COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Venom #9
The Flipgeeks team reviews Venom # 9 by Rick Remender and Stefano Casseli from Marvel Comics
Earl’s Take:
The Fall out from Spider Island officially begins and it seems like the new Venom (that’s Flash Thompson) is not having a good day. After the events of Spider Island, Venom tries to help restore order when he encounters a not-so-ordinary bank robbery. Things get hairy when the tank does something horrible which leads to Flash hul- err Venom-ing out releasing the real form for the book’s star.
The emotions are running high on this book done by Rick Remender. It’s got everything you’ll need from a Spider-Man related book that does not feature ol’ Peter Parker. There’s turmoil and tragedy and a few gruesome moments to boot. The art is simple and clear given the caliber that the book has (in the form of ASM’s Stefano Casseli).
The dialogue is pretty intense and is a good jumping on point for new readers. The book is also a good pick as it stands as a bookend for Spider Island. I have to praise Marvel for this issue too. Rather than following suit on what DC has been doing with their “Edge” books (featuring clear decapitations and maimings), Venom downplays the violence level. Sure, sure you’d say that stuff like Deathstroke and Voodoo might have the “Teens” marked on it, but there will always be kids who get their hands on those titles. At least this issue of Venom assures as that it won’t happen with the kids who pick up this book.
Norby’s Take:
In the Spider-Man universe, their 2011’s big event – Spider-Island is certainly over. With this issue as the epilogue and used as the set. I found Venom #9 as a not good closing for the said event, but as a good set up for more character depth and more build up for future issues to come between the relationship of Flash & Betty and Flash’s problems in the past & emotional depth that affects the control of the alien symbiote. It’s just so hard to think that possibly Flash would end up tragic, if whether he could find redemption of his past and his rage. Rick Remender is truly consistent in this title. Nobody can keep me from reading this series except poverty [laughs].
Stefano Casseli hits a home run in all pages, especially the actions sets when Venom grabs and tries to stop the big tank. With all the violence and head biting, I have no complaints on him.
The only problem that I have that even though it’s an epilogue, the comic felt short of reading. I believe that the reason is because the preview pages of Marvel’s next mini-event series, X-Sanction. It seems Marvel has been adding these pages to almost of their titles. Does it suffer? Yes. Overall, great book, great story, great characters and great art. The number of pages affected my enjoyment and content.
*Next issue, Lan Medina, Filipino comic book artist will pencil the next issue. Go get Venom #10
