Monday, July 2, 2018

Venom #3 Review - Marvel Monday


You Get a Venom Blast, You Get a Venom Blast, Everyone Gets a Venom Blast!



Writer: Donny Cates
Art Team: Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin
Marvel Comics
Release Date: June 27, 2018
Cover Price: $3.99

Alright Im back again for the third time to talk about Venom. Not snake venom mind you, I'd never talk about snakes they scare the shit out of me, but the extremely over published character Marvel has been pimping for the last 12 calendar months.   While I haven't been a huge fan of this run by Cates so far I may be slowly coming around especially with the effort Stegman is putting in on the artistic end.  So lets see what my feelings are about Venom #3 now that its dropped quickly upon our laps this week.



When last issue ended we saw Miles going all sneak attack on Venom as he overlooked the giant Venom-Dragon reeking havoc on the city.  This issue begins with Eddie now having gone full blown Evil-Venom, and looking gorgeous doing so, as he stands over Miles/Spider-Man about to lay down the death blow.  Eddie is able to pull it together just long enough, uttering "kill me", for Miles to introduce him to a Venom Blast (if he hadn't off panel already to get him this way in the first place). In fairness at least he asked for it this time, quickly explaining himself, before the two set aside differences to be allies, and take the fight to the dragons on the street!



With the Dragon now in sight, the heroes concoct a plan to take down the beast. You guessed it, it involves another Venom Blast from Miles.  I didn't necessarily hate this power at first, but if you've ever read Miles book by Bendis, its such an over used thing to get him out of any tough situation, it's basically a Game Genie for the character at any moment, and I have really grown to loathe the power  as a result. So yeah, Miles Venom blast in the Dragon's mouth takes it out, but its only downhill from there for our spider themed characters.

Out of the Dragon emerges the true threat ... what seems to be the actual Venom god, named Knull. He comes out, looking very vampirish, emerging with Miles, tossing him at Venom.  Venom tries to attack but is unable to have any effect on the avatar of Knull, before Venom is also rendered helpless again, receiving a vision as the issue concludes with a glimpse of billions of years ago and the Venom God Knull.




Overall, despite the cliffhanger being a little bit of a dullard after basically seeing glimpses of the same last issue, I enjoyed issue three's developments. I still think this book is more of a slow burn than Im used to with Cates, but Im very interested to see how Venom weasel's out of this situation he found himself in, and if it will change the character going forward at all.

The art continues to be the best in an ongoing book at Marvel at the moment. I hope Stegman and company stay on this run for the foreseeable future, all before getting themselves sizable raises, and moving onto something HUGE!  I mean this is a title you could pick up for the art alone, possibly not read a word of the story, and still have a great time .... no offense Mr. Cates. I like your writing too.

Bits and Pieces

It took me until issue three but I think this is a comic book Ill see through until the end of Cates and Stegman's run together.  The art is absolutely beautiful and worth picking up the book alone for.  Cates, although moving the story a little slower than I would like, for now has me intrigued enough that I want to see how Venom solves this massive problem he's dealing with, and if it changes him for the foreseeable future.  As a whole this issue builds on an intriguing mystery coupled with great art.

7.8/10

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