Announced exclusively at iFanboy (but we’ll share it with you here as well), it looks like Marvel’s current writer of the hour Cullen Bunn will be teaming up with Rick Remender on Venom for a brand new arc entitled “Savage Six,” which will introduce a new rogue’s gallery for Flash Thompson.
This is not the first time that Venom has been used as a vehicle for multiple writers, as it is currently in the middle of a six-part storyline co-written by Jeff Parker and Rob Williams entitled “Circle of Four”. In “Savage Six”, however, the culmination of everything Remender has done in the book so far reaches its apex as a band of new villains are introduced to antagonize Flash Thompson, current Venom. The team will be lead by Crime Master, the series current main antagonist, the group will consist of Jack O’Lantern, the Human Fly, Toxin (the offspring of Carnage), as well as characters Remender used during his time on the previous volume of the Punisher. The story will also feature the return of Eddie Brock, who will be hunting the symbiotes.
The move in part seems similar to what Jeff Parker did with Hulk beginning with issue #30.1, but ultimately makes sense given Venom’s connotations as a villain. As Remender notes in the interview, “You want to spell it out that this is Venom’s rogues gallery or else he’ll always fall back into that “When is he going to attack Spider-Man again?” and that was really important to me that that not be the case.”
Of course, given the repetition of the word “culmination”, it would appear that this might either be a) Remender’s final Venom story, or even b) the final Venom story. We would be sad with either option.
The arc begins with Venom #17, and will be illustrated by Kev Walker. Issue #18 will see Lan Medina take over artistic duties, and both will be released in May.
