So, over on (a pirate site) I see they have Venom Wars #2.
Hey, great! I like Venom. But I’m not a regular comic book reader. I’m very much a newbie. So I figure “Well, thats part 2, I should get part 1 first.”
And that’s where all the trouble began. There’s like 10 different comic branches all called “Venom Wars 1” and they all have different covers. And they all have assumingly different stories!
I just want to read a Venom comic book, where he does the Venom things! And now I see the description “The symbiot has bonded with Eddie, and his son Derek”
WHO THE FUCK IS DEREK??? I thought Eddie was supposed to be a high schooler in Peter Parkers class! How does a 16 year old have a son???
So now I’m REALLY confused! I feel like I need a comic before the comic to get me caught up to the comic, but only if THATS the comic I’m supposed to read, because there’s also 10 comics all named the same thing…and I’m not experienced enough to know what the fuck I’m doing.
I assume I’M the probem, with my lack of knowledge on the subject, but also…what the hell even is this? I thought “Venom Wars #1” would be enough in the search bar to get me the comic to read about Venom.
I’m not even sure what “Venom Wars” is, but I assume it’s Venom, having some kind of war from Venom’s perspective with Spiderman, or maybe Carnage. Or whomever. But I assume it’s a story told through Venom/Eddies perspective. But where do I start? I assumed #1 would be the start of the story.
And now I’m overwhelmed, and don’t know what is going on.
So I just read Seperation Anxiety. It was a 4 part series from 1995. But the pages said “Copyright Marvel 2016”.
So I’m even more confused.
But that story wasn’t self contained. It STARTED with Eddie Brock looking like Aquaman for some reason. And he’s in a pod, already in jail. His symbiot already seperated from him. But they made references to what he did in the past, with little astricts like “if you want to read THIS story, check out comic number 574” or whatever. In the first issue, there were three astricts referencing three different series.
So apperently to read any comic, I guess you need to start in 1940s, and then read thousands.
Are there any comics where venom has a clear start to the story, and a clear end, and its all self contained?
Start here, go in order, the issue numbers make sense, and it’s X number of issues long. Thats the end.
And if someone wants to make a sequal, they can, but again, self contained.
Am I asking too much? Or am I just too inexperienced to know where to look?
Do you have any reccomendations?
That copy of Separation Anxiety was probably published in 2016.
There are an almost infinite amount of stories. Especially in the early-mid 90s. The editors liked to make sure there was some level of continuity and those little asterisks ( *read about this in xxxxx) are mainly a way for people to understand there’s more to read.
It’s not necessarily essential, you typically will just assume what has happened elsewhere, and comic subtext was NOT subtle (especially in the 80s and 90s!), sometimes the character will just completely summarise that plot from elsewhere in a thought bubble.
But it can lead you down a rabbit hole of linking a bunch of different books and stories together.
So they re-publish older comics (in this case, 21 years older) at later dates? Are there any differences between the new ones and the originals? Do they update things to keep in line with things that may not have existed 21 years prior? Or is it essentially a literal copy/paste/publish kind of thing?
From time to time they do reprint old famous runs. Back in 2019 they did a reprint of Hulk #181 (maybe 180 too) the first appearance of Wolverine. Throughout much of 2019 they did these really famous issues and runs at $1 an issue. Iirc they even kept the original adverts in them. Basically nothing changed, just making older stuff more accessible to newer readers.
So I recently saw Deadpool vs Wolferine. I was just in the mall, buying shoes, and the thing is, size 15s are VERY hard to find in person. But I insist on doing things in person. So I expected to have to go to a shitload of stores. DXL is my usual source, but their selection was just atrocious, so the next week I decided to make a day of it. Literally the first store I walked into had shoes in my size. What I expected to be a 6 hour soul sucking time actually took 15 minutes. As I walk out of the shoe store, there’s a theater in the mall.
Innitially I was just going to buy some popcorn, because I wanted some theater style popcorn. Then I saw Wolferine vs Deadpool was playing. Didn’t even know that was a thing. I figured “Hell, I got free time. I don’t have any shoes to buy. My whole day is free. Fuck it, lets see this thing.”
Here’s what’s important to note here. I never saw any of the X-Men movies. I never saw any of the deadpool movies. I never saw any of the movies that would be considered important to see before this one. So for me, a LOT of the references, and cameos, and whatnot all went right over my head. I later learned the guy they got to play Gambit in the movie was actually a really big deal. I was just like “Hey, cool, it’s Gambit.”
So now, you saying that Wolferine first appeared in The Hulk comics makes me wonder if that brief moment they showed Wolferine fighting The Hulk was a nod to that, or if the flashback really was a flashback to something from a previous movie.
Personally I wish Deadpool had picked the 5’3 Wolferine. I’m pretty sure that’s what he’s supposed to actually be anyways in the comics. If we’re going to have a non-canon wolferine, and if the actor is ACTUALLY 5’3, that just seems like a win-win for everyone involved.
Also, did Wolferine SERIOUSLY never wear a superhero costume before THIS movie??? Isn’t there like 4 X-Men movies, and then like 5 more Wolferine solo movies??? And he NEVER wore a yellow/blue superhero costume until the final battle of THIS movie. And it’s not even the “real” wolferine. SERIOUSLY??? HOW??? JUST HOW???
Also, what the hell was the head agency doing allowing a guy to build an existance destroying machine, and they didn’t even KNOW??? And then they come in at the end like “Ok, what happened here?” I’m in the theater thinking “YOU NOT DOING YOUR JOB, THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED HERE!!!” They’re supposed to oversee all the different existence agencies to make sure everything goes swimmingly, and they just trust some guy on his word, and leave him unsupervised indefinately until they come a wisker away from ending all existances everywhere??? Oh NOW you want to walk in, and act like you run the show? Pssshhhhh!!! I work at an airport, and I get my badge checked dozens of times a day to make sure I belong wherever I am. And all I do is push people in wheelchairs! You expect me to believe this agency is tasked with ensuring the safety of the very concept of existence, and they’re just like “Yeah, we’ll check in on you…never.”
Sorry. I’m ranting. It’s just I saw that movie last weekend, and I don’t know anyone who cares about anything super hero related. I have a casual interest, but you know how it is when you walk out of a movie. First thing you want to do is talk about it. Well, I haven’t been able to for about 10 days now. So this is like the pressure in the kettle coming out.
Whew. Ok. Rant over. You just reminded me of a brief 10 second shot from a movie, and all THAT came out. Yes. It was a lot. Sorry.
Yes, the Wolverine vs Hulk scene was a nod to Wolvie’s first appearance.
No Wolverine has never worn a comic accurate suit prior to Deadpool and Wolverine. There were the black suits from the X-Men movies. But nothing comic accurate.
Yes Logan is 5’3” in the comics. There were rumors they would show that through movie magic, like was done in the Lord of the Rings. John Rhys Davies is the tallest of the actors, but plays one of the shortest. I always felt the height was not an issue in the movies. Plus it got rid of the little man short fuse stereotype. Logan was just a cranky old bastich.
They don’t change it. It’s just re-printing to keep popular storylines available.