Egads, what’s this!? Back In Black!? That was, like, forever ago! This comic was published 13 months before ASM 557. But as it does not contain even a single panel of Spider-Man in the black suit… I don’t know why it had this branding. And, you know, not for nothing, but Swing Shift was the very next month. Who knows, who cares why this is pretending to be a Back In Black tie-in. Here is it and here it goes. The real question is, why did I buy this? And I have no idea! None. Not a creator in here I was following, not a story I remember. Baffling. I didn’t buy the first (also Back In Black branded) issue of this, nor the 3rd or any other. They just kept trying this. Tom Brevoort was a fan of DC’s “Family” titles in the 70s, oversized comics mixing new comics with reprints, and I guess he thought it was worth repeating. There was a one-shot in 2005. There was the Amazing Friends one we looked at in 2006. This series lasts 9 issues, and is immediately replaced with an Amazing Spider-Man Family which lasts 8. It doesn’t seem to take. First story in this one is by writer Sean McKeever and artist Kano, with an assist from David LaFuente. That’s a name we will see again someday. It seems to take place in the early days of Peter & MJ’s marriage (good timing!). We open on a lady in a limo finding out Venom is also in the limo. He seems coalesce out of a puddle, which is definitely can’t do.
Peter goes home to see MJ and has a brood about Venom, then goes to see Ben Urich, who doesn’t know anything about limo lady, but thinks the name Dahlberg is probably Gustav Dahlberg, CEO of Wechscorp, found suffocated in his home.
We’ve seen Kano on the blog before, as I recall. His stuff looks cool, and not at all like a Marvel Comic. We’ve seen McKeever, too, seemingly stuck writing for books like this rather than bigger ones. Well, limo lady is crying in her apartment when Venom appears, and presumably, it’s lights out for her.
If, as most writers seem to think, Ben knows Peter’s secret, he’s not acting like it here. Well, our man spends 3 days researching all this, and feels like he’s not getting anywhere as he dozes off. When he wakes, he finds a packet with his name on it containing a big file on Eddie Brock. Then, we find Spider-Man breaking into the home of the next guy on the hit list.
This is a weird conversation to have in front of some random scumbag. Well they duke it out until an electrical fire starts. Venom doesn’t want to leave, but his other is too scared of the spreading fire, so he does, allowing Spider-Man to save the scumbag.
Alright. I don’t think that was worth shoehorning into the early Venom chronology, but no one asked me. Spider-Man must’ve forgotten Venom had a wife between then and Lethal Protector. Next up:
I don’t know Paul Benjamin. Vasilis Lolos is a guy even less mainstream than Kano, and he sure draws a weird Lizard. Also interesting that both artists this month color their own stuff.
That guy is trying to perfect the process that turned Curt into the Lizard. He says he knows his secret. And, you know, when is this? His “secret” became public knowledge, especially when he went on trial for the Lizard’s crimes in ASM Annual 27, but then everyone decided to ignore that. Is this before or after? I guess it doesn’t matter.
Man that’s a weird choice. He looks like Daryl the Wendigo from BPRD.
Weirdo the intern says he won’t let the Lizard destroy his work, not when he’s so close to curing Curt. But he gets smashed into his project, anyway, and when he wakes…
How is that the end!?!?! Kind of a retread of a bunch of old Lizard stories, except without almost anything happening and no resolution. Weeeeeird. Next is a reprint of ASM 177, which… I don’t know, maybe that’s why I bought it. Having read 180 a million times since I was a kid, maybe I wanted to see another part of that story. I dunno. Then ASM 347, which I certainly didn’t need. And then, an ongoing feature of this series, an installment of Spider-Man J, one of a few Japanese Spider-Man adaptations. It’s weird. It looks like this:
Spider-Man J is a weird little tiny guy with giant eyes you can always see through his mask. I’m not gonna bother with this, but it’s in there. Wherever the $5 I spent on this is, I want it back.