Venom: Nights of Vengeance #1-4Issue(s): Venom: Nights of Vengeance #1, Venom: Nights of Vengeance #2, Venom: Nights of Vengeance #3, Venom: Nights of Vengeance #4 Review/plot: As for Beck, Mackie depicts her at the start of this mini as kind of irrational and as someone who just isn't going to be compatible with Venom. Venom goes out of his way at the beginning of this story to be non-violent (at least by superhero standards). He runs into a dispute between a homeless guy named Sean Knight and a government agent, Michael Badilino (Vengeance in his human form). And instead of rushing to judgement, Venom takes them both prisoner so that he can sort things out. But this still isn't good enough for Beck. I thought this would at least be character development, establishing a reason why Eddie and Beck would break up. But it isn't; not really. As for the dispute, Knight says that he also used to be a government agent, and he infiltrated a group of mercenaries called the Stalkers. But he went on the run when they found and bonded with some alien technology. Since he's homeless, no one knows if he's serious or mentally ill, but Badilino confirms his story. Knight escapes and confronts the Stalkers. But Venom and Vengeance fight them. Aaaand that's basically it. The Stalkers eventually get fully subsumed by the aliens, who are like a diluted version of Predators, complete with infrared vision. They have a techno-organic look. They kidnap Beck, a doctor named Elizabeth, and Sean and force Venom and Vengeance to play a Most Dangerous Game. It doesn't go so well for the Stalkers (you might even say that the hunters become the hunted. if you were really into cliches.). The captives get infected with the alien tech. But Venom and Vengeance destroy the alien computers and free their friends. After it seems like it's all over, a final surviving Stalker, now amped-up, comes after Vengeance and Venom. There's a compare-and-contrast between the Stalkers, who are parasitic aliens, and Eddie and his symbiotic suit. The Stalker even promises to help Venom find more of his species. But Venom kills the Stalker, putting the human host out of his misery. It turns out Vengeance was only after Sean Knight to see if he had any connection to Vengeance's archfoe Anton Hellgate (and we don't even get a "see current issues of Ghost Rider" footnote). But he doesn't. In issue #1 of this series, Eddie Brock showed some minor interest in the doctor, Elizabeth. So minor that i didn't even think anything of it. But at the end of this story, Badilino tells Brock that he's going to have to choose between Elizabeth and Beck. This results in a short fight between Brock and Badilino, but Brock concludes that he's too dangerous for either woman. However, Eddie doesn't actually break-up with Beck in this mini. The last we see of her (and Elizabeth) is when Venom is deciding that he needs to find out about the rest of the symbiotes (a set-up for the next mini). Quality Rating: D+ Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A References: N/A Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (1): showCharacters Appearing: Beck Underwood, Eddie Brock (Venom), Vengeance, Venom Symbiote CommentsI considered myself fairly in tune with the reading habits of comic fans at one time. And for how popular Venom was as a character, I can't recall a single person who actually read any of these mini series. And they went on for another four or five years. I can't think of another example where the fanbase is so interested in a character but so disinterested in actually, you know.... reading about them. AFAIK, people actually read current Deadpool. Posted by: Bigvis497 | December 20, 2017 10:15 PM I read them. Up to this point I had collected every single appearance of Venom...even dumb one-panel cameos. In my denfense I was 14. Posted by: Andrew F | December 21, 2017 11:20 AM I was enjoying the Vengeance feature in Marvel Comics Presents, so I decided to buy this miniseries. (I quickly realized that Chris Cooper was telling better stories with the Vengeance character in MCP then Howard Mackie, the guy who created him, was doing in Ghost Rider and here.) Anyway, I get to issue #4, and I start reading it, and I'm sort of scratching my head because I'm trying to remember exactly what happened in the third chapter, but in the end I just shrug and plow through it. Later on, when I dig out my copies of the first three issues to organize my recent purchases, I realize that I never actually got around to reading issue #3. In other words, this story was so padded out & unremarkable that I accidentally forgot to read one of the issues and didn't realize it until later. Posted by: Ben Herman | December 21, 2017 11:58 AM The one good scene in this series was where Eddie admits that he's too dangerous to have a girlfriend. Posted by: Michael | December 21, 2017 11:58 PM Comments are now closed. |
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