Originally announced back in October, King in Black: Planet of the Symbiotes hops on the tie-in train, juggling two stories per issue. This first issue features a Scream story by Guiu Vilanova (Web of Venom: Wraith), writer Clay McLeod Chapman (Scream: Curse of Carnage), and a story picking up where writer Frank Tieri left off with Ravencroft drawn by Danilo Beyruth. In an event where the entire planet has been affected, this series aims to reveal so much more than the main event can.
And it does just that with a high success rate. This comic opens with the Scream story Symbiote fans cannot miss. Full stop. There are all sorts of colorful Symbiotes for Scream to fight and it’s a nice reminder Scream is a very unique Symbiote indeed. If you dig monsters you’ll love the designs Vilanova comes up with and colors by Dean White add to the insanity of what is on the page.
Given the shortness of the story, we’re only given an action scene, but readers are in for a satisfying one with some clever ideas — a chain of teeth is just one of them — and a reminder that Scream is a hero. This is the kind of wild chaos many of us have come to expect from this event and it delivers big time.
Next is the Ravencroft story, picking up where the titular series left off. That’s a good thing, as the final few pages were an exciting twist that had a lot of promise. The long and the short of it is that there’s a body buried in Ravencroft and it belongs to a key figure in Tieri’s run. This story adds a satisfying new twist to Knull’s arsenal of weapons. It also adds an almost spiritual nature to the Symbiotes, which ties well into what Venom is up to in his series.
The art maximizes the weird spiritual nature of the new threat thanks to colors by Rachelle Rosenberg. The use of purples makes things look weird and unreal. Again, it’s a short scene, but the art does well to make the weirdness run high. Seriously, you haven’t seen Knull like this.
In both stories, there’s a clear vibe of monsters that look weird, gross, and downright frightening. You can’t go wrong with this two-part story if you dig horror comics, and while each story is short, they pack a punch. Read King In Black: Planet of the Symbiotes #1 for a creepy and visually unnerving two-parter.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
You must be logged in to post a comment.