Venom #6 Review - Marvel Monday

Venom #6 Review

Writer: Mike Costa

Art Team: Gerardo Sandoval, Dono Sanchez-Almara
Marvel Comics

Release Date: April 19, 2017

Cover Price: $3.99

Back in Black **SPOILERS**

Well if the only reason you’ve been avoiding Marvel’s Venom title the last few years is because you don’t want it be about anybody else in the symbiote beside Eddie Brock, from the looks of the cover, your dream maybe coming true this month. However like any seasoned comic fan will tell you, the oldest trick in marketing a book is to put an image on the cover that will suck you in, only to tease you with what you really want.  So what side of the fence does issue #6 of the latest Venom series fall on? Swing inside and find out with me, as I spill all the beans, and share my minute knowledge of the current Marvel Universe.   

Things ended last issue with Lee, in the Venom symbiote still, tangling with Spider-Man and the FBI, before eventually listening to Venom itself in an attempt to hightail the ‘duo’ out of trouble.  An Anti-Symbiote Task Force, headed by none other than Eddie Brock, was called into clean the situation up as the issue concluded which is where we pick up events here as Eddie is enroute to the scene of the crime being filled in on the particulars.

Meanwhile we find out while checking back in on Venom that he isn’t very successful in slipping away without notice and slyly tracked down by Spider-Man. The helicopter Venom/Lee tries escaping in ends up grounded quickly in flames thanks to our hero Spidey’s efforts. This leads to another tussle between the two long time frenemies, which Lee seems to have the upper hand in, until Spider-Man, along with Eddie’s arrival, is too much emotionally for symbiote to deal with. With an assist from the nearby flames of destruction surrounding the group, this provides the symobiote with enough of a new wanted connection, in more reliable host’s hands, to separate from Lee’s mind control attempting to free itself from its new corrupt host.

Spider-Man calls to the symbiote to give it the final push it needs as it rushes to its first host seemingly in pure glee.  This is actually an emotional beat in a Venom story only escalated when the symbiote finds itself tricked into a containment unit very much to its dismay and against its wishes, which leads to an open display of verbal hate directed in Spider-Man’s direction. One pissed off symbiote is hauled off by the Police with Eddie Brock leading the charge, as Lee too is hauled to the clink for his crimes against humanity while in the symbiote.

Our issue concludes by paying off on the various covers, panels, and bits of dialogue that foreshadowed an Eddie Brock return to the symbiote. We witness as Eddie initially tries a little sweet talk on a guard before eventually forcing his way into a cell that contains the symbioses’ containment unit. Our cliffhanger reveal is Eddie once again helming the suit swinging thru the skies of New York screaming “We’re Back” sporting the classic Venom look as the police put out an APB for our man in black.

Overall we get a Venom issue this month that follows through on some long running promises and brings the character full circle after some new and exciting adventures the last few years. This was a steady but not overall spectacular issue basically used to setup a new jumping on point going forward as it wrapped up the first arc as the book gets ready to return to classic numbering next month. The art team does a great job of establishing the fast pace this book looks to capture with beautifully fluent action scenes and creative paneling. If you’re a Venom fan this is for you.   

Bits and Pieces

If you’re a fan of the classic Venom stories of the 90’s which consistently featured Spider-Man this is a callback of sorts to those times establishing the connection those two used to share.  The cover delivers on the promise it sets up in an interesting way.

7.0/10