Web of Venom: Venom Unleashed #1

Web of Venom: Venom Unleashed #1

Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Ryan Stegman
Pencils: Kyle Hotz and Juan Gedeon
Inks: Marc Deering, Scott Hanna, Livesay, Roberto Poggi, Victor Olazaba, and Juan Gedeon
Colors: Dan Brown, Matt Yackey, Andrew Crossley, and Carlos Cabrera
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Cover: Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, and Frank Martin

Review by Michael Farris, Jr.

Web of Venom: Venom Unleashed #1 continues to take us down the crazy path that Marvel is taking us with our symbiotic f(r)iends. Picking up where Venom #9 left off, the Venom pooch fights off some zombie-like attackers that are after Eddie Brock. This takes it on a journey through San Francisco where it finds a hive of people being possessed by the Carnage symbiote. Venom brings back evidence to Eddie, and now they know what we know: Carnage is back.

In case you didn’t notice from the above credits, this installment of the Venom epic was written by Venom artist Ryan Stegman. The art and story between Stegman and Donny Cates in the first few Venom issues was (pardon the pun) symbiotic, so it’s only natural that Stegman got a shot at a Venom story.

A good chunk of the issue lets the art do the story-telling, and all the artists involved make the Venom hellhound’s journey through streets and sewers of San Francisco a fun bloody and gooey mess. There are a few panels where it was slightly hard to tell what was going on at first, but not to the point where I lost my place in the story.

Carnage is one of my all-time favorite Marvel baddies and getting into his sick and twisted mind is a real treat (if I can say that). His god-complex expressed by his desire to set others “free” by possessing them with symbiote worms is really setting us up for some balls-to-the-wall battles in upcoming issues.

Verdict: Buy it.

Stegman and co.’s continuation on Carnage’s plan will infect you and twist itself around your DNA if you’re not careful. One of the best Marvel comics from last year seems like it will only get better.