This week's episode is another classic 1v1 match-up from my childhood. I was already engrossed in all things Spider-Man by the time this issue came out, but I distinctly remember this being the turning point for how I perceived him as a character. Let's see how it stands up today.
One note before we begin is that this comic isn't available digitally yet, so I had to take pictures of my actual issue. I'm no photographer, unlike our protagonist here, so bear with me.
The Comic Book
"Venom"
Writers David Michelinie
Pencilers Todd McFarlane
Inkers Bob McLeod
Colourists Bob Sharen
Letterers Rick Parker
Editors Jim Salicrup
This cover is another classic piece of McFarlane art. His take on Spider-Man was unmistakable, even when drawing the less-detailed black suit. The way he drew Spider-Man's webs are the way I will always imagine them, because this is what I grew up on. Before we get into the story, though, I wanted to do a very brief preface on the history of the black suit:
During the 1984 Secret Wars crossover event, Spider-Man's red and blue costume gets pretty much destroyed while on Battleworld. There's a machine there that can repair clothing, but he accidentally uses the wrong machine and puts on what he thinks is a material that he can will to take whatever shape he wants. In reality, it's a symbiotic life-form that wants to fuse with Parker and often controls his actions.
He goes to the Fantastic Four and they are able to help him remove the symbiote using sonic weaponry and fire. The symbiote later escapes and tries to bond itself to Peter again, and Peter uses the sonic vibration of church bells to force it off of him. The symbiote is pissed. Free of the symbiote, Peter decides to stick with the black costume look since Black Cat thinks it's sexy.
Years later, as we open in this comic, Mary Jane is terrified when Peter comes home. It turns out that someone else in a black Spider-Man costume came into their house and terrorized her (spoiler alert: it was Venom). I'm not exactly sure what Venom did to her, maybe told her she was fat (she's a supermodel at this point in the comics), or maybe that her husband cares what Black Cat thinks of his costume. Either way, she's pretty distraught.
They decide to sleep in a hotel that night, and Spidey swings over to the Fantastic Four to grab a sonic gun. He's pretty sure that the black-suited dude has something to do with the symbiote at this point. As he's returning to the hotel, he feels someone is following him, so he ducks into an alleyway. We then cut to Venom, who breaks into a church and kills a guard. Overall, they do a really good job of characterizing him in this book. For example, they are able to show that he's an obsessive maniac with an addictive personality all in one panel.
Peter and MJ decide to move into a new apartment, and while they're moving Peter sees Venom swing past the building. He races off to deal with him. Venom leads him to a church, and they begin fighting. Spider-Man is beaten down by the musclebound Venom, and things are looking pretty bleak.
At this point, Venom reveals his identity as Eddie Brock. Brock was a journalist who was writing about a guy named the Sin-Eater (which I'm not going to go into) a while back, and wrote an article after a call claiming to be the Sin-Eater. Later, Spider-Man revealed the identity of the Sin-Eater, which inadvertently proved that Brock's source was not who he claimed. Brock was fired, and blamed Spider-Man. He had gone to a church to attempt to commit suicide, when the symbiote literally fell on him from on high! The symbiote hated Spider-Man just as much as Brock did, and better yet, it knew all of Spidey's secrets! Back in the present, Spider-Man lunges for the sonic blaster, and Venom knocks him out cold.
When Spider-Man awakens, he finds himself webbed to the very bell that he used to rid himself of the symbiote. Venom has changed the symbiote to look like priests clothes, and he's looking as crazy as ever. His master plan is to ring the bell and squash the spider.
As venom descends into the church to avoid the sonic damage the bell would cause, Spider-Man manages to stop the bell clapper a couple of times using his super-strength, but knows he can't keep it up for long. He manages to grab the bell and uses it's momentum to pull himself out of the web ball. Time for round two with Venom.
Spidey realizes that the symbiote must have a limited amount of webbing that would take time to regenerate, so as Venom tries to use his webbing, Spidey keeps cutting it. This results in Venom effectively being out of webbing, and when Spidey kicks him off of the roof, he falls to the street below.
Spider-Man takes the unconscious Brock to the Fantastic Four, where they put him and the symbiote in a containment unit. That takes care of him. Probably forever. Right? Right.
Meanwhile, Spidey determines that he has had enough of the black suit, Black Cat's sensibilities be damned! So he goes back to the good ol' red and blue!
Result: Spider-Man wins!
The Battle
The map for this battle was easy enough to choose: The Bell Tower map from the Amazing Spider-Man set, of course! The primary features on this map are elevation changes that go up towards the center of the map, and some "open air terrain" on one of the long edges of the map that cause damage to anyone who occupies them without leaping or flying. While I doubt that will affect either of our combatants, I thought it was fitting.
I chose both characters from the Web of Spider-Man set. They are both close enough in point value, and being from the same set, they should be...more balanced maybe? I guess we'll see!
ws022 Spider-Man
Team: Spider-Man
Range: 0
Points: 95
Keywords: Avengers, Reporter, Scientist
(Special) Back in Black: Spider-Man can use Leap/Climb and Stealth.
(Attack) Web: Web Cocoon: Spider-Man can use Incapacitate as if he had a range of 6. If he hits, you may place a Web special marker in the target character's square.
ws009 Venom
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 4
Points: 87
Keywords: Monster, Reporter, Sinister Syndicate
(Damage) Web: Web Tendrils: Venom can use Telekinesis option 1. If he hits, after Telekinesis is resolved he can place a Web special terrain marker in the destination square.
(Special) Trait: Venom can use Plasticity.
Venom brought along some objects to make use of his Super Strength. I saw that as one big advantage that he had over Spidey. My hope was that he could get in there, cause some big damage early with one of the objects, and then wail on the poor wall-crawler from there.
As for Spidey, I wanted to try and choose the time and place to engage Venom. If I could get some incapacitates in before he hit me, hopefully that would reduce the damage he could do. Avoiding the web tendrils would go a long way as well.
Spidey wins the first turn, and sets up on F23. Venom sets up on H2.
Spidey moves to F18, sitting on one of the heavy objects that Venom brought. Venom moves to K12 and picks up a heavy object.
Spidey clears his action tokens, noting that he has no line of fire to Venom right now. Venom charges to F17, and rolls 20 for attack as well as doubles! Spidey rolls a 5 for his Super Senses and avoids some big damage! The heavy object is discarded, and Venom takes a push damage.
Spidey tries to break away, which was probably a mistake on my part. Leap and Plasticity cancel each other out, but I probably should have just beat down on Venom while I had the chance. Venom clears his action tokens.
Spidey tries to use his webs to incapacitate Venom, but rolls a 14 and fails. Spidey takes a push damage. Venom attacks and rolls a 19, which hits. Spidey rolls a 6 for his Super Senses and avoids yet even more damage.
Spidey and Venom both clear.
Spidey uses Flurry and rolls an 18 and doubles! The 3 damage gets reduced to 2 thanks to Venom's Toughness, but he does knock Venom back 2 spaces to F15 since he had lost Charge. Unfortunately, Venom is out of range for Spidey's second attack. Venom has Charge back after that bit of damage, and charges to F17, and rolls an 18 to attack. For once, Spidey's Super Senses fail him and he takes 3 damage from the attack.
Spidey uses Close Combat Expert to pump his Attack by +2, and rolls a 17 to hit Venom. The 2 damage is reduced to 1 by Venom's Toughness. Spidey doesn't take push damage due to having gained Willpower. Venom attacks back, but rolls a 15, which misses. He takes a push damage for his trouble.
Spidey and Venom both clear.
Spidey uses Close Combat Expert again to pump his Attack by +2, and rolls an 18. No Toughness this time, so Venom is dealt 2 damage, which KO's him.
Result: Spider-Man wins!
That was a fun battle, and I felt I played reasonably well. Those two successful Super Senses rolls certainly helped Spidey quite a bit. I used these first two episodes to get back up to speed on Heroclix, since I hadn't played in months. This marks the last 1V1 battle we'll see for quite some time. Coming up next, we've got a full-on 500 point battle!
Questions for you: It should be abundantly clear by this point that I know much more about comics than I do about Heroclix, so is there anything you would have done differently in this battle? Are there any rules I messed up? Also, I'd love to hear suggestions on comics that you would like to see featured in this series. I have about 20 ready to go, but I can always use more ideas!
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