"Venom: The Savage Six"

  The following is a review of the graphic novel “Venom: The Savage Six” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

Flash Thompson/Venom was at a low point. The villainous Crime-Master knew his identity and threatened his friends and family if he didn’t do what he said, so Flash made the hard decision that Crime-Master had to be taken down once and for all. As Flash got ready to do the deed, he witnessed Crime-Master initiate the Human Fly onto his team, the Savage Six, also consisting of Crime-Master himself, as well as his right-hand man Jack O’ Lantern, Megatak, and Death Adder. But before Flash could pull the trigger, Eddie Brock tried to take him out. Flash webbed up Eddie and battled Crime-Master’s team, but Flash could not win and swung away. Crime-Master then took the defenseless Eddie Brock and merged him with the Toxin symbiote, who swore to kill Venom. Flash went checking up on his ex-girlfriend Betty Brant, who was on the verge of being abducted by Jack O’ Lantern. Betty was under the impression Jack was an old war friend of Flash’s who met with an unfortunate accident and took pity, and when Venom swung in, she got the wrong idea. Flash protected Betty from Jack, Megatak, and Toxin, and to alleviate Betty’s fear of Venom, revealed his identity to Betty. This only served to anger Betty further, but Betty stopped resisting and let Flash rescue her. While Flash was busy rescuing Betty, the Human Fly went after Flash’s mother, and Jack performed his signature kill on Flash’s brother-in-law and kidnapped Flash’s sister Jessie. Flash was able to save Jessie, but Toxin was able to abduct Betty. Flash rescued his mother from the Human Fly, but inadvertently traumatized his own mother in the process. Crime-Master revealed his identity to Betty, a man from her past she long thought dead. Venom battled Toxin, then faced off against Jack and Crime-Master, only for Crime-Master to meet an ironic ending. After this, Betty told Flash she never wanted to see him again, and Flash decided to be honest with his teammates in the Secret Avengers.

As Flash celebrated his first Father’s Day without his father, Jack O’ Lantern tormented him. The two battled, and Flash finally emerged victorious.

Flash met with Daily Inquisitor reporter Katy Kiernan for information for a mission for the Secret Avengers. She pointed him in the direction of the Department of Occult Armaments. Flash investigated, and met with Daimon Hellstrom, the son of Satan. The two battled, and Flash realized that a demon had possessed Venom. Flash turned to Katy for help, and she hooked him up with a priest, who attempted to exorcise the demon, but learned that Hellstrom was the only one who could separate Venom from the demon. Hellstrom tried to initiate Venom’s demon into his organization, but Flash was resistant, and instead battled Hellstrom’s other demons, and won in an ironic way. 

Flash then learned of a prison break in Colorado. Cletus Kasady/Carnage had escaped from Thunderbolts Mountain Maximum Security Prison, and Venom was called to bring him back. Kasady escaped to Houston, Texas, where he was looking for a device called the Prometheus Pit, a device that would allow him access to the Microverse, a subatomic universe nestled between our own. Beings from the Microverse were responsible for Kasady’s escape. Local superhero Kaine/Scarlet Spider arrived at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center which housed the Prometheus Pit and attempted to apprehend Carnage, but Carnage managed to grab Katy Kiernan, who was there looking for a scoop, and escaped to the Microverse. Flash arrived too late, and the Venom symbiote had a reaction to seeing Kaine. The two battled until Flash was able to regain control of the symbiote. Carnage revealed to Katy that he wanted a reporter alive to chronicle his activities. Flash and Kaine then traveled to the Microverse, but the two were sent to two separate locations within the Microverse. Microverse villain Marquis Radu was attempting to create an army of symbiote soldiers from pieces of the Carnage symbiote. Kasady was resistant to this idea Flash hooked up with the resistance group, the Enigma Force, who were afraid that Venom would destroy the very fabric of the Microverse. Kaine hooked up with the Redeemer. Flash and Enigma Force battled the forces of Marquis Radu, while Kaine battled Kasady. All but Kaine and the Redeemer were captured, and the symbiote army was created. Flash and Kasady battled, and Kaine joined the battle, but Kasady was able to escape back to the Macroverse (main universe). Enigma Force were able to break free and attempted to defeat Marquis Radu, but the villain was also able to escape. Flash, Kaine and Katy were returned to the Macroverse, but were not originally at full size. Flash and Kaine then had to battle Kasady and the symbiote army and decide just how far they were willing to go to stop the threat of Carnage.

After her encounter with Venom, Flash’s mother decided to go to a wellness center. Flash reconnected with a man he used to bully when they were in high school, who now took pity on Flash’s current condition. Following this, Flash decided to move away from New York.

Katy called Flash from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she was working on a story, when the U-Foes kidnapped her. They wanted to test an unknown piece of technology on someone, and when they caught Katy snooping, she became their first choice. Flash went to Philadelphia to rescue Katy, aided by his kind-of girlfriend Valkyrie. This led to Flash deciding he wanted to move to the City of Brotherly Love. 

Flash got a job as an assistant coach at West Philadelphia High School. He started his nightly patrols. Meanwhile, Eddie Brock deduced Flash’s identity as Venom and vowed to end him. While out on patrol, Flash discovered a man with evolving technology implanted into him. Flash battled him, but he escaped. The man then ran into Toxin and was again able to escape. Flash came upon him again and defeated the man and was going to put an end to the man’s torment when Toxin arrived. Flash and Toxin battled, and while Flash won, Eddie escaped, as did the evolving technology, which found new hosts. Eddie came to Flash’s job to battle for a final time, but the arrival of the evolving technology possessed people put a halt of Eddie’s plan, and the two had to team up to both survive and to save the lives of all the students, then decide how they wanted to settle their grudge.

Okay, so let’s talk about how I felt about this book. I will say I found this book to be decent, but I didn’t love it. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the previous volume “Agent Venom” (which, incidentally I reviewed yesterday). One of my biggest issues was that Crime-Master announces his “Savage Six” and yet there are only five established members when he makes this announcement. He was planning for Toxin, but Toxin was not there yet. I found that confusing, the boundaries of the “Savage Six” just weren’t clearly established. As far as the identity of the Crime-Master goes, it made me wonder how he could have gone through with strapping her to a bomb, considering their connection. With the way he had been previously established, it just doesn’t seem like the kind of thing he would do. I know, blame it on the writers, see what Stan Lee would have said about it. As some of my previous readers may know, I am a major fan of the supervillain Carnage. The “Minimum Carnage” storyline was decent. Yes, I have done a review of “Maximum Carnage,” and I can say that this does not rank anywhere near that. I particularly liked that it featured Scarlet Spider. Now, this was not Ben Reilly, who is my favorite Scarlet Spider, but Kaine as Scarlet Spider for his run was an interesting redemption arc, which I read a very long time ago and barely remember, but I do know I enjoyed it at the time. Having Venom and Scarlet Spider team up like that was an interesting crossover. I also have to say that Eddie Brock/Toxin’s mad-on grudge with Venom made no sense to me. Eddie used to be Venom, why does he now so desperately want to do nothing more than kill his former other half? It just doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I also have to say, I wasn’t a fan of the design of Toxin. I thought the tendrils around the head looked absurd, and the giant size really doesn’t make sense. The original design of Toxin back in the early 2000s looked menacing. This one just looked kind of goofy. I really didn’t like all the artwork either. Some of the art just fell flat for me. There were several issues here and there with art that I really enjoyed, but for much of this book, I honestly was not a huge fan of the artwork.

Okay, I think it’s time we moved on to something else. Next up is accessibility. What I mean by that is how easy it is for a new reader to pick up this book and understand it, in general, what a person needs to know before attempting to read this book. First off, I will tell you to not even think about attempting to read this book without reading the “Agent Venom” Modern Era Epic Collection first, it is completely essential to understanding this book. It is a direct continuation of the previous volume, picking up on all the threads left behind, so if you didn’t read the volume before it, you are missing so much. “Agent Venom” established every story in this book, attempting to read “The Savage Six” without it is like trying to read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” without reading the first six books before it. This book is also made more difficult to follow because of the “Minimum Carnage” Scarlet Spider crossover, which is from a short-lived, obscure series, with a not very well-known version of the titular character. As such, I would not say this book is easily accessible. It is assuredly not the right book if you’ve never read a comic book before and are looking to start reading now, I can tell you that. If you’re an old school Marvel fan and stopped reading Marvel comic books before 2006 and are considering jumping back in, this is a poor choice to pick to jump back in with first. If you’re a more recent Marvel fan looking for an enjoyable read, this book is a choice if you read “Agent Venom” first. “Agent Venom” is just essential to understanding this book.

Okay, I’ve been going on for quite a while now I think you’re getting a little bored of my ranting and raving, so I’m just going to move on to my numeric score section. I know some of you have been through this before, but I must do it again, so let me explain my scoring system. I score on a scale of one to ten: one being the lowest, meaning that this book should be burned, publication should be halted, and no further copies of this book should be printed; ten being the highest, this book is the best book ever written, there should be so many copies printed that no online store will ever possibly be able to be out of stock of it, they’ll practically have to give them away just to clear space in their warehouses. As many of my previous readers know, I can be a very harsh scorer, I don’t just go around handing out tens to every book I read. Obviously, you can tell I’m not leaning towards a ten for this book. This book was purely mediocre, in both story and art. That is why I must give it the mediocre score of… five.

Next up is my recommendation. Usually for me, saying if I recommend a book or not is easy. In this case, it is a little bit difficult. My reasoning for this is because I feel that to read this book and properly enjoy it, you need to read “Agent Venom” first, and I highly enjoyed that, but this book wasn’t as thrilling to me, so I’d have to be recommending two books if I recommend this book, and that’s what makes this difficult. But in all honesty, I would recommend this book to readers of Marvel comics from recent years who haven’t read this book, I would not recommend this to nonfans or old-school readers, and I will say read “Agent Venom” first.

Well, I think it’s time we wrapped up here, I’ve been going on for quite a while now. So, I will tell you that there is plenty more content on timcubbin.blogspot.com to enjoy, so you can keep browsing. There are dozens of reviews, I’ve also posted short stories, essays, poems, editorials, and other forms of content, and I post very frequently. You can expect another review sometime within the next five days, so definitely keep an eye out for that, and there will be plenty more reviews to follow that, so keep coming back for more. Thanks for reading if you’re still here at this point you are THE BEST! I appreciate you for coming. Share with your friends, feel free to leave a comment in whatever forum you found this on, like, do whatever you can, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!