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Friday 28 July 2017

Venom, Volume 1: Homecoming Review (Mike Costa, Gerardo Sandoval)


I couldn’t care less as I’m not a fan of either Venom or Eddie Brock but it should be noted that the cover of this book is misleading. Eddie, the most infamous host of the Symbiote, is reunited with Venom, they’re saying “We’re Back!” and the subtitle is “Homecoming”, so Eddie Brock/Venom fans (there must be some) should reasonably expect this to be about the pair - Venom being just one example of Marvel probably deciding to go back to the classic incarnation of the character after seeing how returning to the status quo in Rebirth made DC a pile of cash. 

Except it’s not really about Eddie and Venom - they’re actually only together for a handful of pages at the end. Most of this one is about some nobody piece of trash called Lee Price who stumbles across the Symbiote and gets embroiled in some convoluted and tedious blackmail scheme with Black Cat, Scorpion and the Feds. 

It doesn’t help either that the comic is drawn by one of the worst artists working today, Gerardo Sandoval, whose busy ‘90s pencils make everything look flat, jagged and ugly. He’s done worse elsewhere (his work on the Secret Wars tie-in, Age of Apocalypse, is heinous) but it’s still really bad here. 

I suppose it’s interesting that after all the years of nonsense this character’s gone through as Agent Venom, a Guardian of the Galaxy and his latest role as “Space Knight”, the Symbiote is now more inclined towards “good” hosts and wants to be heroic rather than villainous - Venom actually has some character development for a change! - but it’s small beer in a book that’s mostly dreary reading. 

Venom’s just another decent supporting player/antagonist who can’t carry a solo title. Maybe there’s a good Venom comic out there (probably not) but this ain’t it.

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