Spider-Man:
Venom's Wrath
By
Keith R.A. DeCandido & Jose R. Nieto
This book reminded me of a classic Marvel
Team Up. This time it was Spider-Man meets Jimmy Smits and the
NYPD Blue. This was one entertaining novel. I found myself amazed
at how drawn in I was to this book right away. Infact I think I
read this book in a couple of days, which is very fast for me. It
usually takes me a couple of weeks. Because after a hard day at
work and school, sleep calls more than the next chapter. This
book however made me stay up till 3 am reading intently.
The basic premise of the novel is that Venom's wife, Joe
Robertson,and police Captain Estaban are kidnapped from a Puerto
Rican nationalist group titled "The Cane Cutters."
Venom, Spidey,and the NYPD try to track down these three with
their own methods. Venom's being the most violent.
This book had everything that the current comics are lacking.
Suspence, humor, tension etc, etc. One particuarly funny scene
was the police officers taking bets what race Spidey was. One
white cop suspected he was black, a black cop though he
was white. When Spidey raised his mask to sip some coffee the
white officer had to pay up. Good natured humor such as this is
another example of what's lacking in the main titles. In them we
have forced humor like "Spidey beats villian with a
beeper". Yeah right!
All in all I'm giving this book three and a half web heads out of
four. I'm taking a half off because at some points in the novel
it was hard to keep all the police officer's names straight.
Still a great read for Spider-fans.