Top products from r/thevenomsite

Well, if you want to go chronologically, the following list should help and get you up to date. The sad thing is that I'm sure more then a few of these are out of print. Anyways...

Spider-Man:Birth of Venom: A TPB with all the issues leading up to Venom's first appearance as well as his first couple showdowns with Spider-Man.

The Vengeance of Venom: A continuation of Venom's appearances in Spider-Man. Classic Venom fun. It also leads right into...

Spider-Man:Carnage: The first appearance of Carnage. Even for symbiote stories, this is a good one. As fun as they still are, this is Venom and Carnage at their purest, and it makes for great reading.

Amazing Spider-Man #374/375:Couldn't find the TPB for these, but it's a Venom milestone comic. I won't spoil anything, but it's good. Read it.

Venom Lethal Protector: Venom's first mini-series, and arguably the best. More or less a direct continuation of ASM #374/375.

Maximum Carnage: The return of Carnage, and Venom's there too. Nuff said.

After this there were a ton of Venom mini-series, some good, some kind of sucky. A few of the better one's are below. Carnage is in there too a little. It should be noted that while stuff happens in the other mini-series, there's nothing at the end of the day that really matters. Nothing important. This is all more or less in order btw.

Venom: Funeral Pyre

Venom: Separation Anxiety

Venom: Carnage Unleashed

Venom VS Carnage

After all this, we get back into Spider-Man. At this point, for reasons I won't spoil, Eddie gives up the suit and it goes somewhere else. It's a great read, and for way more then just Venom.

Spider-man

Theeen...I'm not quite sure for a bit. Stuff happens, but I haven't read it. Jump forward to Civil War however (if you don't know what that is, you will soon.) and we have Venom on a government sponsored team, the Thunderbolts. Full warning, this series does kind of kill Venom's character a little bit. The series itself however, is so freaking good. Seriously. It's all collected below.

Thunderbolts by Warren Ellis

Thunderbolts: Secret Invasion

Thunderbolts: Burning House

To continue, I'm going to have to spoil something. Turn back now if you don't want to know (you already have plenty of reading).




Venom becomes an Avenger. Kind of. It's all below.

Dark Avengers Vol 1

Dark Avengers Vol 2

Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia

Siege. This a an event book, that ties directly to the Dark Avengers.

Dark Avengers: Siege


This brings us up to the current series, which personally I think is one of the best things to happen to Venom in a very long time. Minor spoilers again to follow.

The government finally thinks to force apart Venom from it's host when he's incarcerated, and has the bright idea to use the symbiote as a super soldier. Who they pick is well, kind of brilliant. It's all collected below, and with a few small exceptions makes for great reading.

Venom Vol 1

Spider Island. An event that Venom ties in with directly.

Venom #9 isn't in any of the trades, but it's a great issue. Also has one of the coolest covers.

Venom: Circle of Four

Venom: The Savage Six

Venom: Devil's Pack


Meanwhile, Carnage has been having some fun of his own. In two totally awesome mini-series, both by the same creative team.

Carnage: Family Feud

Carnage USA

This all adds up in the Venom/Scarlet Spider crossover event Minimum Carnage. Not the best, but still fun stuff.

Minimum Carnage

Aaaand, back to Venom. There's Venom #28-30, but I can't find the trade for it anywhere. It's good fun, and def worth looking for.

Venom: Toxin with a Vengeance. This one gets a special mention on account of how great it is. Not only is it a great jumping on point, but it's one of the best arcs in the entire series. Seriously. It just came out in trades so it should be easy to find.

After that is just the current arc that's finishing up (the trade doesn't come out until January 7th )

There's also currently a Carnage series going on called Superior Carnage. Personally I like it, but it's getting mixed reception from people here at r/TVS.

Happy Reading.

EDIT: Totally forgot about Anti-Venom, although others seem to be on it.

Venom Vol 1

In addition to what Biz recommended, I would also suggest Venom vs Spider-Man. It is cheaper than the Birth trade and has all of the important issues of Venom's origin.

Spider-Man Carnage is also a 'must have' as it is the origin of Carnage.

Finally, you can check out the Venom checklist on TVS to find other stories you are interested in. Hope that helps!!

I'm gonna basically copy/paste the recs I gave to a similar question about a month ago, but should be helpful to you as well:

IMHO I think the best way to get started is to use some TPBs. I don't know if that's financially feasible, but you can always score them either used or go through ComixOlogy to get things 50-70% less. Orion's list is immensely helpful, but I understand if you don't know what things are redundant or which collections are better to get.

Spider-Man: Birth of Venom (https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Birth-Venom-Jim-Shooter/dp/0785124985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516558401&sr=8-1&keywords=Spider-Man+Birth+of+Venom) will get you through all the scattered early appearances of the symbiote and Venom, though I'd say a good half of the book is just Spider-Man in the black costume.

Next up would be Spider-Man: The Vengeance of Venom (https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Vengeance-Venom-David-Michelinie/dp/0785157603/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516558621&sr=8-1&keywords=spider-man+the+vengeance+of+venom). When I was a kid I actually just got Spider-Man: Venom Returns ( https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Venom-Returns-Marvel-comics/dp/0871359669/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1516558401&sr=8-2&keywords=Spider-Man+Birth+of+Venom) also out of print but strangely cheaper, and also has less comics collected in it.

OR you could just pick up the Complete Alien Costume Saga, which is split into 2 parts (https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Complete-Alien-Costume-Saga/dp/0785188673/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516558998&sr=1-1&keywords=Spider-Man%3A+The+Complete+Alien+Costume+Saga). I'm not personally familiar with it, but it seems to collect basically the same comics as the other two.

Then you can definitely pick up the Lethal Protector TBP (https://www.amazon.com/Venom-Lethal-Protector-David-Michelinie/dp/0785158472/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516559535&sr=1-1&keywords=venom+lethal+protector).

Unfortunately for most of the mini-series stuff, you have to just buy the individual comics. The minis I personally feel would be worth your time are:

Separation Anxiety (which is technically also available as a TPB: https://www.amazon.com/Venom-Separation-Anxiety-Carl-Potts/dp/1302901729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516559656&sr=1-1&keywords=venom+separation+anxiety)

Venom: Sinner Takes All

Venom: Along Came A Spider

Venom: The Hunger

Venom: License To Kill

That will get you started with most of the 80s-90s Eddie Brock classic Venom stuff. I'm not gonna say it's not worth it to check out the other stories, but maybe start with these and if you like what you read, then you can go back in and fill in the gaps. I tracked down all the stuff on Orion's list and read through it over a few months to fill in my gaps from when I was younger (because back then there wasn't such a thing as digital comics, so I literally just read what I could find in back issues at my LCS).

During the 2000s-2010s things get a little more scattered, since the symbiote moves to different hosts. If you literally want to read all the symbiote's travels you basically have to follow Orion's list :-/ From Gargan's run Sinister Spider-Man is basically the only thing you need to read to 'get' his version of Venom. Flash's run is great (Venom Vol. 2) and also conveniently collected in TPBs, along with Venom: Space Knight.

From there you can ease into the current Venom run, and then they're rebooting the series in May and allegedly that will help newbies "hop on" to the reading train. Unfortunately Western comics are confusing as hell (unlike most Manga series) so it's kind of awkward when you're not just like, accustomed to it. Like you described, I got into Spider-Man when I was like, 8 years old and then quickly got attached to Venom more than Spidey. Then I got sucked down the comics tube, so I'm kind of used to the way the stupid numbering and rebooting and crossover-ing is at this point.

Here you go! ELEGOO Mars UV Photocuring LCD 3D... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K2ZHMRF?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I get your point. I'm saying that even considering that, it was done poorly. There have been several other instances where the symbiote has been its own character (which I too find enjoyable), the most recent of which was Robbie Thompson's Spaceknight series.

The way Costa portrays the symbiote, though, is completely incongrous with virtually everything published before his run. It might as well be an entirely different creature, as he severly misunderstands it. Costa can't even be bothered to look up its power set. And he is terribly inconsistent in his own series. Sometimes the symbiote can read the hosts memories/mind... sometimes it can't (despite never having an issue with this in any other story). Just whatever the plot demands at any given time, instead of finding interesting ways to write around those things.

For the record, the Venom symbiote has always been very, very susceptible to fire. Carnage, while still weakened by both, has a higher resistance to both fire and sonics due to being born on Earth.

You should really read both Separation Anxiety (there was a new trade just recently published with it, which also includes The Exile Returns, another excellent Venom story) and the original 90s Planet of the Symbiotes (here is the symbiote's original origin story). The symbiote gets a ton of characterization in both. Again, this is also true for The Hunger (don't get it confused with Paul Jenkins' abysmal "The Hunger" story from Spectacular Spider-Man vol 2 #1-5).

A sample from Separation Anxiety: http://imgur.com/AUm7rGS