Rick Remender has received loads of praise for this book, but fifth-week events aren’t usually known for their quality. Which factor will dominate the other for this collection?
Written by Rick Remender, Jeff Parker, and Rob Williams
Illustrated by Lan Medina, Lee Garbett, Sana Takeda, Julian Totino, and Tony MooreStruggling to cope with his father’s death, Flash Thompson is emotionally depleted and slowly losing his battle with the Venom symbiote for control of his mind. When his nemesis Jack O’Lantern blackmails Flash into serving the Crime-Master, Flash steals the symbiote from Project Rebirth and travels to Las Vegas to retrieve a dangerous package. With the Red Hulk chasing him, can Venom complete his mission and save his loved ones from the merciless Crime-Master? Wehen a portal to Hell opens in the middle of Sin City, spewing forth the hordes of the underworld, Venom and Red Hulk must set aside their differences and join Ghost Rider and X-23 on a crusade to stop the spread of Hell on Earth. These tarnished heroes must wrestle free of their own personal demons and band together to save the world in its darkest hour! Collecting Venom (2011) #10-14 and 13.1-13.4
232 pages / 19.99
At its core, this trade really has two plots: one the usual “Venom” book, and the other a six-part fifth-week event. The book starts with a prose page introducing characters and giving a new reader a good feel for what has led up to “Venom” #10. The first three chapters of the book are well paced with natural breaks. Narration is used consistantly, helping the chapters feel like they belong together. Aside from few odd moments (like a complete lack of reaction to a man missing the lower half of his face), interesting plotlines are introduced, but then abruptly abandoned for the ‘Circle of Four’.
I’m not sure how ‘Circle of Four’ came about, if it was meant to be a story in “Ghost Rider” or “X-23”, which were canceled the month the event ended, or if it was an idea for “Venom”, or if it was mandated by editorial, but the final product was bloated and contrived. The first indication of a lack of effort comes when Red Hulk, X-23, Ghost Rider, Dr Strange, and Hellstorm just appear with plotlines from their own books (I assume) and no introduction at all. It’s taken for granted the reader knows what Ghost Rider did in Nicaragua, for example. Since this collection isn’t labled as volume 3 or anything I really expected it to do a better job of introducing the characters I was reading about.
None of the characters had any reason to be involved in Vegas, and it doesn’t feel like much thought went into getting them there. Venom happened to be passing through. Red Hulk was sent after him because no one else was around. X-23 was there because a demon needed bodyguards cloned from her (with alien symbiotes of thier own, because awesome, I guess), and Ghost Rider was there because the demon thought it’d be fun to invite her. Her role seemed vital at first, but later events showed Blackheart could’ve used any motorcycle, or anything that would go, really.
The fluidity of the previous chapters was tossed out the window for ‘Circle of Four.’ The characters felt compelled to explain aloud how they felt and why they felt that way every issue. Because of the cast size, that made about 4 pages, or about 20% of each chapter, redundant. I suppose that may have been a good recap during the montly publication, but isn’t that what recap pages are for? As a collected whole, it doesn’t make for good reading.
The story still might’ve been ok, but the plot was only good enough for three issues at most. Remender and the others bulked it up some by having the heroes fight thier antithesises, because that idea’s never been done before. “Their own worst enemies…are themselves!” “Brilliant!” Then some other stuff happens, and the story ends. The whole city of Las Vegas was in Hell for a while, and most of its population is murdered, but the heroes have survived and learned something about themselves, so it’s a happy ending. Meanwhile, those interesting plotlines from earlier lie forgotten, until the next volume of “Venom” comes out.
Continued belowI had no specific complaints about the art, other than Marvel could’ve made more effort to get artists with similar styles. Individually, each chapter looked good and neat. Together, the art shifts were jarring and distracting. I will commend the artists for doing a good job of making new characters look consistant, which I’m sure took effort to coordinate.
The extras in the book were described in the hardcover solicit as
preliminary artwork by Tony Moore, script pages, and more!
More! means covers. The script was Remender’s outline for ‘Circle of Four’, which didn’t reveal much about the story. The concept art was nice, but not too different from the final images seen in the story proper. For nine issues of content originally sold for $27, the $19.99 price tag is a great value, and earns the story a point.
While the book overall didn’t wow me, the first chapters were decent, and I assume they are more in line with the rest of the series I’ve heard so much praise for.
Final Verdict:6.0 – browse, unless you’re a diehard fan of the characters involved.
