Review by Frank Plowright

There’s a tragic history of mental instability in the Osborn family, the oldest manifestation of which was Norman Osborn’s becoming the Green Goblin. The insanity passed to his son Harry, and now there’s a third generation of Osborns in Stanley and Normie. It’s the latter who concerns us here, still a youngster who’s bonded with an equally young alien Venom symbiote.

They’re never good news, and building on continuity from Spider-Man, Alex Paknadel and Jan Bazaldua deliver what surely must be a contender for the most unpleasantly violent and threatening graphic novel ever starring a child. In the opening chapter alone we see the symbiote beast, who Normie refers to as Rascal, go into full munchie mode, while the villain of the piece casually snaps a child’s neck. Bazaldua at least draws this in silhouette, but it’s grim.

As is the way in continuity-based superhero comics, there’s no indication of exactly how old Normie is, but as he refers to puberty being on the way, let’s assume he’s ten. It’s around the age Bazaldua draws him. Paknadel, however, doesn’t seem to have had any interactions with a ten year old child since he was that age himself, and writes Normie as if an extremely smart teenager at the very least. What kid of ten refers to puberty being on the way? He also has a constant supply of snarky remarks about the Osborn family history. At no point is Normie a convincing character.

That being the case, no matter how well the plot moves once past the three chapter opening, It Runs in the Family is fatally undermined. Even if it wasn’t the case, it’s still further sabotaged by the final inclusion here being a random chapter from a Carnage crossover jumping in halfway and with no resolution. It’s down to Bazaldua drawing Rascal, and the remainder so well that this earns two stars. Perhaps there’ll be an improvement in Nature/Nurture.