The Ancient Beast in New York – review of the comic book “Venom”, vol. 1

Time for a fresh look

Egmont Polska provides us with a completely fresh look at the superhero universe, which will be released under a telling name, Marvel Fresh. The adventures of Spider-Man and Avengers have already been released as part of this series. However, I was most interested in the album dedicated to Venom. I have been intrigued by this antihero since the premiere of the third part of the Spider-Man in 2007. It was my first encounter with a cosmic symbiote, and how memorable. Terrifying black tentacles, a mouth full of sharp fangs, spider powers. Venom is definitely one of my favorite Marvel characters, and in the Donny Cates comic, he is paid a proper tribute. He ceases to be a soulless killing machine and begins to be a complex character, full of contradictions and feelings.

The Ancient One comes, beware!

When it comes to the plot of the comic, we get a fairly classic beginning here. Venom wanders the streets of the city in search of minor thugs to deal with. Small-scale operations, however, quickly turn into a clash of the Avengers. Eddie Brock faces the symbiote god, Knull. This arch-powerful enemy makes all cosmic creatures want to follow him, which deprives our hero of his best weapon – connection with his dark companion. By the way, readers will learn about the genesis of symbiotes, their origins, and will also see chilling images of clashes between people from different historical eras and aliens.

Venom therapist

A pleasant surprise is how the comic book creators approached the character of Venom, previously an ordinary wild beast with a mouth full of teeth. Also, the alter-ego of this antihero, Eddie Brock, was a plain desperate bully. Here we get a deep, complex character trying to fight his demons of the past. It turns out to have really complicated family relations: he does not find understanding in his father, he is excluded from the environment of his relatives. It is the symbiote that gives him support, and the brotherly bond between a man and a bloodthirsty alien becomes one of the main plots of the comic. The affectionate words uttered by the black goo, Eddie’s attempts to comfort him, and the numerous pleas for forgiveness fit the story extremely well. I never expected to see a symbiote apologizing. Venom, Volume 1 gives us such a view.

Style is conducive to behemoth

The strong point of this position are dark, realistic drawings. There is no shortage of pictorial violence here, and without it I cannot imagine a comic about Venom. Joshua Cassara, Iban Coelo and Ryan Stegman, responsible for them, try to maintain a uniform style, which has a positive effect on the smooth reception of subsequent boards. The nature of the illustrations slightly changes between the first and the second part of the volume. This is because, at first, an action-packed story, with time, turns into a story about Eddie Brock’s family relations. So the change of style is justified. The boards will also feature Flash Thompson, so closely related to Venom itself. Fans of the Marvel universe can meet such famous characters as Miles Morales or a slightly different version of Reed Richards.

A great start to the series

Who would have thought Eddie Brock was such a deep and complex character. The new Marvel series about the symbiote host is going to be great. The first volume has pushed me into the armchair more than once, and this is what I look for in comic books where the main character is such an extreme and destructive creation. The surprising depth of the heroes and the destruction I expect so much, served in huge numbers. Keep it up.