Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man | Tagged: amazing spider-man, Anti-Venom, avengers, eddie brock, flash thompson, peter parker, venom, venom inc

Amazing Spider-Man #792 Review: Spider-Man is the Real Monster

*Part of the Venom Inc. crossover

With Flash Thompson now Anti-Venom'd up, he and Spider-Man are able to subdue and remove the Venom symbiote from Eddie Brock.

Spider-Man leaves Eddie tied up at Alchemax, and Webhead and the new Anti-Venom leave to track down the off-shoot of Venom that was stolen from Mania in the last issue. They also need to decide what to do with Venom. Flash wants to keep the creature, and Spider-Man wants it dead.

Elsewhere, Lee Price, now calling himself Maniac with his new symbiote, is using his possessed minions to take over Black Cat's operation.

You know, I may not be the biggest fan of the Amazing Spider-Man, but Peter Parker by design is supposed to be one of the most inherently likable heroes of Marvel Comics. There's a reason he is one of the most popular heroes in the world and still Marvel's most well-known.

And yet—I find him absolutely insufferable in this issue.

I decided, on a whim, to follow this story from the Venom Inc. Alpha. Flash is back as a new Anti-Venom, it ties into the Venom series, which I do follow, and I was generally curious.

I wasn't enthused by the Venom Inc. Alpha, as you might remember. This comic only made matters worse.

In terms of plotlines and loose threads, I love that this comic brought back Agent Venom and Mania, and, as already stated, I love the idea of making Flash Thompson Anti-Venom.

But the execution has just been so underwhelming. Spider-Man may as well be the antagonist with how he behaves throughout all of this. He is completely deaf to the pleas of Eddie and Flash that the symbiote has changed. He doesn't care that Flash was an Avenger and a Guardian of the Galaxy as Venom. He's even against allowing Flash to be Anti-Venom. He's just a belligerent ass who thinks he is completely in the right and has the "responsibility" to kill this sentient, living creature.

Worse yet, the comic seems to be on his side. He goes on some spiel about how Flash was a hero before putting on the suit. Which, while Flash was a veteran, is an incredibly privileged thing for Spider-Man to say. Flash lost his damn legs. Without the symbiote he is left with prosthetic legs, and he clearly prefers the feeling-enabled symbiote to the prosthetics. Flash's feelings about his disability, coupled with his abusive father, sent him into an alcoholic spiral not to long ago. And that's before even getting to the part where he had superpowers and was a damn fine hero in spite of the odds.

Beyond that, the dialogue is so very bad. "Anti-Venom is…literally anti the guy called Venom." I think that was supposed to be a joke, but it fell flat as a pancake. There are also incessant gags about how poorly Spider-Man is protecting his identity while endlessly stretching out the joke.

Lee Price's gang of Venoms is fairly unoriginal too. It ends up feeling like "Planet of the Symbiotes" with even less creativity.

Admittedly, Mac Gargan gets a cool Scorpion redux thanks to artist Ryan Stegman. His art is fairly good throughout most of the comic. Brock's eyebrows still look frigging weird, but Agent Anti-Venom still looks really cool. Color artist Brian Reber does some solid work too, and the comic is effectively colorful and bright for it.

Look, I know the reputation Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man has. I'm also aware of how he generally takes criticism. However, I have read some issues of Spider-Man by him which I didn't dislike. Hell, I was a big fan of "New Ways to Die," which debuted the first appearance of Anti-Venom. Also, Mister Negative turned out to be a pretty cool rogue, and making Black Cat an outright villain again is probably one of the only good things you can do with that character at this point that doesn't smack of aping Catwoman.

However, Venom Inc. has already turned out to be pretty awful, and this is only issue two of the story. I almost dread the next issue of Venom, but here's hoping Mike Costa can pull something together here. While I may still ride this one out for review purposes (and for a bit of masochism), avoid this Amazing Spider-Man #792. It's a grating experience with very little redeeming value. I do not recommend it in the slightest.

Edit: Changed the language regarding Flash Thompson's disability to be less insensitive. Apologies for the previous version of the review.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!