REVIEW: ‘Venom’ Issue #26

Venom #26 “Venom Beyond” is published by Marvel Comics, written by Donny Cates, art by Iban Coello and Juan Gedeon, colors by Jesus Arburtov, and letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles. Eddie and Dylan escaped the Island of Bones, but now a bigger journey lays ahead for them in “Venom Beyond”. Prior to Carnage’s all-out rampage of New York, and Eddie’s segue to the Island of Bones, Eddie and Dylan had been meeting with the Maker. Reed Richards of Earth 1610 had developed a particularly keen interest in the Symbiotes, and promised Eddie some answers in relation to Dylan and his undiscovered powers.

The Maker, however, had been left to his own devices for quite some time, and the devil makes work for idle hands. Reunited, Eddie will finally learn what the villainous Scientist has been up to all this time. As if this issue wasn’t intense enough, a new character is being introduced into Marvel Comics, and oh boy does he have an ax to grind with Venom.

Cates’ writing at this point is fully entrenched into the world of the Symbiotes, and this continuing series shows no sign of slowing down. The reveal of the Makers plan was absolutely fantastic and devastatingly shocking. I read it with my mouth agape! To see that same reaction on the face of Eddie was a real wow moment.

The story is gripping and intense, and the ending, well, come find me after you’ve read the issue and we can talk about that. I was especially taken with the dialogue of the Maker, who projects himself as horribly cold, calculated, and conniving as hell. A truly formidable force that will likely continue to have an impact on this series moving forward.

Coello and Gedeon absolutely smashed the visuals, pairing brilliantly with the coloring style from Aburtov. The contributions from the trio are oddly impressive as they manage to keep the color palette dark, but then retain an absurd amount of detail. Coello and Gedeon especially capture an insane level of depth on the facial details of their characters. Additionally, the action sequences scream with energetic vibrancy as you witness Venom slinging from the towers of New York or locking horns with a brand new Marvel villain that is introduced in tumultuous fashion.

Aburtov utilizes some concise, and effective coloring strategies. The majority of the issue has a darkened background, using deep blues, and black. Yet the colorist is able to keep the foreground light, and engaging, highlighting the character details from Coello and Gedeon.

Cowles really attacked the lettering style in this issue, and it serves to inject the same amount of exuberance that each of the creatives brought to their contribution. Each character has an individualized dialogue style, and not only in font, but in color, and bubble design. Added to this, his design on the onomatopoeia was engaging and lively, some even exploding from the page.

Overall, Venom #26 was a thrilling issue to start up a brand new plot. After 26 issues, I am still highly invested in wanting to see where this all ends up. This issue, this series has so much life in it, and I can’t wait to see where the roller-coaster takes us. Venom is still alive and kicking, and you won’t want to get caught sleeping on this issue!

Venom #26 is available now wherever comics are sold.