Advance Review: Venom #1 (Lgy #201)

After King in Black, you would have thought that people would have had enough of Venom and the symbiotes. Well I guess having a recent movie creates an opportunity for Eddie, his Other and now Dylan to gain another outing.

With Knull out of the picture, Eddie is now the King in Black. This means that Eddie is out in space, leaving Dylan alone; well kind of alone. With Dylan on Earth with Eddie’s other, both Eddie and Dylan are in danger of some kind be it a warning from the future or for Dylan, a mysterious person and the “helping” hand of his Dad’s Other. So we have the start of a series that has very little superheroics on show but quite a bit of horror!

For horror then there is probably only two writers working on superhero comics that would fit that bill, at least from the Big Two. One is the Immortal Hulk writer Al Ewing and the other Justice League Dark and Catwoman writer Ram V. I will be honest from the get go; I am one of the few people in the world that didn’t like Ewing’s Hulk book. I am, however, a big fan of Ram V all the way back to These Savage Shores from Vault Comics. Between them the pair have crafted a story that covers any number of horror tropes from possession, stranger danger and promises of doom from the future. They have kept the two tone conversation elements when it comes to the Other and Dylan, which I like better than speaking the “we” that pronounced early Venom appearances. Amongst the signs and portents, there is a bit of a twist; well can you call it a twist when you know it was going to happen? As obvious as a certain story point is, I am glad that they got it out of the way in the first issue.

The art is provided by Bryan Hitch who I think I last saw on the Hawkman book for DC. Hitch’s work is fine lines akin to Alan Davis in places. Moving on a book like Venom will allow him to have fun with character designs in the same manner as Hawklman; this is something I felt Hitch struggled with when on Justice League, where photo referencing seem to become a priority. As good as Hitch can be, my opinion is that he is too clean an artist for a spooky, horror type of story. At times this looks more like a straight up superhero book rather than the Teen + book it pertains to be. Hitch is helped out by some strong inks from Andrew Currie who compliments the polished look as does the colors from superstar Alex Sinclair. Letters are supplied by VC’s Clayton Cowles who gets to mix up his fonts from several points of view and perspectives.

I am in a bit of a bind with this book. On one hand, I really like Ram V’s work (yes even Catwoman!) and Hitch does add a professional, high quality style of pencils. On the others the art is too nice for a horror book. Couple these quandaries with the fact that I am not a huge Venom fan since he became an anti-hero all the back in Venom #1 and you can see my dilemma. I get why it had to be done. You can’t have a major villain that is more powerful than the hero and expect him to keep losing. Venom isn’t the Daleks for Pete’s sake! I am sure that Venom fans will dive into this book but for me, it is a hard pass.

Writing – 3 Stars
Art – 3 Stars
Colors – 3 Stars

Overall – 3 Stars

Written by; Al Ewing & Ram V
Art by; Bryan Hitch
Inks by; Andrew Currie
Colors by; Alex Sinclair
Letters by; Vc’s Clayton Cowles
Published by; Marvel Worldwide Inc.

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network