Spider-Man: The Venom Saga (DVD), Walt Disney Video, Animation

The animation is quite good for the mid 1990's and the story is as well. Venom is one of the best villains that Spider-Man faces, for he is more than a match for the web crawler. Venom is in fact an alien parasite that blends in with the host, turning them into an evil entity. In this temporal sequence of stories, the parasite first blends with Spider-Man, he just manages to overcome the influence before it transfers to a more suitable host, at least from the perspective of the parasite. The other host is Eddie Brock, failed news photographer that has a deep hatred of Spider-Man and Peter Parker. There are many battles and Spider-Man is bounced around a great deal. At one point, he is aided by both War Machine and Iron Man in his battle with his foes. Over the course of these adventures, staple villains such as the Kingpin, the Shocker, the Rhino and Dormammu also appear. In the end, there is a touching example of self-sacrifice that serves to put the normal universe back on an even keel. The story also features the astronaut son of J. Jonah Jameson, giving the writers the opportunity to present J.J.J. in a more human light. He expresses love for his son and lightens up a bit towards the rest of the world. Venom is a villain like some of the other classic foes of Spidey, if it appears that it is gone forever, you hope that the people at Marvel are able to concoct a plausible explanation for its return.