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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Venom 2 Trailer Breakdown – All the Marvel and Carnage References

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Folks, we live in interesting times. We just received a trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the sequel to the surprise 2018 hit Venom, starring Tom Hardy, Tom Hardy, and a whole lot of people who weren’t trying nearly as hard as Tom Hardy. This sequel brings in Woody Harrelson as Broadway star Carnage about 30 years after his comic book debut.

Seriously, though. Carnage appeared in a Broadway musical ten years before he got to be in the movies. I’ll never get over that.

If you haven’t watched the crazy trailer yet, press pause on your Green Jelly CD and check this out.

What can we gather from this trailer?

THE RETURN OF THE BROMANCE

The Venom symbiote has become more acclimated to life on Earth, going so far as learning at least a little Chinese and getting into cooking. If that’s what you call it. Eddie Brock simply has to endure it best he can.

Fun fact: the 2004 comic book miniseries Venom vs. Carnage (by Peter Milligan and Clayton Crain) was the first time anyone’s played with the fun concept of a symbiote and its host acting like an old married couple. In that comic, a delightful scene had Cletus Kasady ironing his shirt while having a lovers’ spat with his symbiote.

Also, while Venom’s love for chocolate was hinted at at the end of the first movie, the two-in-one vigilante is more adamant about it this time around. During the character’s ’90s antihero run, it was explained that there’s a chemical in both chocolate and brain matter that the symbiote needs to thrive. Eating chocolate keeps Venom from wanting to eat brains.

Anyway, chipper Venom gives me life.

CARNAGE IS HERE

Continuing from where the last movie left off, Cletus Kasady is locked up and will only confide in Eddie Brock. While we’re left wondering how we get from point A to point B with Cletus becoming a symbiote host, we at least dive straight into the big hero/villain cliché about how similar they are.

Director Andy Serkis goes into more detail on this with some trailer commentary: “They both had strange upbringings with strange relationships with their parents and their families. And there’s an inherent loneliness that they both recognize in each other. Cletus actually reaches out and will only speak to Eddie Brock. That’s at the beginning of the story, we learned that he’s the only one he’ll speak to. And the cops, therefore, want Eddie to go in and investigate and try and discover where some of the bodies, some of the many bodies of Cletus’s victims are.”

I miss his Sideshow Bob wig.

SHRIEK HAS ARRIVED

Naomie Harris is shown as an inmate at Ravencroft, an asylum regularly used in Marvel Comics. She appears to be portraying Frances Barrison, otherwise known as Shriek.

Introduced in the Maximum Carnage story, Shriek was created to be a love interest for Carnage. The Mallory to his Mickey, if you will. In the comics, she’s a mutant with powers allowing her to fly, shoot sonic blasts, and darken people’s personalities.

The abusive couple have teamed up various times, most notably in Maximum Carnage where they were joined by the Spider Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion. The former (a six-armed monster version of Spider-Man) is the only one of the three with any real staying power, usually being treated by Shriek as either her child or her dog.

ANNE WEYING IS STILL AROUND

Michelle Williams returns as Anne Weying, Eddie’s former fiancée. The last movie ended with Venom (and Stan Lee) insisting Eddie would win her back. She’s last been seen with a supportive and successful boyfriend and Eddie’s personal life is still kind of a mess. It will take a lot to get Anne to go back to Eddie the way things are.

Besides, she probably wouldn’t enjoy finding out that he lied to her about Venom’s survival. Screwing with her trust is what got Eddie into this mess in the first place.

DETECTIVE MULLIGAN

Patrick Mulligan. Now that’s a deep cut. Remember earlier when I was talking about the miniseries Venom vs. Carnage? Said story was about introducing Toxin, the spawn of Carnage. Officer Mulligan became the host for the newly-born creature. With that origin story and a six-issue miniseries from the mid-00s, Mulligan tried to train his symbiote, which meant well, but was violent and naïve about how the world works.

Really, the Toxin miniseries is the blueprint for Eddie and Venom’s cinematic relationship. Too bad Mulligan was presumably killed off-panel so they could move the Toxin symbiote onto different hosts, including Eddie himself for a time.

Now that I think about it, the closest thing Toxin had to an arch-nemesis was Razor Fist. The same Razor Fist that will show up in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. See? Now their war lives on on another battlefield.

THE DAILY BUGLE AND…THE AVENGERS?

We have another article discussing how this brief moment in the trailer decides whether or not the Venom movies take place in the MCU. After all, this shot of Mulligan reading The Daily Bugle shows it as a newspaper, which doesn’t really line up with how it’s portrayed in the MCU.

There is an interesting wrinkle in this, though. When Mulligan angrily crushes the newspaper, there’s a very, very brief look at a headline from inside the paper. The two words visible seem to say “AVENGERS” and “NIGHTMARE.” Possibly “AVENGERS LEVEL NIGHTMARE.”

This could be nothing more than an Easter egg, but considering Morbius is supposed to take place in the MCU due to Vulture showing up in the trailer and Morbius is apparently part of the “Venomverse,” I guess we can just say that the Venom movies aren’t part of the MCU…until they are.

Speaking of Easter eggs, notice the wanted poster for E. Larson. Erik Larsen is the comic artist credited for giving Venom the gnarly face of fangs with gross tongue.

VENOM’S KATANA?

There’s one shot where Venom’s carrying something and…it looks like it’s a katana? What in the hell?

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I mean, I’m absolutely for it, but it’s not like Venom’s really known for going all Samurai Jack (he’s more Aku, really). This is like when Juggernaut had a bazooka in that Konami X-Men arcade game. He really didn’t need it, but we’re better for it!

The post Venom 2 Trailer Breakdown – All the Marvel and Carnage References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Top 10 Recommended Carnage Stories (pre-Absolute Carnage)

In honour of Absolute Carnage’s beginning I present you with the best Carnage stories if you want to get into and have fun with the character.

My picks here are intentionally excluding anything from Donny Cates’ era partially because his work isn’t finished yet and partially because my hope is this list will act as a primer for people who want to test the waters with Carnage and see if Cates’ current work is worth their time.

This list isn’t ranked at all and nor is it a list of stories that are essential to understanding Carnage’s broad chronology. Like if you read these on their own there will be gaps that will make you wonder how we got from A to B.

Rather this list is intended to give you a general idea of who Carnage is, the types of stories he has or can be used in and what are among the best stories from the character’s POV.

1. Carnage Origin (ASM #344-345, 359-363)

There are some writing issues with this arc in relation to the F4’s use in the story. However if you put that aside and just focus strictly upon Carnage himself, in many ways this first Carnage story gives you everything you need to know about the character.

We learn most of Cletus Kasady’s backstory, where his symbiote came from, his general philosophy towards life and the dramatic hook he presents as an antagonist.

That is to say what is someone was an unrepentant psychopath...and then got superpowers. Specifically the same powers as Spider-Man’s then most physically intimidating and scariest enemy...but taken up to 11.

Are there deep psychological layers to Carnage?

Absolutely not.

But that is very much the point.

He’s chaos and death wrapped in black and blood and complete with Freddy Krueger humour and a taste for Metalhead anarchy.

The art is simply stunning, the action is top notch, Carnage’s various abilities and ferocity is expertly sold to readers and just to hammer the seriousness of the situation home, Spidey needs backup from his most dangerous enemy to even hope to bring down Kasady.

So whilst unfortunately not perfect, it is a perfect introduction to the character.

Honourable Mention: Maximum Carnage

I do not recommend you read this if you are new to Carnage, Spider-Man or comics in general. Maximum Carnage is enjoyable to certain fans but for most is something of an endurance test.

However it must be mentioned as it is undoubtedly Carnage’s most famous story. It doesn’t really give us anything new for his character beyond introducing his on and off again girlfriend Shriek and his ‘kids’ Doppelganger, Carrion, Demogoblin, etc. These characters intermittently show up in Carnage’s lore.

The whole story is a series of repetitive action set pieces...for 14 issues!

If you aren’t brave enough to check this out then perhaps consider reading synopses of it or watching recap videos online (RNS does a good one), just so you know the broadstrokes of the story as it is relevant to future Carnage history and Absolute Carnage is it’s spiritual successor.

2. The Mortal Past (ASM Annual 1994)

Arguably the best written Carnage story within the pages of Spider-Man.

The art is very reminiscent of Mark Bagley, co-creator of Carnage, so visually Carnage looks and ‘moves’ in character.

However the general story, whilst not redeeming Carnage at all, does give us a little more about his past and explores his philosophy from a different angle.

What helps this story is that while it is a Carnage story, the emotional weight of the story is carried by his former childhood friend, allowing for Carnage to neither sell out on his core concept of being a simple killing machine, but also giving the readers something to connect to beyond Spidey and Carnage fighting.

3. Carnage: Mind Bomb #1

Many Carnage fanatics argue this obscure one shot is Carnage’s ‘Killing Joke’. In a sense they are right as this story is the deepest exploration of who Kasady is and why he is the way he is.

We learn little about his past (beyond a few more early warning signs from his childhood) but this is Warren Ellis’ point. The story is oddly meta as it presents us with a psychiatrist who is looking to unravel the layers of Kasady’s mind, only to learn there really aren’t any.

He is simple. That is the point. He simply sees society and life as a joke, a big lie and that savagery lies beneath the surface. He illustrates this by driving his doctor utterly mad.

This story works because though it takes place in a superhero universe and features a super villain, there is no hero here. There are barely any good guys to speak of.

Rather this issue is in effect a horror comic, the first time Carnage was ever used in this way. This is reflected in the art work, which is definitely R-rated and depicts Carnage very differently. He’s essentially solid red and leaner, more skeletal even.

A good way to look at this story is as “What if Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees sat down and explained to you why they kill people’

Gory and not for the faint of heart, but this issue is the best story you will ever read that spells out for you who Carnage is and why, from his POV, he does what he does.

4. Web of Carnage (Sen #3, ASM #410, No Adj #67, Spec #233)

Carnage appeared a few times in the Clone Saga but this is his best outing. In general this is one of the more fun and enjoyable Clone Saga/Ben Reilly stories. But as a Carnage story it’s unique as it focuses much more upon the symbiote than Kasady.

The premise is simple yet effective. The Carnage symbiote bonds to Spider-Man/Ben Reilly and he must resist it’s attempts to control him or tempt him to violence, which includes urging him to murder Peter Parker!

The meat of the story is in parts 3-4 when we see Ben’s internal struggle against the symbiote. Visually, the art is not consistent because of different artists, but they are all decent-great and the design for Spider-Carnage is so iconic it was adopted for the finale of the Spider-Man 1994 cartoon series.

A simple yet fun story!

5. Carnage: It’s a Wonderful Life #1

I recommend this tentatively.

This is because it technically speaking covers much the same ground as Mind Bomb but isn’t as good. I suppose if you read this first you wouldn’t get that impression.

Nevertheless, It’s a Wonderful Life is an even longer and more literal look inside Carnage’s head. Psychedelic, twisted, macabre and full of dark humour the story just about pulls off it’s horror premise. It feels like something out of a 1990s Dark Horse comic.

The one thing that this issue has over Mind Bomb is that it makes an astute observation about Carnage’s core philosophy I don’t dare spoil.

Honourable Mention: Venom vs. Carnage #1-4

This story is in general pretty fun but doesn’t give you much of anything new for Carnage beyond him teaming up with Venom and the introduction of his spwan Toxin, who is a pretty cool character in his own right.

More significantly it was the first major time Clayton Crain drew symbiotes and he’d go on to have one of the most memorable visual takes on them ever.

6. Family Feud (Carnage #1-5, by Zeb Wells)

I’m not fond of most of Wells work and have issues with this era for Spider-Man. But when looked at as a Carnage story first and foremost, this series marks an important point in the character’s history.

At the time Venom had transitioned into a more heroic figure meaning Carnage, much as he was back when he was created, was pushed as the face of evil symbiotes within the Marvel universe. To that end he began to have a string of his own mini-series just like Venom had in the 1990s.

In many ways this mini-series is playing cleanup, returning the Carnage symbiote and Kasady to Earth after their presumed death in New Avengers #1. The series however also seeks to build a foundation from which future stories can be told and to that end reintroduces Shriek and Doppelganger too, sets up Carnage’s daughter Scorn.

It does all this pretty effectively to my recollection and has great art by Crain to sell everything.

7. Carnage U.S.A. #1-5

Zeb Wells in this story tells a story that could have been an event crossover but mercifully was not.

He and Crain return to deliver arguably the most ambitious Carnage story up until then, involving him infecting a whole town with his symbiote.

This again feels very much like a Dark Horse horror comic at times but still contains superhero elements and tones a plenty, finding a decent balance between the two.

Wells continues to world build by reintroducing many of the other Venom spawns (Carnage’s ‘siblings’) and uses them to great effect along with Agent Venom Flash Thompson who meets Carnage for the first time in this story.

Carnage himself is just very on point with his twisted plan and machinations, with this tale being among his more memorable villainous feats.

8. Deadpool vs. Carnage #1-4

Have you ever seen a Road Runner cartoon? Have you ever seen parodies of Road Runner cartoons by late night animated shows where they use dark humour to make the antics more bloody and violent?

That is essentially what this mini-series is. It’s two wisecracking, red and black clad over the top characters going at it in wacky and violent shenanigans.

However there is also poignantly some stuff in the story that even makes Carnage question his life philosophy in one of the most oddly clever takedowns of his character ever.

9. AXIS: Carnage #1-3

This story has it’s issues, in particular with who it’s villain is, but that’s more a problem for Spidey and Venom history.

As for Carnage himself this story comes recommended for it’s sheer novelty.

It’s Carnage...but as a...good guy?

The premise of the AXIS event was that certain heroes and villains were ‘inverted’ so that they went from good to bad and vice versa.

The wrinkle in this though is that Kasady is still Kasady. He’s still violent, insane, wisecracking and has a warped sense of morality, it’s just that now he finally has a sense of morality. He is sincerely trying to do good he’s just not all that aware his methods are somewhat counterproductive and extreme.

10. The One That Got Away, World Tour, What Dwells Beneath, (Carnage #1-16 by Gerry Conway)

Mind Bomb and It’s a Wonderful life were the first Carnage comics to embrace the use of the character for horror, but Conway’s Carnage picked the ball and ran with it.

Conway said he was in essence doing Tomb of Dracula with Carnage and it shows.

The series revolves around Carnage but the real main characters are the anti-Carnage taskforce assembled to put him down, giving us grounded relatable characters to connect to whilst we follow Carnage’s slaughter. There is a surprising swerve in the story where the story goes from a simple slasher movie style horror into full on Lovecraftian style horror which propels the consequent arcs of the series. The ending is rather rushed and weak I must admit, but the ride getting there is arguably the best crafted Carnage story ever.

#Carnage #Cletus Kasady #carnage symbiote #Maximum Carnage #Absolute Carnage #Mark Bagley #Gerry Conway #Zeb Wells #Lovecraft #AXIS #Tomb of Dracula #Warren Ellis #Deadpool #Venom #Eddie Brock #Clone Saga #Ben Reilly #Spider Carnage

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biggoonie · 5 years

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ABSOLUTE CARNAGE: AVENGERS #1

LEAH WILLIAMS (W) • Salvador Larroca (A) • Cover by Clayton Crain Codex Variant Cover by TBA VARIANT COVER BY TBA (VIRGIN VERSION ALSO AVAILABLE) CAPTAIN AMERICA! HAWKEYE! THE THING! WOLVERINE! Years ago, Cletus Kasady used the Carnage symbiote to take over a small town called Doverton, Colorado, as well as the team of Avengers who arrived to stop him! Barely able to free themselves from his control during their first meeting, this small band of heroes will have no choice but to assemble once more after they discover that Doverton’s entire population has recently fallen victim to Carnage’s more lethal designs… 40 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T+ …$4.99

#Clayton Crain #Avengers #Carnage #Venom #Spiderman

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why-i-love-comics · 5 years

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Absolute Carnage: Weapon Plus #1 (2019)

written by Jeb MacKay art by Stefano Raffaele & Dono Sanchez-Almara

#carnage #cletus kasady #weapon h #clayton cortez #marvel #wednesday spoilers #comics #wednesday spoiler #spoilers #comic spoilers #comic books spoilers #comic books

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ty-talks-comics · 5 years

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Best of Marvel: Week of October 16th, 2019

Best of this Week: Absolute Carnage #4 - Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, Jay Leisten and Clayton Cowles

God is Coming and Eddie Brock is ready for him.

Things have not been looking good for Eddie, Peter and the rest of the heroes of New York. Carnage’s brutality and efficiency has seen him gain the upper hand at every turn imaginable, allowing him to snatch up codices from almost everyone he’s encountered. Ghost Riders haven’t been safe, Spider-People haven’t been safe and even girls with magical powers over hell haven’t been able to stop Carnage’s warpath.

The last issue saw him take the appearance of Eddie Brock to infiltrate The Maker’s lab to steal the codices from Captain America, The Thing and Wolverine, taking everyone by surprise and seeing the Hulk use the Venom Symbiote himself. This issue follows up on that excellently by showing us the fallout of Hulk merging with Venom, Eddie dealing with the loss of his other again and the heroic efforts he makes to protect his son.

The book begins with an amazingly drawn and explosive punch by Venom Hulk. Carnage is laughing as he’s being put through a wall while clawing at Hulk’s eyes. The Symbiote is barely able to contain all of Hulk’s massive musculature as it appears to be tearing apart around his fist and forearm. The use of blur around the edges of the page sell you on the velocity of the punch and all of the rubble flying out as they go through the wall shows just how heavy and impactful the blow was. For added measure, there’s even a pigeon just flying by as it all happens.

As the fight is going on, Eddie and Peter take Normie and Ethan to The Maker’s armory to protect the kids from the Symbiote Zombies and Norman Osborn himself. Eddie is dead set on protecting the other heroes, but Peter tries to convince him to stay down with the rest of them. This issue gives us one of the best glimpses of the inner heroism of Eddie Brock as he looks at Spider-Man with the most desperate look possible, one eye stitched closed and asks him to let him do this. Spider-Man does and Eddie gathers Cap’s shield and maybe some kind of electric glove to go and protect everyone. Presumably, the events of Amazing Spider-Man #31 take place while Eddie is out fighting.

The next few pages are just strings of awesomely paced and spectacularly drawn fight scenes. Eddie, armed with the shield, fights his way through Carnage’s hordes and Miles Morales as an infected symbiote re-emerges. (Sorta ignoring the events of Miles’ own tie-in) Elsewhere, Venom Hulk and Carnage continue their romp around the warehouse district as Carnage is surprisingly holding his own against the black and green giant. Frank Martin and the various inkers really set the mood for the fight. The fires glow bright in the backgrounds with a vibrant red and white coloring to it, almost like a fiery mist. Rain crashes down around them and the inks are dark in the perfect places, really bringing out the deep red in Carnage’s color scheme as well as the black veins that now coil around his body. As Carnage mushes Hulk into a wall, you can feel his expression of pain and rage, accentuated by the glowing green of his eyes.

Pinned under Cap’s shield with Miles bearing down on him, Eddie decides to use the shock glove to blast the symbiote off of the young Spider, allowing the two to finally re-team as Miles runs down what he learned while hearing Carnage’s thoughts. He warns that if he gets Hulk’s Codex and the Venom Symbiote, he’ll be unstoppable. In a surprise upset, Carnage overpowers the mind of the Hulk, turning him back into Banner and rips his spine right out as Eddie and Miles show up. It’s a disgusting scene as they always are with Cowles making sure to put as much emphasis as he can by giving it a nice “SHRIPP” sound effect in big, bold, red letters over an entirely black background.

Before we know it, Carnage is covered in the Venom Symbiote, becoming an ultra badass. Ryan Stegman has done a lot to redesign some of the elements of some symbiotes, but this Black Carnage is somehow so much cooler and so much better. He looks like a demon knight with the pauldrons with spikes, an improbable neck guard/collar and Maleficent-esque horns all crackling with hell energy. Eddie begins to lose all hope upon seeing him, but that feeling is washed away when Captain America, The Thing and Wolverine all show up to help in the fight.

Miles grabs Eddie and tells him that the Maker’s machine that was supposed to destroy the codices did no such thing and instead saved them all. The last moments of the book show the Doverton Avengers fight a losing effort against Carnage while Eddie punches the machine, giving his own inner monologue about how he feels something creeping up inside of him. The hope that he thought was lost. Surrounded by all of this blackness and despair, Carnage and all of his bringers of Death, Eddie punches his way to the light.

As the penultimate issue to Absolute Carnage, have to say that this event and the various tie-ins that have accompanied it have been absolutely amazing to read. I usually decry back to back event stories, especially since we had just come off the heels of War of the Realms, but Absolute Carnage fit the aesthetic of everything I love in stories. It’s dark, it’s bleak and it’s Absolutely Brutal.

Ryan Stegman can do no wrong here as his art style is amazing from start to finish, he has an eye for action scenes and makes great use of single a double page spreads to bring out the most in every scene. Even when the fighting is confined to a few panels, he manages to spring as many infected as he can into the space, making things feel claustrophobic and dangerous. Frank Martin’s colors give this book life, however, when they’re burning with darkness or glimmer with small glimpses of hope. They complete the amazing package by pulling the emotion out of you, whether you’re terrified or you have a bit of hope only or it to be ripped away.

JP Mayer and Jay Leisten help him by making sure that the pages have the perfect amount of darkness to them. The inks are phenomenal and really help to give off that feeling of hopelessness and danger in every scene, even better that most of this story takes place at night so the mood is always set.

I love that Eddie Brock is starting to be seen less as the villain who used to eat people’s brains and more as this responsible every-man that’s been caught in an extraordinary situation. When he got the Symbiote back at the end of Lee Price’s time in All-New, All Different Marvel, I never expected him to get this much heart. That’s the main thing that Donny Cates has contributed to this character, that feeling of heroism.

Eddie’s becoming a much better person than he ever was in the past, but at the same time, we know that he can never fully escape who he was. Even at the end of this issue there was a transcription of his first time in jail when he first met Cletus Kasady and it was so weird to see how unhinged Eddie was not too long ago.

As Absolute Carnage draws to a close (and with Venom Island on the horizon) I can’t wait to see what direction his story takes and how Eddie Brock could possibly see Avenger status in the far future. High recommend.

#marvel comics #comics #marvel horror #horror #absolute carnage #carnage #cletus kasady #eddie brock #spider man #venom #donny cates #ryan stegman #jp mayer #frank martin

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bobbimorses · 5 years

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ABSOLUTE CARNAGE: AVENGERS #1 | September 2019

LEAH WILLIAMS (W) • Salvador Larroca (A) • Cover by Clayton Crain

CAPTAIN AMERICA! HAWKEYE! THE THING! WOLVERINE!

Years ago, Cletus Kasady used the Carnage symbiote to take over a small town called Doverton, Colorado, as well as the team of Avengers who arrived to stop him! Barely able to free themselves from his control during their first meeting, this small band of heroes will have no choice but to assemble once more after they discover that Doverton’s entire population has recently fallen victim to Carnage’s more lethal designs…

#clint barton #ben grimm #wolverine #steve rogers #solicits #this is the only sep. solicit mentioning clint and he's in his classic costume #thus someone is catering to me personally-

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weirdsciencecomics · 5 years

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Writer: Donny Cates Artist: Mark Bagley Colors: Frank Martin Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Release date February 12 2020 Review by D. Brown (WolfCypher)

Eddie Brock continues his failing one-sided battle against an island of wildlife corrupted by the Carnage symbiote, who itself has corrupted and merged with his Venom symbiote, in part three of Donny Cates’s “Venom Island” arc. You know, after everything he’s been through for over 20 issues worth of stories, and especially after the gauntlet that was Absolute Carnage, this guy could use a break. Get away from it all, take a vacation. This isn’t ideal, but when you’re Eddie Brock, this is probably the closest you’re going to get. And look at how much deep %#$^ he’s gotten into.

This arc so far has really made me realize how this man just cannot catch a win. With the god-powered serial killer Cletus Kasady put down for good, thanks to Brock, he’s only guaranteed the inevitable arrival of Knull. Likewise, in beating Cletus, Eddie had to absorb the dangerous Grendal-Carnage symbiote. We see how well that’s gone. Deserted on an island of death with no symbiote of his own, having to lose a hand, and on the brink of passing out while every creature on the island has been Carnagified, Eddie Brock has to now climb a literal mountain to get to his last chance at salvation. This all ends with quite the cliffhanger. And back in New York, Eddie’s son Dylan tries to use the sliver of the Carnage symbiote he’s secretly horded to establish a connection to Knull. Its a dangerous move, but one he’s trying to help Eddie. This is a bit of a contrast to the last time we saw Dylan, in the most recent Web of Venom, who seemed more antagonistic and problematic. This may be a bold, maybe even dumb move on his part, but its nice to see the likable, on-Eddie’s-side, wants-to-do-right version of Dylan again, after reading a comic where he’s a borderline sociopath.

The twin pairing of Cates and Mark Bagley delivers another good installment of Venom. Cates’s style is still ever-present here; we see him putting Eddie through the ringer and he closes things with a big end-of-issue shocker. I love how he’s been showing how even as a “normal”, Eddie Brock is a “bad-ass normal”. Most of this run has seen a powerless, symbioteless Eddie as the focus, handling nearly insurmountable challenges and coming out of it in the end to face the next big, deadly threat. That said, I could really go for a story sooner than later that actually featured Eddie-as-Venom again, in the actual Venom book. And Bagley’s art just continues to look better and better. I stated how in part one of this arc his art was underwhelming. I’m a big, long time fan of his work, with his storied, long history of drawing Venom and other symbiote dudes and dudettes, his long, iconic run on Ultimate Spider-Man, and everything in-between (hell, I remember following an off-shoot of DC Comics Justice League featuring Congorilla just because Bagley was on the art). Seeing his art in part one and coming away feeling like he didn’t give it his all was a bit disappointing; again, just my thoughts. Part two’s art I liked a lot more, and I saw a big improvement from Bagley. That’s more like it! And by this issue, I’m all in on the visuals! Its a real shame we don’t get to see Bagley actually draw Venom (okay, spoiler-ish detail here…there’s no happy Eddie/Venom symbiote reunion here). Bagley most likely wont be on this book again (for who knows how long……) after Venom Island wraps up, and three installments in and we don’t get to see him actually draw this visually awesome character. The story just doesn’t call for Venom…this is all Eddie.

Final Thoughts

Venom Island’s latest issue ends with a big shocker of an ending, suggesting that things might be winding down, but with two more issues left, don’t lower your guard; something’s up Donny Cates’s sleeves. This story hasn’t yet been able to reach the same highs as the Absolute Carnage event it follows, but I’ve been enjoying this arc a little more with each issue.

7.9/10

Venom #23 Review Writer: Donny Cates Artist: Mark Bagley Colors: Frank Martin Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles Release date February 12 2020…

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