"Venom: Shiver"

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

            Edward “Eddie” Brock was bonded with an alien parasitic organism called a symbiote. Together, they were the supervillain named Venom. Venom frequently fought Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who priorly hosted the same symbiote. During one such fight, Spider-Man was losing, and the Fantastic Four (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Susan Storm-Richards/Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and Ben Grimm/The Thing) came to his aid and were able to defeat Venom and separate Eddie from the symbiote. During the fight, Venom lost his tongue and a civilian stole it, but an enigmatic scientific agency called The Ararat Corporation, comprised of clones all named Bob, Vic and Frankie stole the tongue from him to try to replicate the Venom symbiote. Meanwhile, Reed Richards continued to study the original Venom symbiote using a self-replicating robotic species he discovered during one of the Fantastic Four’s adventures into deep space. The new Venom symbiote, unlike the original, did not like to keep it’s hosts alive for any length of time and would kill them very quickly. The government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. took both Eddie Brock and the original Venom symbiote to the Vault, a prison for supervillains. The new symbiote was sent to the Ararat Corporation’s Arctic Research Facility in Northern Canada, where Bob unleashed the symbiote upon the scientists there. The symbiote went on a rampage killing all but one scientist. Meanwhile, Eddie Brock and the original symbiote escaped from the Vault. S.H.I.E.L.D. used Reed’s Nanobots to create an agent to go after Venom and sent him to the Arctic.

            United States Army communications specialist Patricia Robertson was sent on an errand to the Ararat Corporation’s Arctic Research Facility with her sled dogs. She found the surviving scientist, who was in shock, and brought him back to U.S. Radar Station “Christmastown.” Colonel Malone figured that the slaughter at the Research Facility was done by a polar bear and brushed it off. The Nanobot agent found the Research Facility as well and decided to follow Robertson to Christmastown. Robertson’s dog Ivan was found near death and brought inside Christmastown for treatment. Unbeknownst to all the military personnel, the symbiote was attached to Ivan and was now inside the base. It then jumped to Malone. The Nanobot agent arrived at the base, and tried to destroy the symbiote, then after failing to destroy the symbiote and save Malone, he tied up Robertson and specialist Jackson, but the symbiote had moved on to Jackson. The symbiote then tried to destroy the Nanobot agent but failed. Robertson was able to escape and found the scientist, who told Robertson the story of the symbiote, which had now killed everyone on the base but Robertson, but as it turned out, the symbiote was in the scientist. The symbiote then took possession of a dog and fled the base. The Nanobot agent then incapacitated Roberston and took her from the base as well.

            Ararat agents Vic and Frankie arrived in Canada searching for the symbiote, a fact that the Nanobot agent noticed and informed S.H.I.E.L.D. of. X-Men member Logan/Wolverine arrived on the scene and fought Venom. The Nanobot agent incapacitated Frankie, while Vic went after Robertson. The Nanobot agent then saw that the symbiote was about to jump onto Wolverine, so the Nanobot agent attempted to kill Wolverine to prevent this, since Wolverine had a healing factor that would sustain the symbiote, eliminating the need for the symbiote to continuously switch hosts. Frankie tried to entice the symbiote to join with her, but the Nanobot agent informed the symbiote Frankie had been cybernetically enhanced with the ability to control the symbiote and prevent it from escaping. The symbiote rejected them all, escaping in a civilian. Vic and Frankie then abducted Robertson and tried to blow up Logan and the Nanobot agent. Both survived and Robertson was able to escape. The symbiote then found Logan and bonded with him, while the Nanobot agent found Robertson, incapacitated her, and cybernetically enhanced her like Vic and Frankie. The Nanobot agent was able to force the symbiote out of Logan and onto Robertson.

            Robertson was able to escape to Manhattan with S.H.I.E.L.D. going after her. Spider-Man found her, thinking she was Eddie, then the original Venom found Robertson. The two Venoms fought until S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived. Eddie webbed up S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury and escaped, leaving Spider-Man to fight Robertson. Bob arrived with a clearance code forcing Fury to stand down on the Venom case. Eddie and Robertson fought again until the Nanobot agent arrived. Eddie fled, and the Nanobot agent counseled Robertson, then caused a blackout in New York City, and brought Robertson to Reed Richards to lure Eddie to the Baxter Building to contain the Venom symbiotes for the last time.

            Okay, so now it’s time for the Tim Cubbin part of the review. So, we’re going to start with my thoughts on the graphic novel. I thought it was enjoyable. It wasn’t a great book, but it wasn’t horrible either. I guess you could say it was just okay. The story was interesting enough. I will say that the story was originally written out of order, with one of the later stories taking place at the start of the narrative, but for this review, I wrote it chronologically, for context purposes. I liked the story with Wolverine. Wolverine fighting Venom was awesome. I thought it was interesting how the Ararat Corporation was able to clone the Venom symbiote from a piece of his tongue. It was almost comedic. And the art was fantastic. It was stylized, which can be dangerous, but in this case, I feel like it worked out right. I’ve reviewed graphic novels before where I’ve complained about stylized artwork, but this stylized artwork gets no complaints from me. But there was a lot I disliked. I disliked how in the first story, almost all the characters were expendable and not fleshed out. I felt like I just didn’t get to know these characters before they were killed off, so I just couldn’t feel for them. I also felt cheated that most of this book did not have Eddie Brock as Venom. I was really hoping for an Eddie story, and I was highly disappointed that I didn’t get it. It would have made the Venom versus Wolverine fight even more epic if it were Logan who fought Eddie instead of just a random no-name character in the symbiote. Still, for what it was, I found the book to be decent.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Now, my previous readers will know what I mean by that, but for you newbs, I’ll explain. By accessibility, I mean how easy it is to pick up and read this book, particularly if you are someone with little to no prior knowledge about Venom. I have to say, I found this book to be accessible. First off, this is Vol. 1 of the series of Venom Modern Era Epic Collections. Second, the series collected in this book starts at #1. Third, all eighteen consecutive issues in this book are one series. Fourth, there are no crossovers or tie-ins and no events going on at the time. Fifth, it doesn’t directly continue from any previous storylines. I think that if a person were to be in a bookstore and see this on a shelf and think it was interesting, yet know nothing about the character, they’d be able to just pick it up and read it and understand it. If you have knowledge of Venom from the “Venom” movies or Marvel cartoons or video games, I feel like you’d be able to understand this book fine. They provide good background on the character of Venom and I don’t feel like they cause a major contradiction in the portrayal of the character, but I will say I haven’t seen every Marvel animated series or played every video game, so I can’t confirm that with a certainty, but from what I do know, I don’t think they’ll poison your conception of the character too badly, unless you’ve only played “Spider-Man 2” and have no other experience with Venom, that Venom is nothing like Venom from the comics, but I feel like otherwise, you’re good. If at any point in time you’ve read Marvel Comics from the main Marvel Universe and read any stories with Venom in them, you’ll have no problem understanding this book at all, this fits in fine with the continuity. This is a good jump on point. If you’re looking into starting to read Marvel comics and are looking for a good place to start, I feel like this is a good place for you to pick.

            Okay, now we’re going to get into the important part: my numeric score. I score on a basic scale, one to ten. One is the worst, meaning this is a steaming pile of garbage, ten means this is amazing, and every page should be framed and hung up all over your living space. You can guess this isn’t a ten or a one, and that it falls somewhere in-between. If you guessed that, you’d be correct. So, I have two things to take into consideration when scoring a graphic novel: story and art. So, I said the story was slightly disappointing, but the artwork was fantastic. So, I am going to have to score it at… seven! It was good enough that I can give it a high score.

            Next, we’re going to talk about my recommendation, if I personally recommend it and to whom I recommend it. Yes, this book does get my personal recommendation. And I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the character of Venom. If you’re a fan of Venom, I’m telling you that you should make every effort to read this book. I feel like if you are reading this review and are liking what you are reading, I think you should go out and get your hands on this book. And if you are reading this and personally know someone who is a fan of Venom, tell them about this book so that they can read this, because I totally feel like this book is worth it.

            Okay, I feel like I’ve gone on long enough, you have better things to do with your time than reading my drivel, so I’m going to send you on your merry way now. I will tell you that I have written dozens of reviews on this site, so there’s plenty to read. I post regularly, so there’s usually new content available frequently. I have another review planned, expect it in the next week or so. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, editorials, and all other kinds of content on this blog. If you want to leave me a comment or a reply or something, feel free to do so, and you’re welcome to leave a Tweet if you’re reading this on X or a comment if you’re reading this on Facebook, or just communicate with me however you feel like, that would be great, I’d love to hear from you. No one has ever sent me a reply, I would love for you to be the first. So, keep coming back for more because there will be more, and I say to you until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!