Who Was That Masked Symbiote? — Reviewing ‘All-New Venom’ #1

The Venom War ended with neither Brock bonded with Venom. That means the symbiote is loose and free about town. Single and ready to mingle with a potential quartet of willing potentially superhero minded hosts.

It’s a whole new day which is perfect for the debut of All-New Venom, from the intrepid team of Al Ewing, Carlos Gomez, Frank D’Armata, and Clayton Cowles.

This is one of the most comic booky comics that I have read in some time, and I kind of love it.

If you saw the preview pages of a trail being held for Madame Masque with the three other potential symbiote hosts in the audience (Mayor Luke Cage, sidekick extraordinaire Rick Jones, and reporter Robbie Robertson), well that’s the comic. Obviously there are far more pages, but the first issue basically is the whole AIM attack on the courthouse (with the return of A.I.M. leader guru Andrew Forson) and the mystery of this new Venom.

Ewing turns things on their head for the symbiote by going all in on the camp, the joy, and the fun of superheroics after years of heavier more out of the box cosmic/time flavored stories. Characters are making jokes, riffing on things, finding convenient excuses to vanish before Venom arrives, and the heroic symbiote swashbuckles like no other.

I love that we don’t actually learn who Venom is here. As well as how a wrinkle is thrown in that potentially none of the potential hosts knows or cares to share that they are pulling double duty. Madame Masque still seems the lowest possible of the three, but Ewing doesn’t leave anyone out of the picture quite yet. Stringing out such mysteries tend to have diminishing returns, but if done in a fun but quicker way, there is a lot of potential here.

An A.I.M. member turning witness because he has the uncanny ability to read body language was pretty silly, in a good way. Especially as he started really getting confused about how this Venom was not any former host, but was someone familiar from the courtroom. It’s this kind of really on the nose stuff that makes the story way more fun than one might have expected.

Gomez is the perfect artist to tap for a story like this.

His artwork is so bold, big, and dynamic. Really living in the space of slickness meets deep detail, allowing characters to ooze across the page and pose in their most heroic dynamic quality. It’s got that real superhero energy through and through. Paneling choices are utilized to their maximum to really use the space that the story happens to occur within (the aforementioned courtroom mostly). All of the action accurately feels like it’s tight and confined, since courtrooms are not that large of a space, comparatively to many others.

There is an inherent shininess to everything that really works with the kind of hammy or cheesy (in the best way possible) energy the story is exuding.

Color wise, D’Armata has always really lived in that shinier space from the times I’ve encountered his work. Which is fitting with this series, as it elevates what Gomez has done art wise in that respect, really leaning into the bold colorful feeling this story should have. All the colors, even the most mundane browns or yellows, feel vibrant and almost fantastical. Not to a degree where everything feels surreal or beyond belief, but enough to remind us that this is a fantastical world where giant metal suit clad attacks are alarmingly common.

There is a pacing that is necessary to make a lot of the, somewhat old school feeling, dialogue and wording work. Cowles is a veteran letterer who does such things with a flourish and ease. Allowing the bubbles and captions really breathe, spreading through the page smoothly and pleasingly for our eyes. Framing what is there and allowing every joke or declaration to really catch on and resonate.

Right away, just from the way that Gomez presents them and Cowles livens up their words, you know who these three men (we get very nothing from Masque here just yet) instantly. Their personalities are pouring off the page as we get succinct little summaries of their lives, connections, and recent history. Ewing showing off his always on point ability to really weave continuity and canon into a piece seamlessly, without it ever dragging anything down.

All-New Venom #1 is now available from Marvel Comics.