Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #21

Background

In short, Venom's back and gunning for Miles and his family.

Story Details

Gwen and MJ are at MJ's workplace when they see Venom attacking Spidey on TV and run off.

Jefferson (Spidey's dad) arrives at the hospital emergency department with his wife, he is quickly whisked away for treatment. Back at the Morales household, Miles is pretty pretty distraught and Ganke tries to talk him through it all before they are interrupted by MJ and Gwen. Gwen offers to give Miles some info on the Venom symbiote (Gwen was previously bonded/killed by the Carnage symbiote). As suspicious Detective Maria Hill watches them from across the street.

In the sewers Venom reforms then comes out onto the street, killing a couple of people as he goes.

In the Morales' apartment Gwen and MJ share what they know and what they suspect about the Venom symbiote. All of which really doesn't help much on figuring out who connected with the symbiote this time. While they are talking, Maria Hill sneaks in and breaks into the conversation. She connects all the Spider-man dots between Venom, MJ, Gwen and Miles and asks Miles to come clean. While Miles is unsure, Gwen takes charge and gets Hill to leave.

At the hospital, Rio (Miles' mum) is called to go see the doctor regarding Jefferson when there is screaming and Venom bursts in.

General Comments

A good issue that has a couple of new threads to the story, but also has a lot of repetition for longtime readers.

Detective Hill definitely seems to have figured out Miles' connection to Spider-man, but seems to be sympathetic enough to not want to push him or ram it down her throat. Her true motives aren't yet revealed, but seem altruistic at this point. Spidey has worked with certain police officers before in other incarnations, so this could lead somewhere interesting.

Who is beneath the Venom symbiote is still a mystery. I must admit, I have no clue really and it doesn't seem like enough info has been put out there so that it can be figured out. What is clear is that this new Venom is extremely brutal and crazed and that things are not going to end well.

On the downside, at least for longtime readers, the bulk of the issue is full of re-cap of previous storylines for the benefit of filling in Miles. Did this really need to be done this way? Couldn't there have been just one panel of the MJ, Gwen, Ganke and Miles talking with a caption like 'Gwen filled Miles in on the Venom origin and backstory' and then we get into the real story? I feel this could of been done better and by better, I mean shorter!

Overall Rating

Good issue that will be more interesting for new or forgetful readers, because of the amount of recap.