Venom #30

And we have arrived at the last review of this Saturday night, with that review being the thirtieth issue of Venom...  Wow, who would have ever thought THIS series would last thirty issues!  That's quite the accomplishment nowadays.  Anyway, I actually enjoyed the last issue, which was the first time I enjoyed this series since Cullen Bunn became the writer.  Let's see if Bunn can stretch his good comic streak to two issues!

Venom #30: 

Summary:  This issue kicks off with the Venom symbiote operating independently of Flash Thompson, who was knocked out last issue.  Instead of Flash, the costume is being controlled by... um, either the symbiote itself or a demon...  I have NO clue which.  Anyway, Venom attacks the U-Foes and their hired goons, somehow turning the goons against the U-Foes by leaving little pieces of symbiote on them...  Huh, that's new.  By this point Valkyrie wakes up and rescues that incredibly annoying reporter that has unfortunately become a supporting character in this series.  Valkyrie opens a portal and rescues the annoying reporter, as well as the other people the U-Foes had captured, and leads them to safety.  Meanwhile, the Venom possessed goons have wrecked the U-Foes weird devices which... um, let's say opened a portal to somewhere else, just to keep things somewhat simple...  So yeah, the U-Foes all get sucked into this empty void, while Venom just strolls away from the battle...  Even though he was in the same room as the U-Foes and the weird portal...  Yeah...  Anyway, Venom lets Valkyrie know he's okay, and then makes his symbiote look like Valkyrie and the reporter so he can have a heart to heart with them...  What the HELL is happening here?!?  From there, the scene switches to Brooklyn, where the cops raid a home and discover a really creepy looking Eddie Brock/Toxin(!), who claims he had personal business to attend to.

Thoughts:  Well, it's safe to say Bunn's good comic streak ended at one issue with a resounding thud...  I mean this issue was horrible!  Where to begin...  I guess with this idiotic, "OMG!  Venom is possessed by a demon!!!" storyline...  Why in the world have we added a demon to the mix here exactly?  Isn't it enough to have Flash battling with the symbiote for control?  Now we have a demon thrown into the mix for absolutely NO reason I can think of...  Seems like overkill to me...  Then there was the demon/the symbiote showing an ability to control goons by putting a little piece of itself on them.  When did Venom turn into Starro the Conqueror?!  And top it all off with the end of the battle with the U-Foes, which I couldn't make any sense of... Where did the U-Foes go?  Why didn't Venom get pulled in with them?  What did it all mean?!?  Oh yeah, and Flash was talking to symbiote version of the annoying reporter and Valkyrie!  Terrible...  On the plus side, Eddie Brock popped up at the end of this issue, which will hopefully lead to an Eddie/Flash showdown, which is always fun.  But the rest of this issue?  Ugh...

Score:  3 1/2 out of 10.