Published Feb 19, 2026, 11:35 PM EST
CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
Peter Parker has been out of commission for months now after he was sent into outer space following a battle with a new villain, Hellgate. Norman Osborn filled in as Spider-Man, while Ben Reilly took over Peter's civilian life (as a sort of resentful, "This could have been MY life" situation).
Peter has now returned to Earth, along with a group of new alien friends (including a possible new love interest named Raelith, who is actually from the same planet as Hellgate). The aliens are being quarantined with the Fantastic Four (as their alien bodies are not used to all the various Earth microbes) while Peter catches up on everything that he has missed out on, which includes the fact that his former girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, has become the new Venom.
Well, in this CBR exclusive preview of Amazing Spider-Man/Venom: Death Spiral #1 (from writers Joe Kelly, Charles Soule, and Al Ewing, artist Jesus Saiz, colorist Matt Hollingsworth, and I assume letterer Joe Caramagna), we see how Peter is drawn into a conflict with Venom and the current Carnage, who is Eddie Brock.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN/VENOM: DEATH SPIRAL #1
JOE KELLY, AL EWING & CHARLES SOULE (W) • JESÚS SAIZ (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
VENOM VARIANT COVER BY SKAN • VENOM VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY SKAN
CARNAGE VARIANT COVER BY STONEHOUSE • CARNAGE VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY STONEHOUSE
SPIDER-MAN VARIANT COVER BY TBA • SPIDER-MAN VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY TBA
CONNECTING VARIANT COVER BY TBA
FIRST YOUR FRIENDS. THEN YOUR FAMILY. THEN YOU.
• The next epic SPIDER-MAN and VENOM crossover starts here and continues through April!
• A new super-powered serial killer is on the loose and they’re coming for Spidey, Venom and everyone in between.
• But what terrible secret has CARNAGE learned, and what does it have to do with Spider-Man?!
32 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T …$5.99
In the preview pages, we see an old man in Florida being killed while mowing his lawn. The killing involves a spiral pattern in the lawn, so this suggests some mysterious new spiral-themed killer (I mean, the comic book IS called Death Spiral, ya know?).
Meanwhile, we see Peter check in with his alien friends who are quarantining at the Baxter Building, and they are slowly getting better, and can be released soon. Peter is overwhelmed by all the messages that were left for him from his Aunt May while he was missing (and Ben was ignoring everyone in Peter's life).
He decides to go on a webswinging jaunt, while listening to his many missed voicemails, and one of them is from Eddie Brock, the current host of the Carnage symbiote. Peter deletes the message, but presumably, Eddie is calling about something tied to this Spiral killer, as Eddie Brock and Carnage had been hunting killers (with Eddie figuring that if Carnage has to kill, it might as well be killers).
To see how they all come together (including Venom, who Peter doesn't know is now Mary Jane), you'll have to pick up a copy of Amazing Spider-Man/Venom: Death Spiral #1 on sale next week!
Source: Marvel
English (US) · 