Though the editors did their best, don't expect many storylines from the first half of this collection to be resolved on page. The rest of the issue makes it a job to stress Puma's identity and Puma is still trying to finish off Spider-Manin the next issue, but Black Cat intervenes and he is forced to attack later that night.

As a result, nearly without fail, every new issue contained an in-story summary of the last issue's events. He looked just as cool and creepy as I imagined he would look, and he did not disappoint in his battles with Spider-Man. Anyway, Spider-Man freaks out and crushes Venom under a few machines and swings out, accidentally leaving his change of address forms behind. All we get is some exposition about how Spider-Man apparently ruined Brock's life when he solved the Sin Eater case (from The Death of Jean DeWolff). There is a type of nostalgia that you experience was old school type graphics which made the book more enjoyable.Peter succumbs to the bells before the symbiote does, but it saves him cause it can't just let him die.

This Trade Paperback retells Venom's origin, starting with when Spider-Man got his black suit and when he got rid of it and it merged with Eddie Brock to form Venom. Venom and Spider-Man briefly fight until the assassins join them with Sonic weaponry to disable Venom.Next issue, Peter tries to resolve the conflict with MJ, but she storms out, and Black Cat comes in. Venom is only in a few issues in this entire thing as they show the build up of pretty much the entirety of Spidey in the black suit.

Venom is so popular among fans for a reason and his battles with Spidey here are a pretty good showing of why. Before he goes to fight Venom, Peter stops by a psychiatrist who tells him that the symbiote is having a love-hate relationship. Venom is an interesting character starting out as a newly designed spiderman costume and becoming a sentient being. In the end, this collection does what it says it does, but I still feel they could have done a lot better. So much about comics and the way they're published has changed since these originally were printed, that their nuances and writing techniques can be bothersome to modern readers.Keeping Venom's name out of the title would have given readers an unexpected twist when they finally do see Venom emerge for the first time. The first half of the book moseys about slowly trickling out tiny details about the symbiote while Spider-Man faces off against villains who are decidedly not Venom. Great fun story, that gives more than just nostalgia if you read it back then, and with some amazing (YEAH THAT'S RIGHT) artwork to go along with it. I think this graphic novel would have been better off being titled something along the lines of The Alien Costume Saga (like the animated series of the '90s had named this story arc) rather than marketing it as solely Venom's origin. While a great example of best of spider-man, some stories are kind of a snooze like the ones with puma amd the rose, but the main beats of this collection are great.