Venom #1 – Review

by Rick Remender (writer), Tony Moore (pencils), Crimelab! Studios, Sandu Florea, & Karl Kesel (inks), John Rauch (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Flash goes on a mission to stop an arms-dealer, and the doctor behind his weapons, amidst genocide.

The Review: Venom #1 is a very interesting issue insofar as it shows, truly, what a great creative team can do and how one such team can mine greatness from what looks, at first, to be a tapped reservoir.

Certainly, at it’s base level, Venom #1 has a lot that could make for a very mediocre comic.  There’s the fact that it’s about Venom, already a ho-hum franchise.  Then there’s the fact that it’s yet another superhero spec-ops book.  Meanwhile, having a faceless arms-dealer as a villain?  It doesn’t get much blander than that.  Yet, Venom #1 is a tremendous comic book that sees Rick Remender succeeding once again with the odds stacked against him.

One of the reasons is Remender’s outstanding character-work.  Flash Thompson, for instance, is an absolute star and, within pages, instantly recognizable as an incredibly compelling and sympathetic main character well worth his own ongoing series.  He’s a fully three dimensional human being and in 22 pages, Remender touches upon so much of what makes him tick: his devotion to his country in the face of political naysayers, his courage and natural heroism, his struggles with alcoholism and his own flaws and vulnerabilities, his constant conflict with the old high school jock football hero inside of him, and the toll his military career and heroism takes on his personal sphere.  There is just so much about Remender’s Flash that intrigues, and placed in such a balancing act as this one, where absolute emotional equilibrium is required to control the beast that is the symbiote only heightens everything that makes Flash interesting.

Remender also does great work when it comes to Flash’s narration.  It feels personal, heroic yet human, and fully captures Flash’s unique voice.  It’s not over the top in any way, but it’s great to see Flash having a distinct tone.  Remender also does ingenious work in manipulating these narrative textboxes to show Flash’s loss of control to the symbiote.

Cackling villain Jack O’ Lantern is a joy.  He’s maniacal and a hyperactive, exaggerated bit of murderous black comedy.  He’s a lot of fun and reminds me of something Grant Morrison would write, albeit a bit more comprehensible.