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.