“VENOM WARS” CONCLUSION!
Venom versus Spidey! The Final Showdown!
How does Gwen Stacy figure into it and how will it change her and Miles’ life forever?
Guest-Starring Mary Jane Watson!
The Good
Cover- Miles Morales pinned to a wall by the ghastly Venom creature, which is set to consume him. I love it! The logo is neatly placed at the top giving the image itself maximum chance to shine, another solid one from Sara Pichelli with help from Bainier Beredo.
The Connection- I will admit I’ve felt very disconnected to Miles since he title entered the ultimate line’s crossover and everything since has been a prelude to this. David Zavimbe had me from the beginning because of the constant tragedies of his hero career. Miles has had the uncle incident for twenty issues with his family now getting involved. Ladies and gentlemen Bendis has done it again. With the death of Rio Morales he’s set things up for Miles walking away from the mantle and the one year time jump Bendis has been talking about. This “Uncle Ben moment” does exactly what Bendis hoped it pulls both the fans and Miles into a shared tragedy which hopefully will keep both coming back for years to come.
Art-Sara Pichelli is still on art and as you would expect everything is simply flawless!
Emotional- While the death of Rio Morales was touching even worse was Miles waking up the day after and literally thinking it was all a nightmare only to run downstairs to see his friend and his mother. The emotional outburst as he destroys his costume typifies just how different he is from Peter Parker. This heart wrenching in its emotional depth while being so simply illustrated. Pure gold!
Action– We have a great exchange between hero and villain which carries the second half of the story.
Rio Morales– I don’t know about anyone else but Rio was always the more ‘background” parent for me when it comes to Miles. His father was the one I was more attached to but Rio finds her voice even if it was right before she kicked the bucket. Rio fought for her son despite the danger to herself and even plead with the villain when she thought her son was about to die. Rio you’ve been cast into Comic Book dead land but you sure went out with a bang!
Similarities- So Miles now has an “Uncle Ben moment”, got his powers in the same manner as Peter Parker, has Mary Jane and Gwen as support characters and the same “can’t keep my identity secret” problem Parker had.
New Villains– So the Roxxon Corporation has taken over from Os Corp as the source of quite a few bad things. Here’s the skinny on Roxxon, back during the Ultimate Doom Trilogy there was a group there who have plans to create the next big “super weapon” mainly a super soldier of some kind and they are willing to do anything to get it. Spider-man and creating a version of him now seems to be the task of the day. Venom as we learn this issue went off on his own and became what he did, now Roxxon wants Spider-man to learn how to create a creature similar for his own use.
Black Heroes- He may be dead but the Venom featured in this crossover was African American and of course we have Miles Morales.
The Bad
Why was this storyline called “Venom Wars”? I don’t get it! There was no war (scratches head)
Honestly the death seemed rushed, it just comes out of left field. Death for death’s sake is not a good look for modern comics, I mean can a story not have emotional depth without a death?
The Ugly
Great art, great cover, action and a tear jerking development that brings us even closer to Miles Morales? Ultimate Comics Spider-man is Spider-man done right in a bold new way! 4/5
I gotta say, i jus jumped into Ultimate Comics: Spiderman, its not that i dont like it, just didnt pick up interest till now. But wow. this is Miles’ defining issue. This is why it’s nice for a new spiderman.