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The Venom Saga

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"The Venom Saga"

"The Alien Costume" is the only three-part episode from season 1 of the animated series Spider-Man. Venom was Spider-Man's most popular villain at the time this episode aired.[4] Originally this was going to be a two part episode, however, the fans wanted to see more of the black costume, so a new part 2 was added into the middle of the episodes.[5]

Summary

"The Alien Costume, Part One"

John Jameson and fellow astronaut Paul Stevens discover a rock known as "Promethium X", which is said to be more powerful than plutonium. Unknown to the astronaut though, Promethium X also contains a mysterious element which manages to break free and tries to consume the two Astronauts. The space shuttle crashes on Manhattan Bridge, near the Hudson river where Rhino is sent by The Kingpin to steal the Promethium X. Spider-Man arrives on the scene and manages to save Jameson and his fellow astronaut, yet unknown to Spider Man, Eddie Brock is on the bridge too, and takes photos of him (and Rhino as well). However, when Jonah arrives on the scene, Eddie uses propaganda and frames Spider-Man for stealing something from the shuttle, which leads to a $1 Million dollar bounty on Spider Man's head. However, Eddie fails to mention to have seen Rhino at the scene also. Meanwhile, at home, Peter throws his costume in the garbage, as it is now useless to him. However, when he returned from the crash site, his suit carried what appeared to be "rich, thick, and creamy" Hudson River pollution. When Peter went to bed, the substance oozed over him and began to give him a nightmare...and when he woke up, he found himself hanging from a building in a costume he had never seen before! This costume enhances Spider-Man's abilities. Meanwhile, Kingpin needed to gain some materials to test the power of Promethium X, he sent the Rhino to gain the necessary materials for his machine. Spider-Man managed to stop him, but almost lost himself to the power and tries to kill the Rhino. He eventually had to retreat back to the city, and ponder how the suit is changing him.

"The Alien Costume, Part Two"

The story continues where it last left off, with the whole city hunting Spider-Man for Jonah's $1 million bounty. Spider-Man manages to fight them off until he is shot with a Sonic Blaster device, which weakens him. Despite this, Spider-Man manages to escape, and focuses his attention on Eddie Brock and Jonah Jameson and warns him to call off his reward, also mentioning Rhino and how Brock neglected to mention him. After Jonah visits his hospitalized son, Jameson finds out from him that Brock was lying and fires him. He also calls off the manhunt for Spider-Man.

Noticing another disturbing change in his behavior, Spider-Man seeks the assistance of Doctor Curt Connors, who studies the suit and realizes that it is a Symbiote. Spider-Man then uses the symbiote's powers to find a clue in Eddie's apartment, only to run into the Shocker, sent by The Kingpin to destroy the evidence Brock has of the crash site. The two fight, and Shocker gains the advantage, and flees, but Spider-Man follows him. Following Shocker leads him to Alistair Smythe and the Promethium X, which Spider-Man steals. Kingpin and Shocker form a plan to kidnap John Jameson in an attempt to gain the Promethium X back. Using John as bait, they manage to lure Spider-Man, to an old church. There the Shocker attacks Spider-Man, but is defeated. Eddie Brock tries to intervene, but is webbed up for his efforts. With Shocker at the mercy of Spider-Man, he begs for his life as Spider-Man is about to push him to his death. Spider-Man's conscience gets to him and he relents, only to have the symbiote push Shocker off the belltower, but Spider-Man uses two web lines to save him. Spider-Man, remembering how the symbiote was unusually weakened when he was earlier attacked with a Sonic Blaster, realizes that it is particularly sensitive to loud noises. Spiderman then uses the church bells and the noise weakens the symbiote, and it sloughs off Peter and slinks weakly away. Peter Parker leaves, relieved to be away from the symbiote. Back at the Kingpin's headquarters, Smythe discovers why Spiderman was so willing to trade the dangerous Promethium X back to them: as it turns out, Promethium X has an extremely short half-life, and in a matter of days it has already decayed into a harmless lump of lead.

At end of the episode, the symbiote finds a new host - Eddie Brock.

File:Smvenom-10.png
Venom captures Spider-Man in webbing and takes off his mask and tries to show his face to the media standing below.

"The Alien Costume, Part Three"

Spider-Man had returned to his old costume. He soon came across The Rhino and The Shocker. While Spider-Man was able to easily defeat The Rhino, The Shocker managed to get the upper hand. However, an unknown 'ally' arrived and defeated the two villains himself. The new 'ally' proved to be Eddie Brock, who revealed himself as 'Venom'.

Spider-Man attempted to reason with Brock, but Venom webbed up Spider-Man and removed the hero's mask high over a crowded street. Venom allowed Spider-Man to live, haunting his every step. Venom ruined a date with Mary Jane and menaced Spider-Man's aunt, so Spider-Man decided to fight back. He put some archives newspaper pages, featuring Brock's firing of Daily Bugle. He set a trap for the villain near the launch of a space shuttle. The noise from the rocket's afterburners forced the symbiote off of Brock, and Spider-Man webbed the creature to the rocket. The symbiote was blasted into space, and Eddie Brock was imprisoned at Ravencroft Asylum.

At the episode's conclusion, Spider-Man (as Peter Parker) and Mary Jane regard the night sky and wonder what else might be up there. Venom's menacing face appears on the moon.

Production

There were a lot of problems with bringing the Venom on TV, mainly because everybody, the producers, network, writers, artists, had different ideas for the Venom story.[4] Len Wein wrote the first draft, but it ended up being thrown out and starting from scratch.[5] Later everyone sat down in a meeting and came up with a scene by scene plot for the show.[4] The show took a different approach in bringing the alien costume to earth from the comic books. In this episode the alien costume is brought by a shuttle, while in the comics, Spider-Man first wore the symbiote during the Secret Wars storyline on an alien planet called Battleworld[4][6], and later brought back to Earth.[1][7] The ending of part 2 is loosely based on Web of Spider-Man # 1,[8] in which, Spider-Man removes the symbiote costume using the loud noise created by a church bell.[9] The symbiote flees and merges with Eddie Brock, transforming him into Venom. This is a direct adaptation of the comics storyline.[10]

John Semper took the idea of Eddie Brock following Spider-Man on a train in part 3 from Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" like Robert Walker did in that movie.[5] Promethium is an actual element.[11]

First appearances

Part 1 introduces John Jameson, The Rhino, and also introduces Spider-Man's black costume, which is later learned to be a living alien symbiote, which attaches itself to Peter Parker. This is the first time Dr. Curt Connors is used as a supporting character rather than an antagonist (in his Lizard persona). [1] In part 2, the Shocker also makes his first appearance into the show.[2] This storyline was Eddie Brock's official first appearance as Venom in the Animated Series.[3]

In other media

The scene where Spider-Man is sleeping and the symbiote bonds with him and when he wakes up, looks in the reflection of a window at a skyscraper and sees his black alien costume for the first time was also later adapted for the film Spider-Man 3.[12] In the comics, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four is the one who discovered that the black and white Spider-Man costume is an alien symbiote. However, because of Marvel's policy of not having their characters crossover in the movies, it was changed to Dr. Curt Connors making the discovery. This is also later used in Spider-Man 3.[12][13][14]

Reception

The Alien Costume story was adapted into book format by Paul Cockburn and published later in 1996 by Sapling. [15] The story was also adapted in the comic book "Spider-Man Adventures #8-10", in which the story of this episode was retold.[16][17][18]

Cast

Main cast

Major Cast

References

  • Cockburn, Paul (1996). The alien costume. United States: Sapling. ISBN 9780752201627.
  • Spider-Man: The Venom Saga [DVD]. Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

notes

  1. ^ a b c "Alien Costume part one". marvel.toonzone.net. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
  2. ^ a b "Alien Costume part two". marvel.toonzone.net. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
  3. ^ a b "Alien Costume part three". marvel.toonzone.net. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
  4. ^ a b c d "Berkowitz Interview". marvel.toonzone.net. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  5. ^ a b c "John Semper interview about symbiotes". marvel.toonzone.net. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
  6. ^ "Secret Wars #8". spiderfan.org. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  7. ^ "Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #252". spiderfan.org. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  8. ^ "The Alien Costume part 2 @ bcdb.com". Big Cartoon Database. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  9. ^ "Web of Spider-Man #1". spiderfan.org. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  10. ^ "Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #300". spiderfan.org. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  11. ^ "Jefferson Labs Element table". education.jlab.org. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  12. ^ a b "Spider-Man 3 trivia". imdb.com. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
  13. ^ Spider-Man 3
  14. ^ Spider-Man: The Venom Saga DVD
  15. ^ The alien costume By Paul Cockburn
  16. ^ "Spider-Man Adventures #8". The Big Comic Book Database. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  17. ^ "Spider-Man Adventures #9". The Big Comic Book Database. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  18. ^ "Spider-Man Adventures #10". The Big Comic Book Database. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
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