Sunday, April 22, 2012

Venom #16

Second review of the night belongs to Venom. After that awful Circle storyline, this series is still trying to regain it's footing, but I'm confident that Rick Remender will be able to bring back some of the awesomeness that we were getting from this series before that Circle storyline took place.

Venom #16:

Summary: We get this one started by finding out that Venom had been asked by the Avengers to escort a train carrying the Fly to the Raft prison where he'd be safe from the Kingpin(who the Fly stole money from). But here's the rub... The Fly tells Venom that he stole the money to care for his 9 year old son, a child who the Kingpin would undoubtedly target in order to exact his revenge on the Fly. Venom offers to move the Fly's son into protective custody, but the Fly scoffs at that, because this is the KINGPIN we're talking about! In the end, the Fly asks Venom to make sure to give a letter the Fly wrote to his son after the Fly was taken to the Raft to serve his sentence. From there, one of the guards looking after the Fly with Venom alerts Venom that one of the other two guards was dirty and working for the Kingpin... Before Venom can decide what to do, Hobgoblin(!!) attacks, killing the guards and threatening to do the same to the Fly. Venom tries to battle the Hobgoblin as best he can, but really, THIS Hobgoblin is the PERFECT foil for Venom, what with his sonic scream and flaming sword. Eventually the fight ends up on top of the train the Fly was being transported in. Venom manages to get rid of Hobgoblin, while a guard falls off the train, barely managing to hang on. That leaves Venom with a decision... Save the guard or stop the Fly from escaping... The Fly promises Venom he would turn himself back in to custody once he used the Kingpin's money to save his son, and with little choice, Venom choses to let the Fly leave, saving the guard instead. Before leaving though, the Fly implores Venom to read the letter the Fly had written for his son. This issue ends with Venom opening the letter, which simply read, “I don't have a son!”... And that my friends, deserves a ZING!

Thoughts: This was a really good comic. The action was great, the story wasn't bad, and the twist at the end? About the Fly's “son”? That was frigging brilliant! Not only was the twist written well, the art did a wonderful job of conveying Venom's reaction to getting screwed over like he was. Who knew a two-bit loser like the Fly could lead to such a great comic! Kudos to Rick Remender for that one.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
venom #16
Yeah, that's not something you want to see coming your way...

7 comments:

  1. ZING! I'm not gonna lie, that ending got me haha. And the fact he went in planning that was excellent. I'm really excited to see Venom fighting his version of the Sinister Six, and the fact he's kinda doing it at the same time as Spidey is cool too.

    I really hope Hobgoblin joins Venom's Rogue's gallery, Spidey's is so big he can definitely spare to share some with Venom, plus his sonic scream is the perfect foil to Venom. I'm really looking forward to Venom teaming up with Spidey eventually, as well as running into Kaine and Deadpool.

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  2. "that ending got me" Right?! And from THE FLY! A third-rate nobody! That was all kinds of awesome... And agreed 300% on Hobby. A sonic scream AND fire sword? He's BUILT to be Venom's enemy!

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    1. It's gonna be so interesting when Venom and the Fly run into one another again. I am loving this comic, I'm also glad the storyline with Flash losing control has been more sporadic as of lately. And I forgot about the fire sword too, man he is PERFECT as Venom's enemy. Shit, you add in Jack O'Lantern, The Fly, Eddie Brock, Crimemaster, Flash has got a nice rogue gallery already and it's barely been oner a year.

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  3. Since the Fly is obviously an enemy of Kingpin now too, I actually would love to see him hook up with Crime-master and Jack... And yeah, adding Hobby as a regular foe of Venom's would be awesome. He just works so damn well as an enemy for Flash power-wise.

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  4. So where do you think their going with this Eddie as the Punisher for anyone with a Symbiote gimmick they've given him?

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  5. I honestly don't know... Eddie's one of those characters that could go in SO many different directions. I mean sooner or later he's gonna have to run into Flash, the two fight and then... idk... I don't really seem them ever seeing eye-to-eye due to Eddie's fear/hatred of the symbiote, the symbiote's love of Eddie and who knows, maybe some jealously from Flash about that love! I really don't know where that story's gonna go? What say you? Any theories?

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  6. I honestly don't know, if you recall from Spider Island, the symbiote did abandon Flash for Eddie but once Eddie didn't want it, it went back to Flash, so I think it may like Flash more now. And you gotta figure Eddie can't just be Punisher-lite so he has to get some kinda power, his role as Anti-Venom was perfect... maybe he becomes Carnage?

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