Eddie Brock’s sojourn into the “Beyond” continues in Venom #29, part 4 of “Venom Beyond”. Written by Donny Cates, with pencils by guest artist Luke Ross (X-Men: Gold and Iron Man), colors by Jesus Aburtov, and letters by Clayton Cowles, Venom #29 finds Eddie Brock reeling from the news that future despot Codex is actually…his SON, DYLAN! And he’s just given original Scorpion and former Symbiote host, Mac Gargan (recently unmasked after masquerading as Virus), a massive Symbiote-powered upgrade in exchange for serving him. We join this goopy program already in progress.
Justin Partridge: Mercifully we have reached the penultimate issue of “Venom Beyond”. And it’s kinda solid! I know I am just as shocked as y’all are, especially since after last month’s resoundly turgid installment.
We finally see just how this future fell into the Symbiote Dystopia we opened on. We get some fairly decent Donny Heart here between Eddie, Annie, and Prime Dylan. AND guest artist Luke Ross delivers some pretty solid monster visuals. Do you agree Forrest, or am I just slightly punch-drunk from how bad #28 was? [Ed. note: I don’t usually go here, but seems like a mess to me]
Forrest Hollingsworth: Justin, I’ve been up for almost two straight days with the stomach flu (which I think happens to Eddie in the movie so – hey – method acting!) and you could convince me of almost anything at this point, but I think I also have to agree that this is the best issue of Beyond yet, much to my relief. Let’s dig into it!
“Fine, you want to know how we go here?”
JP: So we open on some pretty lengthy exposition as to how Codex came to rule over this particular Earth. Though I think it goes on maybe a page too long, I was pretty entertained by the backstory of this Earth’s Annie and Dylan and how he came to rule over it with a goopy iron fist.
But honestly, this really speaks to the problems I keep butting up against with Donny Cates works. Meaning he always throws out these ideas, usually with little to no real context as to how they web together, mills around in them for an issue or two, and THEN spends another two issues EXPLAINING everything that you just read and how it explicitly connects to the issues before.
Which is…fine, I suppose. Especially in these sort of “AU”-like arcs where the world and characters have been shuffled around a bit in order to recontextualize everything through the prism of “evil versions” (or in this case, “goopified versions”). But I have to say, these songs are starting to wear kinda thin for me and I’m not sure if I can handle more of this going into King in Black either.
What about you, Forrest? Did the backstory enhance the experience of this arc at all? This late in the game?
FH: I think you’re right that the additional context here helps significantly, especially with regards to flipping Eddie’s death on its head which I had major issues with last issue, but that it’s coming a little late for this arc.
It’s almost like telling a story in reverse, which can work in interesting ways, but has instead been primarily structured that way so Cates can end individual issues with the gut-punch cliffhangers he favors probably a little too much. It makes smaller reveals feel impactful, sure, but it lessens the strength of the overall story, with pacing that peaks and valleys heavily.
Sometimes it feels like nothing at all is happening in Venom, and that’s a shame as we run headfirst into King In Black, an event I’m still pretty hopeful about. I still can’t shake the idea that an arc of Eddie and Dylan running around New York creating safehouses and stashing weapons for Knull’s arrival — potentially their last days on Earth, together — would be more impactful than whisking us away to an alternate universe with lower stakes, but that’s neither here nor there.
That being said, I still kind of like all of the individual elements we get here. Peter and Annie’s relationship feels authentic, and Cates has really honed in on a great voice for Parker in general – that “I hate Symbiote stuff” line made me laugh aloud – this series has struggled with tonality, and I would love to see more of that humor infused into its central narrative. I also have to say I gladly buy an action figure of almost any of the Venomized characters we get in the double splash “fight for the world” page, especially the Hulk and Thor designs which Ross has done a good job of making simple but effective. I have questions about how Iron Man’s suit itself got gooped (Symbiotic…metal?), but we’ll leave that for another time.
The Heart of the Monster
JP: But beyond (heh) the front-loaded backstory, there is actually a pretty neat little kernel of emotion here as well. Once again hinged around Dylan, who has somewhat become the title’s main source of pathos and sympathy, Cates’ script for this issue mines some solid emotionality from the backstory and the ongoing war with Codex for this “future”.
And, again, this could just be being desperate for SOMETHING really to cling to on this series, but I think Cates can nail these moments when he gives them enough room. Obviously, it comes a bit tacked on here after the sheer AMOUNT of backstory the opening delivers, but I was into it (at least for NOW!).
What did you think, Forrest?
FH: Venom is, at its core, a series about recognizing the darkness within yourself and the hurt the world has inflicted upon you, and wanting better for it regardless. Within that context, Cates has done a good job of making the emotional tension between Eddie and Annie, and subsequently between Annie and Dylan, feel deserved.
Annie seeing Dylan, the cause of countless lives lost and horror inflicted in her world and reaching out to him, recoiling her Symbiote (intentionally or not) just to make contact with her son, even if it’s not really her Dylan is rich, heart wrenching storytelling. It’s the kind of broken family story Venom’s narrative has been circling — Eddie and Venom are lonely, lashing out, and lost, incapable of reconciling with Dylan in the wake of Annie’s death — but not really centralizing for some time, and these few cold and dysfunctional, yet intimate and authentic moments do a great job of making a lot of disparate elements more coherent before Scorpion crashes the party, anyways.
Luke Ross is Good, Actually
JP: But I really do feel like the real breakout star of this issue was Luke Ross.
Given a splashy energy by the colors of Jesus Aburtov (one of my personal favorite colorists), Ross really jumps into this title with both feet and I think #29 is all the better for it.
I don’t think he has the same instantly noticeable style and cartoonish quality as Gedeon, but I think his heavily inked style and wide range of emotive models give this issue a neat edge over last month’s.
You really get that sense in the above shown sequence, as Mac Gargan smashes through into the Venom Family’s HQ, forcing them to finally take the fight to Codex. It’s a really intimate scene, starting with the focus tight on Eddie, Annie, and Dylan. But then once the Scorpion bursts into the scene, literally through the walls of their sewer-bound stronghold, the focus is shifted to the dynamic action and kinetic action beats.
There is also a REALLY creepy scene with the Venomized Deadpool that showed that he’s also not afraid to unleash his more exploitive Savage Sword of Conan side. I was really into it all. How about you, Forrest?
FH: Overall I’m pretty pleased with this issue and the various narrative and artistic elements coming together (right in time to leave Beyond, hilariously) and I agree with being impressed by Ross’s ability to make momentous scenes feel large and yet comprehensible despite my dislike of the off-grey gutters.
I do have to say however, that Mac Gargan, previously revealed as Virus and here as a kind of Super-Symbiote Scorpion, is really off model – he looks more like Vulture! – and I hope this isn’t the end of his arc. Gargan has been, to date, a kind of mid-level flash in the pan villain which I find unfortunate given the potential narrative weight of his inclusion. His meeting Eddie, responsible for his paralysis, eye-to-eye and saying that Eddie can’t simply walk away from this is much richer than the time and focus it’s given here.
As Eddie’s guilt piles up, from various sources both internal and external, can he escape it? Should he be allowed to? These are the kinds of questions and morally grey areas I’d like to see the story explore more, not just as motivation for villains, but as a central concept. Becoming a hero requires more than being juxtaposed against the symbol of unfettered evil that Knull is, it requires reconciling with crimes and mistakes both big and small, and Eddie is a character especially well positioned to investigate that…and as Gargan says, “you can’t walk away from that”. I’m kind of hoping for a quieter, more intimate character arc after King In Black, but we’ll need to see what that event brings.
JP: Gee, for someone with a flu, you are impressively elegant and articulate about the problems and successes of this comic.
But you are absolutely right. It is one of those weird problems you run into when you do these kinda “will he become the ultimate evil?” stories. ON TOP OF, dealing with the excess of baggage that comes with dealing with a character like Eddie Brock and the complicated moral legacy of the Symbiote.
Cates also further muddies these waters by CONSTANTLY tacking on Knull elements or random crazy, shuffled up AUs, all of which always seem in service of something LARGER on the horizon for the title. It’s the Steven Moffat Problem isn’t it? “Oh, what’s this thing? Does it have any connection with this OTHER larger thing? KEEP BUYING ISSUES TO FIND OUT!”. It’s just very tiring. I am all for “big” arcs and big ideas, but you have to have MORE than just vague daddy issues to tack them onto. And you can’t keep hanging it on just how “cool” we find Venom and “venomized” stuff because even THAT has a limit too! I dunno. I feel stuffy now.
God am I GETTING sick now?! I KNEW that old takeout smelled gamey. We will nurse our wounds and be back for the finale of “Beyond”. Maybe it will FINALLY be better than Watchmen. They keep promising, it’s bound to happen eventually.
Marvelous Musings
- Next month, Venom Beyond wraps and then next we get King in Black which…we remain cautiously optimistic about. If anything it will (hopefully) finally stop the ungodly amount of edging we’ve been party to as Knull finally cums to Earth.
- We’ve discussed the idea of transuniversal recursion in this AU to death at this point, but god I love that using the Agent Venom suit apparently also means you have no less than six guns on your person at all times.
- Deadpool’s head is just…back on his body on the final page following his decapitation which both lessens the impact of that reveal a bit, but is also hilariously in-character.
- I’m in my ‘hot for dad’ feels with how Ross draws Eddie’s facial hair. Longer mustache with the full beard is a real old timey boxer/lumberjack look and I’m here for it.
- No absolutely, Luke Ross is a weirdly great rough trade artist, I dunno what to tell you.
- I would also genuinely love a Spider book about the Alternate Peter Parker and the Annie Weying Venom. That could be a lot of fun.
Forrest is an experimental AI that writes and podcasts about comic books and wrestling coming to your area soon.
