Editor's Note: Venom: Dark Origin #1 arrives in stores tomorrow, August 6.

In the interests of transparency, I should start this review by admitting that I'm a big fan of Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie's 1980s run on Amazing Spider-Man, which introduced the character of Venom to the Spider-Man mythos. As such, the arrival of another mini-series featuring Spidey's symbiotic arch-nemesis doesn't fill me with the same kind of dread that it might inspire in other readers who don't have that nostalgic connection to the character. However, even I have to admit that Venom has suffered from severe over-exposure in the two decades since his introduction, and today's audiences are unlikely to be won over by the exaggerated artwork and thin stories that have characterised many of his previous miniseries.

With that kind of record of underwhelming solo books, a series like this already has the cards stacked against it, and one of the first tasks that the book has to accomplish is to shake off the stigma of the past and convince audiences that this Venom book is actually going to be worth reading. Writer Zeb Wells and artist Angel Medina seem to be aware of this, and take a very different tack in their exploration of Venom's character than his previous outings have. In fact, Venom doesn't appear in this opening issue at all, with the book instead concentrating solely on the backstory of the symbiote's first human host, Eddie Brock, as he matures from a child into a young man. Yes, there's an obligatory cameo from Spider-Man (which might upset continuity purists), but this isn't a superhero book as much as a character study of Brock, sowing the seeds for his development into the kind of man that we as readers know that he will eventually become.

Wells seems to have a good grasp of Eddie's character, and manages to bring an even-handedness to his characterisation of the young Brock that you might not normally find in a supervillain origin story. The writer brings a sinister and unsettling quality to his young Eddie without ever making him wholly unsympathetic, setting up elements of his character that seem only mildly unpleasant at this point, but that readers know will pay off later down the line when he taps into his dark side as he bonds with the symbiote. Without this dramatic irony, these elements wouldn't be half as meaningful, but Wells is careful never to make the links between the young Eddie and his future counterpart so obvious or explicit that they feel clunky or lacking in subtlety.

A good example of this is Eddie's apparent belief that he can tell when people are lying. In this issue, that ability is played up as a character trait that drives the young Eddie to pursue a career in journalism, so that he can define the "truth" for his readers. However, those who are familiar with Brock's original history (from Michelinie and McFarlane's origin story) will know that he is destined to be misled by an impostor who claims that he committed the Sin-Eater murders (that took place during Peter David's "Death of Jean DeWolff" story arc), and that he will eventually lose his job and journalistic reputation as a result of believing his lies and publishing his story. So, in addition to being a neat nod to future developments for the character, Wells' addition to his history actually serves to strengthen his origin story, reinforcing the idea that Brock's professional disgrace at the hands of the fake Sin-Eater is a result of his own hubris, at least in part.

Wells makes it clear that Eddie's misfortunes aren't always of his own making (he's bullied at school, and his mother died in childbirth - for which his father continues to resent him), giving him an underdog quality that might encourage readers to root for him in other circumstances. However, the way in which Brock reacts to his problems, deviously manipulating situations to his advantage by lying so as to show himself in the best possible light, marks him out as an unpleasant sociopath, even from a young age - and this combination of bad luck and out-and-out dishonesty neatly foreshadows the manner in which he eventually falls from grace and bonds with the Venom symbiote. I was also pleased to see the book make reference to Brock's Catholic roots - another element that plays a significant part in Michelinie and McFarlane's origin story.

Angel Medina's artwork serves the story well, succeeding in capturing Eddie's progression from young boy to college student without any of the transitions feeling clunky or jarring. There's a real sense that the character at the end of the issue is not only the same one that appears at the start, but that he could quite comfortably evolve into the Eddie Brock that we saw in the character's first appearance under Todd McFarlane's pencil. Medina's style is occasionally a little too disproportionate and cartoonish for my tastes, but the storytelling is always clear, and the exaggerated facial expressions convey the emotional content of the story clearly and effectively. I particularly enjoyed the sinister title page where we get our first glimpse of Eddie's face, contorted into a chilling and unpleasant dead-eyed grin (an image that is reprised again at the end of the issue).

Fans of Venom will likely be pleased with the way this first issue fleshes out Eddie Brock's character without ever contradicting his established history in any major way. Wells deserves credit for the brave decision to use this first issue to concentrate exclusively on Brock rather than on his symbiotic counterpart, and whilst that still doesn't guarantee a great story, I can't deny that I'm interested in seeing how he continues to flesh out Eddie's character in order to make his origin story worthy of a dedicated miniseries. Those readers who aren't particularly interested in the character of Venom can probably subtract at least half a bullet from my rating of this issue, and those who actively dislike the character will probably find little to win them over here. However, as someone who has always enjoyed the concept of the character, I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and I'll look forward to seeing how it progresses.

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