Return Of The Big Number Routine — Reviewing ‘Venom’ #250

Venom isn’t looking so all-new anymore. Not because anything changed with the character, but the title’s additional adjective is gone, because it’s time for a renumbering, letting the book about the symbiote and host celebrate the big 250.

It’s a big time affair, somewhere between double and triple sized, as Venom #250 comes roaring onto the scene. Kicking off things to come for the symbiotes with a lead story from regular series creators Al Ewing, Frank D’Armata, and Clayton Cowles who are joined by Terry Dodson and Todd Nauck. Regular series artist Carlos Gómez hasn’t gone far though as he’s teaming up with D’Armata and Cowles alongside writer Charles Soule for a blast from the past story.

Hmm, well, this was something.

I expected something really big with Knull on the cover. Maybe a whole affair of Venom and Mary Jane finding out about Knull and racing to stop his return. That or something more grand and out of the box with Ewing behind the wheel. Instead, it’s an okay bit with Venom & Mary Jane still dealing with their forced bonding, Madame Masque stuff, and a whole massive expository dump through a short-lived Skrull character.

The personal stuff was good, though still feels out of place for such a massive issue like this, which is weird since my love of this series (before the name change) was the character stuff. I love it still but this was seemingly an issue that was screaming that it was something more. That second bit of the story feels so out of the place for Ewing of all people. It’s just the Skrull vomiting lore and exposition upon us while having flashbacks and some heavily talky moments with Knull Symbiote transformed figures.

Dodson and Nauck are evenly matched as artists, as both have very old school classic feeling styles with bold whimsical tones to it, really maximizing the space and depth, while giving things a heavier but still light feeling. Character beats are there, emotions strong, and the action sequences move. Their styles have their own natural quirks, much resting on the type of textures and approaches.

There is a shift in D’Armata’s colors for each of the three artists. He hits similar beats to keep the colors very sedate in most cases and creating a natural overall setting for the characters and space. It allows those colors to grow darker or lighter as necessary and really saturating some scenes with more vibrant flashy colors to accentuate the fantastical nature we’re witnessing. Compared to other coloring from D’Armata, there isn’t as inherent of a slickness to things with Dodson & Nauck.

That slickness comes back into play somewhat in the backup story, really giving it a big bold overall feeling.

While I appreciate the work Dodson and Nauck have done, it sure would have been nice to see Gómez on the main story. There is just this really great feel the four creators have really delivered in the rest of this series. Gómez has such a dynamic big bold style that is very modern with a bit of classic mixed in, giving everything a different sort of presence and depth and exuding pure superhero goodness which fits since that is one of the big themes of this series as a whole.

Having the backup be the only spot for that work shown was really a bit of a disappointment.

Soule is the one handling Eddie Brock’s new book where he is bonded with Carnage. Brock is one of my least favorite Venom hosts, so I haven’t really been keeping up on the book. I didn’t have a ton to glean from this backup which takes place during one of the character’s 90s miniseries. That being said, it was a fine read. Just a lot of Brock being stuck in his own head, separated from Venom, waxing poetic about how great it was to be bonded.

How he refused to go back to being alone.

It doesn’t add too much to the current story or where things are going, but that’s fine. It’s a celebration milestone issue, not surprising to get backups of this nature. At least it was really nice to look at and came from a solid writer.

Across all of it is Cowles, delivering the voices and making it all sing, in its own way, shifting with each art style just enough to make all the bubbles and fonts slip into place alongside the new style. He delivers voices that are rich with emotional weight and depth, while being clear and concise to the characters, all of it keeping the right volume and tone for the moment.

Venom #250 is now available from Marvel Comics.