REVIEW: ‘Venom,’ Issue #2

Venom #2 is written by Ram V, penciled by Bryan Hitch, inked by Andrew Currie, colored by Alex Sinclair, and lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles. It is published by Marvel Comics. After the end of the first issue, Eddie Brock has apparently been killed by a mysterious force. His son Dylan has no choice but to break one of his father’s rules and fully bond with the Venom symbiote, going on the run. Alongside Venom and fellow symbiote Sleeper, Dylan attempts to track down one of Eddie’s old reporter friends —unaware that the anti-symbiote organization known as the Life Foundation is hot on his trail.

I mentioned before in my review of the first issue that V and his co-writer Al Ewing seem to be tackling two separate stories featuring the Brock clan, and that hunch bears fruit in this issue. At its core, Venom has been a title about unity-in the bond that Eddie shared with his symbiote and later his son Dylan. And now one of those bonds has apparently been severed with Eddie’s “death”, leaving Dylan in a fragile emotional state. V also delves into previously established plot points from other symbiote-focused stories, such as Dylan becoming the next Venom in Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s Venom finale and the Life Foundation making a resurgence in the Extreme Carnage storyline.

The bond that Dylan shares with Sleeper and Venom is the highlight of the issue, however. On a train out of New York City, Dylan asks the Venom symbiote why it chose to save him instead of Eddie. Venom replies, “I asked myself: ‘What would Eddie Brock do?’ He’d have chosen you too.” I’m not going to lie; that moment hit me in the heart hard and showed how much Eddie has changed as a character. Once obsessed with a vengeance against Spider-Man, he’s grown as a father, and while not necessarily a hero, he’s willing to do the right thing.

Hitch and Currie continue to apply their sleek art style to the book, especially in the latter half of the book. That features Dylan/Venom locked in battle with the Life Foundation’s mercenaries. A single page has Venom sending mercenaries flying with punches and the chains attached to his wrist, with his face locked in its trademark fanged snarl. When a sonic weapon hits Venom, the symbiote explodes in a mass of screaming tendrils. And both Venom and Sleeper change shape, from a dog and cat respectively to their humanoid forms-with Sleeper’s looking more inhuman due to his greenish-yellow stripes and four alien eyes.

Topping off the artistic team are Sinclair and Cowles. Sinclair, true to a character of Venom’s nature, sets most of the scenes in darkness. The aforementioned fight scene occurs at night, and the Life Foundation’s leader Carlton Drake is shown in a dark room with the blue glow of multiple television screens casting light on him. That same color scheme spreads out to Venom and Sleeper’s speech bubbles, with Venom having black-and-white letters and Sleeper having black-and-yellow ones.

Venom #2 officially passes the mantle of the Lethal Protector to Dylan Brock, as he struggles to live in a world without his father. With the arrival of a new supporting character, and the threat of the Life Foundation, Dylan definitely has his work cut out for him.

Venom #2 is available now wherever comics are sold.