Venom: The Madness #2

Background

In San Francisco, Venom learned that the Scarmore company was dumping toxic chemicals and making it's employees sick. He met and fell for a public defender named Beck, who was working on the case. Scarmore hired the Juggernaut to intimidate Beck as well as any whistleblowers that were taking them to court. Juggernaut defeated Venom and Venom fell into a contaminated pool of water that housed a mutated virus, created by Scarmore.

Story Details

The mutated virus merged with Venom, realizing that it had to save both the symbiote and it's human. Initially put off by the creature's toxic nature, Eddie welcomed it, saying "Venom has room in his head for one more Creep!" "Creep" had a mission of it's own, which Venom welcomed, telling it's new ally that it would be added to their protection of the innocent.

On a distant dimension, a creature calling itself Dusk mused Venom's rapidly approaching madness. It summoned another creature, that it called Paranoia. It ordered Paranoia to wait for Eddie in the "hypnagogic zone," where Eddie's mind went when he tried to sleep, then lead him to Dusk. Another creature, called Necromancer, was told to greet Venom when he arrived.

Abby and Beck discussed the situation and Abby tried to calm her, saying Scarmore was just trying to scare her by sending the Juggernaut. She said they succeeded and wanted to know where Eddie had gone. Abby reassured her that Venom could take care of himself and reminded her that corporations were the true criminals. They needed to fight and needed Venom's help. Beck said that Venom did scare her and feared all of her legal work will be for nothing in if loses control and goes rogue. Kissing him had given him motivation but she was afraid that there was no going back.

At Scarmore, the CEO told his assistant that he wanted the "Mercury Project" kept out of the newspapers, the civil lawsuit to go away, and Beck to let it go. Above all, he didn't want to know details.

As Eddie to slept fitfully, Paranoia spoke to him: "One is fun, and two is true but with three you can be free!" It told him to let in more voices and to have a party. He woke to realize it was the same nightmare that he'd been having and decided to clear his head by going to see Abby. His advice to Eddie was that, if he wanted to protect people, then he couldn't be passive. He had to stomp out the evil before it hurt anyone. Abby resented that corporations were almost untouchable, hiding behind the law. A crazed looked Eddie Brock began to change to Venom as he snarled that the CEO must die. A nervous Abby asked if he was being metaphorical, and Venom didn't understand the word.

At the plant, a cleaning lady sat in the boss's chair, giggling as she ordered around imaginary employees. She said it was time to tighten their belts and Venom agreed, impaling her with his tendrils. He asked her corpse if it was too tight.

Later, Eddie tried to sleep again as his life and resentments circled in his head. He was surrounded by visions of Spider-Man as he fell from a tower and into flames. After he woke, he realized there was a fourth voice in his head. The CEO's assistant called Tom again, who had Juggernaut go after Beck.

In the underground, Beck was confiding her fears to Eddie. She was concerned about the murder of the cleaning woman and asked why nothing had been said in the newspapers. Eddie was preoccupied and brushed off her concerns before commenting on her beauty. As he pressed her to the bed, she said the suit was controlling him and was getting too excited. He said it was just happy and excited for him. She warned that the bond was unhealthy for him and the virus he picked up might be driving him mad. Eddie admitted that he felt hot and feverish but insisted that he was in charge. She was uncertain what to believe and he told her to be quiet and let him do what he wanted. She was furious that he spoke to her that way but her anger turned to terror as he licked her with his Venom tongue and began ranting about protecting and eating and loving the innocent to death. She struggled against him and was saved by the timely intervention of the Juggernaut.

As they fought, Beck noticed the extra heads emerging from Venom and warned that he was mutating. Venom threw Juggernaut through a wall. Venom ranted about all of the voices in his head: Creep, Paranoia, Fetish, Delusion, Eddie, Psychosis and Venom. Juggernaut noticed a kind of hole in the air open behind Venom and knocked him into it. As Venom screamed, Juggernaut told him to stay dead.

General Comments

The story is pretty thin and I think the writer knows it. There are two separate pages where the CEO tells his underling to take care of the lawyer problem but to keep him in the dark. It wasn't necessary to bring up that plot point twice, except to fill space. It was already clear from the first issue that he wanted plausible deniability.

I'm not sure how Juggernaut knew to look for Beck in the underground but there he was.

The focus of the issue was the attempted assault of Beck by Eddie. It was uncomfortable for several reasons. On one page, Beck confided to Abby that she had planted a seed of passion in him but was worried what he'd do if she rejected him. She was afraid that there was no going back. Later, Eddie's attempted assault is horrific as Venom was sadistic, licking her face and holding her close to his teeth while she was clearly terrified. (I have to admit, the art regarding her panic was excellent. It captured the emotion extremely well.) It was implied that Abby had manipulated Eddie into helping them by kissing him and feigned interest in him. Later, she rejected him and was nearly assaulted. It has a little bit of a "she had it coming" feel. Also, the scene goes on for four pages. If the writer wanted us to be horrified, it worked.

The rest was Venom fighting Juggernaut. I have no idea who Dusk, Paranoia and Necromancer are or why they want Venom.

Overall Rating

Sloppily written and centered around an attempted assault.