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(More customer reviews)After buying the Doc Ock installment of Fox's Spider-Man cartoon on DVD, I noticed it contained a promo for "The Venom Saga" coming in Winter 2004. I had been looking forward to it as the three-part "Alien Costume" story arc was what got me interested in the show (and Spider-Man in general) back when I was a lad in 1994. But, Winter 2004 came and went leaving no Venom in its wake. I had completely forgotten about it until just yesterday when I saw it on the impulse-buy shelf at the checkout counter at my local supermarket. I have no idea what caused the delay; at first I wondered if the distributor wanted to hold the release until the next movie (see my review of the Essential Spectacular Spider-Man for a similar gripe). Regardless, the Venom Saga is here now and it includes probably the best episodes of the series currently on DVD.
The "Alien Costume" series features some of the finest supervillains and super-anxieties that you're likely to see Spider-Man face, in this cartoon or any other media. In it, Spidey rescues J.J. Jameson's astronaut son from a downed space shuttle, hoping to receive some real accolades from his alter ego's boss for a change. However, due to some serious yellow journalism from Parker's rival photog, Eddie Brock, Spidey is framed for stealing the highly fissionable alien material Prometheum X from the shuttle and ol' sourpuss puts out a million dollar pricetag on him instead. The Prometheum is actually in the big, meaty hands of the Kingpin who, along with his science advisor Alistair Smythe and his two costumed gunnies, Rhino and the Shocker, is hoping to sell the extraterrestrial WMD to some ski-mask wearing terrorists (seriously). Meanwhile, Peter has unknowingly gained something else than grief from his latest mission: an amorphous alien symbiont that chooses Peter as its new host. Assuming the shape of a svelte black and white "costume", the creature greatly augments Spider-Man's powers, giving him increased strength and speed, natural organic webbing, and the ability to look like Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry whenever he wants. Before too long, Spidey is swatting bounty hunters aside left and right and bearing down on the Kingpin's little racket with the greatest of ease, although a gradual shift in his personality towards ruthlessness, nay, murderousness starts to occur. Realizing that the symbiont will eventually turn him into a bloodthirsty monster, Peter manages to shake it off for good, although it goes on to find Eddie Brock and that's were this disc's title character enters the picture. Venom is like Spider-Man's spurned friend turned mortal enemy. He has all of Spidey's powers and knows his true identity, and he can even slide under his previously infallable spider sense. How will Spider-Man be able to halt this new deadly (and evenly-matched) menace before Venom spills the beans to Mary Jane and Aunt May? You know he will, of course, but how?
It would be two more seasons before Venom showed his Gene Simmons-esque tongue again in the "Venom and Carnage" two-parter, and "The Venom Saga" has that covered as well. In this one, Spidey recruits Iron Man and War Machine to combat the two symbionts on the loose. That's right. During its time apart from Eddie, the Venom symbiont asexually spawned a "son" which later bonded with grade-A looney tune Cletus Kasady to create the razor-handed blood-red terror known as Carnage. Venom and Carnage's jailbreaks are spearheaded by Dr. Strange's nemesis Baron Mordo who needs the symbionts' help in bringing his hot-headed master Dormammu into our dimension. However, when Mordo prepares to sacrifice the soul of Brock's psychiatrist/girlfriend Dr. Ashley Kafka in the process, Venom becomes convinced to try playing the hero for a change. It's all quite a lot of conflict and characters to fit into two Saturday morning cartoons, and I'd say it works very well.
It's a good buy overall, however I have to say that all of these selected-episode discs are really starting to make me wish for the release of complete seasons on DVD. The stories on this disc would have been more fleshed out if I could have seen the episodes about Baron Mordo's original scheme and the pre-Venom Eddie Brock sooner than nine years ago. Marvel's "Distinguished Competition" is already doing that with Batman, Superman, and the Super Friends. Fortunately, I understand that the complete series of the Fantastic Four cartoon from the 90's is coming soon. Maybe we'll see a season set for Spider-Man once the next movie comes out (Am I starting to sound bitter from saying that so often?).
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Spider-Man - The Venom Saga (Animated Series) (1994)The Spider-Man(TM) legend continues with an epic battle against one of Spidey's greatest foes. When an alien element falls into the wrong hands, a lethal new criminal is unleashed. Experience all the high-flying animated action and spine-tingling excitement of this spectacular clash in SPIDER-MAN: THE VENOM(TM) SAGA. After rescuing the pilot of a space shuttle carrying two strange meteors, Spider-Man notices a black stain on his costume and a disturbing change in his behavior. Soon, the evil stain consumes his entire costume, and America's favorite Super Hero(TM) awakens to find himself on the run from both the authorities and his arch-enemies. Will Venom(TM) be the one to finally ground the Webslinger, or will Spider-Man be able to defeat this powerful new force?
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