Spider-Man #52
Deadline
This story continues from Spider-Man Unlimited #7...
Daily Bugle Ken Ellis is pleased that J. Jonah Jameson put his story about Venom on the front page of the paper. He then gets a phone call from an informant and heads out into the rain. He is looking forward to the interview he is trying to get, as Ellis figures it will put him above the Bugle's star reporter, Ben Urich. He stopped by the Spider-Man clone in his new costume. The clone wants to talk to Ellis. When the reporter tries to brush him off, the Spider webs his feet to the ground. This masked hero denies that he is Spider-Man, or that he is a hero. However, he wants to know where Venom might be. Ken wants an exclusive interview with both Eddie Brock and this newcomer and tells this new wall-crawler that Venom was last seen near the Roosevelt Island Tram Terminal. After hearing this, the mystery web-slinger takes off to confront the symbiotic creature. At the tram station, Venom sits atop the building wondering why people are afraid of him, wondering why they don't recognize that he is a hero now.[1] Venom has just taken down a group of crooks and now the police have surrounded him. He figures this is because he still has to pay for his sins, namely being responsible for birthing Carnage, whom he has vowed to destroy once and for all.[2] As Venom tries to figure out what to do next, he is unaware that someone is watching him from nearby.
Not far away, the Spider-Clone swings across the city, wondering if he can really take on Venom, a foe that was the real Spider-Man was only barely able to defeat in the past. Arriving at the tram station, the clone attacks Venom. As the two come to blows, Venom quickly realizes that although this foe has Spider-Man's moves, he is not his foe.[3] Venom slashes the clone across the chest. When the clone admits that he is a "fake", Venom moves in to make a killing blow. That's when they were interrupted by a female symbiote, who has come to warn him that the authorities have called Guardsmen into the area.[4] Venom refuses to listen to the female symbiote and attacks her. This allows the Spider-Clone to slip away to treat his wounds. By this point, Ken Ellis arrives on the scene and slips past the police cordon in order to get a first-hand account of the battle. He witnesses Venom and the female symbiote battle each other, neither aware that an innocent woman is trapped in her car nearby.
Meanwhile, the Spider-Clone has webbed up his wounds so he can stop this battle. Still doubting himself, the clone swings down to the battle below. Spotting the woman trapped in her car, he rips the door off the hinges to free her. As Venom and his "child" continue to fight, a man stumbles off the balcony of a nearby apartment building. The Spider-Clone saves this man too and then turns his attention back to the two symbiotes. The pair has taken their fight to the nearby tram. Although the female symbiote still insists that she just wants to talk, Venom refuses to give up the fight. With the tram about to be shaken off its cable, the Spider-Clone swings up and knocks the two symbiotes into the water below. He then saves the tram driver just as the car falls loose. When he brings the tram driver to the ground, everyone hails the Spider-Clone as a hero. When Ken Ellis asks for an interview, the clone denies being a hero and says that he is barely a man before swinging away. Still, Ellis has a killer story and decides to name the new hero the Scarlet Spider. Not far away, Venom emerges from the waters vowing to track down the Spider-Man impostor and ending his life.
... This story continues in Web of Spider-Man #119.
Recurring Characters
Scarlet Spider, Ken Ellis, Venom, Scream
Continuity Notes
Venom ended his vendetta against Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #375 to become a hero of sorts starting in Venom: Lethal Protector #1.
Venom's symbiote gave birth to the symbiote that bonded to Cletus Kasady to become Carnage in Amazing Spider-Man #344.
Venom knows who the real Spider-Man is because Peter Parker used to wear his symbiote from Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 to Amazing Spider-Man #258. When it bonded to Eddie Brock in Amazing Spider-Man #300, Brock learned everything the symbiote knew about Spider-Man.
This female symbiote is later identified as Scream in Civil War Battle Damage Report #1. Venom recalls that her symbiote was birthed from his in Venom: Lethal Protector #4. Up until now, Venom thought she was killed in Venom: Lethal Protector #5.
