The Trial of Venom! I’ve never read it, but I used to wonder about it a lot! This comic was a mail order exclusive to benefit UNICEF. I don’t think it ever crossed my young mind to, like, actually mail away for a copy. But I thought the cover looked cool in the ads, and Venom was such a big deal at the time, I was always super curious about it. And now, 30 years later, I have it! It cost an extra quarter and the silver is shiny and it has a cardstock cover! And ads! They sold ads on a charity book? Amazing. Venom’s head, gavel arm, and opposite leg are embossed for some reason? This is a weird cover. Seems like this can’t really be in continuity, since Venom’s still living on that island thinking Spider-Man is dead since ASM 347, but who cares? I’m excited to crack it open after all these years. It’s… haha, ok, it’s Peter David, Jim Craig, Dan & David Day & Tom Smith at the helm, starting with this incredibly egregious bit of cheesecake:
SO unnecessary! But everyone’s attention is called away from ogling Moonstone by a scream from, yet not gonna believe this, cell 666, where Eddie Brock is cowering in a corner next to the symbiote, looking terrified, saying it killed itself. After some debate, they open the cell and take him out, a guardsman pointing out it could be a trick, but it appears Venom is no more. Then we cut to Spider-Man and DD jumping through a rainy night, Spider-Man in disbelief at the info DD has just told him.
DD just murdered that guy. That’s some serious unnecessary roughness. This book is full of unnecessary things by page 4. So the boys head to The Vault, Peter as Spider-Man and Matt as just Matt Murdock, Eddie Brock’s attorney. Why is he Eddie’s attorney, exactly? Just ‘cuz? There are pleasantries and some typically unfunny Peter David one-liners and then Matt wants to see his client in private.
Will never understand why Peter David, who is known for writing funny things despite my particular opinion of his humor, makes Spider-Man, the only character with a rep for being funny (before Deadpool), all grumpy and mean every time he writes him.
Matt continues to argue that Eddie Brock never did anything bad before becoming Venom, and notes that J. Jonah Jameson hates Spider-Man, so that’s no explanation for trying to kill him, and even gets Spidey to admit Brock was planning to kill himself before he met the alien, all working to paint Eddie as a victim. And, again… why? Why would Matt Murdock even be here given he knows Spider-Man and they talk and Venom’s tried to kill him repeatedly? This doesn’t add up for me.
Jim Craig draws a cool Spider-Man, but everything else is pretty weird.
This page faces a big fold out poster that you’d have to take the book apart to get out. It seems like a unique image of Spider-Man and Daredevil fighting Venom, not the cover. Odd choice. So, obviously, the jury finds Eddie not guilty by reason of insanity, and obviously, he’s set to be released, and obviously…
I mean, obviously. We’re running out of comic and they only just started fighting. Venom says having the symbiote inside him helped him baffle all the methods of searching for it, and Spidey thinks that even applied to DD’s superhearing, which… would it? Does the symbiote have a heartbeat? Breathe? Where was it in Eddie’s body, anyway? He have a tummy full of alien goo? Anyway, fightin’.
Venom’s not able to finish choking the life out of our hero because Daredevil arrives. He mentions Spider-Man had him come along and hang back in reserve, just in case. Ok, sure, what, is he supposed to be one of the jurors? He better hope no Vault staff see him. Spidey gets loose and it’s still fightin’ time. DD does a flying kick into Venom as Spider-Man catches his breath, and get smashed to the ground for his efforts.
I can’t help thinking that Spider-Man might be based on an Erik Larsen one, but it’d be hard to prove. I wonder if Venom ever fought DD one-on-one. Seems likely, he was showing up in like every comic for awhile. But the idea that DD would also bear some responsibility for Brock’s fall from grace in his mind seems like something someone would’ve hit on. Looks like Venom waited til DD 324 to show up in his title, in the far future year of 1994, when DD was wearing that ridiculous black & red costume with the Venetian blinds on the shoulders. Anyway. Sidetrack. Spidey & Venom roll down the hill and then Spider-Man ducks into a convenient nearby cave. Venom raves about how running away is all Spider-Man ever does, and then Spidey points out that he’s won all their fights, so, you know.
Egad, Chekov’s… uh, “holo-imagers!”
But we, the readers, know NOTHING Matt said at the (very hasty) trial was true! We’ve got access to Eddie’s internal monologue and private moments! This is all a bunch of nothing! I didn’t expect a mail order one-shot to be particularly substantial, but what a weird angle. What a weird everything. Even the last 2 pages, which are black & white ads. Did Marvel do that to save money? I guess I’ll never know. A mere 6 of the first 13 comics in this block have been Spider-Man comics, but we’re gonna start leveling that out in a big way next time.