Rune VS Venom (1996) Comic Review

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I have to honest for a minute since a read this "crossover comic " I've always wanted to review it ,I mean it 's that bad and I am surprised that guy with the hat and the magic gun from that 4 wall show hasn't reviewed it already (you know who i mean).

Now let's start  with the basics the cover ,it's the 1st thing you see on a comic and it may convince you to buy it.

The cover it's pretty basic for this sort of thing  we have our villains fighting on the cover Venom is drooling like he has rabies (which wad a trend with him in the 90s from what I hear) and it looks like that Rune has also got the rabies or is that Venom's blood but why is it green ?

Rabies

And that the heck is this stuff:

I mean it kinda looks like  a part of the Venom costume like it was scratched but Rune's hand doesn't have a scratching pose so yeah WTF.

Overall it is an okay cover since they are villains, it makes sense for them to be so violent in their fighting.
Now let's introduce the characters :

I believe  that everybody knows Venom but i am going to explain him to you guys.
Venom is (well this current version) Eddie Brock a tragic character that after some major bad luck is his life he redirected his hate towards Spider-Man and after he (Spider-Man) rejected the Venom Symbiote.It bounded to Eddie drown by his hate for Spider-Man.
Venom is one of the most dangerous enemies of Spider-Man he was all of his powers and then some.
Now Rune he was a one the villains of the Ultraforce cartoon and an enemy of Prime no not Optimus Prime ....one minute(going to wikipedia and comic vine) now that's everything about him(not that hard considering the short pages on wikipedia and comic vine ) let's go on with the origin but 1st a little history  lesson about Malibu Comics and the Ultraverse.

Malibu Comics were a comic publisher that had (at the time) the best coloring system and launched the Ultraverse witch was pretty popular.They even made several tv shows based on their characters

i don't remember was this show good ?

So they were bought by Marvel and Marvel tried to keep it a flout but Marvel had financial problems at the time (from the own stupidity i might add) and the imprint has gone and forgotten by Marvel ,there have been rumors about a revival but nothing concrete.
BTW during the time Marvel owned Malibu they have made several comic crossovers using their main players Avengers/Ultraforce and others
This comic has produced in that time interval.

Now let's talk about the origin of Rune he has at 1st an alien but then he found the Star Stones that gave him immortality among other powers but also cursed him with a hunger for blood and life force energy to power the Star Stones .
So he is an immortal alien vampire, Dracula eat your heart out.

  
Now that I've introduced the main characters let's get on with the story.

**Story**

Have to admit that the 1st page of the story is pretty good, I like how the 2 logos combine and form the border of the page.

So we start the story with a woman about to be raped by some guys in an alley. Nice, that's a nice way to start a comic with a woman about to be raped. Then fast that you can say "rape" a Venom thing appears and the thugs run away and saying that they are dead. And there a narration talking about monsters and Manhattan 1 question who is narrating this maybe it's the Watcher.

But instead of saving her this creature attacks her and I have to admit that I didn't say this coming but I have to ask what is this thing I mean it looks like  Venom but it was 4 fours arms like Goro or the Man-Spider and wings like Marcus Corvinus from Underworld.

Goro from Mk

Marcus Corvinus from Underworld

So the Venom thing kills the poor woman by sucking her blood like a vampire.

In the next 2 pages we find out that this takes place after Planet of the Symbiotes if you want to know about that story watch Linkara's Review of Spider-Man Planet of the Symbiotes it's pretty good.Because all bad comics are linked Jesus did I just write this down Oh well can't delete it now.

Meanwhile at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Agent  Dum Dum Dugan and other agents about the Venom situation.

what's that thing on the table

 So S.H.I.E.L.D. decides to arrest/kill Venom and they send Mandroids to do the job.

So our victims (let's be honest we all know what's about to happen) walk through the sewers looking for Venom and they kill a rat.

So Venom comes and kills the majority of them as expected.
So we 3 2 page spread showing the fight or rather Venom kicking their asses  and I have to admit it looks pretty awesome *inset rock music here*

I like how he says that he that he's no murderer yeah I think that the GUYS YOU KILLED 1 PAGE AGO WILL DISAGREE and this Guy as well because he dies right after saying his name.And another how does Venom speak with tongue out I mean really try speaking like that it's really hard.
 
So after that awesome fight scene maybe you think that we get something about Rune well that's some wishful thinking right there but no we get a dream scene or rather nightmare with that chick that watched the news regarding the symbiotes invasion.To make a long story short she gets kidnapped by that creature from the beginning.

you taste good yumm

is it me just me or does it have like 6 arms here

this is disorienting

So Venom finds out that the chick is missing her name is Ann btw why is she important again ? And how does Venom know that's she's missing and who is narrating ? Well forget those questions we have a fight scene to watch.



So they fight for 3 pages or rather Venom wins until he sees Ann a host of Rune yeah that thing is Rune *cough* bullshit.
And she wins and leaves Venom mopping. 

what's with the biting obsession in this comic

bullshit  wtf are you throwing him anymway

wtf is Venom doing here

As you can see there are some problems with the art and continuity in those pages for instance how did she throw him Venom was on top in the previous page (that's what she said) next what is Venom doing in the 3rd page I mean look at him how is he sitting like I tried it to see if it's possible and it's not (for me at least ) it hurts like hell maybe that's why he's screaming "nooooo". From what I can see he is sitting on his legs while his back is touching the ground and again rabies.And also he was thrown into a building in the last page so 1st thing he did was to get out of the rumble and assume that pose freaking stupid.

So Venom goes to Ann's apartment in order to investigate something it's not explained and her apartment is guarded by S.H.I.E.L.D. so yeah another reason for not going there.

not funny

But we do get to see his level of stealth by breaking the window of a guarded building brilliant.

Needless to say he fights one of the guards  and then runs away in search of Ann

Meanwhile at the villain's hideout we see that Ann and Venom-thing aren't the same person which  makes me scratch my head and wonder what happened on that page where it showed the face of Ann. 

I know that the symbiotes have some shapeshifting abilities but nothing to this degree or do they ?

And we learn that it planed to capture Ann in order to trap Venom.

So the creature opens the Stargate from Planet of the Symbiotes.

And the creature hasn't gotten any wings despite the fact it had wings the previous page.

The uses the "Stargate" in order to call Rune the real Rune from Malibu like finally we are towards the end of story and this guy finally appears.

about time you show up it's your comic too

Also the Stargate doesn't looks like this:

And  also the Stargate transmits matter from the same universe and needs an identical point of entree maybe this one doesn't need but how did the creature know Rune's location in the other Universe ?

that's your name really

 So Rune kills the creature and he takes over Rune symbiote rune.

And we find out that Rune fought Annihilus in Rune nunber 1. 

So Rune is part of normal Marvel Continuity ?

BTW why does it looks the same ?

Exposition away

So the creature now in full control of Rune explains his desire for revenge on Venom and what happened in the Planet of the Symbiotes story.

How did he survive that story I thought that Venom's emo cry killed off all the symbiotes (Watch Linkara's review it will make sense a little bit )

behold the boldness of doom

So Venom comes in (who did he find this place ?) the Rune-Symbiote beats him them  S.H.I.E.L.D. show up and shoots it (they've been following Venom ) but don't come with Mandroid anyway Rune regains control and sucks then eats the symbiote I'm serious look at the page.

 After absorbing the symbiote he gains new powers like losing his hair and his wings and growing clothes and boots.
 
I know that the symbiotes can create some sort of clothes but they were on the outside and not inside like here and alive.
 Then Ann hits him the head with a pipe Venom pushes him into the Stargate and he destroys it thus get rid of Rune what a let down 

So Dugan calls of the investigation regarding Venom because you know he saw the real killer like the rest of his team i don't know maybe there's still pissed regarding those Mandroid deaths.

So our comic ends with Eddie saying to Ann that we will protect her from monsters from here you, know this comic doesn't count.

Meanwhile we are informed that Rune has returned to the Malibu Universe when did he leave ?

How do I know this because Prime Rune's villain is in one of the panels.

**Final Thoughts**

This comic sucks the art rather okay but there are some weird things regarding it like Venom's rabies and that impossible pose.
The story is also stupid Rune is barely in it and Venom does little battle with him instead make room for the Vampire Symbiote.
I can't recommend this comic but if you want to experience all of the Marvel /Malibu crossovers read this but get prepared to be disappointed. 

-Final Score:2/5

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All the images belong to their respective owners **CollectorX logging_out** ***End_Of_Log***