VENOM #4 REVIEW

Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for not getting a review of Venom #3 out yet. That issue came out during my final exams and I haven’t had a chance to catch up on it yet. It’s mostly written, I promise. However, I thought I’d get this week’s review to you while the issue is still somewhat fresh. Without further adieu…

VENOM #4

“The Same Coin…”

WRITER: Rick Remender

PENCILS: Tony Moore

INKS: Crimelab! Syndicate

COLORS: John Rauch

LETTERS: VC’s Joe Caramagna

PLOT:

Last month’s issue ended with our symbiotic friend getting a whiff of Spidey and losing control. Thus, General Dodge pushed the big red button that activates the bomb inside Venom. This issue kicks off with the revelation that the alien managed to eject the explosive. It is implied that the military experimented with (and exploded) hosts prior to Flash, and the symbiote learned from those trial runs how to locate and expel the explosive. Either that or the creature read one of the scientists’ minds.

In any event, Venom continues his fight with Spider-Man. Spider-Man thinks Venom has kidnapped Betty Brant, but the symbiote’s rage against Spidey prevents Flash from assuming control and explaining that the Crime Master has Betty tied to a bomb across town. Through sheer force of will, Flash manages to swallow a shelf of sedatives from a pharmacy in order to briefly calm the symbiote down. He tells Spider-Man Betty’s location before going berserk again. Flash convinces the symbiote that if they don’t get their act together, then Dodge will find a new host for it. The symbiote apparently enjoys bonding with Flash, so it agrees to stop rampaging and help rescue Betty. Spider-Man gets to Betty first and swings away with her, pinning a Spider-Tracer to Venom.

Venom then departs to make one last attempt to disrupt Crime Master’s vibranium shipment. He is intercepted by Jack O’ Lantern (along with his mechanical, fire-breathing baby devils!), who declares himself Venom’s arch enemy. Before Jack O’ Lantern can finish Venom off, Crime Master calls him off to guard the vibranium. Venom pins the Spider-Tracer to the villain while he exits.

At Flash’s debriefing, we learn that the military was able to secure the vibranium based on Flash’s tip. Flash fails to mention that the Crime Master knows his identity. Back at home, Flash, Betty, and Peter debate the cause of Betty’s kidnapping. In an uncharacteristic display of ego-centrism, Betty wrongly concludes that this chaos was caused by the criminal underworld targeting her for her articles (there’s my Bertone Bait for this review). We end with Flash looking somewhat suspicious of Peter’s connection to Spider-Man.

THOUGHTS:

 Issue #4 marks a significant improvement over #2 and #3. #2 sidetracked the plot with it’s pointless Kraven appearance and #3 made up for lost time by glossing over the mission that brought Flash to the Savage Land to begin with. This issue, thankfully, doesn’t rush through the action and, more importantly, the action actually compliments the plot.

The Kraven fight underwhelmed me because it stemmed from a contrived misunderstanding, and to some extent, one could levy the same criticism against this bout with Spidey. Yet, I can excuse that because ultimately the real conflict here isn’t between Venom and Spider-Man; rather, it’s the battle of wills between Flash and the symbiote. Spider-Man merely catalyzes that conflict. Interestingly, the symbiote isn’t given a voice in this series. Instead, we hear Flash’s impressions of what the creature “tells” him. Even through this indirect and possibly untrustworthy interpretation of the symbiote’s motives, the symbiote still feels like a character as opposed to a piece of attire. When I read that the symbiote decided to cooperate with Flash because it liked him as its host, it actually seemed like character development to me. This entity has been shown to be more than willing, sometimes eager, to abandon its hosts, including Eddie Brock. Now that it’s supposedly found a host with whom it will go out of its way to stay united, I’m curious whether we’ll eventually see a new side of its personality.

 I’m certainly “bonding” with the concept of Flash as the symbiote’s host. He’s the first person, as far as I know, to embrace the symbiote as a partner yet still struggle to resist the dark urges it brings. Eddie Brock and Mac Gargan allowed themselves to be corrupted by it, and Spidey never really had to deal with the being’s mind-altering nature outside of the animated series and the movies. Flash also has a history of addiction, so the possibility that he will fail at retaining control always hangs over him.

What else . . . ah! I have to comment on what a quirky spectacle this series is. Remender has one of the most refreshingly bizarre senses of humor in comics, and Tony Moore is the perfect person to bring Remender’s vision alive. Any issue that shows Venom swallowing an entire shelf of Ambien (or something like that) and then getting attacked by fire-breathing baby devils that “wuv destwuction” while their pumpkin-headed master sings “Free Bird” is a winner in my book. In fact, I really love—no, wuv—this whole take on the Jack O’ Lantern. The other characters to don the identity have never impressed me, but the joy this version takes in his malevolence is infectious. This book has been almost nothing but action scene after action scene since day one and this sort of weirdness goes a long way toward keeping the book from becoming generic or repetitive.

That said, I wouldn’t mind seeing an issue or two focusing on character development now that we’ve had four straight issues of frenetic action. Perhaps potential lies in the ending’s hints that Flash suspects Peter’s secret identity. I don’t want to hold out too much hope, though, because of the whole “psychic blind spot” that makes people act like morons when it comes to Spidey’s secret.

RATING: 4 out of 5. LEAVING A COMMENT IS MANDATORY!