Tag Archives: Rick Remender

Venom 7 (November 2011)

Posted on 10 November 2011 | 1 Comment

839663.jpg

Venom finally meets the Anti-Venom… only it’s unclear why a meet-up is so necessary. Eddie Brock’s rambling, religious “hero” is kind of a buzz kill. The meeting has no weight for Flash Thompson, only for the symbiote. And, regardless of series title, Flash is the main character.

So instead, Remender uses the issue to deal with Flash’s growing dependence on the suit. You’d think the government would vet him well enough to know he has an addictive personality.

The whole issue–down to the reconciliation with the dying father–feels forced. Flashbacks showed us how terrible Flash’s dad was to the family, yet Flash gives him a tearful forgiveness. Either Flash is lying to be a swell person or Remender’s taking a really big short cut as far as character development.

While Fowler’s art is still awesome, Remender can’t make the requisite tie-in issue belong in Venom.

About these ads

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Marvel, Venom

Tagged ,

Venom 6 (October 2011)

Posted on 9 November 2011 | 1 Comment

839665.jpg

“Spider-Island” seems a lot like that Batman crossover, “War Games.” Just in the city in panic stuff. Maybe I’m thinking of a different one.

But this issue has Fowler back–and on it solo, doing all the creatures, an area where he excels–and my biggest complaint has nothing to do with the crossover.

Actually, it’s all fine. The crossover stuff, I mean. It could all fit into the comic without a lot of forcing, so it does work. And there’s a Venom dog. Strangely, it’s kind of cute.

No, my problem is Remender’s handling of Flash’s father dying. All of a sudden Betty Brant is at the hospital with him. Flash walked out on the guy, so obviously something has happened. Either it was in a previous crossover issue, which is malarky, or something got cut to make room for crossover nonsense.

It’s still good, I’m just perturbed.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Marvel, Venom

Tagged ,

Venom 5 (October 2011)

Posted on 9 November 2011 | 1 Comment

828376.jpg

Wow.

The comic opens, unfortunately, with Tony Moore. He handles the Venom part, Tom Fowler handles the Flash Thompson part. My complaints about Remender waiting on establishing Flash are, it turns out, ill-founded. At least they appear to be after this issue.

It’s a depressing look at Flash’s family life, with occasional callbacks to his origins in Amazing, without going so far as to flashback (though Fowler’s Peter Parker is definitely Ditko influenced). Fowler’s lush work turns a regular kitchen conversation between Flash and Betty into the most exciting action in the comic. Fowler drawing someone cutting carrots is more visually engaging than Moore showing Venom webbing a falling chrch bell.

While Flash’s vet stuff makes it topical, Remender and Fowler transcend it (I wonder if Remender realized how edgy it was to make the homeless vet young). They make a comic about Venom as a secret agent timeless.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Marvel, Venom

Tagged , , ,

Venom 4 (August 2011)

Posted on 9 November 2011 | 1 Comment

823204.jpg

Why did Tony Moore have to come back? He ruins the last scene of the comic, with Pete and Flash having their first sit down as unknowing nemeses. The scene should have been a mixture of confusing, ominous and fun. Moore ruins it.

Remender focuses mostly on action this issue. Spidey and Venom continue fighting–with some of the bad guys showing up for another action scene–and the aforementioned quiet finish.

It should have all worked well. Remender is comfortable with Flash and his dialogue is fine… so what happened?

The comic can’t hold up without compelling art. As an action comic, the art is often the only communication method for a couple pages when dialogue balloons take a break.

Remender plotted this issue, and the last two, as continuous. It makes it so Flash doesn’t have much resonance yet.

It’s also hard to return to Moore after Fowler.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Marvel, Venom

Tagged , ,

Venom 3 (July 2011)

Posted on 8 November 2011 | Leave a comment

817876.jpg

Tom Fowler drawing Venom is a waste of talent. A glorious waste of talent. While Fowler’s able to do a crazy Venom, full of tentacles and slime, the regular stuff is better.

The comic opens with a guy playing racket ball and seeing Fowler’s attention to movement is great. And it’s not just a Venom comic–it’s Tom Fowler drawing Spider-Man, which is pretty darn awesome too.

There’s so much good design (Fowler manages to do both, design and draw), Remender can get away with almost anything. Fowler sells the big bad guy’s silly henchmen and their silly costumes (it’s more and more a homage to the original Amazing it seems). He’s also able to sell the terror of Betty being kidnapped.

The mix of Remender’s competence and homage and Fowler’s artwork makes Venom a singular Marvel comic. It’s fun, standalone, good and enthusiastically admiring of its Amazing roots.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Marvel, Venom

Tagged ,

Venom 2 (June 2011)

Posted on 7 November 2011 | 1 Comment

812329.jpg

Moore really starts to hinder Venom this issue. Maybe the flashy inks (no pun intended) weren’t enough to correct his weaker impulses. There’s a scene with Peter and Betty (Remender does a good job bringing in the traditional Spidey soap opera, even if it’s Flash’s book) and Moore fumbles the entire thing. He can’t do the scene.

But the opening art, with Venom on the run from Kraven in the Savage Land, isn’t bad. The first few pages at least are decent, probably because Moore’s drawing Venom in costume. Or in alien slime.

Remender does a quick little reference or two to “Kraven’s Last Hunt” and Venom feels like a trip through Spider-Man history. Like a guided tour (but there are no reminders to check out the original stories).

But it’s surprisingly good stuff. Remender continues to write Flash quite well; he makes Venom worthwhile, overpowering Moore’s weak art.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Marvel, Venom

Tagged , ,

Venom 1 (May 2011)

Posted on 7 November 2011 | 1 Comment

804772.jpg

What a depressing comic. It’s like Rick Remender looked at some old Spider-Man comics and tried to figure out how he could make any even more depressed arachnid superhero.

Flash Thompson (the new Venom) comes into the comic a jingoist and leaves it a broken wretch. I initially had problems with Remender’s characterization because it seemed cheap–Marvel trying to sell comics to the U.S. Army. The end decidedly makes the book something quite different.

There’s a slight disconnect because Thompson’s “Agent Venom,” the worst detail in the comic is that name, comes in acting like a super-U.N. peacekeeper, but it’s soon revealed he’s just a black ops guy for the U.S. government. Neither fit into Flash’s self-image at the start of the comic.

But Flash was never smart, something Remender doesn’t shy away from.

Tony Moore’s okay enough. I think the overdone inks actually help him.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Marvel, Venom

Tagged , , , ,

The Last Days of American Crime 3 (August 2010)

Posted on 1 September 2010 | Leave a comment

Last_.jpg

The art is a wreck. I can’t believe anyone looked at the pages for the first issue and the ones for this issue and thought they were acceptable.

On the plus, Remender is less awful. He’s still writing a movie pitch for Mickey Rourke, right down to an intricate heist sequence, but at least he’s stopped with the terrible dialogue. He does do the James Bond villain scene, where the bad guy would get away if he didn’t reveal his master plan.

It’s hard to be disinterested, since the shoddy artwork has my bile rising. It’s so unfinished, I can’t believe Tocchini would even want his name on it.

The ending is somewhat successful too. I can see it working in the movie, for example, though I don’t know who they’re going to cast opposite Mickey Rourke. The female character, just because Remender’s writing is so lame, is rather complex.

CREDITS

Writer, Rick Remender; artist and colorist, Greg Tocchini; letterer, Rus Wooton; editor, Luis Reyes; publisher, Radical Comics.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Last Days of American Crime, Radical

Tagged ,

The Last Days of American Crime 2 (April 2010)

Posted on 1 September 2010 | Leave a comment

Cover Image 1.jpeg

Wow.

Tocchini’s art takes a major dive this issue. Most of it looks like he had some sketches and they colored them and called them good. It’s so bad I forgot the beginning of the issue actually looked good.

I don’t think I’ve read Remender before. Going to take a lot to convince me to read him again. This issue is awful on three fronts.

First, Remender uses racial ephitats to shock the reader. It’s a really cheap device and suggests he thinks he’s the Quentin Tarantino of comics but doesn’t understand Tarantino.

Second, the dialogue’s affected–more wannabe Tarantino–to the point it’s unintelligible. There’s no point in figuring out what it means.

Third, unlike Tarantino, Remender likes to make everyone a killing machine. It’s cheap and comes off as absurd and unrealistic in a book absurdly trying for realism. Or Remender’s brand of it.

Mickey Rourke will not be impressed.

CREDITS

Writer, Rick Remender; artist and colorist, Greg Tocchini; letterer, Rus Wooton; editor, Luis Reyes; publisher, Radical Comics.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Last Days of American Crime, Radical

Tagged ,

The Last Days of American Crime 1 (December 2009)

Posted on 1 September 2010 | Leave a comment

Cover Image.jpeg

Since I already knew I’d like the Greg Tocchini artwork–I hope the future issues have some more color; this issue is mostly set in dark streets and the brighter stuff is just so lush, I want more of it–The Last Days of American Crime otherwise mostly just showcased the benefits to the sixty-four page format.

Now, I’m not an advocate of it, don’t get me wrong, but if this comic had been a limited series of regular length, each issue would have been a constant frustration. With sixty-four pages, Remember pretty much gets a solid installment done. He achieves a full three act narrative, something most regular-sized comics don’t bother doing anymore.

Whether it’s a good three act narrative is something else.

It’s decent, definitely readable.

I’m holding off judgment for now.

It reads like they’re trying to sell it as a movie to Mickey Rourke; I like Mickey Rourke.

CREDITS

Writer, Rick Remender; artist and colorist, Greg Tocchini; letterer, Rus Wooton; editor, Luis Reyes; publisher, Radical Comics.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Last Days of American Crime, Radical

Tagged ,