It’s been a month since I’ve had to think, critique, or look at anything Venom related and that has done wonders for my attitude towards Venomized. Once more, Marvel delivers a weekly Venom event comic but this one is the grand conclusion to Cullen Bunn’s Poison trilogy. The previous chapters, VenomVerse and Poison X, had their highs and lows but Venomized sees him reunited with the best part of the VenomVerse series: the creative team of Iban Coello, Matt Yackey, and Joe Carmagna. So how is the opening chapter of this conclusion? Let’s check it out below.

You can also check out the reviews for Edge of VenomVerse, VenomVerse, and Poison X here (they’re all linked together for easy access).

Venomized #1: The Playing Field

Writer: Cullen Bunn

Artist: Iban Coello 

Colorist: Matt Yackey

Letterer: Joe Carmagna

C. Artists: Nick Bradshaw & Jim Campbell 

Design: Idette Winecoor

Editors: Nick Lowe & Devin Lewis & Tom Groneman

Editor-In-Chief: CB Cebulski 

Carnage May Prove The Key To A Swift Victory: The Poisons launch their first attack on Earth, targeting the mutant population first. Within minutes of their attack on the mutants, several of the key superheroes of Earth are singled out and ambushed: amongst them are The Thing, Spider-Man, the Champions, the Avengers, and the Defenders. Each group has limited success in repelling the Poisons, but a large portion of the superhero populace is bonded with Klyn’tar they are unable to remove. During all the chaos, Venom and the Original Five… Four X-Men return to Earth. Their vehicle is about to implode, but Magneto, Lorna, and Jimmy Hudson team up with the Klyn’tar bonded Spider-Man, Thor, and Hercules to save them. Peter quickly accuses Eddie of being behind everything, but Venom explains to the gathered group that is the work of inter-dimensional invaders called the Poisons. 

While the soldiers infect the superhero populace with Klyn’tar, Lords Doom and Thanos argue about how best to proceed with the Poison invasion. It is revealed they work for a Poisoned version of Lady Death. While they bicker with one another, they remain in unison on one factor: Carnage. They send a team of Poisons to locate him and are shocked to find him broken, missing limbs, and stripped from his symbiote. They decide to take advantage of this by bonding him with a tamed Klyn’tar, in the hopes of turning Carnage to a Poison. 

I Prefer To Think Of It As Seasoning A Meal: Venomized #1 feels like the beginning of the end of Cullen Bunn’s ongoing Marvel story-lines: the X-Men Blue team is poised to return home this summer in Ed Brisson’s X-Tinction, which means this may be Bunn’s last hurrah with them. This chapter also marks the beginning of the end for Bunn’s Venom/Poison trilogy. I have always been a fan of comics utilizing the larger Marvel Universe for their finales (Secret Wars, Secret Empire are excellent examples of this) and Bunn does a good job of setting the playing board this issue. There is a strong reflection of the Marvel Legacy era MU here, with appearances from Brian Bendis’ Defenders team, Christina Strain’s Generation X team, Mark Waid’s Champions and Avengers teams, and Marc Guggenheim’s X-Men Gold team. However, if I had to label a main character of the first issue, it would probably be Peter Parker. He is the most active agent, discovering both the inability to separate with the Klyn’tar and the larger circumstances of the Poison invasion. The Poisons use Aunt May and Mary Jane to taunt him and this causes him to have an overreaction to Venom when they meet up in the final pages. I honestly did not expect to see Venom or the X-Kids in this opening issue, so it is a pleasant surprise to have them play at least a minor role in Venomized #1. Carnage is probably the second most important character, as the Poisons work actively to either remove him from the playing field or convert him to their side. I didn’t read Carnage’s most recent series, so I am not completely familiar with his current status quo, but Carnage seems to change drastically from mini to mini, so I doubt it matters all that much. Hopefully Carnage, along with Jean Grey, will play a big part in the unraveling of the Poisons. 

On the Poison side of the equation, there is some strong material. After playing a frustrating small role in Poison X, I am glad to have them front and center in this story. We spend a lot of time in particular with Doom and Thanos, both of whom return from the VenomVerse series. Despite being a part of a unified hive-mind, Thanos and Doom smack talk each other pretty fiercely this issue. The Deadpool Poison during VenomVerse showed that the Poison bonding process does not remove all character traits and the rivalry between Doom and Thanos is a nice reminder of that. I also like that the events of VenomVerse is driving their strategy, as they target specific supers from the event like Doctor Strange, Carnage, Logan, and Captain America. I hope we see some role reversals, with characters like Captain America and Hulk playing a larger part against the Poisons, than for them. 

Iban Coello, how I have missed thee. This man can make anything appear in a state of motion, even if it is just the ground a character is getting smashed into; the impact of blows and the interaction with environments during Coello’s fight scenes are something to behold. His clothing moves in tune with the characters, but also blows in the breeze during stationary moments. The way the world blurs out around Spider-Man as he is dodging bullets and firing webs is a wonderful technique to convey motion. When the Klyn’tars react to pain, they spasm out in series of spikes and tendrils. Hell, even sweat droplets on Cletus Kasaday’s face seem to be in a state of motion. 

Coello also has a lot of fun working with characters from across the MU. The way Thor explodes into a flurry of lightning when her Klyn’tar is bonded with her is a wonderful touch. The various eyes on Eye-Boy look in different directions and take different shapes and sizes. The way Kitty materializes through a door, where the only truly defined features are the looks of confusion and anger on her face, is just superb. Perhaps my favorite detail of all is how the Poisoned Punisher utilizes his chest skull as a new series of appendages while fighting Spider-Man. All he artistic decisions made when it comes to displaying power sets is on point. 

Matt Yackey is the perfect choice to compliment Coello’s art. If there is one aspect of Cullen Bunn’s Poison trilogy that has never faltered, it is the colors. Many of the colorists so far have made bold coloring choices that have elevated the story and Yackey is no exception. In Venomized #1, we see him use bold colors during action scenes to wash out the original colors of the panel. An example of this is how the green of trees are washed out to a black when a vibrant red is laid over the panel. The lighting effects in this series are diverse and well handled every-time: the sun casts rays of lights that create shadows while Thor’s lightning consumes the panel in violent light sources. The opening sequences play with shadows a lot when the Poisons strike against the mutants and once a Klyn’tar is fired, it is given a primary color that overwrites the primary color of other heroes. An example of this is Thor becoming a figure of orange rather than grey and blonde. I don’t think Yackey’s colors in the redesigns are as creative as the way Coelllo envisions our heroes’ power sets, but they’re still rather well done.

The space sequences are also really well handled. One aspect of this story I have really enjoyed is how space is not defined by a void of color but an abundance of it. We only see a couple panels worth of space, but every-time it is a colorful masterpiece of a panel. The space scenes follow two groups: Venom and the X-Kids, and the Poisons. Team Venom spends most of their time within the Blackbird and I am really happy to see that Yackey carries off the stark red lighting effect from Poison X. As for the unbound Poisons, they are given a supernatural feel due to their white figures enshrined in purple hazes. 

Last, but most certainly not least, we have the best letterer at Marvel elevating every panel he touches with some truly great letters. Joe Carmagna uses the same bold coloring choices as Yackey during the fight scenes, creating bold monotonic letters with black splotches. At times, his letters have a stronger physical presence on the page than Coello’s figures. He does a great job of distinguishing between the various styles of speech in this comic, such as: Poison, Klyn’tar, Asgardian, Drunken, and Earthling. Often times, speech letters will break free of the speech bubbles to indicate excitement and pain. At other times, sound effects will break free of the panel and encapsulate characters, which is a neat touch for displaying the Klyn’tar bonding process. Carmagna really can do no wrong, in my opinion. 

List of Poisons: Wolverine, Domino, Cable, Feral, and Fantomex, Hawkeye (returning from VenomVerse), Taskmaster, Crossbones, The Punisher, Vulture, Iron Man (?), Grim Reaper, Scorpion, Shuma-Gorath, Thanos (returning from VenomVerse), Doom (returning from VenomVerse), Black Cat, Lady Death, Morbius, Lady Deathstrike, Sabertooth, 

List of Venoms: Eye-Boy, Bling, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Old Man Logan, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Storm, Falcon, The Thing, Iron Heart, Nova, Thor, Hercules, Carnage, 

Verdict: Venomized #1 is not a revolutionary issue, but it is a fun one. It moves several characters around the board and brings most of our heroes together before its conclusion. An equal time spent among the heroes and the Poisons goes a long way in the opening chapter, but I wonder how strong Bunn’s pacing will be going forward as I have often found it to be the weakest part of the Poison trilogy. Thankfully, we’ve got the killer artistic team of Iban Coello, Matt Yackey, and Joe Carmagna to pick up any slack going forward. I have high hopes for this series, as it ultimately will decide whether I recommend the Poison trilogy in the future. I believe in this creative team, so please don’t let me down. 

Pros: 

• Artistic team
• Equal time spent with either side
• Utilization of the larger MU for the finale of the Poison story-line
• Builds off the history of the first two chapters

Cons: 

• A good, not great, script
• Nothing truly amazing happened so far

B+