Amazing Spider-Man #316
Dead Meat
Venom has arrived in New York City to get revenge against Spider-Man. Hiding out in the sewers, he comes across a homeless man and catches him. Venom warns the homeless man about talking and demonstrates what will happen by using his webbing to suffocate a sewer rat. Venom then finds his way to a long-abandoned fall out shelter built during the 1950s that he learned about during his career as a newspaper reporter at the Daily Globe. Venom has come to set this place up as his base of operations while he hunts down and destroys Spider-Man. In order to prepare for this final confrontation, Eddie Brock begins lifting weights to ensure that he is at his peak strength when the time comes.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man is out snapping crime photos for the Daily Bugle. Watching a police officer chasing a crook into a junk yard. When the wall-crawler spots the crook waiting to ambush the police officer, he uses his webbing to send a pile of junk onto the crook, knocking him out. The cop thanks him for the help, but Spider-Man gets him to keep quiet about it. This is because J. Jonah Jameson has been acting strange lately, refusing photos of Spider-Man unless they are teaken by Nick Katzenberg, a sleazy tabloid photographer. He is also concerned about the legal battle his Mary Jane has with Jonathan Caeser so she can get her investment back from their old condo at Bellford Towers. This is added pressure as Peter has returned to school. Spider-Man soon arrives at the Daily Bugle, where as Peter Parker he goes down to sell his photos to Jameson.
Later, Peter calls his wife Mary Jane and learns that her recent modeling gig has been cancelled. She tells him that she is going to use her free time to go looking for a new apartment. As he ends the call, Peter can't help but notice that Mary Jane seems down after all the problems in their life caused by Jonathan Caeser. As he leaves the Bugle, Peter's spider-sense is tripped by Glory Grant's new boyfriend, leaving him to wonder why. Meanwhile, the Black Cat arrives at Bedford Towers in the hopes of rekindling her romance with Spider-Man, only to discover that he moved away from here as well. Breaking into the condo to search for clues, the Black Cat is attacked by Venom who demands to know where Spider-Man is. He easily beats the Cat into submission, breaking her nose in the process. When she tells him that she doesn't know where Parker is, Venom believes her. As he leaves, he remarks how Peter's wife didn't know where he was before, and he still managed to track the hero down. At that moment, down at the front door to the building, Mary Jane arrives to pick up some final paperwork regarding their eviction. When she sees Venom leaving her old condo, Mary Jane makes a hasty retreat before she is recognized.
When Peter Parker returns home, his Aunt May tells her nephew that Mary Jane is upset by something and that he should talk to her. When Peter goes up to his old room to check on his wife, she tells him how Venom is back. Upset by this, Peter attempts to call the Vault to get some answers about this, but they give him the runaround much to his frustration. Mary Jane worries that Venom will follow them here, but Peter assures her that he will find Venom first. As Spider-Man, Peter scours the city in the hopes of sniffing out Venom and bring him to justice. Giving up for the night, he returns to the spot where he stashed his street clothes and is ambushed by Venom. Their fight takes them into a meat packing plant where he the two battle it out. When Venom dumps a vat of blood and offal on him, Spider-Man is grossed out and put into a panic. He quickly sends some slaughter house machinery crashing down on him and escapes, hoping he can plan on a better way of dealing with his foe. Unfortunately for Spider-Man, he dropped the web packet containing his clothing. Venom rips it open and goes searching through Peter's clothing. There he finds a number of change of address notices that give Venom his enemies current place of residence.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Venom, Mary Jane Watson, Black Cat, Glory Grant, Eduardo Lobo, Nick Katzenberg
Continuity Notes
Venom seeks revenge against Spider-Man for twofold reasons. First, Eddie Brock lost his job with the Globe due to the fact that his interviews with a crook he thought was the Sin Eater were proven to be made by a copycat in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #110 when Spider-Man captured the real killer. Second, his alien symbiote wants revenge because Spider-Man ultimately reject symbiosis with the creature in Web of Spider-Man #1. This was all revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #300.
Unknown to Spider-Man at this time, the Chameleon took J. Jonah Jameson's place as part of a scheme to take over the New York city underworld. This all occurs during the course of Web of Spider-Man #52-54.
Jonathan Caeser is the owner of Bedford Towers who was obsessed with Mary Jane, orchestrating her entry into Bedford Towers on Amazing Spider-Man #303. He kidnapped Mary Jane from Amazing Spider-Man #307-309. They were evicted as part of Caeser's revenge in Amazing Spider-Man #314.
Peter returned to Empire State University in Amazing Spider-Man #310.
Glory's boyfriend is Eduardo Lobo, one of the infamous werewolf mobsters known as the Lobo Brothers, who are currently at war with the Kingpin. This conflict is chronicled in Spectacular Spider-Man #143-154 and Web of Spider-Man #47-55.
The Black Cat and Spider-Man had broken up in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #100. She then went off to Europe to sort out her feelings after the events of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #129. She returned to New York in Amazing Spider-Man #306 only to discover that Peter moved out of his old apartment on Chelsea street.
Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife in this story. The Black Cat was unaware of this, but the couple was married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. However, years later, the demon Mephisto erased their marriage from history in Amazing Spider-Man #545. Although they are no longer married, they remained a common-law couple. In this new version of reality, presumably, Venom refers to Mary Jane as Peter's girlfriend, which would still prove a shock to the Black Cat none the less. His reference to Mary Jane not knowing where Peter is was a reference to his first encounter with MJ in Amazing Spider-Man #299-300.
