Rulk cries for his mommy in this issue..never thought it possible
The second week of the venom event continues as our heroes must face their antitheses. And they are exactly what they are supposed to be.
The issue starts with Dr Strange and Daimon arriving at the outskirts of the city which they quickly find the amulet that Johnny blazed used to keep hell from spreading while quickly changing back to Blaze who doesn’t seem to be all that hot about the idea of keep on spinning around the altar like he promised to Alejandra. In the meanwhile the four heroes face off against their antitheses as we get to see more Rulk/Venom chitchat during battle as Alejandra goes off to defend the source that keeps hell in . The Evangelist, Flash’s antitheses (which I mistaken for Ghost Rider’s previous issue) quickly proves Venom and all of us that he is much more than a creepy priest as he easily removes the symbiote away from Flash and starts screwing with his mind, revealing how weak our hero truly is for he states that a football, a gun and a symbiote are all forms for him to seek power. And that he wasn’t nothing more than a crippled human even before he was left handicapped for all the injuries his father gave him as he grew up. While this is happening, x-666 starts doing the same as she quickly points out how worthless her existence is and killing is the only thing Laura is good at…..while using her sharp metal pompoms to cheer about it…….truly this she is a spawn of a demonic magic mirror!!!
Laura tries to ignore her as she leaves to fight blackheart but Rulk doesn’t like the sight of this for it’s unwise and wished to command the team to have a chance of winning. But for his surprise, the brain monster who he first thought would be perfect antitheses for the original hulk (not knowing that the green giant right now can actually think and talk properly…..wonder how long that’ll last) is actually giving him commands as Rulk slowly starts to realize that nobody follows him anymore to the point that he starts crying just by being ordered to do so. Blackheart watching all this finds this very entertaining while seating back on his favorite chair and enjoying some good old “Pop Eyes”……heh, funny…
The final pages of the issue go by as ghost rider faces off against Ichor, the angel looking antitheses as blackheart tries to mess up with her by reminding her of things that probably happened in her own book (I don’t read ghost rider) but she quickly recovers and defeats her opponent easily, reverting him back to a normal human. But while she is doing fine, the rest are filled with weakness, as stated by Strange who also feels that they might not be able to stop this.
The Good:
The antitheses are good enemies to this team of misfits as they all (even the brain monster) seem to be completely overpowering them without the need of brute force. I also love the art completely on this issue since everyone looked the part (X-23 looking much better than previous issue and Hulk isn’t as bald like before). It’s also good that this has been noticed by the outside world even if the mystical heroes can’t do much, still nice that they are at least there.
The Bad:
Why did must the coolest looking antitheses had to be defeated first? Oh and still don’t like the brain monster, specially how his powers are ordering rulk to do his bidding. But besides that, nothing much
Overall: 4.5/5
A solid continuation of the second issue of this storyline which is filled with action and great art and I can’t wait for the upcoming weeks to see how will our heroes deal with Blackheart, who even if I don’t like his human form, he still is a very cool villain as I expected him to be. So anyone who hasn’t read venom what are you waiting for? Pick up this issue and the previous for you are missing lots of good stuff here. One of Marvel's finest. (I mean, if it wasn't good then how come not only is venom having his own personal "event" the guy is joining the an avenger team? read this series to find out).
