Venom #14:
Summary: Having given his symbiote to Red Hulk, Flash is trapped in the hell that Las Vegas had become with only a handgun. Before the demons kill him(again), oh come ON... *sigh* Bad-Ass Ex-Ghost Rider arrives to rescue him... Bad-Ass Ex-Ghost Rider bitches about never having agreed to give the Spirit of Vengeance to Red Hulk, and threatens to leave Flash behind, so he threatens her with a gun... You know, had he shot her in the head here Flash would have become my favorite character of all time... Meanwhile, X-23 heads to Johnny Blaze and tells him to drive his motorcycle the other way so he'd suck the Hell on Earth back to Hell. After telling Johnny what to do, X-23 is attacked by Blackheart's girlfriend. From there we see that Red Hulk/Venom/Ghost Rider and Blackheart are battling across Vegas. Being a piece of trash, Bad-Ass Ex-Ghost Rider throws Flash out of the car they were in while he was shooting at demons... God help me, I hate her so much... Flash winds up rolling near Blackheart's gal pal, who had beaten X-23, and finds himself attacked by the demon. Blackheart's girlfriend beats the hell out of Flash and then turns to leave, which gives Flash a clear shot at the explosives X-23 stuck to the demon's back earlier. Flash shoots the explosives, which blows Blackheart's girlfriend sky-high. Back at the main event battle, Red Hulk/Venom/Ghost Rider has managed to get his hands on the mirror Blackheart used earlier to create the evil opposites of the heroes, and uses the mirror on Blackheart, creating a being of pure light and goodness. The being makes quick work of Blackheart, sending him back to Hell and ending his threat. From there, the piece of Hell loosed in Vegas vanishes, and the city returns to normal. In the aftermath Bad-Ass Ex-Ghost Rider gets the Spirit back(BOOOOOOOOOO!), while Red Hulk returns the symbiote to Flash. Red Hulk also tells Captain America that Flash wasn't a villain, but was actually a hero. Upon hearing that, Cap decides to let Beast and Hank Pym look into the symbiote to see if they could figure out a way to keep it's more murderous urges in check, while allowing Flash to still use it. This issue ends with Mephisto having some fun tormenting Blackheart and his girlfriend.
Thoughts: You KNOW what I'm the most pissed off about, right? There was NO reason Bad-Ass Ghost Rider couldn't have been killed off in this storyline. Absolutely none. Hell, I'd have even been okay if she was killed off in a relatively heroic manner! Instead, she acted like a bitch the entire storyline, and ended up leaving with the Spirit... I would have bet good money that Marvel was going to give the Spirit back to Johnny Blaze in preparation for the new Ghost Rider movie! Instead, that unlikable, useless Bad-Ass Ghost Rider is still out there. And that sucks. Yeah, that really put a damper on this issue for me. This comic was okay and all, but it isn't something I'll be thinking back on in a few days time. It was a pretty lackluster storyline that ended in a pretty lackluster way. Here's hoping we get the awesome Venom back come next issue now that this Hell nonsense has concluded.
Score: 6 out of 10.
What the hell kind of magic pose is Dr. Strange busting out here!?!
I love Dr. Strange's pose there. It's absolutely great. If I ever, ever get into writing comics any time I ever have him in a scene, he'll just be in the background making weird ass poses all thanks to this one panel. Thank you, Venom #14 for brightening my day.
ReplyDeleteWaitaminute what happened to Jack O Lantern and his pals were they just finished with Venom after they got Toxin, weren't they blackmailing him, I can't stop feeling that were missing something crucial cause if not why was Venom running in the first place? Im sure he could have avengered up earlier if he wanted to.
ReplyDeleteHA!!! That is awesome, Caz! I'd so look forward to those books just to see what kind of crazy ass poses you'd have him busting out!
ReplyDeleteIdk, Anon... I actually thought Blackheart had the Toxin symbiote at the beginning of this storyline, so I'm really lost about that.
I know Venom is suppose to get his own sinister six, with toxin and jack o lantern being part of the group. I know Blackheart had the symbiote at the beginning of the storyline, so there was suppose to be some connection but I totally forgot it.
ReplyDeleteI thought Venom+Jack O Lantern stole Toxin from Blackheart in the last story arc, and that Blackheart had cloned the symbiote for his x23 clones. Venom was in Vegas to get Toxin, and was feeling sorry for himself when Hulk came to bust him.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's it then, TRobb... That's as good a guess as any as to what happened with Toxin/how Blackheart had those symbiote X-23 clones. I def recall Venom and Jack getting Toxin, but then all of a sudden Blackheart had Toxin, so I missed something in there somewhere... Blasted Hell storyline...
ReplyDeleteThey say Johnny Blaze may end up being the Ghost Rider again in the last issue of Ghost Rider that will be out near the end of March. "May" being the operative word.
ReplyDeleteWait, Ghost Rider is STILL going on?! I SWEAR I thought it had been canceled a while back! And I'm not even saying that to be a jerk, I mean it! I haven't seen an issue of that series in my comic shop in MONTHS!
ReplyDeleteThey decided to make one last issue as a finale before it got cancelled.
DeleteHmm, that kind of makes me think that maybe they ARE planning on giving Johnny back his powers then... Why else do that final issue, before the movie no less, unless you're planning on putting everything back the way you found it?
ReplyDeleteOMG, Caz, I totally LOLed. Please get into comics just to make that happen.
ReplyDeleteThe Toxin thing was left unclear, if I'm not mistaken. Blackheart made mention of all the people he had to kill to get it in issue #13, but it was unclear to me if he meant he had to kill Crime-Master and Jack O'Lantern to get it back or if he was referring to getting it before they stole it. The only other thing that I thought could've happened was that Blackheart had taken a sample of the symbiote, which seems more likely, since I doubt that Remender would kill off Crime-Master and JO'L off-panel. At any rate, I'm just glad this story is over and we can return to focusing on Flash.
Yeah, I'm currently in the camp saying that Blackheart had a spare sample of Toxin laying around and that Jack managed to swipe the majority of the symbiote. I still don't really get why ANY symbiotes were involved with the Circle storytline, but maybe that's just me...
ReplyDelete