The Substance

Venom, the scariest and most memorable villain from Spider-Man's post-Stan Lee era, takes center stage in this collection of five episodes ("The Alien Costume" parts 1-3, "Venom Returns," and "Carnage") from the Spider-Man animated series from the mid-'90s. The action begins when astronaut John Jameson discovers a strange new substance on the moon. The substance ends up becoming a new black costume for Spider-Man, and he's thrilled with the way it enhances his natural powers (such as spinning webs without mechanical web shooters) and can change into a different outfit merely upon a thought. Spidey soon discovers, however, that the apparent costume is actually an alien symbiote that is gradually taking control of his thoughts. Spidey is able to overcome the symbiote, but it finds a new host in Daily Bugle washout Eddie Brock, and their mutual hatred of Spider-Man creates a deadly new villain, Venom, whose natural powers exceed Spidey's. Things get even more complicated when Venom's "offspring" finds a host and becomes the even deadlier Carnage. Also making appearances in these episodes are the Kingpin, the Shocker, the Rhino, Dormammu, Iron Man, and War Machine. DVD features include some interesting comments by David Michelinie, who with artist Todd MacFarlane, created Venom in the comic books. Among other topics in the unnecessarily complicated feature, he discusses differences between the show and the comics. Stan Lee also boards his soap box to dish about Venom (11 minutes) and has optional introductions for each episode. –David Horiuchi