Line #14 Literature/SpiderManTheVenomTrilogy


1	[[quoteright:211:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spider_man_the_venom_factor.jpg]]
2
3	''The Venom Trilogy'' is a series of Creator/{{Marvel\|Comics}} books written by Creator/DianeDuane. Co-starring ComicBook/SpiderMan and ComicBook/{{Venom}}, the trilogy revolves around repeatedly encountering an organization named the CCRC.
4
5	When a homeless man is brutally murdered in a warehouse, all the evidence points to Venom as the perpetrator. Add the mysterious disappearance of nuclear materials and the Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale) swooping around, and Spider-Man has his hands more-than full. But is Venom really behind the brutal murders? And if not, who (or ''what'') is?
6
7	----
8	!!''The Venom Trilogy'' contains the following tropes:
9
10	[[foldercontrol]]
11
12	[[folder:In General]]
13	* ContinuityNod: The events of ''The Venom Factor"' are referenced in the other two novels in the trilogy.
14	%%* MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: The trilogy is set at the time when Jason Macendale was the Hobgoblin, Ned Leeds was assumed to have been the original Hobby, and Venom was living in San Francisco as the Lethal Protector.
15	[[/folder]]
16
17	[[folder:The Venom Factor]]
18	* AntiHero: Venom's in full "Lethal Protector" mode here, taking pride in protecting the homeless and victimized from those who would prey on them. As such, the fact that there's an apparent copycat running around killing homeless in his name does ''not'' sit well with him.
19	* AssholeVictim: The three muggers who would have attacked the homeless people that Eddie was talking to...that is, if Eddie hadn't been host to Venom.
20	* BigNo: When the alien eats his bomb the Hobgoblin screams out one of these and attacks it. It casually backhands him out of the way. ''Twice.''
21	* BizarreAlienBiology: The alien that everyone mistakes for Venom devours radioactive materials, can use radiation to melt barriers, and explodes into a bunch of mini-aliens if it over-eats.
22	* BondVillainStupidity: Hobgoblin has a perfect chance to take out Spider-Man in the beginning, but chooses to let him live to see his triumph. Three guesses how ''that'' choice works out for him.
23	* BroughtDownToBadass: A downplayed example - Spider-Man is poisoned with a compound that nullifies his Spider-Sense, but leaves the rest of his powers functional. Not being able to predict danger is still very dangerous for Spidey, especially since he's not used to operating without it. Thankfully, it's only temporary, and his Spider-Sense comes back in time for the ending of the second act.
24	* CombatTentacles: Both Venom and the radiation-eating alien can form tendrils to subdue prey, but the alien's are stronger.
25	* CostumeCopycat: Aside from lacking the iconic white spider emblem, the alien is almost identical to Venom.
26	* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: Upon revealing that he ''isn't'' the one stealing nuclear material and killing homeless people, Venom declares his intention to find the real culprit and devour their spleen. [[LampshadeHanging Spider-Man doesn't waste the chance to point out the ludicrous nature of this threat]].
27	--> '''Spider-Man''': Look, hearts or brains, I could understand. But a ''spleen?'' I'll bet you don't know what a spleen even ''is.'' Do you even know what a spleen ''looks'' like?
28	* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Hobgoblin delivers a recording of his extortion threat to the news, which they play for the whole city to see.
29	* EnemyMine: Spider-Man attacks Venom thinking he's snapped, but they renew their truce to find the real killer and stop Hobgoblin's plot.
30	* EvilCounterpart: Venom assumes the radiation-eating alien is a new supervillain trying to rip him off.
31	* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumour: Both Venom and the Hobgoblin enjoy cracking sadistic jokes at Spider-Man's expense.
32	* ExplosiveBreeder: The alien ''literally'' does this after reaching critical mass, exploding into dozens of ravenous babies that promptly ZergRush Spider-Man.
33	* FeedItABomb: Realizing the alien eats radioactive material, Spider-Man lures it to the Hobgoblin's lair and it promptly eats the nuke.
34	* GoneHorriblyRight: Zig-zagged in the third act. Spider-Man gets the bright idea to lead the alien to Hobgoblin's hideout, counting on its knack for sensing radiation to locate the nuclear bomb. It does so...and then proceeds to ''tear the nuke apart'' to get at its plutonium core. Thankfully, the process doesn't set the bomb off, and the plutonium is devoured before it can spill deadly radiation into the area.
35	* HandBlast: The alien can fire radiation from its hands that rapidly melts whatever it's directed at.
36	* HumanoidAliens: Invoked when Spider-Man is pursuing the radiation-eating alien and muses on the probabilities of it having evolved into a humanoid form.
37	* HumiliationConga: Hobgoblin gets his comeuppance in very satisfying fashion. First Spider-Man and Venom wreck his hideout, then the alien devours his nuclear bomb's plutonium core just as he's about to set it off, then Spider-Man punches him out while he's freaking out over this, ''then'' he gets hauled off by the police. And to top it all off, one of the police officers notes that his extortion scheme was never going to work because he was demanding more money than people could put together in such a short amount of time.
38	* IdenticalStranger: Aside from not having spider insignia, the alien looks almost-identical to Venom. This leads to Venom getting accused of committing its crimes, which seriously ticks him off.
39	* InsaneTrollLogic: Discussed with J. Jonah Jameson's beef with Spider-Man, Peter Parker musing that Jameson tends to blame Spider-Man for everything from global warming to World War II if he's allowed to rant for long enough.
40	* IShallTauntYou: How Spider-Man wears down Hobgoblin's nerves in the third act, taunting him relentlessly while remaining out of sight. This quickly makes Hobby a ''lot'' more careless than usual.
41	* OhCrap: When Spider-Man leads the alien into Hobgoblin's hideout with the intent of exploiting its nose for radiation to help him find the bomb, Hobgoblin has this reaction when he sees it tearing his bomb apart.
42	* JustEatHim: How Venom intended to deal with the alien and Hobgoblin.
43	* LawyerFriendlyCameo: While waiting for an audition, MJ spots a TV playing a program about [[Series/BarneyAndFriends an eternally happy, dancing, singing purple dinosaur who wants to be friends with everyone]] and imagines introducing it to Venom.
44	* MakeThemRot: The alien can focus radiation into its palms to rapidly decay material. It's never seen using this on living targets, though.
45	* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Both Venom and the alien have gaping maws full of fangs.
46	* NervesOfSteel: A trio of homeless people don't even flinch when Eddie turns into Venom right in front of them.
47	* NonMaliciousMonster: Downplayed, but the alien that everyone mistakes for Venom isn't openly evil - just ''hungry.'' The reason it's tearing apart waste containers and making off with nuclear waste is because it eats radiation. As for the poor homeless guy it devoured in the beginning, he was sprayed with radioactive waste, ''and'' attacked the creature in a crazed stupor; the result was basically the same as jumping into a shark tank with bloody steaks tied to your body.
48	* NotMeThisTime: When a homeless man is brutally murdered and the perpetrator is described as a hulking black creature with BlankWhiteEyes and MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily, everyone assumes Venom's finally snapped. It's actually an alien with a taste for radioactive material.
49	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: The novel alternates point-of-views between Spider-Man, Venom, and Mary-Jane. There's also a few guest perspectives from the crew of the nuclear sub and a couple of homeless bystanders.
50	* NukeEm: Hobgoblin builds a dirty nuclear bomb and threatens to blow up New York unless he gets an absurd amount of money.
51	* TakingYouWithMe: When his plans are foiled, Hobgoblin tries to set off his nuke in a fit of rage - though the radiation-eating alien puts a stop to it. Additionally, given that his base was built ''above'' where the bomb was stashed, there's no indication of how he planned to survive setting it off.
52	* ToServeMan:
53	** At the beginning of the novel the alien eats a homeless man who had been doused in radioactive waste.
54	** While not outright stating he did so, the novel implies Venom ate a group of muggers who threatened a group of homeless people.
55	* UselessSpleen: Venom states that when he finds whoever is responsible for the murders (that Venom is being wrongly accused of) he will eat his spleen. Spider-Man comments that this is an odd choice of organ to target and that Venom likely doesn't even know where someone's spleen is.
56	* VillainousBreakdown: Hobgoblin does ''not'' take the destruction of his precious nuclear bomb very well.
57	* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Venom wants to rip Hobgoblin apart and be done with it. Spider-Man, however, has an objection beyond ThouShallNotKill - until they find Hobgoblin's bomb and figure out how to disarm it, they might not have a way to do ''either'' if Hobgoblin rigged a deadman's switch into it.
58	* TheWorfEffect: During their fight, the alien hands Venom his symbiote-covered ass.
59	* YouCantThwartStageOne: Hobgoblin's one step ahead of Spider-Man for most of the first act, stealing nuclear material from a warehouse and submarine easily. Subverted in the second act, where Spider-Man ''did'' catch him when he was stealing more nuclear material from the university, but Venom's arrival gave Hobgoblin the chance to escape.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:The Lizard Sanction]]
63	* BangBangBang: Lampshaded, as Spidey comments that real gunfire sounds nothing like it does in the movies, and fills in his own descriptions of the actual sounds, such as "rulers being smacked on a desk."
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:The Octopus Agenda]]
67	* CripplingOverspecialization: Doctor Octopus unwittingly ruins his own plan when he tries to imprison both Spider-Man ''and'' Venom in a cell that he had prepared for Spider-Man, with the intention of forcing his enemy to watch as Octavius's plan to decimate global civilisation unfolded. As the cell had been designed exclusively to contain Spider-Man, the wall-crawler realised that there may be a loophole in the cell's design that Venom could exploit, which allowed them to stage a fight so that Venom could find a weakness in the cell's force field and break out.
68	* GreaterScopeVillain: The book reveals ComicBook/DoctorOctopus as the mastermind behind the CCRC.
69	* MuggingTheMonster: Three punks try to assault Venom. With switchblades. Yeah, that doesn't go so well for them.
70	[[/folder]]

Context Literature / SpiderManTheVenomTrilogy