Venom: Along Came a Spider #1 (1996)

After lying low following the symbiote invasion of Earth, Venom emerges from the sewers in order to check in on his ex-wife, Anne Weying. Having tapped into a subway phone line, he tries to call Anne at her home. However, he is unaware that Anne is in police custody and they have tapped her phone. Unfortunately for Detectives Clark and Steen, Anne refuses to aid them as she believes that Eddie Brock means well. They remind her that there are a stack of police warrants in both San Francisco and Chicago that convinces them otherwise. As the phone rings, Eddie wonders if Anne is avoiding her after he allowed his symbiote to bond with her. However, the symbiote suggests that she will want them back after getting a "taste" of being bonded with the symbiote. This response confuses Eddie, but he doesn't think on it as long as Anne finally answers the phone. When Anne starts calling him "Edward", a name that he hates, Brock becomes suspicious and sends his symbiote through the phone line. Sure enough, the NYPD are tracing the call and just as they learn the location of Brock's phone call, the symbiote comes through the phone receiver and begins bonding to Anne again. The bonding between Eddie, Anne, and the Symbiote suddenly cause the three beings to feel absolute ecstasy. Meanwhile, at the Daily Grind, Ben Reilly overhears some patrons trying to make sense of how many Spider-Men are active in New York City. As he leaves, Ben can't blame them for being confused as his life has become incredibly complicated recently. For years, Ben thought he was a clone of Peter Parker until a test proved that he was the original after all and that his clone has been living his life for the past five years. However, with his clone married to Mary Jane and retired as Spider-Man, Ben has taken up the mantle once again. Passing by an electronics store, Ben catches a news report about snipers surrounding police headquarters and how Venom's ex-wife was being held there. Realizing that this could be trouble, Ben climbs up onto the rooftops to change into Spider-Man. Back underground, Venom has to release his connection to Anne because it is too intense. However, once the connection has been severed he quickly realizes that now knows everything she knew and vice-versa. Now knowing that the police have Anne, Venom decides to free her from their custody and begins formulating a plan on how to do this. As Spider-Man arrives on the scene, police both inside and outside the police station begin securing the area. Meanwhile, Anne Weying is reeling after her symbiosis with Eddie, and is now coming to terms with how he really felt about her. Back outside, Spider-Man realizes that Venom wouldn't attack the police station directly and decides to search the sewers. No sooner has the wall-crawler gone underground, a pizza delivery man arrives on the scene. Apparently, the chief of police put in an order for pizza. Detective Clark yells at the deliver boy with his bullhorn in order to confirm that this isn't Venom in disguise. Convinced that this is not the case, Clark sends the pizza into the station. He then orders his officers to sweep the area while he searches a nearby alley with an uncovered manhole. Directly below, Spider-Man searches for Venom but finds nothing but dead alligators. Climbing up a nearby ladder to look who is above, Spider-Man pokes his head up to look but finds nobody there. This is because Detective Clark has returned to the police cordon outside. Detective Clark tells his officers to keep an eye out and goes back inside to join the others. Inside, Detective Steen and the other officers have determined that nobody ordered a pizza and pull their guns on the delivery boy. However, that's when "Detective Clark" enters the room and reveals that he is really Venom in disguise. Outside, Spider-Man has just discovered the real Detective Clark, who had been stuffed into a nearby dumpster by Venom. At that moment, Venom manages to shut off the power in the police station and overpowers the officers inside. Rescuing Anne from custody, Venom smashes his way up to the roof where he runs into Spider-Man. When the wall-crawler orders him to put Anne down, Venom does, only so he can attack Spider-Man, leaving the wall-crawler to wonder if he has bitten off more than he can chew.