Comics Where should I start? (Venom questions)

[Cannibal Feast]

I'm usually more a fan of DC comics and not too knowledgeable with Marvel. I love all the Marvel movies but don't know much about the comics. I find it hard to figure out where to jump in and not feel totally lost because there are so many different titles. But now, with Spider-Man 3 coming out, I am really interested and curious about Venom. I know the basic story of how he came to be and everything, but I've never read any of the books. So please tell me, are there collected volumes I can get to familiarize myself with the character and hopefully get caught up enough to start reading the monthly comics.
Stories I would be interested to read...
Venom's origin and anything that was a good Venom story-arc.
The origin of Carnage and any good Carnage/Venom stories.

Thank you in advance.

 

[CConn]

The TPBs collecting most of Venom and Carnage's early appearances are mostly out of print, I think, so your best bet would probably be to buy the 40 years of Spider-Man CD-ROM, and read these issues:

Amazing Spider-Man #298-300, 315-317, 330-333, 344-347, and 359-363.

There's also the Maximum Carnage and Venom vs. Carnage TPBs. Both of which are in print at the moment, I believe.

 

[DarkArachknight]

also check out The Saga of the Alien Costume (ASM 252-258)

Secret Wars #8 (the first time spidey gets the symbiote)

and Web of Spider-Man #1 (the last time spidey has the symbiote) <---(great issue)

 

[Cannibal Feast]

Cool. Thanks for the replies.
I guess now it's off to eBay to try to find this stuff!

 

[E.Brock]

Lethal protector is venom's first mini series and where you first see him acting as a hero if your interested

 

[deepex]

definitely recommend getting the Saga of the Alien costume. That was around the time I first started reading ASM and highly recommend it.

 

[Darkest Knight]

Wait, Venom calls himself the "Lethal Protector"...

Is Venom a good guy or a bad guy? I thought he was like a vicious murdering version of Spider-Man.

 

[Spade]

Wait, Venom calls himself the "Lethal Protector"...

Is Venom a good guy or a bad guy? I thought he was like a vicious murdering version of Spider-Man.

Depends; the original incarnation just had him attacking Peter. He didn't attack anyone else. It was like a perversion of street justice- essentially, Brock only saw Peter as the one in the wrong and solely wanted revenge on him. In later books (a mistake, in my opinion) he turned into an anti-hero who actively helped people as opposed to just ignoring them, and saved who he deemed innocent. The murderous element was injected in as the definition of people Brock deemed 'innocents' became murky; if you were remotely involved in a wrongdoing, you could just as easily be offed by Venom with a brain-slurping to boot. Over the years he's teetered between neutral superpower, anti-hero and murderer status.

So, to respond- it can be anything the writer deems appropriate.

 

[ragingdemon155]

I also preferred when Venom was fixated on Spider-man and only Spider-man. I loved when they would just throw down.

To see an absolute slugfest between the two check out issues 374-375 drawn by Bagley. Beautifully drawn fight between the two with Spider-man commenting through out how he wishes Venom would just leave him alone and having no clue what to do.

Venom ignited more fear in Spider-man then any other villain. I'm not saying he was the greatest even though I feel he had the potential for that before Marvel completely destroyed the character.