Monday, June 26, 2023

See, I knew that was just supposed to be smack talk!

If you've ever had the inescapable craving for something sweet or salty, I suspect this is something like that. Except for brains...no, no zombies! Well, maybe some figurative ones, but...From 1996, Venom: the Hunger #1, "The Hunger" Written by Len Kaminski, pencils by Ted Halsted, inks by Scott Koblish.
Eddie Brock doesn't seem to be in the best place this issue--literally, he was living in the sewers like an uncommon turtle. He also seemed to have lost all patience with people, seeing everyone around him as basically subhuman scum. He Venom's up and nearly tears into some punk kids at the theatre, barely stopping himself from really hurting them. Later, he tries to enjoy a Twinkie, but it tastes rotten to him. (A Marvel character turning on Twinkies!? He's gone too far this time...) He seemed to have a hankering for something, but couldn't quite nail it down: Eddie says it's on the tip of his tongue, but considering the size of Venom's tongue does that narrow it down any?
Venom picks a fight at a dive bar, where the local thugs seem to have no fear of "long-underwear types." Then, after a pleasant Venom Fan Art Page, with submissions from kids, Venom...literally eats a thug's brains! Eddie is aghast, describing it as a joke he'd threatened to do many times, but never meant to actually carry out. We then hear his side of a sort-of conversation with the symbiote, who seemingly claimed to need the brains, "like a vitamin deficiency." Eddie refuses, and the two separate, leaving Eddie naked and curled up into the fetal position in a dingy alley. And this was the first of a four-issue stint, so it was probably gonna get worse from there.
The Venom movie has a bit of brain-eating, largely as a joke: the horribleness of it is largely brushed off. I may have to see how the rest of this one goes, although I swear I had a big box of assorted Venom miniseries floating around somewhere. The odds that I have another copy of this are better than even...I also think "The Hunger" was used as a title for a Venom story again later; like with Humberto Ramos? Yep!

3 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Honestly I think it made sense for the symbiote to need to eat brains due to an not getting enough nutrients via other means of food sustenance. Doesn't make it any less scary or creepy, but given that it's a legit alien w/ alien biology, it makes sense.

Doesn't like twinkies eh? Maybe in keeping with the Merry Marvel tradition, it should've been Hostess snack cakes he was craving instead *shrugs*

googum said...

I would've continued the trend, and every so often the symbiote drove Eddie to eat paint chips, chew on chalk, or suck on lithium batteries.

Mr. Morbid said...

That paint chip eating scenario damn sure better lead to a Tommy Boy reference:)