Venom: First Host #1

Reviewed by: Robbie Rowe

Rating: 6 out of 8

Writer: Mike Costa

Artist: Mark Bagley

The past is a complicated thing. You might think when it comes to your past,

you’ve got it all figured out. You know what you’ve done, who you saw, what the

people you met were like – you know who you were. But the question is, do you

know everything?

If someone came up to you and said you didn’t, that there’s more to your story

than you ever realized, what would you do? This feels like a dilemma that Venom will be faced with in this series, one that really comes to the fore at the end of the issue, in a fairly interesting way.

The art suits Venom really, really well. The artist, Mark Bagley, drew Venom

before on Ultimate Spider-Man and it made for a really big, snarling monster,

even without the usual build or spider insignia. Of course, in a story revealing

more about what/who came before Eddie Brock, or even Peter, as symbiote host, there’s going to be a lot more people involved than just Venom.

The Kree, the Skrulls, Venom – and a whole lot of pain and surprises to come for the symbiotic anti-hero! It’s a fairly simple issue, without too much happening, but there doesn’t need to be, especially with 4 more issues to come to expand and explain just what’s going on. Here, Venom retains his sense of justice, as well as his hatred for those who prey on the innocent.

I’m left unsure exactly where this fits in Venom’s timeline, how close it is to

Donny Cates’ current run, or if it’s set further back. But hopefully that’ll be

cleared up a bit more in future issues. If you love Venom and want to know a bit

more about him before Venom #6, or the film, then this could be a good place to start.