Eddie Goes To War In Venom #22
by Josh Davison
Mild Spoilers Ahead
Eddie Brock runs from the crash site and into the wilds of the island. He finds one of his old safehouses he made the last time he was here and he gathers the arms needed to fight the last vestiges of Carnage. He will do whatever it takes to save the Venom symbiote, but it will be a struggle. Carnage will infect every living thing on the island and turn them loose on Eddie. Back in New York, Dylan is having nightmares about the King in Black. Knull is still coming and Dylan just wants the nightmare to end.
Venom #22 finds Eddie going to war with Carnage one more time in a crusade to purify the Venom symbiote of all remnants of the red menace. He has arms and gear leftover from his previous stay on the island and he might just have a chance of killing Carnage for good…or so he thinks.
This issue has its fair share of shocking revelations and one hell of an ending stinger. As it turns out, Dylan has been hiding something else from Eddie.
It’s an intense issue with Eddie scrambling to ready for the Carnage horde and trying to fight them off immediately afterwards. While I wouldn’t call it a horror comic, it has some creepy moments. The Carnage horde and Dylan’s nightmare give the book a few unnerving moments for sure.
Mark Bagley once again shows us why he’s an industry legend, giving this book a gorgeous treatment. He makes sure that the more brutal moments are aptly disquieting and he makes the Carnage horde look downright terrifying. Andy Owens supports Bagley well with a great inking treatment and Frank Martin and Erick Arciniega provide a brilliant color palette.
Venom #22 is another intense and gripping installment of the “Venom Island” story. It finds Eddie backed into a corner and stuck using his wits and will to stop the remnants of Carnage from claiming him. It has a damn good story and fantastic artwork and it easily earns a recommendation. Give it a read.
Venom #22 comes to us from writer Donny Cates, artist Mark Bagley, inker Andy Owen, color artists Frank Martin and Erick Arciniega, letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles, cover artist Mark Bagley with Andy Owens and Jason Keith, and variant cover artist John Tyler Christopher.
Final Score: 9/10
