Venom tussles with the U-Foes in Philly. Check out the review.
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VENOM #28
“The Land Where the Killers Dwell”
WRITER: Cullen Bunn
PENCILS: Thony Silas
INKS: Nelson Decastro
COLORS: Chris Sotomayor
LETTERS: VC’s Joe Caramagna
COVER ART: Shane Davis & Morry Hollowell
PLOT:
Venom fights the U-Foes and loses.
THOUGHTS:
Okay, the summary above leaves a little bit out, but it’s still fair. Professional damsel in distress Katy Kiernan travels to Philidelphia to report on mysterious happenings, and the the U-Foes capture her. Venom investigates her motel and, um, he fights the U-Foes and loses. That’s all I got from this comic. Other than Flash’s suggestive sparring session with Valkerie in the beginning, no characterization stands out, nor have any particularly interesting or creative ideas appeared. We get a paint-by-numbers superhero adventure, and part one only takes us through the “hero loses his first fight with the villains” part of the formula.
When a comic relies solely on the first round of a super-powered hero–villain brawl to entertain, then that fight better look spectacular to compensate for the lack of, well, anything else. Silas’s rendition of the U-Foes blasting a motel and the surrounding area into wreckage with their colorful powers (credit for the “colorful” part goes to Sotomayor) looks just nice enough to keep me from calling this issue a loss. The two-page spread showing the U-Foes’ first assault against the motel, and Venom’s strike against Ironclad display Silas’s talent for destruction and destruction. Also, I never lost track of what was going on, so even though I would not classify Silas as one of my favorite artists, he gets the job done. The indecipherable Philly slang peppering the scene’s dialogue made for another amusing touch.
RATING:
2.5 out of 5 (Neutral). I think that, once we learn more about the U-Foes’ plan, this story could go someplace interesting and I might have more to say about it. But this issue on its own does little other than set the stage.
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1 Hobo – Heh, I wish I had the issue in front of me to check on that but I’m out of town now.
2 Freddy – I was wondering the same thing, but I figured it happened in Secret Avengers. I’ve only read the first trade of Brubaker’s run on that title, so I have a little bit of reading to do before I get to Remender’s run with Venom.
3 Symbiotic – Yeah, I thought this was short, too. Too short. But I literally could not think of anything else to say about this issue. I drew a total blank this time and that’s a failing on my part because I did not have the imagination or creativity to make talking about this comic interesting. I’m sorry about that. This Venom title doesn’t inspire many passionate thoughts in me like it did when Remender was writing.
4 Kevin – I don’t HATE this title like you do, but I am bored by it. I’m interesting in hearing what awful things you have to say about this comic because I came up with practically NOTHING to say after thinking about it for days.
On the same day that this came out, Scarlet Spider #12.1 came out. That comic introduced a new villain, told the complete story of Kaine hunting him down, and RESOLVED that conflict by having even worse villains come in and kill him, setting it up for future issues. That’s how you write a comic that is both a PART of a larger epic and a WHOLE story in itself. This Venom issue was such a fraction of a story at best. Totally not good enough.
Thanks for your comments, everyone. I liked reviewing Venom for a while but . . . yeah, there’s an announcement coming soon. If you’ve been paying attention to all the reviews on this site then you can probably make a good guess as to what it will be.
Quite short review, but considering the material to work with I can’t imagine it otherwise, always a pleasure Chris
The pros for this issue for me are that Betty is finally out of the picture, and that Valkyrie will surely make Flash less dark. I also very liked the dynamic between the two.
The cons were that they didn’t teamed up, but I’m guessing it’s going to be for part two.
My interrogation point is when did Flash meet the U-Foes??? Flash in the comic said that he met them not long ago but I don’t recall any of them and have all the Venom, Carnage U.S.A, Secret avenger and the Tunderbolts where Venom is in… So if someone can tell me the issue I forgot about or the book Venom was in where he met the U-foes I would really appreciated it.
Nice review like always Chris
Did Flash’s grenade grow with Ironclad? Seriously, that was one giant grenade stuck to the side of Ironclad’s head.