Venom: Birth of a Monster

by Peter David, Richard Buckler (Artist), David Michelinie

Genres: Comics

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Peter Allen David (aka David Peters), often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.

His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.

David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.

David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award, and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I have read a Spiderman comic (it says Venom on it but it is essentially just a Spiderman comic). Must say I really enjoyed it. There is a fair amount of humour in it, its rather nice to see Spidey doesn't take himself too seriously, although he did at times seem pretty dark.

I always thought Venom was an excellent nemesis and wanted to see how his character started. I enjoyed his entrance and quite how monstrous the character seems. The artwork was excellent and really added to the story.

[Kelvin Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is *technically* the origin story of Venom, except it mostly happens off-panel during two other largely unrelated stories. The first is a surprisingly-gritty-for-the-Comics-Code-era attempt to explore concepts of justice and vigilantism, with Daredevil popping up to offer moral advice, and while it doesn't fully succeed (it fluffs the ending) it gets most of the way and deserves considerable credit for aiming high. The second, weaker, story is a bit of frippery about villain Chance (Tesco Value Iron Man with a gambling gimmick) that exists only to set up the big showdown with Venom himself; that finale, to be fair, still works very well, and Todd McFarlane's final page, with Spidey back in his classic costume, is one of his best.

[Del · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book was advertised as a Spiderman comic run I'd give it 5 stars as the stories here are excellent. But this is advertised as a Venom comic run, and he only appears in 2 out of 7 issues, and 1 is just for one single panel. Still it's a excellent run, can be be picked up cheaply as it's pocket sized, but it's not so small to detract from the quality of the art, so it's easily readable, so no real complaints here, except for the advertising.