Venom #1 review: Venom’s a god now, and it’s almost too much for Marvel

Venom is back … again! Following the conclusion of Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s critically and commercially successful years-in-the-making Venom Run, the eponymous Symbiote, and its human suitors Eddie Brock and Dylan are here to eat heads and harass bad guys in an all-new #1.

What was the major change? Contrary to what happens in a typical Marvel relaunches, it seems that everything has really been important.

Who’s working on Venom #1?

Two writers have split scripting duties in a rarified Marvel Comics move. Al Ewing, author of Guardians of the GalaxyThe recently completed The Immortal Hulk is said to be tackling the cosmic-in-scope Eddie Brock bits, while writer Ram V — who helmed one of this year’s best comics in Laila Starr’s Many Deaths — is writing the more grounded angst-driven Dylan Brock.

Despite the split perspective, artist Bryan Hitch is drawing the whole thing, joined by Andrew Currie’s inks and Alex Sinclair’s colorwork.

What’s Venom #1 about?

After the completion of the preceding Venom run This new story took place over what seemed like weeks, if not months. is a continuation of its characters’ arcs, not a “back to basics” reimagining or dramatic restart.

Eddie Brock accepted the title of King in Black from Knull, an eldritch cosmic villain. Eddie Brock is now entrusted with new responsibility. He has control of every symbiote within the universe. Until, that is, he encounters “Bedlam,” an unknown but apparently quite powerful entity that introduces itself in a genuinely scary sequence. (A note for continuity keepers: This almost certainly is not the mutant-also-known-as-Bedlam played by Terry Crews in Deadpool 2 but hey, who’s to say.)

Meanwhile, teenage Dylan is seen struggling through day-to-day human life on Earth in the shadow of an absentee father, his outcast status at school, and a striking lack of friends who aren’t goo-aliens. He spends his days with the Venom symbiote and its most recently introduced child, Sleeper, who takes on the form of a sleek Siamese cat whose mother was a pokémon. It’s kind of the typical angsty teenager story, at least by way of cosmic calamity.

Dylan Brock walks out of a building and into rain, pulling his hoodie up. A black cat with neon yellow markings and four red eyes (the symbiote Sleeper) says “You wanna talk about it?” in Venom #1 (2021).

Venom#1: Taking up the torch from what has gone before and using it to illuminate a new route.

Also, there is no reason to start the series again at #1.

Ryan Stegman and Donny Cates wanted to try new things, and they were able to find a convenient time. Venom Film was going to be released, obviously.

But more seriously, this gets the relaunch treatment because Ewing and V are using it as an introduction to the next chapter of Eddie and Dylan’s lives. The story is about synthesizing old stories and new ones into one overarching narrative — and if the gradual transition of the character’s lives into a new phase happens to be in parallel with a real-world creative changeover, well, it works quite well.

Ewing seems interested in pursuing the cosmic significance of Eddie’s godhood, and it’s clear that he has far reaching plans for new god-worthy foes of the disgraced reporter. V flexes his control over the mundane, using simple mannerisms and grounded storytelling to make the scope of Dylan’s story seem just as important to Eddie’s. The kid has been warned not to bond with the Venom symbiote for his own safety, but by the issue’s end he’s confronting the idea of wanting to do and be more than he’s allowed to — much like his own father famously was before him.

It’s a cool, considered mix that wouldn’t have worked quite as well without a notable change in publishing status.

Are there required readings?

Although the strained father-son dynamic is pretty clearly the main point here, readers would probably be best off knowing the general context of Donny Cates’ preceding Venom run. The series covered the origins of Symbiotes and their god Knull, who is a grudge-holder. More importantly, it covered Knull’s defeat at the hands of Eddie Brock and Dylan, who had special Symbiote sensing powers before they were snatched away from him, in the conclusion of the multiple-series-spanning King in Black Imagine an event!It is.

Cates also introduced a series of retcons which better contextualize the slimy soldier race in the larger Marvel universe, specifically through the revelation that new symbiotes (like Carnage and Toxin, among countless others) are born in response to cosmically important changes or crises, and that they leave a DNA maker called a Codex embedded in the spine of anyone they’ve ever bonded with. Thanks to Venom-themed events, this includes many other Marvel-related events, including the Avengers and the X-Men.

Is Venom #1 good?

The Venom symbiote catches Dylan Brock and Sleeper the symbiote cat, saving them from an explosion. The Symbiote is roughly human shape but and is wearing a full set of men’s clothing including a red baseball cap in Venom #1 (2021).

Was ist das? Venom does well — taking the previous story to its natural conclusions and continuations — it does VeryWell. Readers like myself are justifiably tired of always dealing with the upheaval of their favorite character’s lives every time a new book launches, and the creative team here is distinctly and thankfully not interested in doing that. There’s quite a bit of cosmic intrigue introduced, and the appearance of a villain that seems to be completely unconnected to anything either hero knows is a nice touch. It’s also exceptionally cool to see Dylan become a character in his own right, rather than the plot device he was on introduction.

However, this issue is lacking a clear direction. Hitch’s art is ultimately unimpressive (the splash introducing “Bedlam” is very visually flat) but sufficient (read: I like the bit where the Venom symbiote wears a baseball cap and khakis). It is arguably there to be exactly that, provide a unified perspective for Dylan and Eddie’s stories, but it never really overcomes the book’s structural unevenness. The distance between the main characters’ voices, the constantly changing tone of the narration, and the general kind of miss at highlighting Eddie’s own struggles — as he has always been defined by his own struggles — in favor of emphasizing Dylan’s … This leaves much to be desired.

That said, there simply had to be a lot of setup here and it’s highly likely that Ewing and V will hit a more natural stride soon. It’s too intriguing to miss the opportunity for two creative partners to create a story that tells the story of a hero.