Venom By Rick Remender - Volume 1 [Paperback]

Move over Spiderman, Venom is back! I've never really had a fondness for the former Spider-Man villian. He was alright in Dark Avengers, and the Venom By Daniel Way Ultimate Collection was disappointing. Then I read Rick Remender's take on this classic character. Before I begin this review, this is as much about Venom's current host, Peter Parker's old school buddy Flash Thompson, as it is about the alien symbiote.
Venom is now "controlled" by a government agency. This agency uses the suit to conduct covert missions with Flash Thompson manipulating the suit. There's a catch, Flash can only wear the suit for 48 hours before Venom completely takes him over.
The first arc in this series comprises of issues 1 through 4. The first issue introduces us to the tragic character of Flash, and his desire to help out again. The agency sends him to the Savage Land to stop Vibranium shipments. There, we see him face off against Kraven the Hunter, a slew of enemy operatives, and the suit itself. The fifth issue primarily focuses on the character of Flash himself. This last issue is truly wonderful, as we see the tormented psychology of a desperate character. Remender's dialogue is great. He really made Flash seem to be a sympathetic character, as well as Venom. The art itself is great, the coloring seems to be off ever once in awhile, but not enough to make this book in the least bit unenjoyable. A large portion of each issue is action scenes. What is odd though is the aren't ones you can just read through in 5 seconds.
Rick Remender made me love Venom. And I'm sure he can make you love him too. Pick this book up and give it a try. Odds are you'll like it.

I don't know where Marvel found Rick Remender but they need to go back and see if there are any more like him. He successfully took X-Force from Yost & Kraig (2 amazing writers) and easily matched their superb storytelling. His work on Secret Avengers has been very good and now he has turned Venom, an originally good character into something much better. I highly recommend this series as it is not a Anti-Villain series, but a black ops tale.

After the events of the Siege of Asgard the US Government has custody of the symbiote. Disabled veteran Flash Thompson is its (temporary) host [read the series to see why temp]. I like seeing how Flash has to deal with all the things that Peter did (and does) with a dual identity.

If you are considering this book I definitely recommend it.

I'll admit that I was more than a little skeptical about this new direction for Venom. To me it looked like Marvel was reengineering my 9 year old self's favorite villain for the Call of Duty generation, suffice to say I didn't jump on board with it right away. Eventually I scooped up I think issue #3 on a whim and was instantly blown away. Instead of the one-dimensional-over-the-top "badass" Venom that the cover of issue #1 seemed to convey, we get a protagonist who will do anything to continue serving his country and, more importantly, make himself feel whole and useful again. Flash Thompson had recently lost his legs from the knees down in the war and is given the Venom symbiote by the government to act as a super powered secret agent, a premise that could very easily go awry. The author does a phenomenal job here in fleshing out both Flash and the Symbiote as distinct characters constantly at odds with each other. This book has it all, great action of course, solid artwork but the real hook here is Flash- a man whose delicate control over Venom is under a constant siege of stress from his personal life and knowing that he could lose the symbiote should he fail his ever more dangerous missions. Pick this up now. Then set aside another fifteen bucks cause you're gonna buy Volume 2 as soon as that drops. Guaranteed.