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This may legitmately be the scariest figure I own.
Bonded to the black alien symbiote,
Otto Octavius became the eight-legged Superior Venom!
After a brief fight with Agent Venom, Otto decided to "cure" Flash Thompson of the symbiote. Under the guise of giving him new, robotic legs, he stripped the Venom symbiote from Flash and put it in isolation. But the symbiote was scared, so it broke out, and bonded to the nearest person, who just happened to be Spider-Man. At first Otto thought he could control Venom, but it was slowly working to erode his will so it could take over fully. It took the combined efforts of Otto, Peter Parker and Flash Thompson to pry it off him.
Superior Venom was designed by Humberto Ramos, who has a great eye for monsters. While the costume is mostly a black-and-white version of the normal Superior Spider-Man suit, it has horrific Venom-style teeth. They're crooked, uneven, and deeply unsettling. The eyes in the mask are wild and jagged, which just adds to the creepy look.
The figure's body is reused, but it does get the benefit of new clawed hands and feet. Yes, feet - apparently getting covered in Venom goo makes you lose your shoes. Unless Spidey's booties are still under there, and the "bare" feet are just made of whatever Venoms are made of. Which, come to think of it, seems likely. It's not like Eddie Brock really had a huge jaw, right? The costume design is a mix of the Superior Spider-Man costume and Venom's traditional giant spider, which makes for one sharp design! He has red panels on his forearms - having not read the book, I don't know what they represent, but they're painted cleanly and keep this from being just black and white.
The longer Otto was acting as Spider-Man,
the more he slipped back into his old ways. For instance, when he added four mechanical legs to his back. Yes, they're pretty much the same as the waldoes on the back of the Iron Spider suit, but is there anything that says "Dr. Octopus" more than four extra robot arms? The last Superior Spider-Man figure didn't have them, but this one does: they're separate pieces, that plug into four uniquely shaped holes on his backpack, and since they've been Venomized just as much as the rest of the figure, they're weird and twisted and gross. It's great!
As part of Series 2 of the Spider-Man Marvel Legends, Superior Venom comes with a piece of the Rhino build-a-figure. His is the right arm, which is big and heavy and has a separate plate of shoulder armor.
Superior Venom doesn't look like much in the box, but with that nice graphic design, the inclusion of his extra arms, and that new frightening head sculpt, he turned out a lot better than expected.
-- 10/05/15
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