Last month in ‘Venom’ #19, Flash was dealing with the consequences of revealing his Venom identity to his girl Betty Brant, all while trying to save his sister and mother from the attacks of the Crime-Master and his Savage Six. In the end, Betty is kidnapped and Flash races to check on his mother.
Upon entering his mom’s apartment, Flash finds the place ransacked and blood dripping off of his mother’s chair. He expects that the Crime-Master may have kidnapped his mother too since the only Savage Six members that might have actually killed her are Death Adder or Human Fly. That’s when Flash notices the Human Fly’s acidic drool on the floor… and is attacked from behind by Death Adder!
The next portion of this issue is a vicious battle between Death Adder and Venom through the apartment complex which makes for some great visuals. And after the battle with Death Adder ends and Flash catches up to the Human Fly, we’re shown yet again that, like Kaine over in ‘Scarlet Spider’, Flash may be spun out of the Spider-Man universe, but he’s definitely not another Spider-Man rehash.
At an abandoned warehouse across town, Betty comes face to face (literally) with the Crime-Master as the villain reveals his true identity. Now it’s up to Flash to save Betty without getting himself killed in the process!
Bunn and Remender deliver yet another exciting and fun chapter in the Savage Six saga and do a great job giving Venom his own story without falling to the old tropes of having a new hero cross-over with an existing one early in his series. We’re up to issue #20 in ‘Venom’ and other than the tie-ins with ‘Spider-Island’, this title has stayed pretty focused on the story of its main character pretty well.
As an added bonus to a fun story, this month’s spectacular cover from Michael Del Mundo almost took my top spot as the best cover of the week until I saw ‘Scarlet Spider’ #7.
Verdict: Buy
VENOM #20
Story by Cullen Bunn & Rick Remender
Art by Lan Medina, Robert Atkins, Nelson Decastro, & Rick Ketcham
Cover by Michael Del Mundo
