the Venom creative team of Daniel Way and Francisco Herrera should take note... this is how to present the inky-black, morphin villain in a creepy light. It seems odd that a stronger fresh new take on Venom should be presented in this new Spidey series, but that's the way things played out. Ramos's art, though incredibly similar in tone, is much clearer while still maintaining a foreboding atmosphere. The one problem here is some disjointed plotting and scene transitions; at one point, I thought some pages were missing from this issue.
Something is stalking the citizens of New York, something animalistic that's puncturing their bodies and draining them... not of blood, but of adrenaline. Police are perplexed. Meanwhile, Peter Parker continues to awkward make his way through his life. An afternoon barbecue offers a chance for him to get his neighbors, many of whom turn out to be even weirder than him... and he swings from rooftops from manmade webs. He also pays a visit to an old friend in hospital, where he discovers one wound has healed but another continues to plague him.
Ramos's style is an exaggerated one, but unlike those artists (such as Herrera) who ape his style, the characters and the action aren't lost in that exaggeration. Ramos's take on Venom at the end of this issue is deliciously alien and creepy, and I love the youth that he brings to Peter Parker. His take on Spidey reminds me a great deal of Erik (Savage Dragon Larsen's. The visual element that didn't sit well with is one we've seen before -- this transparent-like, white coloring motif for the title character's webs. Yes, perhaps they resemble real webs somewhat, but they don't seem to fit in with the rest of the art. They jump off the page, almost as though they exist on a separate level than the rest of the linework.
Jenkins addresses a loose end from "Return of the Green Goblin" story arc from Peter Parker, but he does so in a way that's accessible and that sums up the core theme of the Spider-Man character: great power, great responsibility... and great guilt. I also love the writer's take on Venom here. Eddie Brock as a tortured soul, on the desperate brink of madness. That, combined with the police investigation that Venom's activities have sparked, made for some good reading.
Unfortunately, a huge non-sequitur in the book interrupted the flow and left me scratching my head. In the middle of the issue, Spider-Man is suddenly on Venom's trial, but there's no explanation as to how he came to be aware of a problem in the first place. It makes no sense, and it robs the story of a great deal of its tension.
