Venom: Along Came a Spider #1

The cover by penciler Greg Luzniak and inker Bob Wiacek sets the stage with striking immediacy: a massive, snarling Venom looms over a red-and-blue-clad Spider-Man, both figures tangled against a fiery orange web that fills the entire background. The tagline "Along Came a Spider…" and the bold "vs." framing make clear this is a full-on clash between two of Marvel's most viscerally compelling characters. With a creative team that includes writer Larry Hama and artists Joe St. Pierre and Tom Grindberg, this 1996 opener looks like a genuinely exciting chapter in the ongoing rivalry between the symbiote and the wall-crawler.