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While it may be difficult to ultimately justify Venom: Dark Origin 1, the book is not by any means terrible or completely worthless. Granted, Venom is currently in the pages of Thunderbolts as former Scorpion, Mac Gargan, serves as the current host of the alien symbiote and this series is centered on Eddie Brock. And while the current Eddie Brock is dying and may have a small role in the upcoming Spider-man New Ways to Die storyline, the book is still a well written and conceived story that accomplishes what most stories have failed to achieve since the character first gained prominence in 1986.
Issue one of Dark Origin focuses not on the character of Venom but of Eddie Brock, the human host that would turn Peter Parker’s dark Spider-man suit into a villain. Starting with Eddie’s childhood, writer Zeb Wells focuses on the events in Eddie’s life that would turn him from a boy who lies to gain sympathy and acceptance to a sociopath who attempts to manipulate anyone and everyone around him. Wells shows how Eddie Brock is too weak as a child to force people into doing what he wants, so Eddie instead turns to preying on the expectations of others to gain control.
During a journalism class when the teacher begins a discussion between the “truth” of Nixon’s version of the Watergate break-in compared to the “truth” of the version Woodward and Bernstein reported, Eddie learns that he can use the reporting of facts to control what people perceive as the “truth”, and therefore, be subject to his manipulations.
While it isn’t necessarily ground breaking storytelling, it is nice to see more depth to the character behind Venom instead of the simple monster that wants to destroy Spider-man. Eddie Brock is certainly a villain long before Venom ever comes into his life and Wells must be commended for having the guts to use an entire issue to show that aspect of the character instead of focusing solely on the battles waged between the hero and the villain.
The artwork from Angel Medina is perhaps the most questionable aspect of the issue. While Medina’s work carries a particular frenetic energy and high level of detail, the story being told in this issue rarely calls for that level of excitement. Not until Spider-man makes a cameo in the final pages of the issue does any of the story really even seem to have the gusto for his work. Perhaps it’s ultimately the fault of Editor Alejandro Arbona for pairing these two together, but I feel that a different artist would have benefitted the book more.
Venom: Dark Origin 1 may not be the battle-happy book Venom fans may have been hoping for, but it has a well thought out story at its core that actually bothers to reconstruct the history of the man who eventually becomes one of Spider-man’s greatest foes.