When it comes to slasher stories, Cullen Bunn is probably your best man for the job when it comes to comics. He writes Death of Venomverse, which gets a trade paperback release this week. The five-issue series sees Carnage at his strongest, and he only wants to get stronger. It’s a story that blends slasher sensibilities with plenty of creative kills with a wide assortment of Venoms from the multiverse. Combined, it’s a good time, especially if you like violence!
I’ll preface this review by saying you should check out Extreme Venomverse before diving into this epic finale to the story that started there. In that series, various creators take a stab at creating new versions of Venom, many of which pop up in Death of Venomverse. Pop up and die savagely.
Gerardo Sandoval on art and Jim Campbell on colors are armed to the teeth with each kill. Sandoval and Bunn have teamed up on Venom books before, so there’s a nice nostalgic quality to this adventure. Characters are cut in half, stabbed through, and pretty much viciously killed every few pages. Sandoval draws Symbiotes in a fluid and dynamic way that is iconic now. He delivers throughout this collection.
Carnage is growing in power throughout this collection.
Credit: Marvel
As far as the story, Carnage is killing and more powerful than ever seemingly because he has no host. It’s just the Symbiote, and he’s on a tear stealing powers from other unique Venoms in the multiverse. This has him act as a power-hungry monster, with his combatants ramping up nicely as the collection goes on. From random new Venom characters to the Symbiote Six to a finale with Knull, there are a lot of battles to check out. I honestly can’t think of a single character Bunn didn’t fit into this killing spree.
What the collection does lack is character work, save for some scant work done on a version of Venom that’s also Dylan Brock’s mother. She was heavily in Extreme Venomverse and served as the leader of the motley crew of Venoms. In customary extreme horror form, Bunn ends the tale in a dark place, and it’s through her Venom we see how bad it has gotten. As Nathan Simmons aptly put it in the AIPT review, this is a run-and-gun story, so don’t expect a lot of probing of character or even reflecting on the situation beyond things being dire as heck.
If you’re looking for a book with tons of fights and the bad guy decidedly winning, look no further than Death of the Venomverse. This book is filled with a wide range of Venoms who meet their maker while Carnage grows in power. It’s as wacky as it sounds, and as long as you’re here for the violence, you’ll enjoy it.
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