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Venom: Lethal Protector cover art

Venom: Lethal Protector

Written by: James R. Tuck, Marvel
Narrated by: David Bendena
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Publisher's Summary

When Eddie Brock becomes biologically linked to a bizarre alien symbiote, the two share a common goal. At first, they seek to squash their arch-foe Spider-Man. But after repeated attempts, Venom reaches an uneasy truce with the web-spinner. Brock leaves New York and heads west to San Francisco, the city of his birth, eager to put trouble behind him, but trouble has different ideas. Brock commits himself to becoming a defender of the innocent, but he's a six-foot-three-inch, 260 lb. figure with bulging muscles and fangs like a shark. Venom quickly draws attention - first from a furious Spider-Man, who's certain Brock has broken his word, then from a team of armored enemies who set out to kill the Lethal Protector. Venom joins forces with the web-spinner only to face an even deadlier threat: five trained killers, each wearing a symbiotic suit like Brock's. These are the Spawn of Venom, and they're out for blood.

©2018 Marvel (P)2021 Marvel

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great story

great story. would have been even better if there where different people doing voices of different characters but still very enjoyable.

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Lowered My Expectations.. Yeah.. Still Bad

There's no getting past it. 'Venom: Lethal Protector' is straight-up Peurile. This book gives the genuine impression that a 14-year-old fanboy put it together.
The Amoral alien symbiote (*Please Note: Not Immoral - *A*moral) is an incredibly fascinating mélange of personalities that combine to make an engrossing antihero. It's not that they relish human pain & suffering.. they simply don't care.
Sadly, this James R. Tuck novelization makes the mistake of portraying the character as a strangely sympathetic conventional hero - teaming up with Spiderman to rescue homeless people in San Francisco for some reason (kids just graduated from Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles must have demanded entertainment).
It's unclear if David Michelinie (hired as the author of the 1993 Marvel comics story-arc after being fired by DC Comics for nearly destroying 'Swamp Thing') is the real source for the headscratching inconsistencies, but Tuck's misunderstanding of character motivations solidifies the problem. On top of that, in fact, Tuck's dialogue is eyeroll-worthy, the descriptions vary between cartoonish & shockingly violent, and the action is overscripted & ludicrous. The compounded crimes are insurmountable.

[N.B: The Life Foundation Symbiotes (Scream, Riot, Phage, Lasher, and Agony - supersoldiers empowered by asexual nodules budded off of Venom) are really cool enemies, but they're misused in this story]

Unfortunately, the performance from David Bendena is over-the-top, too. To be fair, his ridiculous growling voice for Venom fits what Tuck gives him, but it's groanworthy every time he delivers a line.
His rate of reading is furthermore glacial (setting playback at 1.35X was required to render the narration tolerable).
Finally, Bendena faaaaaar overenunciates and reads with so much melodrama that it sounds like his kids' lives depend on the outcome of every scene in question.

I really wanted to like this story because I love the character. In fact, I restarted it after listening to half of the audiobook - striving to give it another shot ("It can't be this bad.. I just have to check my reservations and enjoy it.."). It usually works when I encounter something this silly.
Sadly, it didn't this time. I guess this 1.5 out of 10 star recording simply sucks.

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