As Spider-Man continues to search for Aunt May, things go from bad to worse for the wall-crawler! Everyone's favorite symbiote, Venom, is back - as only Millar and Dodson could envision him. Hold on to your spit, there's a beatdown coming for at least one guy with a spider on his chest! Featuring Black Cat, Venom, Doctor Octopus, and the X-Men.

Collects Marvel Knights Spider-Man #5-8.
Paperback: 96 pages
Publisher: Marvel

"Venomous" presents issues #5-8 for the second volume of the "Marvel Knights Spider-Man" trade paperback collections. The problem is that Aunt May is missing having been kidnapped by an old foe who has learned Spider-Man's secret identity and is out to get him and get him good. Following a wild goose chase engineered by the Owl that had him tangling with both the Vulture and Electro, Spider-Man ended up in the hospital where a picture of him with the lower half of his face exposed by his tattered mask is on the front page of the "Daily Bugle." Smelling blood in the water, J. Jonah Jameson is offering $5 million to anyone who identifies the man in the picture and reveals Spider-Man's secret identity. The Black Cat is helping Spider-Man, but Mary Jane does not like the Felicity Hardy hanging around her husband.

As you can tell from the title Venom is going to show up in this one, but first Spider-Man has to tangle with a drug-addled Doctor Octopus, a NYPD SWAT team, and Norman Osborn. This requires a visit to the Xavier Institute for some psychic help in finding Aunt May, but the news is not good. Add to that the Parkers's money problems and the fact that somebody is experimenting on his old foes, Spider-Man is about ready to crack (and this is before Venom actually shows up). Fortunately a coffee break can help clear the webs, but the next thing you know Peter Parker's old classmates are trying to give him a wedgie at his high school reunion and then things get really bad.

Millar and artists Frank Cho and Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson are heaping a lot of bad times on Spider-Man but in an intricately structured way. Consequently, things do not start spiraling out of controlling but just keep pilling on Spider-Man. Aunt May's fate still being on the back burner is the only significant weakness, because he really would crack under all that pressure by the time we get to the end of this four-part story. But overall "Venomous" delivers a nice on-going nightmare for the web-head and a solid story. Plus, there is a nice punch-line as Peter Parker comes up with a way to get JJJ off of Spider-Man's back. Okay, it would not really work once JJJ stops to think about it, but it is still a nice little joke.

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