Edge of VenomVerse #4 Review (Spoilers)

Marvel, as of late, has been looking outside the large field of working comic book writers for new talent. Young Adult novelists (Gabby Riveria/Christina Strain/Sina Grace/Rainbow Rowell), political journalists (Ta-Nehisi Coates), poets (Saladin Ahmed) and notable authors (RL Stine, Stephen King, Margaret Stohl) have all had some degree of success in the comic book industry, but it baffles me that Marvel continually goes to people who have not worked within the writing conventions of comics. Chelsea Cain (of Mockingbird fame) has been very vocal about how little of her prose audience followed her to comic books and that seems to be the case for over half of the names listed above. There is one type of outside talent that has a larger success than others in bringing new readers and that is musicians. DC currently has Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance fame) running their Young Animal imprint, while Marvel has snagged Max Bemis (of Say Anything fame) to take over Moon Knight. And this issue of Edge of VenomVerse is written by Ryan Key, of Yellowcard fame. But just because he produced several pop hits over the last couple decades, does that mean he can write a good comic?

Be sure to check out the reviews for the other Edge of VenomVerse stories here: #1, #2, #3, and #5

Edge of VenomVerse #4: Old Man Logan

Writer: Ryan Key

Artist: Andre Araujo

Colortist: Rachelle Rosenberg

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Editors: Nick Lowe & Devin Lewis & Charles Beacham

Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso

You Made This School A Tomb: In a world overrun by villains, Logan tried to refrain from the superhero life and raise a family. He incurred the wrath of the Hulk Gang, descendants of Bruce Banner born with the genetic makeup of the Hulk. After they murdered Logan’s family, Logan kills Bruce Banner and his murderous spawn, the Hulk gang, but kept Bruce’s baby child alive. Our story begins fifteen years later, when Logan tells Banner Jr. what happened during that time. Banner attacks Logan and leaves him for dead. Logan survives and goes on an alcoholic bender until Angel finds him. Warren claims that Logan’s son, Scotty, is alive and hiding out at the Westchester mansion where Logan was tricked by Mysterio into killing the X-Men. Once they arrive, Warren reveals this is a lie and attacks him. Warren reveals he has been working with Ashley Barton (aka the Spider-Bitch) and Banner Jr. All three are furious at Logan for taking their kingdoms away and decided to team up against him. They plan to use Wolverine’s DNA to make an army of clones, by feeding him to the Venomized T-Rex from the original story and then harvesting fragments of the symbiote. When it attacks, Logan manages to feed it Ashley Barton before it consumes him. Logan manages to cut his way free of the dinosaur and the Venom symbiote bonds to him. Logan makes quick work of Angel, but is hesitant to kill Banner Jr. even though the symbiote urges him on. Logan fights the symbiote’s influence, but is drawn into a portal that brings him to Captain Venom.

It Was My Birthright And You Stole It: If this comic is the sequel to Old Man Logan (Wolverine Volume 3, Issues 66-72), then who exactly is running around the Marvel Universe Prime right now in the Old Man Logan series? As a sequel to that event, it does a good job of making the timeline sync up but the magic of the original storyline is gone. The original was dark, full of punchlines that stabbed through the heart. And it looked amazing under Steve McNiven’s pen. Artist Andre Araujo manages to capture the gritty feeling of the world, but McNiven’s Wastelands felt alive while Araujo’s is flat. This world is missing both the dark humour and the sense of vibrancy that made Old Man Logan special, but thankfully Ryan Key’s story has a “Sins of the Father, Sins of the Son” undertone that helps elevate the story a bit. This is about the children of the original storyline’s heroes coming to retake the empires stolen from them. And maybe if this was just an OML storyline, they would succeed, but this is also a Venom story, even if the issue forgets that for the first two-thirds.

There is a nice variety in the use of dialogue throughout the story, with some pages overflowing with dialogue and caption boxes and some having next to none. On the pages full of letters, Clayton Cowles does an excellent job of keeping them from obscuring the art. There is just enough references to the original storyline to make it clear this is a sequel, but Key avoids beating down the readers with exposition. There is an overabundance of panels at a time (there is one panel that is just Logan’s feet leaving the ground because apparently readers would be unable to tell Logan jumped without this panel). In the original comic, Hawkeye was used as a good comedic foil to grim Logan, but in this comic all the characters read largely the same; everyone is angry at everyone and everything. The biggest character fault I had with the issue was the fact that Bruce Banner’s child, raised fifteen years by Wolverine, is a coward. That just feels wrong. Venom in this comic is just your generic angry Venom and maybe has five lines of dialogue in this Venom story.

The artistic team here is the same as the one for Mike Costa’s Spider-Verse miniseries during the 2015 Secret Wars event. When I reviewed that event, I described them as out of their league but filled with potential. This is not the comic where they realize that potential. On top of a flat world, hits lack impact and projectiles just hang in the air, rather than you know… project. The characters fail to properly portray any emotion but rage. Ashley Barton looks like she has not aged a day in the fifteen years since OML and her webbing has the same thick unrefined look as Spider-Man Noir’s did in Spider-Verse. There are a lot of undetailed backgrounds, and while Rachelle Rosenberg tries to bring the world to life she also manages to make every character feel flat. The greatest crime here is her colouring on Venom, which makes him a grey withered thing instead of a vibrant black. Maybe that is because she wants to make Venom aged, like Logan, but it just does not look good. Old Man Venom’s design as a whole is pretty unremarkable. On a positive note, Cowles’ lettering does a nice job of distinguishing between the Venomsaurus Rex crunching down on Ashley Barton and its inability to do so on Logan’s adamantium frame. 

Verdict: This is unremarkable story that works at times and does not at others. It is a pale imitation of the original Old Man Logan and barely a Venom story at all. It is Ryan Key’s first time writing a comic, so a lot can be forgiven on his part. The same can not be said for Marvel, who continues to look for talent outside people familiar with comic book writing conventions, and the artistic team, who have worked on several comics together. 

Pros:

• Logan’s legacy of sins coming to fight him
• Clayton Cowles’ letters

Cons:

• Old Man Logan design
• Flat colors
• Flat world
• Generic Venom
• Poor Old Man Logan sequel 

D+