Marvel announced the Spider-Man / Venom Death Spiral crossover event with with a great deal of hype. The same ballyhoo was reserved for the event’s new villain; a serial killer dubbed Torment. The first issue of the storyline, Amazing Spider-Man / Venom: Death Spiral #1, reveals that Torment has chosen Mary Jane Watson as his next victim. The issue also reveals that, despite being a new character, Torment is already allied with another supervillain.
Amazing Spider-Man / Venom: Death Spiral #1 is written by Joe Kelly, Al Ewing, and Charles Soule. Respectively, they are the current writers of Amazing Spider-Man, Venom, and Eddie Brock: Carnage. Most of the issue is devoted to explaining the current status quo of these characters. However, each page also features a bottom panel with information about one of Torment’s victims. Eventually, it becomes clear that each of the victims is a distant relative of either Peter Parker or Eddie Brock.
The tangled web of Spider-Man comics right now
Peter, newly returned to Earth after several months in space, is trying to put both his lives together. He’s discovered that Norman Osborn has been impersonating Spider-Man and that his clone, Ben Reilly, had been posing at him at his day job. Unfortunately, Ben hadn’t been keeping up with Peter’s social life, leading his loved ones to think he was avoiding them.
At the same time, Eddie Brock has been trying to get a hold of Spider-Man for unrelated reasons. Namely, that the Carnage symbiote now knows Peter’s secret identity. The original Venom host was forced to bond with Carnage, but the two longtime enemies reached a truce. Eddie agreed to use his reporter skills to find murderers that Carnage could kill. However, Carnage made it clear he reserved the right to abandon Eddie for a more suitable (i.e. psychotic) host if one came along.
Mary Jane Watson and the Venom symbiote came to a similar bargain. When the gauntlet Mary Jane used as the hero Jackpot almost killed her, a weakened Venom bonded to her. This saved them both, but neither of them are happy about it and Venom misses his “other” Eddie. Further complicating matters is Mary Jane thinking Spider-Man knows about her new identity and wants nothing to do with her after she revealed herself to Ben Reilly thinking he was Peter Parker. She’s also entered into a flirtation with Flash “Anti-Venom” Thompson.
The issue does a fine job of explaining all this. It also establishes Torment as a creative murderer, who finds different ways of killing while avoiding detection. This builds to the revelation that Torment has an inside man helping him choose targets.
Carnage is helping Torment in choosing targets
The final pages of the comic reveal that the Carnage symbiote has been making contact with Torment while Eddie sleeps. Torment sees his murders as a series of spirals, with the victims connected in ways that only make sense to him. However, he was more than happy to follow Carnage’s advice and add two more spirals based around distant relatives of Carnage’s greatest enemies.
The comic concludes with Carnage giving Torment a new target; Mary Jane Watson. It’s clear that Carnage intends to take out the woman he and Eddie think is Spider-Man’s true love. However, with Venom now bonded to MJ, that fight seems unlikely to go the way he expects.
Amazing Spider-Man / Venom: Death Spiral #1 is now available in comic shops everywhere.
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