Writer: Al Ewing
Artists: Cafu & Rafael Pimentel
Color Artist: Frank D’Armata
Cover Artist: Cafu
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Eddie Brock has been through hell trying to get back to his son, Dylan, and the Venom symbiote. But before he can do that, he needs to take down his evil alter-ego, Meridius, once and for all. Read Venom #30 to see the epic showdown between Eddie Brock and Meridius unfold.
Review:
Okay, it’s the big fight. The moment we’ve been waiting for, Eddie Brock versus Meridius and the other versions of him in the Garden of Time. It’s mostly what this series has been building up to for two years. Until it isn’t. I’m not going to lie, I will need to go into SPOILERS near the end to explain a major criticism of this comic and possibly this run. However, I will save it for last.
Alright, the comic starts out strong with Eddie – our Eddie, or Eddie Prime – right in the middle of ripping open the head of the fresh Black-suited version of him to arrive in the Garden of Time. And of course, the action is brutally epic thanks to Cafu’s art and the colors provided by Frank D’Armata, who both nail the violence when the fighting between Eddie Prime and the other Kings in Black starts. We see more with the battle of the Bedlams both physical and mental, and we get some tussle between Eddie and the others. It all comes to a head when Meridius recomposes himself and gets ready for the big fight with Eddie. But just when it looks like things are about to get into high gear, the comic throws a wrench into all of that. And this is where we dig into SPOILERS, so if you want to get my takeaway from this comic, head straight to the Final Thoughts section in this review.
SPOILERS:
Okay, so once the inevitable fight between Eddie and Meridius starts to get underway, we get treated to the weirdest, most aggravating reveal yet. See, right when Meridius starts to make his counterattack and get Eddie on the ropes, he starts to have what looks like a nosebleed. Then he clutches his chest as he feels a dreadful pain that just gets worse, until he straight up falls over and there’s a red mass grow upon his chest. And in the next page it turns out that Meridius didn’t have a heart attack, as Wilde suggested. Turns out, Meridius was just straight up killed by Carnage, who’s now a god. Yeah, this was where the comic lost me.
Now, Al Ewing gives a quick explanation through the black-suited version of Eddie that it must’ve been Carnage from the far future who took possession of a symbiote and was the one who killed the aliens on a frieghter way back in the first issue, and thus Carnage is the one who actually set this whole series in motion. And while I would like to call bull on that, it technically fits since we never did get any flashbacks with Meridius visiting the alien ship from the first issue. But despite the explanation, this just killed it for me. I mean, after two years of build up, and crazy time-traveling stories setting up the threat of Meridius, it just ends up being Carnage behind this. To say it feels like it came out of left field is an understatement. Especially since Marvel Comics has been on Carnage overload for the past three years now, it felt like a breath of fresh air to have the main Venom title not bogged down in all that Venomverse stuff and the Carnage shenanigans.
Now, I don’t know if this is actually Al Ewing’s idea or if it’s a mandate from Marvel Editorial or something to put Carnage in the book, since as I said, Marvel just can’t get enough of Carnage for some reason. But this does kind of kill the hype I had with not only this issue, but the whole series. Now, I don’t hate the book, but I’m not as excited as I once was because I was looking forward to this showdown between Eddie and Meridius. If we’re lucky, he will have survived somehow and will come back for a final fight in future issues. But I don’t know, this is god-level Carnage and he’s been mixed up in all that Venomverse stuff, going around killing Venoms of all kinds across the Multiverse, apparently. So, it’s possible he did kill Meridius. We’ll see. The only genuinely good thing I can say about the Carnage reveal, is that he looks cool in Cafu’s art and D’Armata’s coloring.
Final Thoughts:
Venom #30 begins the big fight we’ve been waiting for: Eddie Brock vs. Meridius. The comic starts out real strong as it gets right into the action with Eddie taking on his variants in the Garden of Time, some more hostile than others. And the art team do a great job bringing this symbiote action to life. But right when it starts to get better, a new major development occurs that may either turn readers off, make them more excited, or just outright confuse them. If nothing else, readers can expect an explanation in the next few issues for this reveal, if the series’ track record is anything to go by.