With Venom War raging on at Marvel Comics, trade-waiting fans will likely need to buy Venom War Vol. 7 out this week. Collecting Venom #31-34 and Carnage #5-6, this collection is a must-read to better understand Dylan Brock’s mentality, as well as how Carnage got to where he is by the time Venom War kicked off.
There are a lot of comics in Venom Vol. 7, first showing how Carnage kills Dylan (spoilers!) and then how Carnage gets to Venom’s Garden of Time to wreak havoc. This collection opens with Dylan getting a job and Carnage slaughtering with a smile and ends with Meridius ready to take on the world.
Torunn Grønbekk writes most of this collection, with Al Ewing co-writing Venom #32 and Venom #33-34. The main story arc of this collection pits Dylan and the Venom symbiote up against Carnage, and having the fallout of their battle leads to big ramifications and, eventually, new directions that spin into Venom War. Essentially, both characters need to get into new head spaces for the next event, and generally speaking, this collection does an admirable job of making sense of those new directions.
This collection features art by Ken Lashley, Juan Ferreyra, and Pere Perez. The art is chaotic and extremely violent, with every artist bringing their A-game. From Dylan and Carnage slashing at each other to the strange transformations of Venom in the Garden of Time, things get violent and lean into sci-fi weirdness.
Carnage versus all sorts of Venoms. Who ya got?!
Credit: Marvel
Something that is striking and that may take you out of the reading experience is how it retreads specific battles. Take, for instance, the battle between Dylan and Carnage, which is chaotic and intense. An issue later, we get to experience the battle again; although we do see how Carnage got to that battle, it’s odd to see the same fight a second time. Likely, this was to cover their bases for folks who aren’t reading both Carnage and Venom, but it’s awkward to read when collected.
The last two issues of this collection take a decidedly more horror view of Venom, with excellent art by Ferreyra. Essentially, we’ve got the Venom symbiote alone, and it stumbles into a cemetery and takes over a dead body. We also have Dylan encountering a priest who is now a vampire. He knew Eddie and added some connections there. Both issues are good segues into Venom War while also supplying a horror element that’s less slasher and more creepy storytelling.
If you’re angling to read Venom War in the collected format make sure to pick up Venom by Al Ewing Vol. 7: Exsanguination. This collection catches you up to speed on Dylan and Carnage’s perspectives and also how Meridius ties into things at the start.
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