Spider-Man: Birth of Venom » 1 issues

This Trade Paperback retells Venom's origin, starting with when Spider-Man got his black suit and when he got rid of it and it merged with Eddie Brock to form Venom.

The symbiote did indeed survive its encounter with Spider-Man at the church and was attracted to another man who shared the same hatred for the Wall-Crawler. That man is Eddie Brock, a former reporter for the Daily Globe who lost his job because of Spider-Man revealing the identity of the villain called Sin-Eater. Eddie Brock wrote a false identity in the paper and as a result he was ridiculed and fired. While at the church contemplating suicide, he merged with the symbiote to form one of Spidey's most lethal and powerful foes, Venom. As Venom, Eddie vowed to make Peter's life miserable so for his first act, he snuck up behind Mary Jane when Peter was not around and completely scared her. When Peter arrived, he found a scared MJ who demanded that they move out of their apartment. Spider-Man then saw Venom swinging around so he decided to follow him to an abandoned building. There they fought with Venom overpowering and knocking Spidey out. He woke up to find himself tied up in a huge web ball at the bell tower of the church he previously disposed of the symbiote. Venom intended to kill him with the sounds of the bell but Peter was able to escape the web ball and they fought on the roof of the Church with Spidey outsmarting Venom and knocking him off the Church. He then took a knocked out Venom to the Fantastic Four where Venom was placed in a special tank while a new prison is being built for him in the Vault. Mary Jane then convinced Peter to return to his Red & Blue costume since the black costume reminded her so much of Venom.

However, he would later escape from the Vault during the time Peter and MJ were evicted from their home by Johnny Caesar, a millionaire obsessed with MJ, and they are living with Aunt May while having financial problems and not being able to find work. Not knowing this, Venom goes to Peter's old apartment but only finds the Black Cat, who was there to renew her relationship with Peter. They fight with Venom winning and then leaves to find his foe at a meat packing plant where Peter was changing clothes. After a brief fight, Spidey escapes but Venom discovers a change of address form in Peter's clothes. Eddie Brock confronts Peter and May at a mall, pretending to be Peter's friend. He tells Peter that he didn't attack because he didn't want to hurt innocent people and told him to meet him at the Seacrest Estate in Manruk. Before he goes to fight Venom, Peter stops by a psychiatrist who tells him that the symbiote is having a love-hate relationship. Even though it currently hates Spidey, the core emotion is love. When Spider-Man confronts Venom, he is completely overpowered by his foe but Peter was able to directly talk to the symbiote and told it that it can have him. This had the symbiote attempting to leave Brock and bond to Spider-Man but the encounter left them all knocked out. Peter woke up first and called the Fantastic Four to come pick up Brock and he is taken again to the vault.

He escaped yet again and fought Spider-Man in a park. As usual he overpowered Spidey and before he could finish him off, Venom went to save a baby in trouble. Then the cops showed up and Venom escaped. Two assassins, Styx and Stone, were hired by Johnny Caesar to kill Spider-Man, a mission they failed in before Spidey fought Venom. Venom then confronts Spidey at May's house and tells him to meet him in an abandoned subway. When Spidey arrives there, he is being watched by the two assassins. Venom and Spider-Man briefly fight until the assassins join them with Sonic weaponry to disable Venom. This enrages Venom and he brutally attacks Stone until being hit with Styx's touch of death. As the symbiote lays dying, Spidey webs up Styx and knocks out Stone with one punch. As Eddie is taken into a police car, he weeps over the "death" of the symbiote.

But Brock and the symbiote would reunite and escapes from jail and attempts yet again to kill Spidey by taking him to an abandoned island but the Web-Slinger is able to escape again. However, when Brock was in jail, the symbiote released an offspring that found a host in a serial killer called Cletus Cassady to form Carnage. Carnage went on a rampage until Spidey confronted him and was easily overpowered. Seeing that he can't take down Carnage alone, he goes with theHuman Torch to the island Venom is at to ask for his help. Using sonic weapons they were able to temporarily disable Venom and inform him that his "son" is killing innocents. Venom and Spidey team-up and fight Carnage but he's still too powerful for them. The fight continues onto a stadium where Spidey uses the sounds from the speakers to take Carnage down. However, Venom still hates Spider-Man and attempts to attack him only to be stopped by Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch with a sonic weapon.

Venom appears in Spidey's life yet again and kidnaps his newly returned parents to an amusement park in order to "save" them. Before going to fight Venom, Spider-Man visits Ann Weying, Eddie Brock's ex-wife in the story and asks her about Eddie. She tells him about Eddie and about an amusement park from his childhood where Peter rationalizes is Venom keeping his parents. There, Spidey and Venom fight and the Wild Pack join in attempting to arrest Venom but they fail. Then Ann appears and begs Venom to stop but then she is about to be crushed by objects because of the previous battle but Venom and Spidey managed to save her. Ann then convinces Eddie that Spidey saves innocent lives and Venom decides that if he kills Peter, future innocents will die so he tells Spider-Man that he will hunt him no more as long as Peter does the same. Peter reluctantly agrees and Venom makes his escape. This is the last time Spidey encounters Venom for a while.