After a short jaunt focused on Dylan Brock, the narrative switches to Eddie Brock and his adventures through time this week in Venom #13. Al Ewing’s story picks up where we left off with Eddie’s recent predicament. He’s now aware Bedlam, the murderer of his child, is himself. How can he stop him when trapped in a prison of his own making? Expect a further exploration of his newfound abilities to jump through time and a lead into the upcoming crossover event Dark Web.
If you were at all unclear about what is going on with Eddie and his multiple personalities, Ewing explains it on the first page of Venom #13. Told to the reader by Eddie via captions, it’s a good recap that should properly prepare casual readers interested in Dark Web who haven’t been reading the series. On the other hand, fans of the series will enjoy a critical interaction between Eddie in an all-Symbiote form and himself from another time known as Wilde.
This issue is also deliciously unpredictable, be it the new idea that gets in his head thanks to Wilde or info concerning Dylan. Oh, and Limbo is a major location in the narrative. Eddie effectively jumps to a Symbiote stuck in Limbo and must face off against some weird fantasy-looking creatures. One can likely gather the Dark Web narrative will have a fantasy angle, which is a fun departure for a series that has dealt more with hard sci-fi.
What in tarnation!?
Credit: Marvel
Like out of Jack and the Beanstock, Eddie pops into the new time and location super tiny, giving Bryan Hitch a fun action scene to draw. Expect gore, good details about the surroundings, and heightened scale captured well. Hitch gets to stretch his legs with fantasy characters Eddie must vanquish, and the entire art team, including Andrew Currie and Alex Sinclair, captures the genre well. It was a masterful touch to add a tear to the goat-man, who Venom explodes out of. There’s also a great sequence involving the Symbiote goo covering an enemy that looks scary and cool at the same time.
The entire book has a darker tone thanks to the colors, which isn’t entirely hellish, but it’s undoubtedly evil. You gather that from the faces making up the environments. Props to all involved with the smash cut to Limbo, which is equally shocking, pleasing, and complex.
Venom #13 gives us a new feature of Venom’s newfound powers while dropping the entire story in a new location that is taking things in an entirely new direction. One can imagine the Dark Web event is sidestepping some of the bigger questions for awhile, but given how fun it is right out of the gate, I say bring it on.
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