The cover is ugly. But good ugly. Ugly like Venom is supposed to look. It's ugly and it works because it shows very drastic a difference between the Venom found in this book and the one found in last year's stupid sequel. This is the comic Venom, this Venom has nothing to do with Topher Grace.

Zeb and Angel do particularly stellar work yet again. This has been a very consistent and great read that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Seeing the world through the eyes of Eddie Brock is kind of strange, and especially opening this issue with down on his luck Eddie, ready to kill himself in the church when he is taken over by the symbiont (symbiote?), is just a quick change of pace. The other issues had moved a bit slower, but this one jumps right in and gets to the point.

The symbiote needs a host, Eddie needs a reason to live, and they are quickly joined together. This leads to a knock-down drag out with the police and Eddie getting absolved of all his sins by a very threatened priest (great scene, especially when Venom's smiling mouth, the little mouth rarely seen pops out, it's almost creepier).

But the sequence in question that starts to tie everything together like the Dude's rug is once the symbiote latches and Eddie gains memory of the Secret Wars. It is crazy how awesome that two-page spread was. How bombastic and clever and cool and quick and SHARP it looked just really pulled the thing into perspective. This is Eddie Brock, and he is fucking frightening for all the things that he knows.

And the small touches for the rest of the issue make it good too. His quick clothes change with a thought to impress Ann, everything, it works so well within this book.

And it is all topped off with that final splash page of Eddie and Venom finally becoming the Venom we all know and laugh. The terrible massive grin with teeth and the long tongue. The scary Venom we've all known at some point.

A sketch of that almost same splash is on one of my friend's walls at his home. It's all the cooler seeing it on his wall one day and then flipping open a comic and seeing it on the printed page.

This is one of the better Spidey tie-ins going. I'm not reading New Ways to Die and I am glad for it at this point. I chose this one for the touches on the history of Eddie and Venom, and I am always excited to see what's next.