With the possible exception of an issue or two of
the Madness--because Kelley Jones, c'mon--I didn't buy any of Venom's solo comics in the 90's. At least not off the racks; I swear I have a
pile of them from the quarter bins somewhere, which probably included this issue but since we saw another one in the bins, well...from 1995,
Venom: Sinner Takes All #2, "Redeemable Upon Request" Written by Larry Hama, pencils by Greg Luzniak, inks by Scott Koblish.
We hit the ground running here, as the Sin-Eater is threatening the hospitalized Ann Weying, and seems to know she was Venom's ex-wife! Still, she was a lawyer and had to go: one barrel of the traditional shotgun goes to Ann, but Venom blocks it; the other shot at the excessively Irish Chief Reilly, who is saved by his vest. Rather than use his suicide vest, the Sin-Eater escapes; then Reilly opts to let Venom escape, with Ann: police custody had done a piss-poor job of protecting her, he had to admit. Ann is mildly sketched out by Eddie in the full Venom mask, but also had severe injuries: after Eddie gets her to his underground hideout, first he tries to use the symbiote to help her, but he may need the symbiote to join with her completely.
Meanwhile, the cops had a suspect for the new Sin-Eater, a somewhat lippy homeless religious zealot; but the mother of one of his victims guns him down while in custody. Except, the gear they found with him wasn't his, and the prints match a Gulf War vet: he had switched bags with the zealot at the homeless shelter. And Venom's secret hideout is not-that-secret, as a couple of thugs aren't thrilled to find "Fabio" there--Eddie really could've used a haircut. Luckily for him, Ann was ready to save him--as the Bride of Venom! I don't know why she immediately goes to the brain-eating: I honestly thought that was a bit of smack-talk that got taken too seriously, but maybe brains am good food! Also this issue: a back-up feature with the Jury; armored vigilantes from another
Venom mini. They break into a South American prison to bust out a prisoner...to put him on their own trial, since he was the Tarantula!
The original Sin-Eater story was a favorite--I liked that way more than about any Venom story I can think of off the top of my head. I want to say Ann was introduced in the aforementioned Venom: the Madness, but she feels a little more Team Venom here. I don't know if this costume looks better on a woman though; the green drool undercuts it a bit.
I have to agree with you on how good the original Sin-Eater story was. It was grim & gritty without being over the top in it's grim & grittiness. Seemed like a literal story ripped out of the headlines with how random the killing of Jean DeWolfe was. Although I'm not sure it didn't (at least to me anyways I could be wrong) feel a bit forced to turn into a cop with a massive crush on Spidey. I guess it was done on David's part to turn the emotional screws even more & add onto the pathos of the tragedy.
ReplyDeleteFirst time I'm hearing how "Warm & soothing" the symbiote feels. I guess it's intentional on the symbiote's part so as to lessen the creep factor.
As much of a big fan of Venom's as I was, I didn't really go out of my way to collect a lot of his mini-series offerings as I probably could've.
I had the 1st issue of the Lethal Protector series & a random issue of the Funeral Pyre one I bought at a local Eckerd's. That's about it really.
As for Julia Carpenter comment, true, but then there's a reason why boyfriend shirts on the girlfriend/female companion look SO much better on them than the owner.