Russell T Davies once talked about how, when writing the character of the Doctor in Doctor Who, the temptation is to pile on the quirks, overloading him with strangeness upon strangeness. Wisely Davies pointed out that this is a guy with two hearts who roams through space and time in an anachronistic oddity – that’s enough to be going on with. It’s a similar story with Venom. Up to this point he’s been a fairly simple character, an ultraviolent symbiote bonded with people who hate Spider-Man. With this version there’s quirk upon quirk. He’s bonded with Flash Thompson, who all but worships Spider-Man. Thompson is a paraplegic thanks to a war accident. He’s working for the CIA, a fact of which his partner’s unaware. And, due to their limited control over the symbiote there’s a button that’ll kill symbiote and host if they’re bonded for more than 24 hours straight. It’s a pretty long list to work with before writer or artist boots their computer up.

Fortunately this first volume’s fast moving and funny enough to distract the reader from contrivances. Much of it’s playing on the shopping list as you’d expect – there’s a mission that goes on just a touch too long, an encounter with Spidey and relationship issues in the background. And of course the usual superhuman punch-ups. It’s a fine example of a modern superhero comic which ensures that while there’s plenty of angsty material there the priority’s always to keep the reader entertained. ( )