"Venom: Space Knight"

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

            Flash Thompson was an assistant coach at West Philadelphia High School. He was also the host of the Venom symbiote. One day at work, the symbiote emerged in the middle of class in front of a student named Andrea “Andi” Benton. But Venom had other things to worry about, such as the crime boss Lord Ogre, who was operating in Philly. Venom started busting up his operations, and realized how sick of an enemy he was facing.

Following an incident with Venom and Toxin at the high school, Daily Inquisitor reporter and Venom ally Katy Kiernan came investigating, and Flash feared that Andi could lead her to Venom’s identity. Venom went after Lord Ogre but was defeated by a group of supervillains under Lord Ogre’s employ. Supervillain Jack O’Lantern, mysteriously out of jail, knowing Venom’s identity, and with a major grudge against Venom, attacked Flash’s apartment complex. Andi and her father were Flash’s neighbors. Jack chased Andi into her apartment. Venom arrived to try to protect them, but was unable to protect Andi’s father, but while trying to protect Andi, the Venom symbiote spawned a piece of itself onto Andi. Venom then had to prevent Symbiote Andi from crossing the line to get her revenge on Jack and in the process, Jack escaped. Flash was surprised with how well and how quickly Andi was able to manage the symbiote. Jack returned with the villains who had previously defeated Venom, and with Andi’s help, Venom was able to defeat them this time.

Andi then went on to become the symbiotic vigilante Mania and was trying to take the fight to Lord Ogre to avenge her father. The D.O.A., led by the villain called Crossbones, were going after people who had Hell marks. Venom had previously been marked, but a conversation with Daimon Hellstrom caused Flash to realize that when the Venom symbiote spawned, the Hell mark had been passed on and that Mania now bore the Hell mark and Venom was no longer marked, and that Andi was now a target of the D.O.A. Mania confronted Lord Ogre. Venom swung in to help, and the D.O.A. arrived. Lord Ogre and his army were taken out by demons summoned by the D.O.A., demons Andi discovered she was able to control. Venom decided to try to make a deal with Hell Lord Mephisto to remove the Hell mark from Andi. The D.O.A. crashed the negotiations, and Mephisto summoned the Monsters of Evil, whom Andi were able to control, and following the battle, Mephisto refused to remove the Hell mark.

Months later, Venom became an Agent of the Cosmos, despite not truly knowing what that meant. He traveled off into space. On one mission, he met a robot called 803, whom Venom became the master of. He saved an alien planet from a device that was creating rain toxic to the native alien species. There he met fellow Agents of the Cosmos Myntril and Tarna, the latter also being bonded with a Klyntar symbiote. He traveled to Gorfin-7, a planet of lava and fire which was on the verge of destruction due to a device planted by the alien Mercurio. Venom destroyed the device and made an ally/potential lover of an alien woman named Iqa, and an enemy of Mercurio. Flash discovered the symbiote was now able to function independently of him, something it had never been able to do without a host before. Mercurio, furious Venom had foiled his plans for Gorfin-7, sent alien criminal Pik Rollo to bring Venom to him. Pik Rollo caused Venom’s ship to crash on a planet of robot gladiators. The two were captured and forced into the arena, where the two became allies rather than enemies when Venom learned Pik Rollo was being extorted by Mercurio, and the two decided to team up against Mercurio. The two were imprisoned, but Venom’s new allies were able to come to the rescue.

Tarna arrived to inform Flash that the Venom Klyntar was losing control, was impure, and had to be returned to the cosmos. Both Flash and Venom were resistant and fought and Venom lost control and escaped. Venom went on a path of destruction, and Flash and his allies had to chase him down. Flash and Venom reunited, and Flash was able to calm Venom down. Flash learned the reason Venom was out of control was because when Venom was cleansed when he became an Agent of the Cosmos, a piece was left behind that wasn’t there to complete the cleanse: the Mania symbiote. Flash had to return to Earth and his allies had to get Andi a drink from the Fountain of Purity in the temple on the lost planet Wenb.

Flash returned to Earth, where he visited his mother who was recovering from the mental stress caused by her encounter with Venom. Spider-Man arrived and tried to separate Flash and Venom to contain the symbiote in a lab at Parker Industries. This led to a misunderstanding, to a battle, to a team-up to find Andi and separate her and Mania to fully cleanse Venom and save Andi from her Hell mark.

Okay, so we have the synopsis out of the way, let’s talk about my opinion on the book. In all honesty, I’m very conflicted. I liked parts of the book and disliked parts of the book. Ironically, the parts I liked were all the parts that took place on Earth. The whole Space Knight thing just didn’t work for me. So, once he went to space, I stopped genuinely enjoying it up until the end when he got back to Earth. The rest just really wasn’t all that appealing to me. I didn’t like the design of Venom as an Agent of the Cosmos; the look just wasn’t visually appealing either. And I was really hoping for appearances by the Guardians of the Galaxy, but alas, I did not get that except for in a flashback or two, so I found that slightly disappointing. That said, the Mania storylines were to my liking. I enjoyed the character, and I liked Flash having a sidekick, having responsibility, and the parts in space without Andi just seemed weak without her being there to amplify the sense of responsibility Flash had for Mania. He was fatherlike to her, and I loved that side of Flash, I thought that was well written. He genuinely cared about her in a way he didn’t care about any of the other characters in the book, and I enjoyed their relationship. And I enjoyed the whole story about the Hell mark, I found that to actually be an interesting concept how Flash passed it on to Andi, and I liked how it followed up on “Circle of Four” from “Agent Venom” which was actually one of my favorite stories in the Flash Thompson Venom saga up to this point. But it pains me say it, I just really didn’t like the artwork in this book at all. Sometimes there will be that one artist that makes all the difference for the book, but not a single artist truly visually pleased me, and that was hard to see. I really wanted to like the art, but I just really couldn’t find much to like. The alien designs were very wonky, and I know that aliens are supposed to be wonky, but they weren’t wonky in a good way to me.

Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I know some of you already know what that means, but I also know some of you are new to a Tim Cubbin review and need to be informed, so inform I shall. When I say accessibility, I mean just how easy it is to pick up this book and read it, particularly to people who may have never heard of Venom before seeing this book on the shelf and saying to themselves “Hmm, ‘Venom: Space Knight’ eh? Sounds cool!” So, if you are that person who is saying what I just typed and have no idea who/what Venom from Marvel Comics is, I’m telling you not to read this. This book is highly inaccessible. First off, the first seven issues in this book are the culmination of an entire series that has already been running for thirty-five issues prior to this book and draws on the knowledge of those thirty-five issues. Those stories pick up where the previous two volumes Venom Modern Era Epic Collections leave off, so I wouldn’t even tell you to read this book without reading those two first. Then we get to “Venom: Space Knight.” The issues in this book were originally published between 2013-2016, and there is a gap between the ending of the “Venom” series and the beginning of the “Venom: Space Knight” series with just a brief page that tries to explain a little about what the point of “Space Knight” is, but there’s so much that happened in between that got left out that makes it so hard to follow. There’re storylines set up in other series that establish the events between these two series not included and it really hurts the understanding of this book not having them. It almost seems odd to have included both series in one book considering the complete change of direction in the storytelling, but the one thing that truly ties both series together is Mania, so I guess that’s where the sense is made including both series in one volume, but they’re so different and seem to have not true similarities that it just seems illogical to have compiled this book the way the publishers did. I feel like this book could have benefited from more content in between to maybe establish the background of Space Knight better, rather than just trying to tell the reader a few details in three small paragraphs that essentially accomplishes little and doesn’t fully explain the changes the Klyntar symbiote underwent between the two series, I just don’t feel like it’s enough. I wouldn’t just say this book is inaccessible to new readers, I’m saying it’s highly inaccessible in general if you don’t know Marvel Comics from the time period of 2014-2015, which, heck, even I’m not fully up on, my local comic book shop had closed around that time so I wasn’t a regular reader, so these are details even I’m not fully up on, and people who know me well know I am a diehard Marvel fan, so if I’m having difficulties with a Modern Era Epic Collection, casual or non-fans would definitely have difficulties with this book. I just feel like the editors could have done a little more to make it more understandable because as it is, I don’t feel like they did a particularly decent job. They didn’t do a good enough job for me, so in most likelihood, I don’t think casual or non-fans would find it to be either.

Okay, I’ve blathered on about that long enough, I think it’s time to get to the part that you’ve come to read my review for the most: my numeric score. Now, for those of you who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before, allow me to explain my rules. I score on a simple system, on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest possible score and means this book is hardly readable at all, ten is the highest possible score and means this book should be read on a frequent basis it’s just that good you’ll want to experience it again and again. Now, I must consider that this is a graphic novel, and therefore the artwork and the stories are both something that must be examined when giving a score. Now, as you know, the stories were to a mixed pleasure level, and the art just was not pleasurable at all. So, I’m taking all of that, throwing it into a blender, churning out a score for this book, and I must give it a score of a… four! This book just wasn’t super enjoyable to me, but I can’t say it was a complete trainwreck enough to go lower than that, but it doesn’t deserve any higher than that either.

Finally, I’m going to either give or not give a recommendation. And in the case of “Venom: Space Knight,” that recommendation is denied. I can’t recommend this book to any reader because of the low level of accessibility, not even to major Venom fans, unless you were actually a heavy Marvel reader from 2014-2016 and know these stories but just want to collect them again all these years later, and even then, I don’t think this was that great enough to recommend. So, unless you are a true collector like I am and want to collect every single Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection like I do, I would issue a pass on this book. I just don’t feel like it’s worth the hefty cost.

Okay, I’ve gone on for quite some time, so I think it’s time to get to our parting words. So, yes, most of this website at this point is me reviewing Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections, but I might be able to produce some other kind of content here and there. I’ve already written short stories, free verse poetry, essays, articles, editorials, and other kind of content for this blog, so if you want, feel free to check out the rest of timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my work, there’s already over 130 other posts, there’s probably something else you might find interesting. Please feel free to comment, if you’re on Facebook, share, if you’re on X, like, retweet, do whatever, pass this along. Expect to see another review in about a month, maybe a little more than that, I’m not sure of an exact date at this point, but more reviews are coming. So, keep coming back for more, I’ll be back doing more. If you’ve read this entire review, you truly are THE BEST, I appreciate you! And now I leave you, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!