Venom: Lethal Protector

Bem embalado e chegou perfeitamente para coleção.

Our beloved webslinger's biggest bully, Venom, stars in his first (semi) solo adventure wherein he has to face Orwell Taylor, and his band of hi-tech comrades whom he refers to as the Jury, as well as having to prevent the Life Foundation's plot of resurfacing a boat load of gold lost in an earthquake due to the danger it poses to innocent civilians living in an underground city. The Life Foundation storyline felt a ton like something Spidey would've had to face in his own magazine at the time, but of course Venom's approach is much flashier in nature. Orwell's storyline has Venom in a pretty rough spot having to, once again, face his symbiote Other's offspring while also calling back to Venom's second appearance in TASM #315. Spider-Man also sees extensive use throughout the book although it serves a more expositional role for the first couple of issues (exposing Eddie Brock's past) as well as reminding the reader of Venom's past mishaps. Ultimately, I found the read to be very entertaining and read it all in one go. David Michelinie's writing is just as good here, if not better, as it was in the TASM published around this time. The back and forth between the two storylines never felt overcomplicated or tedious to make sense of. When talking about the miniseries' artwork, I'd have to say I much prefer Mark Bagley's contributions (issues 1 through 4) to Ron Lim's (issues 5 and 6) due to my being more familiar with Bagley's work and finding the colouring in Lim's too "light" in some places. Regardless, it is all stellar work! Overall extremely satisfied with my purchase and I highly encourage any Venomite to give this story a shot! *It is worth noting that the story is more likely to entertain you if you've familiarised yourself with Venom's character somewhat before picking it up. (Amazing Spider-Man #300 #315-317 being essential imo)

Venom: Lethal Protector collects the complete 6 part series from 1993 written by David Michelinie and pencils by Mark Bagley and Ron Lim. It's quite surprising that it took around 5 years for a character like Venom to get his own solo series since his debut in Amazing Spider-Man #300 (1988) but regardless this is it and it was a great read. this isn't my first read of Venom but I'm trying to get more familiar with Venom and Carnage, with Venom so far I have read Marvel Platinum The Definitive Venom, Venom The Complete Collection By Daniel Way, Venom Vs Carnage and Dark Origin but most of what I've read started with Mike Costa's run (2016-2018) which is Homecoming, Land Before Crime, Lethal Protector Blood in the Water, Venom Inc, Edge of Venomverse, Venomverse, Poison X, The Nativity and First Host. So if you're curious about any of those I have done reviews for them. In the first few pages I felt the title of Lethal Protector was easily earned and showcased as a woman is getting robbed so Venom steps in to stop him and horrifying the innocent girl more by murdering the thug right in front of her. Once the task is done Venom turns around apologizes for being rude hands her back her bag and is off. This was well done, and subtleties of the art display emotion from Venom by smoothing the lines of his eyes which is deliberate because in other panels that are not close ups he still has the rough outlines in his eyes, showing Venom is sincere with the victim, and this is within the first 2 or 3 pages and I'll be including a picture or 2 of this sequence. I'll keep the story short, Eddie Brock has returned to his hometown of San Francisco to escape Spider-Man and fight crime away from him. Upon arriving law enforcement immediately recognize him as wanted from New York, word gets back to New York and Peter Parker pursues him. There are plenty of goodies and surprises and personally I found the Life Foundation section quite interesting. It does have elements of the 90s, like the clothes and Brock having a mullet...regardless, I found the story to be enjoyable and because of this I stopped looking for subtleties and instead was reading for fun. I did notice in some panels the colour seem to be lacking, I also felt fight sequences didn't last too long especially the Life Foundation section which could have last longer especially considering how cool it would've been. Overall I thought this was a great read with great artwork and plan on coming back to it, because of that I perhaps may need to look into purchasing the Venomnibus, which collects several other stories from his earlier days in a nice simple collection. Regardless if you like Venom or are just curious about his character I would say to pick this up. Hopefully you found this review helpful and happy reading.

In general, Michelinie doesn’t forget this character is comical and has the time of his life. In the third issue, we see Venom guests on a morning talk show. Ridiculous, but he’s loving every minute of it, including the SWAT team that’s brought in. The colors by Bryan Valenza are excellent. You can see in the image below, for instance, the slight hue change in the ceiling above Venom that gives the image a bit more depth. The fact that Michelinie is using C-lister villains is also compelling. Venom was largely a B-lister in the ’90s, at least to some, never reaching the heights of a Green Goblin type, so it’s interesting to see him interacting with even lesser-known villains. The villains almost prop up Venom to make him bigger than he was at the time, yet remind us he wasn’t fighting cosmic gods either. My only complaint might be the title, which is the same title as the 1993 solo series by Michelinie and Mark Bagley. There’s literally nothing connecting these stories. Heck, the setting is New York when the original was San Francisco. It’s a rather minor quibble, but it’s also a bit confusing to reuse the title unless it’s simply a way to make it obvious this story is set in the past. Venom: Lethal Protector is everything I want in a throwback Venom story and more. It captures the ferocity of Venom’s fight style, the complicated place Eddie’s life is in and introduces some interesting C-list villains too. Venom fans, rejoice — this is going to bring you back to your childhood.

I used to own the whole series when I was 8 years old. And I later on traded them to my friend for toys, not knowing how rare the issues would be to find later down the road. Fast forward 13 years later and I managed to secure all 6 issues for $110. Downside is that I don't want to open them as they are in sealed packaging. Decided to purchase this book containing all 6 issues and I am glad I picked it up for $16. If you love the character then owning this is a no-brainer. They did a great job turning this beloved villain into an Anti-Hero. The 2018 Movie borrows alot from this series, so that should say how good the series is. Packs in some areas, but overall isn't a bad read. The delivery was quick and the book didn't suffer any damage during shipping. 5⭐