Apparently the backup plan is turning Earth into Venom
There comes a point in every giant Marvel crossover where somebody looks at the situation and says:
Okay. The sensible plans have failed. Time for the completely insane one.
Queen in Black #4 has reached that point.
Knull is now a god of light. Hela has taken control of the symbiotes and become the Queen in Black. Both want Earth, armies are attacking across the planet, and Earth’s heroes are basically throwing every available superhero, weapon, spell and extremely questionable Reed Richards science experiment at the problem.
Written by Al Ewing, with art by Iban Coello and Paco Medina and colors by Guru-eFX, this is the penultimate chapter—and it absolutely knows it.
Subtlety has officially left the building.
PROS
The biggest strength here is that Queen in Black #4 finally feels like the entire Marvel Universe is having a terrible day at the same time.
We bounce from England to Japan, Italy, Egypt and beyond as different hero teams battle Hela’s forces. Captain America is fighting alongside some very unexpected allies. Wolverine and Storm deal with reality getting increasingly strange. Vision and Scarlet Witch are doing magic-and-robot things. The Fantastic Four are involved.
Everybody is busy.
Nobody is having lunch.
And somehow Ewing keeps much of it fun.
The highlight of the battlefield material is probably Firelord with a symbiote, because apparently a cosmic being made entirely of flame wasn’t enough.
Then Ben Grimm arrives.
“Half past clobberin’ time.”
Perfect.
Thing taking on Firelord while Human Torch, Nova and the others desperately assemble another plan is exactly the kind of gloriously ridiculous superhero spectacle a crossover like this should deliver.
There’s even a wonderfully dumb-smart moment involving a Nova Flame, because when one Human Torch isn’t enough, the obvious scientific answer is:
Add Nova.
Reed Richards would approve.
Probably with a seventeen-page explanation.
Speaking of Reed, the Baxter Building material gives the issue its actual story engine.
While everyone else is punching gods and flaming symbiotes, Reed is working with Mary Jane/Venom, Dylan and Toxin on a way to exploit the anti-Carnage material and Dylan’s Chainbreaker ability.
Spider-Man is there too, because at this point Peter apparently understands that when Reed Richards says, “I have an idea involving symbiote biology,” you should remain close enough to pull the emergency lever.
The experiment begins working.
Then it works too well.
Classic Reed.
What I really like is where Ewing takes that disaster.
Instead of simply creating another giant monster, the rapidly spreading Venom connects humanity into one enormous symbiote network.
Suddenly billions of people are sharing the same bond.
And the person guiding them through it is Mary Jane Watson.
That’s such a cool payoff to MJ’s role in this event.
She doesn’t defeat the problem by suddenly becoming the strongest person in the room. She does it by communicating. She tells frightened people they are not alone, asks them to stay connected, and turns something terrifying into something potentially powerful.
It’s basically:
Face cosmic apocalypse through teamwork.
Very Spider-Man.
Just considerably gooier.
The art also deserves a huge amount of credit. Coello and Medina move from packed superhero battles to cosmic god warfare to symbiote horror without the issue losing its momentum. By the time black tendrils begin spreading across Earth, the story has gone from “big Marvel battle” to full planetary nightmare.
And then we get that final page.
Earth.
Covered in Venom.
With eyes.
And teeth.
And a tongue.
VENOMWORLD.
Comics are wonderful.
CONS
The issue’s biggest strength is also its main weakness:
There is a lot happening.
Characters appear for a page, exchange a few lines, fight something bizarre and then disappear while we jump halfway across the planet. It sells the scale beautifully, but occasionally feels like someone handed you the Marvel Universe remote and keeps changing channels every twelve seconds.
Knull and Hela themselves also spend much of the issue functioning more as gigantic cosmic problems than characters. Their confrontation looks spectacular, but at this stage I’m more emotionally invested in the people trying to survive them.
And for fellow Spidey readers, Peter is definitely supporting cast this time.
He’s present.
He’s useful.
But nobody should pick up this particular chapter expecting Amazing Spider-Man featuring slightly more symbiotes than usual.
FINAL THOUGHTS: B++ FOR BACK IN BLACK!!!
Queen in Black #4 is big, loud, chaotic and wonderfully comic-book ridiculous.
It gives us superhero armies, cosmic gods, Firelord Venom, Thing throwing punches, Reed Richards committing science and Mary Jane becoming the emotional center of an eight-billion-person symbiote network.
And somehow all of that ends with Planet Earth turning into Venom.
We are apparently no longer Earth.
We are Venomworld.
Sure.
Why not?
There’s only one issue left.
At this point, I’m expecting the Moon to grow spider-legs. 🕷️🖤🌍
