Reviewer: Tim Byrne
Story Title: Venomous (Pt 4)
Written by: Mark Millar
Penciled by: Frank Cho
Inked by: N/A
Colored by: Laura Martin
Lettered by: Chris Elopoulos
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Dan Buckley (Marvel)
I get the strange feeling I’m in the minority, but I have absolutely loved the last couple of issues of Spider-Man. The classic foes, the nods to continuity (Ben Reilly! Yay!), and the feeling that Peter Parker is just about to start wearing a t-shirt with a skull on the front.
Anyway, this issue serves as the concluding chapter in the ‘Venomous’ arc that has served to re-vamp the whole tired Venom schtick with a vengeance. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the excellent ‘re-cap’ of the last issue that Millar manages to sneak in through Peter’s voiceover at the start. You still get the fight scene, but through lines like ‘The OLD Venom would never have crashed my high school reunion and murdered an innocent person’ you get a fairly seamless treatment of what’s been going on.
I always love it when Spidey gets mad (although I also loved the dog rescue). Often we forget that Peter’s been doing this for a long time (even in Marvel years) and no Johnny-come-lately who bought a Venom symbiote is going to get the best of him.
Most of the issue is the fight, and its a hum-dinger, beautifully illustrated by Frank Cho. Unfortunately, you only get glimpses of Mary Jane, but you take what you can get.
The issue ends on a very sweet note, that also ties into a previous plot thread that was left dangling. Also, the ‘reward for Spidey’s ID’ issue is wrapped up, although I think continuity buffs will have a few things to say about the method.
And more hints are dropped as to Aunt May’s kidnapper, although your guess is as good as mine…
