Review by Ian Keogh
While other writers have produced very readable runs on Venom, no other writer has taken the character on a journey like Donny Cates.
Cates was assigned Venom’s title to coincide with the release of the Venom movie, and there’s no question as to which is the greater creative success. As Eddie Brock is Venom in the film, the symbiote reunites with him here. Right from the start Cates has interesting ideas about what Venom is and what he can be, and embraces both the horror and mythology of Venom while adding considerably to the background. While the public at large, and indeed Marvel readers, associate Venom’s first appearance as accompanying Spider-Man, Cates opens by revealing that the US military have a far longer history with symbiotes, and Peter Parker was far from the first host. Simultaneously he builds the idea of a symbiote society and a darkness from which they first emerged, known as Knull. His big moment only manifests near the end, with the core King in Black chapters included alongside Venom’s participation. And Cates doesn’t just throw in a single bombshell concerning what we believe about Brock and Venom, but repeats the shock several times.
Despite drawing less than half the content, Ryan Stegman is the artist for all the main moments, including the opening, the closing and the primary crossovers. He establishes the look of the entire series, shows the hell of Brock’s life and delves deep into the horror. His are the most eye-catching spreads, his are the most astonishing designs and his imagination soars on every page. To think that before discussing the series with Cates he wasn’t keen on drawing Venom again.
Iban Coello is the artist most called on in Stegman’s absence, and he’s not as consistent. He’s a solid storyteller and the occasional page hits the heights, but he doesn’t have Stegman’s imagination. Mark Bagley does, and his history with Venom extends all the way back to the first solo Venom story. He’s on the Venom Island sequence, exploring various forms of horror, and handles them all well. Of the artists only working on a single story, Guiu Vilanova stands out for stylish pages introducing Wraith.
This includes content not collected in the trade paperbacks, Cates as thoughtful with the one-shots as he is with the main feature. A highlight? Well, opener Rex is great, but for combining innovation with crowd pleasing surprise Absolute Carnage is by some distance the best ever Carnage story.
It’s an unwritten rule of action comics that creators can have fun with the character, but by the end the toys are all neatly back in the box. Cates shreds that idea. By the end the possibilities of Venom have massively increased in an unpredictable way and writers who follow Cates have a brave new world to explore. While there are a couple of dips, this is as good a run of Venom as there’s been, and that being the case, why not treat yourself to an Omnibus? If cost is an issue, there are the original trades or two bulkier paperbacks titled Venom by Donny Cates.
