Rick Remender is carrying on and extending the great X-Men tradition with “X-Force,” so I suppose that’s the reason that his work on “Venum” is relatively less hyped on the internet, but this is a very solid comic that is getting better and better. In this issue, Flash Thomson has been blackmailed into running an errand for Crime-master, who has sent Jack-O-Lantern along with Flash as a baby sitter/guard/guide. This incarnation of Jack is a great villainous creation by Remender. Jack is witty, funny, sarcastic, and evilly sick. Perhaps Remender overdoes Jack-O-Lantern’s criminal insanity, but we’ve all probably heard of criminals in the news who were twisted to a similar extent. The ongoing question of who is controlling Flash, the symbiote or the man, is further developed in this issue with Flash admitting that he needs Venum. But does Flash need the alien because of the power the creature confers on him (including the ability to walk) or because Venum is taking over his personality? Stay tuned. This comic also teases future conflict with Anti-Venum and Red Hulk. Sounds like more excitement heading the way of “Venum” readers. This comic’s art is nothing short of amazing. Penciler Lan Medina, inker Nelson DeCastro and colorist Marte Gracia have crafted a comic that looks like a beautifully realistic horror film. A lot of the story takes place in creepy darkness, and the art captures the mood perfectly. Medina does a great job of representing beautiful people, like Flash, average people, like the obese waitress at a diner, and the hideously disfigured Jack-O-Lantern. I suspect that nothing is beyond Medina’s powers of depiction.