Writer: Dan Slott/Christos Gage
Artist: Humberto Ramos
Inker/Colorist: Victor Olazaba/Delgado, Fabela & Gandini
SUPERIOR VENOM
“Old host…bad. Tastes…wrong. Want to go home.”
After Spider-Man tricks Flash into going into surgery to give him artificial legs just to remove the symbiote from Flash’s body, the symbiote escapes only to latch itself to Spider-Man turning him into the Superior Venom! Now Flash and Cardiac are confronted by Venom in hopes to stop him before he takes control of Otto and return him back to Flash.
The Ups: If you thought Spidey-Ock couldn’t be any more of a jerk, then this issue will definitely prove you wrong. Slott and Gage push Spider-Man’s attitude to the fullest in the issue being controlled by the symbiote, all while his personal and superhero life are falling apart all around him. I really appreciated the nod to the old 90’s Venom series when Spider-Man called himself the lethal protector, it’s always nice to see writers point out things that older fans like me would love and enjoy. I love Ramos’s design for the new Venom outfit, it’s a nice mix between the original Eddie Brock Venom and Peter Parker’s black Spider suit all while still looking like the Superior suit. The color team does a sick job on the Venom suit and I love the fact that he is colored blue and not black because something tells me Otto would not have his suit the same color as Flash’s just to prove how better he is at controlling the symbiote.
The Downs: The only thing that bugged me about the issue is that the story has been done so many times before. Spider-Man runs into Venom, Spider-Man separates the symbiote from the host, symbiote takes control of Spider-Man, Spider-Man acts like a jerk to his friends and family, and then someone has to stop him. Don’t get me wrong it was all written wonderfully and all the other plots going on in the story had me very interested just this felt like dejavu.
Overall: Slott and Gage are definitely building up to an explosive ending with this arc and interesting set ups for the next ones to come. With the art and storytelling being stellar as always (even with my case of dejavu) and the ending left me wanting more.
Grade 4 of 5
ComicsRefueled 