - this era Spider-Man was always my favorite so...no surprise here
Avengers Deathtrap 4* - Jail break Avengers style... best non-Spidey issue in this collection.
Darkhawk 2.5* So they used Venom here to hike up the subs didnt they - Venom vs a flying guy who cosplays as a 90's biker w/o a bike? yawn... ooh more Spidey issues
Random page(s) of Quasar #6...flying dude foils Venom's escape... no stars just...weird
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Spider-Man issues 5* - this era Spider-Man was always my favorite so...no surprise here
Avengers Deathtrap 4* - Jail break Avengers style... best non-Spidey issue in this collection.
Darkhawk 2.5* So they used Venom here to hike up the subs didnt they - Venom vs a flying guy who cosplays as a 90's biker w/o a bike? yawn... ooh more Spidey issues
Random page(s) of Quasar #6...flying dude foils Venom's escape... no stars just...weird
October 9, 2023
The perfect introduction to this iconic character. This collection tracks Venom from his inception through many of his early appearances. A much better introduction for the character than the Spider-Man Epic Collection volume called “Venom”, which has some crossover with this volume, but shows very little of the titular character.
October 11, 2022
A fun look in to Venom's creation. But, 90s comics were not so great on story and the art is very dated in some of these stories. A decent read if you love Venom, but don't expect any page turning story telling or deep insights into the character.
August 24, 2023
A cool introduction to Venom, but the issue with some of these collections is the good stuff gets watered down with the plain ordinary. The Darkhawk stuff is boring, and the Vault was much longer than it needed to be.
April 8, 2025
this book was good, though it suffered from the disconnected storytelling that comes with the first chunk of this book being mostly spiderman comics that venom appeared in. I enjoyed the character at least, I really enjoy his first couple of appearances.
January 7, 2022
A pretty good collection, but most of these stories can be found in other epics.
February 18, 2022
*3 and a half stars*
November 19, 2022
This contains ALL of the early Venom stories, it was good.
December 28, 2022
More like 2.5 stars.
May 5, 2024
"Married in a way no human could understand."
Awesome.
Awesome.
April 16, 2026
For a character I don't typically like, this was a great read!
Overall - 4/5
Overall - 4/5
July 31, 2022
Omnibus of the first 20 or so appearances by Venom. Great art and great characters. Since it was one offs from different books over time it didn't really tell a logical story but still a good book.
December 28, 2024
This turned out to be much more Venom than I needed, with lots of build up from the symbiote’s debut in “Secret Wars” to its eventual grafting onto Eddie Brock in the infamous story by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. I was interested in Erik Larsen’s take on the character but didn’t manage to get that far. DNF.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews