Venomized #4 Review (Spoilers)

All aboard the VenomVerse roller coaster, please keep your emotional responses in the vehicle at all time. This week, we plummet to a new low after reaching a new high in the previous issue. I honestly am starting to hate this series because of how it wildly inconsistent it is. 

Venomized #4: Set Dressing

Writer: Cullen Bunn

Artist: Kevin Libranda

Inkers: Scott Hanna & Livesay

Colorist: Matt Yackey

Letterer: Joe Carmagna

C. Artists: Nick Bradshaw & Jim Campbell 

Editors: Nick Lowe & Devin Lewis & Tom Groneman

Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso

Recap: The Poisons decide to execute their end-game against the Marvel Prime heroes. Jean Grey is used to lure Cyclops, the Young X-Men, Peter, and Venom into space. She explores Scott’s mind to discover their base of operations, where the symbiote infused mutants are hiding. Carnage and Thanos are sent to deal with them. Captain America and Agent Anti-Venom lead the defense at the base, but things go very poorly quickly. Kid Kaiju buys them an opportunity to escape after several heroes are turned to Poisons, but Thanos is able to ground every escape vessel except the Team Venom vessel, which escapes into space. 

Review: After reading Venomized #4, I feel pretty safe in saying that Venomized is a disappointing conclusion to the larger Poison storyline. The killing blow is undoubtedly the departure of Iban Coello, which seemingly cripples the artistic team this issue. That’s not to say that Kevin Libranda does not give his all this issue; he has some truly exceptional facial work, filled with crevices and depths that enhance the alien nature of the Poisons. He also mimics a lot of techniques Coello has used in the previous issues, while putting his own spin on them. An example of this can be seen in how Libranda tries to mimic Coello’s black splotches of motion with black hatch lines. However, Libranda’s art feels static in comparison; Coello is a master of conveying motion on the page. 

Coello’s departure also seems to take a toll on Matt Yackey’s coloring. We get a lot more monotonic colors this issue, often at the expense of clarity. The Captain America/Kid Kaiju scenes are defined by blue skylines, but then there is also the blue glow of technology, the dark blue hues of the Venoms, the blue of Captain America’s outfit, and the blue of energy blasts. It all blurs together and makes the pages less visually exciting than previous issues. Characters still retain a nice sheen and there is still some beautifully colored shots, largely in space, but this series has been a vibrant themed chaotic mess and this issue does not carry that forward. 

Libranda is also not able to convey the epic battle sequences in Venomized #4. All of his projectiles, be they webs, optics blasts, symbiotes, or bullets, are drawn in the same way. They’re all narrow and they all splinter apart at the end. Coello’s projectiles were easily distinguishable from each other, but there is a part in this issue where it looks like Spider-Man is spitting at the Poisons, not firing webs. Thankfully, Joe Carmagna continues to kill it. His letters help provide visual clarity and a clear sense of progression during fight scenes. 

The characters also look really flat whenever the camera is positioned from above. Heavily segmented characters like Thanos and the other Poisons look really bad from a distance, but great up close. Yackey does a great job of coloring the Poisons, giving their appendages the white Poison scheme while the central body retains the main color theme of the hero/villain. The Venoms do not fare as well up close, but look great from a distance. The one creature type Libranda excels at, from any distance, is the monsters of Kid Kaiju.

Agent Anti-Venom looks like a fresh recruit of the Court of Owls, which really bothers me. There are random metal parts to Flash’s Anti-Venom design that makes no sense visually. Thankfully, Libranda’s Venom looks fantastic. The best trick that Libranda has, that is 100% his own, is the use of characters to frame shots. Kid Kaiju may frame a shot with his pencil, or the horns of Captain America’s helmet. The last page situates the camera behind Thanos, contrasting him against Kid Kaiju’s monsters, to great effect.

The script, like everything else, has a lot of highs and lows. A bad call is Eddie suddenly okay with killing Klyn’tar, only so that Flash can contrast against him by being the moral compass. Doom and Jean are set up as the final bosses (outside the Hivemind) which feels appropriate. Doom has been one of the most important villains, going all the way back to Edge of VenomVerse. Jean Grey and Scott Summers arguably became the main characters, alongside Venom, after the events of Poison X.

Carnage has some of the strongest personality in the issue (it’s between him and Danger, the X-men Black Bird AI) and when the Poison Hive-Mind takes a form to appease him, it is simply that of a bunch of corpses. A lot of the heroes are ignored, serving as random set dressing for the battles; I don’t believe the Defenders have a single line. There is remarkably little to talk about in this penultimate chapter, the script is largely more of the same: poor pacing, but less fun character beats than usual.

List of Poisons: Sif, Drax, Eye-Boy [Prime], Jimmy Howlett [Prime]; Carnage [Prime], Doctor Voodoo, Blob, Iron Fist, Doctor Octopus [Female], Vulture, Doctor Druid; Killer Thrill [Prime], Demolition Man [Prime], Rage [Prime], Wolverine, Domino, Cable, Feral, and Fantomex, Hawkeye (returning from VenomVerse), Taskmaster, Crossbones, Vulture, Iron Man (?), Grim Reaper, Scorpion, Shuma-Gorath, Thanos (returning from VenomVerse), Doom (returning from VenomVerse), Black Cat, Morbius, Lady Deathstrike, Sabertooth, Captain Marvel, Gamora, Thing, Frankenstein’s Monster, Blade, Werewolf By Night, Thor [Prime; killed when Jane breaks free], Nova [Killed by Cletus], Angela [Killed by Cletus], Hyperion [Killed by Kid Kaiju/Aegis], The Punisher [Killed by Agent Anti-Venom]; Spider-Woman [Killed by Elsa Bloodstone], Hurricane [Killed by Elsa Bloodstone], Groot [Killed by Elsa Bloodstone],

List of Venoms: Magik; Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel, Bling, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Old Man Logan, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Storm, Falcon, The Thing, Iron Heart, Nova, Demolition Man, Rage, Hercules, Thor [Poisoned], Demolition Man [Poisoned], Rage [Poisoned], Carnage [Poisoned]; Jimmy Hudson/Wolverine [Poisoned], Eye-Boy [Poisoned]

Verdict: Venomized #4 lacks character, both on the page and behind the scenes, which is unfortunate. The series is pretty much in a spot that it’ll be hard to achieve a great ending for. Still, I wish Cullen Bunn and his artistic team the best of luck, I wanted Venomized to be strong. Libranda tries hard to fill Iban Coello’s shoes, but falls just a little short. Matt Yackey seems less invested in this issue compared to others. Joe Carmagna remains the creative MVP. 

Pros: 

• Lettering
• Framing shots with characters
• Poison Design

Cons: 

• Lack of character
• Script is underwhelming, characters get lost
• Agent Anti-Venom’s design
• Monotonic colors

D