Venom: Sinner Takes All #1

History

The series was written by Larry Hama — best known for his long run on Marvel's G.I. Joe — with Greg Luzniak on pencils and Scott Koblish on inks for the lead story; the backup 'Trial Run' featured an early-career Dan Slott scripting John Calimee's art on a Jury story. Editorial oversight fell to Tom Brevoort (editor), Danny Fingeroth (group editor), and editor-in-chief Bob Budiansky. The issue shipped on July 4, 1995, with an August 1995 cover date, and continued story threads left dangling by Venom: Carnage Unleashed #4, firmly situating the miniseries within Marvel's dense mid-1990s Venom publishing program.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of the third Sin-Eater — a new, unidentified character who attacks Fordham Rhodes and Ann Weying at the courthouse in issue #1's opening pages.
• First (unnamed) appearances of NYPD Detective Steen and Detective Alton Clark, both introduced in this issue.
• Ann Weying appears prominently as a legal assistant working the Fordham Rhodes case; her transformation into She-Venom — the first character to hold that identity in the Marvel Universe — begins here and culminates in issues #2–3.
• The lead story is written by Larry Hama with art by Greg Luzniak (pencils), Scott Koblish (inks), and a cover by Luzniak and Jimmy Palmiotti; a backup 'Trial Run' story featuring the Jury is scripted by a young Dan Slott.
• The issue directly continues from Venom: Carnage Unleashed #4, and the narrative re-activates the Sin-Eater mythos established in Peter David's 'Death of Jean DeWolff' (Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107–110, 1985), with a TV news segment recounting Stan Carter's history as the original Sin-Eater who murdered Captain Jean DeWolff.
• The 48-page package was published as part of a five-issue limited series running August through December 1995, edited by Tom Brevoort under editor-in-chief Bob Budiansky.
• Anne Weying's She-Venom persona, seeded in this issue, later became the basis for Michelle Williams's portrayal of the character in Sony's Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage films.
• The Jury characters appearing in the backup were originally formed by General Orwell Taylor in Venom: Lethal Protector #2 and had since broken away from his command, a status acknowledged by continuity notes within this issue.

Cast · 25 characters

Full credits

Variants (1)