Venom #4 Spoiler Discussion

[your_name_here]

So...wow, what did everyone think?

[Rzerox21xx]

I enjoyed the hell of it, a interesting twist on the origin of the symbotes and how it tie nicely to the God butcher arc in Thor from a couple years ago, this is the best venom ever been.

[Samson3191]

So. Good. The Thor bit actually made me yell “Oh ****!” in the best way possible.

[Username taken]

This title is crazy good.

[Prof. Warren]

Incredible issue, just a stunner on every level.

Man, Cates and Stegman are on fire with this book!

[Russ840]

Shame stegman is not doing issue 7.

I am fearful that he won’t be on the title after issue 6. He has a habit of leaving after an arc

[Prof. Warren]

Shame stegman is not doing issue 7.

I am fearful that he won’t be on the title after issue 6. He has a habit of leaving after an arc

He's coming back. He's going to be with this book long term. The guy just needs an occasional breather.

[Venomous Mask]

This last issue was amazing. What made me really happy was how the whole Klyntar stuff was changed, and how the symbiotes are back to being natural space monsters. Also, the description of how they go their weakness to fire and sound is great. Living embodiment of the abyss > space knight

[Russ840]

He's coming back. He's going to be with this book long term. The guy just needs an occasional breather.

Man I hope so. This is a gem with this creative team.

[Huntsman Spider]

I liked how Cates didn't totally discard the Space Knight retcon, but instead put a twist on it --- that it was just the "noble" symbiotes hiding (from) their past and true origins out of shame and/or guilt. Then again, it does still put the lie to the idea that symbiotes are naturally or always evil; they can certainly lean that way, but severed from Knull's control, many of them also learned to be good or as close to it as they could get and sought hosts that they could empower to do good in the universe as opposed to just preying on the universe. To me, that makes the symbiotes as complex as any other sapient species, that they're just as innately prone to violence and destruction and conquest, though some embrace those tendencies and others resist. Oh, and the connection with Thor, like with All-Black the Necrosword being a prototype symbiote created from within a dead Celestial to kill other Celestials (and by extension, other gods or godlike entities) and the God of Thunder himself being responsible for severing the symbiotes from Knull's control, was unexpectedly awesome. I look forward to seeing where this is going to go next.

[Imago]

Loved it! Donny Cates managed to make sense of the convoluted Symbiote history. He grabbed the two previous symbiote's origins stories (the one from Planet of the symbiotes and the Bendis retcon from Guardians of the Galaxy) and made a much needed new one, explaining where the fire and sound weakness comes from in the process.. and all of that in 1 issue; as a Venom fan i can't ask for more than this. Next arc is supposed to be focused on Eddie so i can't wait

Shame stegman is not doing issue 7.

I am fearful that he won’t be on the title after issue 6. He has a habit of leaving after an arc

He said on twitter that he was getting behind schedulle (which is understandable since he's putting a lot of details into every panel) so Iban Coello will be doing #7 and #8 and he'll be back for #9.

[Bookem Danno]

Don't get me wrong, I love this retcon compared to the last retcon of the Symbiotes origin. The ties to (depressing) God Butcher and respectfully tweaking the (abysmal) Klyntar and Poisons canons so as not to simply wave them away was neatly done. It's too bad that it felt like a 20 page backstory infodump edition of Krull's origin with more Miles than Eddie cameoing thrown in - barely. Especially after such a teaseworthy cover with Venom and Eddie. This would've been 100% better than the trope/tripe of a chaotic bipedal humanoid, KRULL, being the progenitor of an otherwise cool mysterious race of brainsucking tendrilly black goo. For that reason, I'm unsure of the Marvel gimmick to push The Celestials into as many stories as they can nowadays. The mention of Grendel and (introducing of) Beowulf existing in the MU has good storyseed potential for any MU book. The creation of the Necrosword has me wondering how it stacks up to the sword Requiem is getting in Countdown. Someone online also compared this tale to Marvel's Elric books which is interesting.

This online synopsis summarizes the issue accurately:

From what I could gather, the symbiote race was evil, it was created by an evil guy for evil, and he used it for evil, then it got separated from him and desperately bonded to local lifeforms and took from those lifeforms things like morality, which made them rebel against their evil leader and form was would be the "Klyntar".

This online comment is fairly agreeable with me:

It's exciting that Eddie is Venom again. Venom is at his best when he's struggling to do good despite his symbiote wanting to get out there and kill stuff. I'm gonna follow this series goes because I like the character without the Klyntar baggage and hopefully it will return Venom to his favorable Early Days characterization. Feels like after the movie comes and goes, this is just gonna vanish in a puff of smoke.

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[Celgress]

This title is crazy good.

Indeed it is great stuff.

[themasething]

I understand that this is just a lot of rewriting symbiote history for the sake of fleshing out that part of the character, but man I wish there was more Eddie in this book. At the moment it feels like Eddie is just a method to convey these stories to the reader in a lazy manner. Since Eddie got the symbiote back he's done nothing but listen to other people's experiences with the aliens than anything else.

[Imago]

I understand that this is just a lot of rewriting symbiote history for the sake of fleshing out that part of the character, but man I wish there was more Eddie in this book. At the moment it feels like Eddie is just a method to convey these stories to the reader in a lazy manner. Since Eddie got the symbiote back he's done nothing but listen to other people's experiences with the aliens than anything else.

Well, next arc starting with #7 is focused on Eddie