Donny Cates

Venom #1

Emmett

'And right there in the middle of it all it hits me. I don't know what I have to live for. I don't know if I am a good man, or if I can ever be one. But I know one thing. I know it with every blow I take. With every bone I break. With every drop of my blood that fills my mouth. With every breath in my lungs. I'm not ready to give in to the darkness. I am not ready to die.'

An apocalyptic gothic opera intertwined with the affecting story of two bent-but-not-broken individuals trying to do right by each other. The epic scale and the strength of the plot at times makes one forget this is a comic book (when there are more typical and lesser examples of the form). The dark and shadowy illustrations are reminiscent of gritty horror movies. The real core of it though, is the writing and pace which keep the narrative completely under control. There are no wasted moments, no superfluous detail that it doesn't return to and that makes every effect decisive and potent. Comments on alliteration and montage effects would usually be out of place for a comic book review but this is effectively cinematic in feel, literary in quality. The symmetry of the last panel with an earlier one is just pure brilliance.

Dimitris Papastergiou

In the wake of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse, an ancient and primordial evil has awakened beneath the streets of New York, and with it, something equally evil has awakened in that most wicked of web-slingers, Venom! Still a Lethal Protector of the innocents, this never-before-seen threat could force venom to relinquish everything it holds dear, including Eddie Brock! Collecting: Venom #164-165 and Venom #1-4 (subject to change).