The celebration of Venom’s 30th anniversary continues in Extreme Venomverse #2, the second issue in the anthology series revealing brand new Venoms across the multiverse. In the second issue, we meet a Jester Venom, a robot Venom, and Black Cat Venom! If it sounds exciting and different, it’s because each story does something a little different from the last.
Kicking things off are Al Ewing and Vincenzo Carratu with what feels like a great What If…? idea. Set on Earth-258, we get to see what would happen if Black Cat broke into the Baxter Building and stole the Symbiote after Spider-Man had it removed by the Fantastic Four. It’s a clever take in part because it’s plausible while also feeding into the concept of the Symbiote reacting like an animal. Mr. Fantastic comes up with a clever way to calm it down that you won’t see coming.
The art by Carratu is super detailed and the right fit for Mr. Fantastic’s weird powers and Black Cat’s new costume. The costume looks great, and Carratu nails Black Cat’s charm.
The conflict and drama of this story builds to a lackluster finish–likely due to running out of pages–so it ends in a less satisfying way compared to the other atles. There’s a hint we’ll see more of Black Cat Venom, though.
A Symbiote for Black Cat makes a lot of sense.
Credit: Marvel
David Pepose and Ken Lashley take on a life-model decoy Venom in “The Prisoner,” set on Earth-345. Outside of the fun hook, this story leans into the terrible mistake S.H.I.E.L.D. makes in giving the Symbiote a relatively advanced robot to meld with. Pepose also reminds us where this leads, as Carnage pops into the story. The larger story gets some development thanks to his inclusion.
Lashley runs the table on how cool a Venom robot could be, from an energy sword to a laser hand. Eat your heart out, 1990s!
Clay McLeod Chapman and Paul Davidson wrap up this issue with the “Masque of the Red Death” story. This story gave me a personal chuckle because I actually did a video project in high school featuring a Carnage action figure as the Masque of the Red Death. Similar to the second story, Carnage factors into this tale. McLeod does a good job capturing the time and place of this universe, and if you’re a fan of his horror work, he leans into some of the more grotesque things a Symbiote can pull off.
Davidson supplies a cool Jester Venom design. A boon of this series is seeing new looks for Venom, and the Jester look might be one of the most outlandish that deserves a Marvel Legends action figure. If it bothers you to see tentacles enter eyes and mouths steer clear, as Davidson makes you uneasy with the gore and violence!
Issue #2 might be even stronger than the first issue in the series, as we get a nice balance of crazy new Venom ideas and some fun connections to Marvel history. While balancing a build-up to a clash with Carnage, Marvel proves creativity and imagination reign supreme in crafting new tantalizing takes on Venom in Extreme Venomverse #2.
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