Well, VenomVerse is over and that means a bit of a breather until the Amazing Spider-Man crossover in December, which just revealed a very interesting role for Flash Thompson, and the X-Men Blue crossover in January, which serves as the sequel to VenomVerse. Marvel is super serious about Eddie Brock being one of the key figures of Legacy, aren’t they? How long do you think it will be before we hit saturation with Venom (or do you consider VenomVerse to be that point?)

Venom 155: Mo’ Citiziens, Mo’ Problems

Writer: Mike Costa

Artist: Mark Bagley 

Inker: John Dell

Colorist: Dono Sanchez-Almara

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

C.Artists: Mark Bagley & John Dell & Richard Isanove

Editors: Nick Lowe & Devin Lewis & Allison Stock

Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso

The Savior Has Returned: Our issue opens a couple hundred miles away from New York City, in the Supermax prison where Lee Price is incarcerated. After a failed assassination attempt on his life, Lee warns those involved that the day where he and Venom will be one again is coming.

Our story then cuts to New York City, where Eddie and Venom observe a dirty deal between criminals and cops going down. Venom is starving and nearly eats a police officer, before Eddie reigns him. Eddie doses up on his medicine and then applies for a job at Fact Channel in hopes of pursuing the criminal activities of cops in a less violent way. Unfortunately, his potential new boss would rather he apply his talents to more irrelevant matters like aliens on the moon or celebrity gossip. After the interview, Eddie and Venom visit the Dino-People under his protection. They are feasting on a Moloid they discovered, when the Moloid’s brethren attack them. Eddie manages to kill the Moloid’s monstrous leader and then offers them a truce; take your people for burial and leave his people alone. After they leave, Venom and the Dino-People feast on their leader.

The issue ends with Kraven the Hunter learning of the Dino-People’s existence, declaring his next hunt.  

Problem Is Not Mind, Problem Is Food: This issue welcomes Venom veteran, Mark Bagley, to the creative team. His addition boosts the title in a number of ways. His character work is strong, especially his faces. They seems to change depending on the profile Bagley chooses to present us with, a realistic feature that a lot of artists do not capitalize on. He also gives his figures a lot of details (like piercings, scars, tattoos, and unique wardrobe designs) that distinguish characters from one another. It also distinguishes them from Eddie Brock, who is clean cut and devoid of such details. Bagley and inker, John Dell, use shadows heavily to define the features of their characters, especially Eddie and Venom’s bulkiness. One feature I particularly love is how when Eddie is in control, Venom has his classic large mawed toothy smile but when Venom takes over, the smile gives way to the slithering tongue that has come to define Venom in modern appearances. The way Venom forms/breaks apart around Eddie’s face really emphasizes Venom’s unique biology in a disturbing way and it is equally disturbing later when Venom bursts through a creature’s skull and splashes blood around in the aftermath. Bagley is an excellent choice for this title and is the MVP this issue. 

Unfortunately, Costa’s script cannot keep up with the quality of Bagley’s art. The opening scene attempts to pull some kind of Dan Slott-esqe continuity boasting but it falls apart for two reasons. One, it is unaware of modern Marvel continuity (if you want to know where The Absorbing Man actually was, check out the stellar Black Bolt comic by Saladin Ahmed and Christian Ward). And secondly, he invents a new character instead of using some obscure villain from Spider-Man’s rich rogue gallery. Thankfully, this scene sets up Venom Inc in a way that makes Lee Price actually seem like he could be a threat; this is mostly thanks to Bagley’s art though.  But from there, we have more problems arise. Why is Venom’s hunger suddenly such an issue again when the past several runs of Venom have left this concept in the past where it belongs? This hunger leads to a complete role reversal for Eddie and Venom that feels out of left field. Venom goes from whiny partner to thirsty savage and Eddie suddenly has a new found sense of moral justice that was missing prior to VenomVerse. This issue feels like it occurs after VenomVerse, thanks to Eddie’s leadership of the Dino-People, despite no explicit reference to the event or this issue’s place in the timeline. The conflict between the Moloids and Dino-People could go to interesting places in the future, especially with Kraven entering the fray. I am not familiar with Kraven’s current status quo, but last time I saw him was when he almost bested Flash Thompson in Rick Remender’s Venom run, so he is a strong choice of antagonist. Speaking of antagonism, we are also introduced to Eddie’s possible new boss, (it was never clear if he is working at Fact Channel) Jennifer Kao. Eddie’s new sense of moral justice leads nicely into this story-line that looks at the fall of journalism; while journalists used to be fact finders then have now been reduced to gossip mongers. Despite being presented in a slightly antagonistic way, Jennifer fares well in her introduction and I look forward to seeing more of her and this story-line. 

Dono Sanchez-Almara and Clayton Cowles remain on from the previous artistic team and do solid work here. Almara does an excellent job of coloring the thick motion and impact lines that Bagley puts into the story. When Bagley’s detailed filled backgrounds give way for exclamatory backdrops during the fight scenes,  Almara wisely chooses to avoid monochromatic colors and actually blends black into his colors in interesting ways. He also uses a muted palette on Bagley’s diversive Dino-People and Moloids that really sells the squalor of the world they live in. He uses light in an interesting way: generic building lights are dimmed by shadows but colorful light cuts through shadow to create a strong sense of atmosphere. Cowles’ letters are not particularly note-worthy in this issue, but his sound effects do a solid job of enhancing the fight scenes. 

Verdict: Once again, the art team carries Venom. Mark Bagley has a weird obsession with eyes this issue, but his familiarity with Venom shows in the work he delivers. That is not to say there are not interesting concepts at play in Mike Costa’s script, just that the execution needs work. I am definitely curious to see where the story-line goes and hope it kicks into high gear in the next issue. 

Pros:

• Bagley’s figures
• Use of shadow and light
• The fall of journalism story line

Cons: 

• The hunger story line
• Weak continuity 
• Eddie-Venom bizarre role reversal

B-