I picked up Venom #1 just to take a peek at what Remender was going to do with characters I don’t really care much about and here, six issues on, I’m hooked into buying this comic.

This issue is part of the Spider-Island mini-event/crossover and finds Venom taking down a giant spider-beast so military scientists can study its DNA. Readers since #1 are going to be aware that we’re seeing great character development with Flash Thompson (his personal issues, involving girlfriend Betty and his sick abusive father are carried over from last issue and played in the background). This issue is literally crammed in terms of story and art (but in a good way). Fight scenes between Venom and Giant Spider-Beast are, by turns, well choreographed and funny. After the capture of the GSB, we are into familiar scientists-working-on-a-dangerous-organism-being-smug-because-they-think-they-have-it-trapped-but-we-know-they’re-kidding-themselves trope. What happens after the GSB gives birth to thousands of infectious spiders is pretty intense and the reveal to who the GSB actually is is quite shocking. Also, at the end, Venom demonstrated an ability I didn’t realise he had (although it makes perfect sense). I can’t recommend this comic highly enough.