Thursday, January 19, 2012

Venom #12

I'm still running a bit behind with my reviews so far this week, so tonight is another two review night. Hopefully by Friday night I'll have had enough time to do three reviews. But we shall see. First up tonight is one of the better series I read monthly, Venom! By the way, this is Venom's 24 anniversary... I have NO idea why that's important, but Marvel thought it was and put it right on the front cover. I mean I get celebrating a 10th, 20th, 25th, and so on anniversaries, but 24th??? That's an odd number to celebrate... Anyway, I WILL have another review up later tonight, I'm just not sure when...

Venom #12:

Summary: Venom(Flash Thompson) manages to sneak into the casino holding whatever it was that the Crime-Master wanted, but ends up losing control, which puts the symbiote in the driver's seat. The symbiote controlled Venom rampages through the casino and discovers what Crime-Master had sent him to retrieve, the Toxin symbiote. Venom doesn't want another symbiote around and proceeds to try to kill it, which leads to Jack O' Lantern jumping in to rescue the Toxin symbiote. Jack makes a dash for it but ends up getting caught by Venom. Venom is prepared to kill Jack, at least until Jack warns Flash that if he didn't regain control Crime-Master was going to murder Flash's mother and girlfriend(Betty Brant). That allows Flash to rein the symbiote in, at which point Jack takes Toxin and leaves. As for Flash, he calls Betty and callously breaks up with her before buying himself some whiskey and downing the entire bottle. This issue ends with the Red Hulk, as per the orders of Captain America, getting closer and closer to Las Vegas and Venom.

Thoughts: As usual, this was another good, strong issue of this series. The Toxin reveal was unexpected and a nice touch(it makes sense that Crime-Master would want to get his hands on something like that), and this issue flew by. It didn't have that extra little something to make this issue truly memorable, but what can ya do?

Score: 8 out of 10.If you say so, big guy!

9 comments:

  1. Yeah, its the Toxin symbiote. That one caught me off guard too. It makes sense since Toxin would be the easiest to control (and Venom so dislikes him). This should be interesting.

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  2. I loved this, and if Jack O'Lantern becomes the new Toxin, or even worse, Crime Master, man that would be epic. Just when you think Venom can't get any better it does. Also, I was kinda surprised to find out Venom is older than me.

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  3. hey now i bet you think all of your birthdays are worth celebrating, i think venom would like to be recognized for another successful year of existence.

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  4. Since Jack rules so hard AS Jack, I'd like to see Crime-Master take on the Toxin symbiote, JT. Since he doesn't seem to have any powers on his own, that would give him a way to compete with Venom. But yeah guys, the Toxin addition should make this comic THAT much better going forward.

    It would be funny if EVERY chacater got the same treatment... "Daredevil: celebrating 48 great years!" Like, can't you wait until 50? :P

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  5. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about Crime Master. Quick question, when the hell did Pat lose Toxin? I must've missed that. I have the Venom vs. Carnage trade where he becomes Toxin but I don't recall him ever losing it, I even checked his Wikipedia.

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  6. I haven't the foggiest, mi amigo... Maybe this was one of those "between panels" things. Or maybe somebody else knows, because I haven't got a clue!

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  7. I believe the last it Toxin was mentioned was when he joined the Initiative. After that there was nothing so he must have lost it some time off panel.

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  8. I actually wasn't reading comics during the Toxin era, but this reveal was still nonetheless awesome. Seriously, a Crime-Toxin? How could would that be?

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  9. Exactly! An evil symbiote that's not TOTALLY crazy(Carnage) or crazy-obsessive(Brock-Venom). A symbiote that's just plain evil... It's the perfect foil for Flash in this series. I def hope it happens.

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