Doing The Fatherly Thing — Reviewing ‘All-New Venom’ #3

With four suspects seemingly whittled down to just three, the reveal of Venom’s new host is right around the corner. Will it be the veteran reporter, the former sidekick turned correspondent, or the masked crime connected villain?

Wait, the suspects are already down to two? Well, then.

All bets are surely off on this being a simple sort of revelation when Al Ewing is at the helm of a story. The mystery deepens as Ewing, Carlos Gómez, Frank D’Armata, and Clayton Cowles bring us the wild third chapter of All-New Venom.

Damn. There goes my whole article from months ago with Luke Cage as the top suspect. I was really hoping that it was the current Mayor. One, because he would be fun to see here. Two, because I love him. Three, because Marvel does so little with him these days. They made him Mayor and then just kind of sidelined him.

Not cool! At least he seems to still be playing a role here even if he’s not the one behind the gooey symbiote mask.

At least my second pick is still in the running, and honestly feels like the most promising choice. Only two issues to go till we find out.

I have to say, as wacky as it is, I’m digging all the characters being in on the joke of the reveal being centered on four characters. It really plays into how Ewing is just going for a fun, not entirely serious vibe for this series. Not that there aren’t serious things dealt with here. As is the case with any of the books that Ewing has handled, character beats are where the real serious drama lies.

The tongue-in-cheek is really strong.

Out of all of it, I was not expecting some good “parent”/child beats. Venom and Dylan meet and have it out a bit here. There is some realness to what Venom is saying about doing what’s best for Dylan. There is also some of that in Dylan’s anger at not wanting a foster family but his own family back, which is only spoiled by the appearance of Madame Masque (always the least likely of the suspects by far).

Ewing uses solid villain bits, like the hero’s morals against them. This is a book featuring a bid for AIM control, so it was only a matter of time before the big guy showed up. Yeah, that’s right, the big head himself, M.O.D.O.K., is coming to play.

Big time goofy yet grounded swashbuckling heroics is a perfect fit for Gómez. He has such a vibrant and bold style that feels dense and light at the same time, full of energy with characters wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Their very emotions are always crystal clear and resonating at any given moment.

Dynamic paneling takes artwork that already feels kinetic and gives it even more. This allows the characters to feel genuine with their movement, which gives more life and depth to the whole story as the spaces feel to scale and realistic in a sense.

I’ve said it before, but the naturally sort of glossy feeling of D’Armata’s coloring style really works here, really digging deep into everything on the page. It seeps into the cracks and finds that balance between over the top vibrant and toned-down natural. All the spaces have a feeling of familiarity in their color palette choices, resembling places we’ve seen around us or captured on camera.

When the moment calls for it, the palette kicks up twenty notches, really leaning into the fantastical vibrancy that surrounds costumed characters and this world. It dips a toe into the surreal without leaving reality behind.

All of these moments run the gamut of emotional bandwidth from loud and bombastic to soft and personal. Cowles is always good at aligning the dialogue lettering to let these emotions have the most space. He drops in modifications to the overall lettering and bubble to give that extra bit of juice. Just look at the massive font and jagged black bubble behind Venom’s “See you and raise” bit. No way that anyone can read that and not sort of play that out loudly and comically in their head.

As you are meant to do.

All-New Venom #3 is now available from Marvel Comics.