Rules Are Meant To Be Broken — Reviewing ‘All-New Venom’ #9

The best superhero comic books contain a heap of action, a solid supporting cast, and truly delicious soap opera drama. Give it all a good stir with generous portions of stunning artwork, toss that mix in the oven at 350 degrees and stand back as a masterpiece is born.

Perhaps masterpiece is a strong word, but there’s a lot of positive strong words to be given for All-New Venom #9 and the whole series. A blue-ribbon winning recipe from Al Ewing, Carlos Gómez, Frank D’Armata, and Clayton Cowles.

Maybe I’m just hungry but the food analogies are working here. This is a comic that I want to go back for seconds, thirds — hell — fourths of without ever reaching a point of exhaustion. It’s a series that leaves you feeling full, but in that really nice satisfied and happy kind of full way the best meals do.

This creative team has done something amazing in fully selling me on wanting to read a Venom book for as long as possible.

There is so much to gush about. There is a dark whimsy that this book embodies at all times. Gómez really was well-suited for a series like this, especially with his past ties to drawing the last series headlined by Mary Jane Watson. Everything feels energized with depth, detail, and genuine dynamicness. Characters have presence on the page as their movements and emotional range are truly authentic feeling. There are a ton of fight scenes that are just poetry in motion too.

Not to be outdone, the quieter personable moments that round out the book are just as dynamic, with the soap opera gooeyness really showcased hard in the body language of Mary Jane and Paul, among others earlier in the issue.

Slick is an easy word to use for the colors here. At the same time, they have a softer depth at all times. D’Armata brings the bolder flashy vibrant colors into play as much as the more natural neutral tone palettes as well. Giving the world the right balance of feeling familiar but fantastical.

So many colorful characters give Cowles so much room to just go off with the visual design for the lettering — bubbles, fonts, boxes of various colors, shapes, and sizes. He really delivers unique voices for the symbiotes, their hosts, and the combination, all while keeping things free flowing in the most logical and best framing ways possible. It all lets the emotional depth ring through every single uttered piece of dialogue or caption.

As I stated last month, this is the most dynamic Doctor Octopus we’ve had in a bit (at least since the era with him being Superior and shifting between villain and anti-hero). The good doctor and the SCAR team feel like genuine threats rather than just something the protagonists can shrug off. In fact, they barely make it out of the whole ordeal, only because the Venom duo almost lost themselves in the moment.

***SPOILER ALERT AHEAD***

Somewhere a contingent of the internet just screamed in joy at the issue’s emotional conclusion.

While I’m not someone that has ever had an issue with MJ and Paul as a couple, I’m digging what Ewing is bringing out. There is a lot of realness to the situation as well as dramatic tension to be mined. Mary Jane is very much stuck with Venom since she almost ceased to exist before the bonding. There are a lot of issues coming from that, including her past with the symbiote, as well as the strain that is being put on Paul, Not to forget Dylan Brock, who wasn’t present in the issue but was still felt with his realization of who has Venom now.

Ewing is one of the best writers around, one that I’ve loved to follow for years. A lot of his stuff is very cerebral and large, dipping into concepts bigger than any of us. To some it might be shocking he’s writing such a down to Earth honest to goodness pure superhero comic book. Those who have read his earliest Marvel works though are less likely shocked as this is very much in the vein of those years.

Either way, we’re getting one of the best superhero books on shelves right now and the comparison isn’t even close.

All-New Venom #9 is now available from Marvel Comics.