So, over on (a pirate site) I see they have Venom Wars #2.
Hey, great! I like Venom. But I'm not a regular comic book reader. I'm very much a newbie. So I figure "Well, thats part 2, I should get part 1 first."
And that's where all the trouble began. There's like 10 different comic branches all called "Venom Wars 1" and they all have different covers. And they all have assumingly different stories!
I just want to read a Venom comic book, where he does the Venom things! And now I see the description "The symbiot has bonded with Eddie, and his son Derek"
WHO THE FUCK IS DEREK??? I thought Eddie was supposed to be a high schooler in Peter Parkers class! How does a 16 year old have a son???
So now I'm REALLY confused! I feel like I need a comic before the comic to get me caught up to the comic, but only if THATS the comic I'm supposed to read, because there's also 10 comics all named the same thing.....and I'm not experienced enough to know what the fuck I'm doing.
I assume I'M the probem, with my lack of knowledge on the subject, but also.........what the hell even is this? I thought "Venom Wars #1" would be enough in the search bar to get me the comic to read about Venom.
I'm not even sure what "Venom Wars" is, but I assume it's Venom, having some kind of war from Venom's perspective with Spiderman, or maybe Carnage. Or whomever. But I assume it's a story told through Venom/Eddies perspective. But where do I start? I assumed #1 would be the start of the story.
And now I'm overwhelmed, and don't know what is going on.
I like to aim for the collector's edition volume sets if I'm going through a long-running series. So starting with
Venom by Donny Cates Volume 1: Rex
Collects: Venom (2018 series) #1-6
and working your way down the list is a good way to go.
Alternatively, just go with the VENOMNIBUS By Cates & Stegman which came out in 2022.
I agree that it sometimes feels like the industry is designed to confuse you. But the good news is that you've got a full 36 books and change to work through and enjoy.
(Whew) now that the mod post is out of the way, lets talk about the actual question:
Generally, when there's a big event like this, someone will put out a reading order or checklist. Sometimes it's Marvel themselves on the last page or couple of pages of every book, other times it's a fan source like this:
Edited. I originally put it in, because I feel it may be important for others to be able to search the same site I'm seeing and see the same things. Although, I don't see how Lemmy.World would be liable. If anything the website that I edited out would be liable. And possible me personally, although I doubt Marvel or DC or any other big company would try to sue an individual for linking to another website, with that other website doing the actual infringing hosting.
Just to be clear to others who saw this after the edit, the hosting material was never on Lemmy, it was never on the fediverse, it was always on another 3rd party website. I simply gave the name of the website, which I guess auto links it as a clickable link. This in turn takes you to their website, no longer on Lemmy. I would give a cheeky little hint as to where this site is, but if mods are taking the concept of pirating this seriously, then I'll just leave it at that. I just wish you guys could see what I see for the sake of the discussion.
I feel your pain and understand the confusion. The Venom series was pretty good a few years ago under Cates. It’s gotten a little silly and away from the essence of the character in my opinion. It appears that Venom War may result in Eddie and the summits suit coming back together for a reset under a new creative team at the end of this year or early next year.
It will be interesting to see what the next creative team is and what their plans are. I’d personally like a series that was more focused on the headspace and psychological aspects of the character but the Venom series has been pretty bombastic lately.
So I just read Seperation Anxiety. It was a 4 part series from 1995. But the pages said "Copyright Marvel 2016".
So I'm even more confused.
But that story wasn't self contained. It STARTED with Eddie Brock looking like Aquaman for some reason. And he's in a pod, already in jail. His symbiot already seperated from him. But they made references to what he did in the past, with little astricts like "if you want to read THIS story, check out comic number 574" or whatever. In the first issue, there were three astricts referencing three different series.
So apperently to read any comic, I guess you need to start in 1940s, and then read thousands.
Are there any comics where venom has a clear start to the story, and a clear end, and its all self contained?
Start here, go in order, the issue numbers make sense, and it's X number of issues long. Thats the end.
And if someone wants to make a sequal, they can, but again, self contained.
Am I asking too much? Or am I just too inexperienced to know where to look?
That copy of Separation Anxiety was probably published in 2016.
There are an almost infinite amount of stories. Especially in the early-mid 90s. The editors liked to make sure there was some level of continuity and those little asterisks ( *read about this in xxxxx) are mainly a way for people to understand there’s more to read.
It’s not necessarily essential, you typically will just assume what has happened elsewhere, and comic subtext was NOT subtle (especially in the 80s and 90s!), sometimes the character will just completely summarise that plot from elsewhere in a thought bubble.
But it can lead you down a rabbit hole of linking a bunch of different books and stories together.