With Venom #22, Al Ewing, Ramon F. Bachs, and Frank D’Amata craft a story that embraces the larger tapestry of Symbiote stories from Marvel history. In doing so, they also find interesting ways to hint towards the future and flesh out the drama unfolding in the present day. The mythology of the Symbiotes has been wonderfully filled out in recent years, with one of the wildest examples being the retcon that Flexo, a character that predates the formation of Marvel, is a Symbiote himself.
We revisit Flexo’s early days in beautifully illustrated and tragic flashbacks, some of which we see from his POV. The brighter tones to these scenes and the wonderfully melodramatic (but still earnest) dialogue sell these moments as coming from a different era. It also seems that Ewing has neatly cleared up some continuity questions regarding Flexo in the space of one or two lines of dialogue, which is always so appreciated for timeline nerds like myself. These seemingly contradictory scenes allow us to empathize with Flexo, who has essentially been forced into serving one master or another in his short window of sentience. Yes, Ewing and co. manage to make the reader empathize with a hunk of alien goo and metal.
And this last bit is extra important, because Dylan is having a hard time right now. The bulk of his interactions with the Venom Symbiote are fraught with frustration and confusion. It’s nice for the book to once again slow down and allow Dylan to try to think his way through how screwed up his life has become. Not only is his dad missing, but multiple versions of him have come unstuck in time, and most of them are out for his blood. It’s enough to make anyone cranky, especially a kid out on his own.
Luckily for readers, Dylan hasn’t lost his sense of humor. In a pretty fantastic bit, Venom sneaks past military personnel by imitating a particularly popular Avenger. This sequence not only got a good laugh out of me, but also led to a clever bit of foreshadowing from Flexo.
Overall, this issue does a good bit of housekeeping as it tees up the next big confrontation between Venom and one of the Marvel Universe’s greatest villains. It’s fun to see the pieces of this storyline falling into place in a non-linear fashion, almost making the reader feel like they’re seeing time the way Eddie does. Those elements make this chapter feel like a bit more of a stepping stone to what’s to come, but still manages to pack in some entertaining and compelling character beats.
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