If you’ve been as in the dark as you shamefully should not admit, Peter Parker’s childhood bully-jock-turned-American-war-hero is Marvel’s answer to Snake Eyes, all with the Call of Duty: Black Ops touch, of course. Flash has to keep his longtime girlfriend Betty Brant in the dark, his on-the-outs father isn’t doing too well, and now New York City is infested with spiders (damn, I hope all this ends before NYCC!). To make matters worse, the former Venom, Eddie Brock — now dubbed Anti-Venom — is out to do exactly as the moniker claims: to alleviate the city-wide disease once and for all.
No longer one of Marvel’s dirtiest little secrets –much in thanks to the amazing Uncanny X-Force series — writer Rick Remender swiftly coordinates a compelling link between Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man #670 and this issue. Fans of either title will witness this week that Thompson is government-sent to deliver Brock to Reed Richards at Horizon Labs; all the while, the luscious Spider Queen wants her “King” (the undercover Venom) to kill him. Either way, this is not looking good, especially since Brock is using this for his own gloriously selfish pleasures.
What turns about is perhaps the most epically fantastic symbiote battle since “Maximum Carnage.” Even with customary Venom artist Tony Moore on the sidelines for this “Spider-Island” edition, Tom Fowler’s action is as intense as Remender’s righteous salvation-driven dialogue. You can just imagine Thompson’s mental-state torn to shreds as he trades majestic web-slinging with Venom’s initial proprietor. The constant costume-morphing between Flash’s secret-ops gear and the alien monster designs are unbridled in self-doubt, exhausted emotion, and fueled by the rage only this poison could commit.
There’s two crucial moments in this comic you will not see behind the madness of Parker’s eyes. The way Remender and Slott have crossed-over the two titles as flawlessly as any crossover in recent memory deserves kudos. I know, I know; buying side-books typically sucks, but not buying this issue of Venom while reading “Spider-Island” will suck much harder. Believe that.
Travis Moody has gone through more phases than Paris Hilton has gone through tan lines. Hip-hop critic. MMA fighter. Furniture mover. Screenwriter. Hollywood bouncer. This guy puts Dean Malenko to shame, or at least Hayden Christensen. Nonetheless, the newfound phase of this all-too-positive “Loose Cannon” (as monikered from various music and film review sites) is simply comics, going on three years strong. After blowing the lot of his savings on graphic novels and stupid “collectible” figurines, Travis decided to leave them all in Boston and head to his next destiny: Hollywood, California.
