The All-New Venom

[ZariusTwo]

Recently, Venom was relaunched by Marvel in the wake of the recent Venom War event which tied up the King In Black storyline, leaving Eddie Brock trapped in the Carnage symbiote, his son Dylan in the care of foster parents, and a new Venom running around that's neither Dylan or Brock.

The first five issues of the new Venom series focused on a series of suspects that were gradually ticked off one by one, the fifth issue is due out this coming Wednesday, but it's already leaked and the identity of the new Venom host is...

Spoiler:

Mary Jane Watson

[IMJ]

Wow.

[Coola Yagami]

I've been enjoying it so far and I can't bring myself to click on the spoiler just yet.

I reviewed issues 1 and 2 so far and I am also collecting the Eddie Brock Carnage ones (I haven't had time to read those just yet).

https://markepicblogofrandomness.blo...w-venom-1.html

https://markepicblogofrandomness.blo...w-venom-2.html

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Wow.

Spoiler:

Yeah. Called it from issue one.

Marvel obviously had instant regret over the Jackpot gimmick rofl.

This is'nt the first MJ to deal with a symbiote obviously, she was Carnage in the 2010s Ultimate Spidey cartoon, a symbiote in the recent video game, and she was already Venom in the pro-marriage Renew Your Vows book a couple of years ago

[ZariusTwo]

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comi...d-venom-bonded

Spoiler:

Marvel: Why MJ? How did you decide to make her the All-New Venom?

Al Ewing: I started off wanting to do an old-school "who's the protagonist" mystery to mark the shift in tone for the new volume to something a little less "crazy cosmic" and a little more "street-level thrills." So we were coming up with all kinds of names, both for the red herrings and for the potential host, and we kept circling back to Mary Jane.

She's full of story potential — she's one of the great characters in comics, full of so much life and complexity. As soon as we gave ourselves permission to treat a good idea like a good idea, we just got more and more excited about the possibilities.

Marvel: ALL-NEW VENOM's first arc presented readers with a mystery. With Venom's identity now revealed, how would you describe the tone of the coming story?

Al Ewing: Still fun and breezy, but the darkness of Venom books of old may start to creep in from the edges. One big change is that now we know who the host is, we can show their relationship in a lot more detail— including some pretty big, blazing fights coming down the line. Just because they're stuck together, it doesn't make them friends, and it doesn't mean they agree about things... things like Eddie Brock, for example.

Marvel: Both Venom and Mary Jane Watson are cornerstone characters of the Spider-Man mythos. What can you tease about Peter Parker's reaction to discovering the two are now bonded?

Al Ewing: What, we haven't had enough spoilers for this book? Okay, how about this: Peter won't be the first to find out... and when he does, it'll be under some pretty challenging circumstances. We'll see how he takes it.

[IMJ]

Something ironic about comics - people for years wanted "ramifications" and storylines with outcomes that "lasted". And in some ways, rightfully so.

But now we've gotten so far into that mentality that everything is some kind of "event".

The simple truth is that comics (circa the Bronze and Copper Age) were more fun and better reads when long running series had storyarcs that involved the dynamic between the hero and the villain and then some kind of series of fun, power-laden fights.

Basically "villain of the month" stuff that the hero had to resolve the conflict with. Comics really need to get back to that as standard fare fun. But the truth is that comics are dead and now just supplement the other media for the buyers who are still hanging on.

I still think some of the best ongoing run of comics is basically Amazing Spider-Man vol 1 probably number 200 or so through about 375.

[ZariusTwo]

ASM I think is great from Stern right through to DeFalco's second stint as writer...but I liked the Clone Saga so my tastes are weird (Spider-Girl is a worthy spin-off though, and the true ending to the franchise)

I think Mark Miller had the right idea for a run...just do 12 issues, something with a beginning, middle, and end, and make off like a thief in the night.

[Coola Yagami]

Ugh.. apparently issue 4 sold out so now I have to track it down so I can read the series in its proper order.

By now I was already spoiled by who Venom is. It's been long enough that the usual suspects stopped trying to hide it and just blurt out how awful they think the idea is.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

I think Mark Miller had the right idea for a run...just do 12 issues, something with a beginning, middle, and end, and make off like a thief in the night.

Well... you know in many ways that actually used to be the formula for most creator runs, although obviously some writers went a lot longer on a book than 12 issues.

And each transition didn't require a new #1. Modern comics are an absolute mess.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IMJ

And each transition didn't require a new #1. Modern comics are an absolute mess.

Ironically, Venom itself was a book that kind of started that trend. I'm old enough to remember a bajillion Venom minis in the 90s, all with new #1s.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Ironically, Venom itself was a book that kind of started that trend. I'm old enough to remember a bajillion Venom minis in the 90s, all with new #1s.

Well not to split hairs on that, but that's because Venom had strong enough sales to warrant several mini-series but not ongoings back then. They did the same at DC with Robin until the mini's showed the sales strength for Grummett's book.

Back then, strong mini-series sales would lead to an ongoing in a population of ongoings that weren't always relaunched. Nowadays everything is a mini-series because readerships are speculative and don't have the staying power.