A review by crookedtreehouse
Spider-Man: The Next Chapter, Vol. 2 by Howard Mackie, J.M. DeMatteis

2.0

While a definite step up from Larry Hama's tenure with the Spidery symbiote, this volume's Venom involvement is an exercise in frustration as the story sets a climactic battle between Venom and Spider-Man with J Jonah Jameson's life also hanging in the balance (hence the cover art), and then ... Venom just fucks off and leaves the story never to return. It's a baffling decision, and a disappointment to read. The very next issue moves on as though the events in the story Never Happened.

It's Highly skippable, if you're reading the book for a Venom story.