Venom vol. 1: Rex
Donny Cates has certainly proved his worth working on fill-in arcs at Marvel. “Thanos Wins” and “Doctor Strange: God of Magic” could’ve come off as dull cash-grabs as the titles marked their time towards cancellation and relaunch, respectively. Instead, Cates decided to use the fact that neither of his runs were expected to matter in the long run and threw in all the craziness he could to great effect. That catapulted him to the big leagues at Marvel with this new “Venom” series and the upcoming “Guardians of the Galaxy” relaunch. The catch here is that now he can’t go as crazy as he did in those previous runs because he’ll be on those titles for the long haul. Which doesn’t seem to be as big a problem as I feared if this first volume of “Venom” is any indication.
While I’m well aware of Venom as a character, I’ve never actually read any of his solo comics. He had an ongoing string of miniseries during the 90’s while his recent ongoing titles revolved around the Flash Thompson version of the character before it reverted back to Eddie Brock who anchors this series. He’s back to being a freelance photographer while managing things with his symbiote, who hasn’t had the best time as of late. Venom has been having nightmares where he remembers things from his past like fighting Norsemen hundreds of years ago. Things get worse when he loses control while bonded to Eddie as the two investigate a supervillain arms deal.
Before Venom can kill some helpless cops, he’s incapacitated by a mysterious individual who later identifies himself as Rex Strickland. He’s a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who, if he’s to be believed, used to be bonded to a symbiote like Eddie’s and can help him with the problems he’s having now. Turns out that Rex had some friends who were also bonded like he was and they’ve been kept on ice by the organization for a good long while now. In exchange for his help, Rex wants Eddie and Venom to break them out during a transfer. It sounds simple enough until the symbiotes get loose and it turns out they’re not like Venom. In fact, their escape prompts the titular symbiote to claim that “God is coming!”
That last bit should be an indication that even though Cates is settling into his first ongoing series at Marvel he still wants to bring a little crazy to it. The best thing about this first volume of “Venom” is the ambition the writer shows in revising the character’s history to become something greater than it was. In addition to showing that the symbiote has been around on Earth for longer than initially thought we learn about the “God of the Symbiotes” who calls himself Knull and is the big bad of this story.
Knull is basically a walking retcon, but one that I feel is being done the right way. Cates ties in his history to the Marvel universe itself, showing him mixing it up with the Celestials at the dawn of time and using their remains to craft a weapon that will be very familiar to readers of Jason Aaron’s run on “Thor.” Then we get to see how he spawned the symbiotes throughout the cosmos and how it ties in with their home planet and their name, Klyntar, given to them in Bendis’ “Guardians of the Galaxy” run.
Speaking of Bendis, it was really refreshing to see Cates acknowledge and incorporate past continuity into his story in a relatively seamless fashion. While I realize that longtime fans of Venom with actual knowledge of his solo adventures may feel differently, the use of continuity here was actually a positive thing for the story. I also appreciated the other nods to current and past Marvel continuity in the story as well. Such as when Miles Morales shows up and actually starts fighting Venom, assuming he’s the bad guy because of what he did to his mom back in the Ultimate Universe. As well as the part when Venom asks why no other superheroes are showing up to help out and Miles says that there’s something about Celestials falling from the sky. Which is a nod to Aaron’s opening arc on “Avengers.”
Cates also does a good job establishing the relationship between Eddie and Venom. While it’s clear that the photographer isn’t a very nice guy, he does have an understanding of and sympathy with his symbiote. Which gives the opening scenes some weight as he struggles to deal with its problems without any understanding of them and fuels the drama of the series as Knull’s machinations threaten to break them apart. That big bad also does a good job of being the superior force that our protagonists have to overcome, even if he’s more interesting because of his ties to continuity than his actual personality. Rex is also a welcome presence in the series, particularly after his secrets come out into the open. It’s too bad that this might be the only volume we see him in.
Ryan Stegman has some history with the character, having previously co-illustrated the lackuster “Venom Inc.” crossover, and he does good work here. While the overall vibe of the art is “dark with lots of shadows” he still invests a lot of detail and personality into the action. Eddie may be a grim character, but even he has his moments of vulnerability when he finds himself without his symbiote and Stegman does a good job nailing those. The artist is also quite good with the splash pages, particularly a two-page one near the end showcasing a fully-armed Venom fighting Knull and working the sound effects into the rubble.
If there’s any problem with this first volume of “Venom” it’s that you can boil the conflict down to two monsters fighting each other, with some of the plot beats in the present day coming off as a bit familiar. It still sets up an interesting story for the character as he prepares to explore his history and all that it entails. It’s also a good sign for Cates’ future at Marvel if he can get me interested in reading the further adventures of a character whose solo adventures I haven’t bothered with until now.