VENOM #22

Review by: Baron_Aim

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Avg Rating: 4.4
 
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Story by Rick Remender
Art by Declan Shalvey
Colors by Lee Loughridge
Letters by Joe Caramagna
Cover by Tony Moore & Val Staples

Size: 0 pages
Price: 2.99

For the past year or so, Rick Remender’s Venom really has been one of the most unique and intense superhero comics on the stands. Whenever someone says to me “Venom, how is that interesting” I always pitch this title as the Breaking Bad of comics, and I don’t think that’s too far off. They reinvented two characters, Venom and Flash Thompson, and played them off each other in a way that created a very deep protagonist.

Remender’s final issue deals with Flash thinking about his past with his abusive father as he goes to confront his nemesis Jack O Lantern, a man whose father warped him into the psychotic killer his is today. It’s a really interesting and clever dynamic to show how each of them had fathers that did damage to them as a child, but how the differences in their character made them turn out differently. Much of the issue is Venom swinging through the city, searching for Jack alternating with flashbacks, but it works really well thanks to strong art by Declan Shalvey who creates very dynamic poses for Venom.

The result of the conflict with Jack O Lantern provided a denial of a certain catharsis, but replaced it with another type altogether that felt very in line with where Flash should be after all he’s been through. I was surprised and extremely happy with where the book ended here. It’s a lot more emotionally resonant than you would expect from this type of comic, and ends on a very literary note with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emmerson that ties things up nicely. I don’t envy Cullen Bunn, who has the task of trying to follow up this defining run. Thanks Rick, for one hell of a ride.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 4 - Very Good

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