Ending an event is a tricky thing to do. Not only do you have to wrap up the main story, but often — at least when it comes to ongoing comics — you have to tee up the next several storylines as well. It’s the curse and the joy of the forever story, and nowhere is it more on display than in Marvel’s Venom War #5.
Written by Al Ewing with art by Iban Coello, there has been a lot going on in this book, and its assorted spinoffs. There have been multiple versions of Eddie Brock, multiple versions of his son, Dylan Brock, Venom, Anti-Venom, dozens of other symbiotes, and for good measure, zombiote, zombie versions of symbiotes. Credit to Ewing, then, for purposefully giving the main thrust of the event a simple, very silly setting: a wrestling ring.
And easily the best parts of this five-part series, including this finale issue, take place in that ring as Ewing straddles the needs of a multiverse, time-spanning symbiote saga with having one Venom suplex another Venom into the floor. There’s also emotional gravitas here as a father and son grapple with how to save the day without one of them dying. And in the midst of this is the Venom suit, which has very much developed a personality and mind of its own.
But — to get into the mildest of spoilers here — it seems that the whole purpose of this event was to simplify things. To get back to basics. Yes, there are teases for the upcoming “Eddie Brock is Carnage” series that was revealed at New York Comic Con. And fans know that a secret new Venom that is neither of the Brocks is coming. However, there’s a lot of business to get through to get to this new status quo, and unfortunately that weighs down a lot of the fun with discussions of time-traveling symbiotes, golden bullets, and blood spears.
Mind you, Ewing knows what he’s doing and how to unravel the knots of this story properly. But like a lot of event wrap-ups, it feels like finishing a business meeting and then teeing up some to-do items for the next one. Far goofier and more successful are the one-page Venom Horse back-ups throughout this event that Ewing has used to skewer and comment on the idea of events through metatextual commentary. They’re funny, smart, and when you get down to it involve a Venom Horse going wild for one whole page.
So yeah, the Venom War is done, and it’s a solid delivery of a comic that ends a cosmic-spanning era for the character. It’ll be nice to simplify going forward… It’s just a bit of a bummer that it took so much work to get there.
Venom War #5 Rating:
Venom War #5 Official Synopsis:
WHO IS THE LAST VENOM STANDING? There is just one battle remaining in the war for control of the Venom symbiote…and the victory leaves both host and symbiote forever changed! The time is nigh to end the war, decimate all the forces arrayed against them, and set the stage for an all-new Venom the likes of which no one has ever seen!
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