Remender is leaving this title on a high note. He achieves a real poignancy with one of his best single issues of “Venom.” This issue covers some of the lowlights of Flash’s relationship with his father, and avoids sentimentality while exploring some psychologically believable territory in terms of characterization. Flash’s father is not only abusive, he appears to see himself in competition with his own son, and he revels in humiliating Flash. Meanwhile, Flash’s mother is a limp dishrag of a woman who lives in denial by rationalizing the actions of her husband. There is a supervillian battle in this comic, but the action is rather secondary.
The art in this comic complements the script quite nicely. Declan Shalvey makes Venom move in a Spider-Man like way, but Venom is subtly different in that he appears to have less flexibility and more power. The coloring is appropriately moody.