Last issue I praised Cullen Bunn’s pacing and said I was very confident that he was going to stick the landing for Poison X. Of course, in doing so, I jinxed it, I totally jinxed it. However, we got an entire month’s breather before Venomized kicks off, so hopefully I forget about this issue before then. 

You Are Reading Part 5 of the Crawlspace Poison X Review. Click the links to find: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. 

Venom #163: Poison X Part Five

Writer: Cullen Bunn

Artists: Edgar Salazar & Ario Anindito 

Colorists: Dono Sanchez Almara 

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Inker: Allen Martinez 

C.Artists: Will Robson & Morry Hollowell 

Editors: Nick Lowe & Devin Lewis & Mark Paniccia & Darren Shan & Tom Groneman & Christina Harrington & Chris Robinson

Editor-In-Chief: CB Cebulski 

Recap: Cyclops and the Star-Jammers regroup with the X-Men, just in time to fight off Poison Grey, Killer Poison, Poison the Hunter, and a host of un-bonded Poisons. Venom helps the team escape and only Angel loses his Klyn’tar in the battle. Poison Grey is supposedly killed, but Scott can still feel their psychic connection. The X-Men ditch their Klyn’tar with the Star-Jammers and head back to Earth. When the Star-Jammers return to the Klyn’tar home world to warn them of the invading Poisons, they find it devoid of all Klyn’tar presence. 

Thoughts: The academic in me has problems with this issue. It is fairly common knowledge in academia that in your conclusion (a term this book has splashed across the cover) you tend not to introduce new information. Obviously one can not avoid introducing new plot elements and directions in narrative conclusions. Perhaps though, the introduction of new exposition can be avoided… like perhaps we can avoid a three page Poison exposition dump in the final issue of a Poison story-line. This exposition totally throws off the pacing of this issue, especially considering a crossover called Poison X could have featured the titular characters much earlier than the 3/5 mark. The exposition also robs the fight scene it is delivered over of its agency.

The Poisons are such an afterthought in this series, it hurts. The fate of the Poisons, Jean in particular, is left open-ended in the worst way imaginable; because the comic does not have the time to address her. The emotional fall out of Jean should be monumental to this crossover but there is no time to even focus on it. There is also no sense of the impending invasion that is the premise of Venomized, which means the first issue of that story will probably have to recap everything about the Poisons and their master plan, which we literally just learned about here at the end of this story-line preceding it.

Despite being able to take down both Killer Thrill and Jean Grey with no problem, the Poisons here are a joke. The young X-Men should have been no match for them, with or without Venom’s help; all Eddie really does is push them around. The X-Men also have to give up their Klyn’tar off panel, save for Angel who burns his to no emotional effect. I would have rather had Haze Mancer leading the Poisons to the Klyn’tar home-world as a sub-plot, separate from the main X-Men plot, if this is what meshing them together results in. Another issue would have done wonders for the series.

One thing that is nice is we finally get Venom’s perspective on the Poisons and how it makes Eddie consider him a problem instead of a partner. In the last couple issues of Venom, he has been ignored in favor of character development for the X-Men, but here he is front and center. Clayton Cowles does a really admirable job in this issue; his positioning of sound effects is diverse and enhances the scenes they overlay. He also does a really good job of breaking up large chunks of dialogue into easy to read segments. I would argue Cowles more than Bunn is what makes Venom’s narration in this comic work as well as it does.

 

And with that, let’s shift gears to the art. One thing I absolutely love in this issue is Venom shifting into his Space-Knight appearance when the battle with the Poisons tumbles into the vacuum of space. Ario Anindito handles the back half of the book and I find his fights to have far more variety and kinetic energy than those in the front half. However, one place where Edgar Salazar gets the upper hand is on facial features; something about Anindito’s humans looks off. Unfortunately for both artists, what once made the X-Men Klyn’tar combos refreshing in the power usage department is now common place.

Dono Sanchez-Almara is the MVP of the Venom team and perhaps of Poison X as a whole. I rave about his multi-colored backgrounds and exciting vistas every review, but it cannot be overstated how great his color scheme is when so many Marvel comics use monotone colors and heavy white spaces. 

List of Known Venoms: Eddie Brock, Scott Summers (safely de-bonded), Jean Grey (Poisoned), Warren Worthington III (sacrificed by fire), Robert Drake (safely de-bonded), Hank McCoy (safely de-bonded), Mary Jane Watson, X-23, Black Panther (Ngozi), Mania, Rocket Raccoon, Logan (deceased?), Doctor Strange (deceased[Self-Sacrifice]), Ant-Man (Scott Lang) (Poisoned), Deadpool (Poisoned), Robbie Reyes (Poisoned), Flash Thompson (deceased[Hulk]), Peter Parker (Poisoned), Captain America (Poisoned)

List of known Poisons: Kraven The Hunter, Killer Thrill, Jean Grey, Doctor Doom, Thanos, Thane, Gladiator, Warbird, Super-Skrull, Groot, Starlord, Gamora, Rhino (deceased[Rocket]), Hawkeye (deceased[Rocket]), Bullseye (deceased[Rocket]), Storm (deceased[Rocket]), Polaris (deceased[Rocket]), Silver Samurai (deceased[Rocket]), Spiral (deceased[Rocket]), Gorgon (deceased[Rocket]), Scarlet Witch (deceased[Rocket]), Silver Surfer (deceased[Rocket]), Hulk (deceased [Rocket]), Spider-Man (deceased[Eddie Brock]), Daimon Hellstrom (deceased[Eddie Brock]), Doctor Octopus (deceased[Eddie Brock]), Host-Rider (deceased[Carnage]) Iron Fist (deceased[Carnage]), , Green Goblin (deceased[Carnage]), Daredevil (deceased[Panther]), Enchantress (deceased[Black Panther]), Nico Minrou (deceased[X-23]), Ant-Man (Scott Lang) (deceased[X-23]), Captain America (deceased[Deadpool]), Gwenpool (deceased[Deadpool]) Sabertooth (deceased[Old Man Logan])

 

Verdict: This is a really weak ending to a very polarizing event. Just once, I would like to write about a Venom title that is consistently well done (looking to you, Donny Cates) but that has not been the case since Remender was on the title back in like… 2013? That being said, I am still excited for Venomized. Bunn is rejoining Iban Coello and Matt Yackey (his artist, colorist for VenomVerse) and they work well together as a creative team. I am curious what role the cast of this crossover will play and remain convinced that Jean and Scott will be the key to defeating the Poisons. Here’s to a better future, I guess. 

Pros: 

• Coloring is top notch
• Venom’s input on the Poisons 

Cons: 

• Rushed art
• Rushed story
• Plot-lines converge in a poorly executed way
• Awful pacing
• Exposition dump

D

Poison X Verdict: This event has some real highlights, especially in the art department. Colorists Dono Sanchez-Almara and Matt Milla excel in this series, blowing every other member of the creative team out of the water. Jacopi Carmagni, Edgar Salazar, and Ario Anindito all have highs and lows in the series, but Carmagni is probably the MVP given his style feels like a blend of Salazar and Anindito’s. Joe Carmagna is the God of Letters, but Cowles delivers some really strong work that makes the change in letterers barely noticeable.

Seeing the young X-Men bond with Klyn’tar and explore their powers in new ways is the best thing to come out of this event. Early on in the series, Bunn takes time to develop some of the Klyn’tar and the various bonds they have with the X-Men; sadly this gets ignored when poor pacing forces Bunn to wrap this story up a little too quickly. 

And that brings us to the abundant problems of this event. There is no emotional stakes. Corsair seemed like a goner and Scott was facing consumption by his Klyn’tar, but ultimately neither of these play out in favor of an emotionless ‘death’ of Jean Grey; she also recently ‘died’ and so it’s becoming a bit trite to have her be the sacrificial goat. There is also next to no Poisons in this event, despite the misleading title. And when they are introduced, they stop the pace of the final couple issues for information drops that should have come much sooner. I feel like the planning that went into this series is lacking, because it is a five issue story about rescuing the Star-Jammers and bringing the Poisons to the Marvel Prime Universe, and both end up feeling rushed. 

Also Venom feels like an after-thought. Poison X is an event you can skip unless you’re interested in members of the artistic team, or you’re a fan of Bunn’s work in X-Men Blue. 

C-