Of all of the limited series starring Venom in the ‘90s, Venom: Separation Anxiety is probably the most well known among the general populace. That has more to do with the video game that adopted the name than the actual comic, but it’s recognition nonetheless!
Unlike the previous limited series covered as part of this retrospective, Venom: Separation Anxiety was not merely a continuation of the story told in the previous series. Instead, this spun out of a four-part arc in Spider-Man and Web of Spider-Man called “The Exile Returns” that was published at the end of 1994.
As we all know by now, Spider-Man and Venom have called a truce and are no longer enemies due to the events of Amazing Spider-Man #374-375 in 1993. This is what made these limited series starring Venom possible in the first place. Despite only being a year ago, Spider-Man’s comic book status quo had radically changed by 1994 as a little thing now known as “The Clone Saga” had begun. I’ve already covered this era at length, so I won’t be doing a deep dive into it here. The important thing to note for our purposes is that Ben Reilly (the clone of Peter Parker) had just adopted the mantle of the Scarlet Spider and was going to try his hand at being a superhero in New York City. His first adventure as Scarlet Spider? Taking down Venom. Spider-Man may have a truce with Venom, but Scarlet Spider never made any such deal. This was basically the perfect excuse to pit the heir apparent to Spider-Man against his most popular villain of the decade.
The story was told in Web of Spider-Man #118-119 by Terry Kavanagh and Steven Butler and Spider-Man #52-53 by Howard Mackie and Tom Lyle. I’m going to be totally honest here: this comic is dope.
The story is a classic case of misunderstandings. Scarlet Spider views Venom as a typical murderous villain, so he decides to take him down. Venom views Scarlet Spider as a Spider-Man imposter who is hassling him, so he decides to murder him. Whoopsie. The two engage in pitched battles across the city that gets interrupted when Scream shows up seeking Venom’s help with controlling her symbiote. Scream is one of the Life Foundation symbiotes who was believed to have been killed at the conclusion of Venom: Lethal Protector. Instead of assisting her, Venom decides to try and murder her too. Double whoopsie.
The story ultimately concludes when Scarlet Spider fires some impact webbing (a brand new invention that’s basically a web pellet that bursts into a bunch of webbing upon impact) into Venom’s mouth which somehow forces the symbiote off of Eddie Brock. This allows the authorities to arrest Eddie and put the symbiote into containment. Also, Kaine shows up briefly, but that isn’t important right now. The point is that Eddie and the symbiote are suddenly separated and in custody, and now we can see what happens to them in Venom: Separation Anxiety.
Venom: Separation Anxiety was a four-issue limited series by Howard Mackie and Ron Randall that ran from 1994-95. The premise is pretty simple: Eddie Brock is locked up and being studied at a facility in New Mexico while the symbiote is locked up and being studied at a facility in New York. They’re both pretty bummed out about their respective situations as you might expect. The situation is further complicated when all five of the Life Foundation symbiotes (Scream, Riot, Phage, Agony, and Lasher) that were previously thought dead show up in New Mexico to free Eddie Brock.
They apparently all believe that Eddie can teach them to control their symbiotes and become heroes (despite Venom literally trying to brutally murder one of them in the last story). Seems like this might be a bad plan. Regardless, they’ve broken Eddie out of his cell and are looking to him for guidance as the first issue concludes.
The second issue picks up with the symbiote trying to come up with a plan to escape its own containment and find its way back to Eddie. I really want to spotlight penciler Ron Randall, inker Sam de la Rosa, and colorist Tom Smith with the way they portray the symbiote in this story. It’s slightly anthropomorphic while still having a goopy texture. It’s also colored black with some blue highlights as opposed to blue with black highlights as was popular at the time. It’s a really cool look. The way the symbiote escapes is arguably the highlight of the series. I suspect Mackie took some inspiration from The Silence of the Lambs because the symbiote essentially escapes by slaughtering the guards and then catching a ride by hiding on one of the wounded being taken away by paramedics. It’s metal as hell.
While that’s happening, Eddie is being a total dick to the Life Foundation symbiotes who freed him. He wants absolutely nothing to do with them.
The third issue introduces a new subplot: someone is now murdering the Life Foundation symbiotes one by one with a sonic knife (I have no idea what a sonic knife is or how it works) and making it look like Eddie is the culprit. Agony is the first to go, and Phage isn’t far behind. It’s an…odd subplot. I find it a bit underwhelming to reveal that the Life Foundation symbiotes are alive just to start killing them off one at a time without Venom getting a chance to fight them. While that subplot may be underwhelming, the symbiote’s trek across the country in search of Eddie is fantastic. It attaches itself to random individuals who are in trouble and helps them to fight off attackers along its journey. It provides for some fun action sequences.
The final issue reveals that Scream is the one killing the other Life Foundation symbiotes. She has completely lost her mind under the belief that all symbiotes are evil and must die. That includes her friends, Venom, and eventually herself. Yikes. She swiftly murders Riot and Lasher, and she moves to kill Eddie as well. You’ll never guess what happens next. That’s right! The symbiote shows up just in time to bond with Eddie once more and become Venom.
Needless to say, Scream is in big trouble. Venom promptly beats the holy hell out of her, and he flees into the night just as the authorities arrive. Scream and the remaining symbiotes are taken into custody (even though the hosts for the other four are now dead). The issue concludes with Eddie and the symbiote having a bit of a chat about the future of their relationship together.
Overall I think Venom: Separation Anxiety is one of the strongest limited series from the ‘90s. Mackie clearly has a strong grasp on how to write the character at this point, and it’s fun to see him write the inner monologues of Eddie and the symbiote separately. The symbiote’s solo adventure as it tries to find Eddie is definitely the highlight of the series. I also really enjoy the art team of Randall, de la Rosa, and Smith. Their Venom is reminiscent of the Erik Larsen design, and the coloring looks much more modern compared with other Marvel produced comics at the time (just comparing these pages with the ones from Spider-Man and Web of Spider-Man in the story directly preceding them is pretty stark). My one nitpick is just that the Life Foundation symbiotes felt very disposable, and they could have been fun as recurring Venom villains.
The next limited series features Venom’s greatest villain, but it isn’t in the way you might expect.