As another pivotal tie-in issue for the ongoing Queen in Black event, this particular issue of Venom once again goes back to the past to try and inform the present. But while the previous issue was a far more sizable detour that took Dylan’s past and perspective into account, this issue is more firmly rooted in the Venom symbiote’s own history with Earthbound hosts…and their elastic friends in particular.
Once upon a time, back when Peter Parker was still wearing the alien suit, he took it to Reed Richards for further analysis. Those experiments and the eventual caging that followed was something the symbiote never forgot. And now, once again being part of Reed Richard’s experiments and callous disregard for nuances of ethical experimentation, there’s certainly some bad blood and unresolved issues left behind. As you can probably tell, the symbiote and myself have something in common: our contempt for Reed on a molecular level. And what does that distrust and loathing mean when things are at direst with a new Queen in Black and resurgent Knull? A whole lot of drama and trauma that the Venom symbiote needs to contend with…with or without MJ in the mix.
Family Bonding Time
Issue #261 kicks off by going back in time, with the symbiote recounting how its first meeting with Reed Richards was far from a pleasant one. True Believers and comic readers will know this event from ye’ old pages of Amazing Spider-Man where the black suit was first discovered to be sentient. The response that followed? Fear, loathing and whole lot of sonic guns: things the symbiote remembers to this day. And so, when Reed Richards decides to see if there’s anything in Venom’s physiology that can help stop the current wave of symbiote-powered aliens invading Earth, his experiments get a bit too callous for Venom’s liking. This of course leads to Venom very violently enforcing their point to Reed about the finer matters of hospitality for alien lifeforms, something Reed does acquiesce too.
Following this, and a long heart to heart between Spidey, Dylan, MJ and Venom: a lot of baggage is aired out but there’s a few solutions that come up as well, alongside a whole lot of Al Ewing empowered lore that has to be sifted through. With that in mind the nerds come up with a plan: split Venom between MJ and Dylan so that Dylan can use his own Codex abilities to free every symbiote in the galaxy from Hela’s control. Only there’s one small problem: Reed didn’t account for the more magical hooby jooby that went into Venom’s spanking new golden look, so that kind of messes with his experiment until you get a Venom mass that’s slowly starting to become bigger than anything anyone could’ve ever imagined.
Alien Emotion Meets Human Commotion.
Al Ewing continues to use these Queen in Black tie-ins to really catch up on the kind of meaty character stories that his Venom run with MJ had been lacking so far. I know that sounds harsh, but I’m glad its at least happening in some meaningful way at the end of their run. A symbiote POV issue is always a great read in the waiting, and Ewing doesn’t really disappoint, using the symbiote’s past encounters with Reed Richards to truly inform their current frustrations. It’s the most humanized the symbiote has been in a while, with MJ taking a bit more of a backseat in comparison for significant chunks of this issue.
The Reed Richards and Venom symbiote dynamic is something that hasn’t been explored as often as other relationships – that of perceived doctor Frankenstein and his lab rat. For the Venom symbiote, at such a relatively early stage in its social development with no real clue about human emotion or feeling – to be poked and prodded and rejected by Peter based on Richard’s original analysis back in the 80s, that certainly left and indelible mark. There’s a lot of nice storytelling touches to this drive down memory lane: Venom recalling the pain of separation, the feelings of hate he developed for Reed – seeing him as a “liquid” alien thing that was a cold and callous jailer. I especially love the alien comparison to Reed’s powers and anatomy and find it very intriguing considering the symbiote’s own physiology. It’s a nice contrast to how both parties perceived each other and just how far (or how little, ironically enough) they’ve come. In the present, Reed’s single minded focus on the science of it all still leads to mishaps that could’ve been avoided if he considered others’ feelings. And the Venom symbiote itself also gives into its own fears of experimentation and exploitation – leading to a very short but truly heated confrontation where both Reed and the Symbiote finally reach a sort of mutual accord. Things like these really do work very well for this issue, and Ewing grasps the smaller nuances of using characters’ shared histories well enough to create engaging present day conflicts as a result.
This throughline of using the past to inform the present continues on with Venom having his discussions with Spider-Man as well. It’s a very unique heart to heart where Venom is able to express his feelings about Eddie, feeling rejected by Eddie’s choices post his transformation into the King in Black and everything that followed since, and finally how their fear of Knull’s return only brings all these old insecurities and fears about Dylan’s safety back to the forefront. I honestly still find it a little uncomfortable seeing Spidey be so flippant and almost callous about the symbiote’s feelings especially now, which is something that’s been a bit of a low point for Ewing’s Spidey writing in this series. But at the same point I appreciate that the symbiote is now able to also call out Peter on his patronizing behavior occasionally as well. It’s a very unique dynamic that’s been going on back and forth since the Venom/MJ dynamic was revealed to Peter, and I’m always up for more of it.
Finally, Dylan’s role in things also feels more organic with everything going on. With readers having already gotten a good idea of Dylan’s headspace in the previous tie-in issue, Venom #261 now extends that from the symbiote’s perspective: Dylan’s own fears of abandonment and loneliness mirroring Venom’s – it’s parent’s – own fears. Dylan being part symbiote remind readers of just how different he is from other characters and why that identity is so coveted by Venom’s enemies looking to exploit his powers. And eventually how those two story threads of father and son converge in the final act of the issue that has truly disastrous results with a whole lot of Venom goo everywhere. Connection, abandonment, fear and fatherhood: there’s certainly a lot that Ewing goes a long way to unpack in this issue.
If there is one thing that’s severely weighing this issue down, however, it’s that there’s just too much baggage from previous Al Ewing’s stories to keep up with to really get a sense of what’s fully going on here. Long gone are the days when the Venom symbiote was just an alien that attached to hosts and gave them spider-ish powers and a hankering for brains. Oh no, now we’ve got cosmic eldritch entities, reality and dimension warping powers, and golden magically imbued anti-carnage aura – sorry, Eganrac as it’s called officially – that’s a staple of the Venom mythos. And it’s certainly a lot to get through when all of these directly influence a lot of the current story, which sadly does undercut a lot of the heavier emotional aspects of the symbiote-pov storytelling of this issue.
Inky Black Attack
Carlos Gomez and Frank D’Armata keep on reliably doing their best work in this issue with lines and colors respectively. For this issue in particular, they get to do their own artistic spin on a classic Spider-Man story of the past, as well as the current present arc. And both look as good as you’d expect from these stalwart Venom artists.
Gomez’s linework has already been one of the best parts of this series, with a pretty signature look to this Venom incarnation that’s sure to remain long after the end of this series. In this issue, Gomez gets to play around a LOT with the symbiote design itself – in all its gooey, alien glory. While all the times Venom appears and transitions between MJ and hulking physiques is done as well as ever, there’s a lot of panels where just the symbiote is given such a strong, gracile presence because of Gomez. Some really nice throwbacks to the classic ASM story with the symbiote’s containment are also given new visual context with Gomez’s art too, which really reaches a peak at the end of the issue in truly epic proportions. Spidey and Reed – who also share ton of face time in this issue with Venom and Dylan get to also shine visually throughout the issue.
D'Armata also enhances every single one of these pages with his deft use of color and lighting. There’s a perfect lab-coded color palette for every room of the Baxter building it seems, both in the past and present. With red lighting bathing the action in Reed’s testing chamber, or the blue glow of the containment tube the symbiote was kept in back in the past – clashing with the shadowy inky black alien hue of the symbiote itself – or the green training room glow of Spidey and Venom’s conversation area. There’s a ton of great color choices made throughout the book that really makes every location and character pop.
Returning to the River
Venom #261 definitely has a lot of family drama going for it, but sometimes it feels a little weighed down by the confusing nature of Al Ewing’s current Venom mythos and all the historical continuity details that readers are expected to keep in mind. It’s a little sad, because it’s great having to get so much character work from the symbiote’s POV – something we rarely see – especially when contextualizing past events. And to have that diluted by all the heavy Ewing-centric lore feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
There’s definitely new mental and physical changes for MJ and Venom to consider in this issue and beyond, and what that means for the characters going forward. Solicitations have already ruined the outcome of that to a certain extent, so now it becomes a matter of how effectively we get to that point for MJ and Venom in particular. It’s starting to certainly feel a bit rushed that Venom and MJ are being set up to go their separate ways in a such a blatantly stereotypical manner, but if this do be the end of this criminally unexplored pairing, then all I can say is that I hope it ends on a decent note for this chapter in the Venom mythos.
Final Verdict: Venom #261 is an interesting POV into some of the Symbiote’s earliest shared experiences with Spider-Man which provides some interesting historical details, a few continuity confusions and a whole lot of context for the present state of things.