This week's pick is Venom #27.1. This series has become my favorite Marvel comic. Flash Thompson, former bully and current best friend of Peter Parker, donning the Venom symbiote to fight evil. Not a bad concept. Especially given that the symbiote hates Peter Parker, or rather, it hates Spider-Man. There is so much potential for this version of the character given the history between Flash & Parker.
This issue deals with Flash confronting his past as a bully. Or maybe more like his past confronting him. Cullen Bunn does an incredible job of exploring the psyche of a bully at an adolescent age, and the effects it has on the victims and their future. At one point, Flash asks Peter just how bad he was in high school as a bully. And he lays it out on the line for him. No holds barred. Very emotional if you've been the victim of bullying. Parker wasn't always Spidey. So you get a sense of what life was like for him before the irradiated spider.
There's other comic book, superheroic stuff that happens in this issue regarding Daimon Hellstrom, demon possession, etc. But the real meat is the emotional story told of a bully trying to make up for his past sins and becoming a hero with all the odds against him (alcoholism, handicaps, emotional turmoil, etc.).
This is also a good jumping on point for the next arc as the hero heads to Philadelphia in issue #28.
Pick up Venom #27.1 at your local comic shop or on www.comixology.com.
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