All-New Venom #7: A Most Dangerous Game of Improv

As Mary Jane and Flash Thompson reunite for a chat in the opening pages of All-New Venom #7, one can’t help but think about how far these two have come: from supporting character’s in the life of adolescent Peter Parker to superhumans with experience and trauma to rival Spider-Man’s. Writer Al Ewing is aware of how long the journey has been and embraces it wholeheartedly in this exchange. He introduces a them of regret as both Flash and Venom find themselves longing for the simpler time of their adventures together, and wondering if, perhaps, making different choices would have allowed those nostalgic days to last a little longer.

Leave it to Ewing to effortlessly interweave heart with plot progression, as this talk leads to the formulation of a plan. Flash has been task by the government’s anti-symbiote task force to hunt Venom down, and the lives of their mutual symbiote friends will be lost should he not succeed. While not the most long-term solution, MJ and Flash decide that staging a fight outside the Daily Bugle will at least get the authorities off their backs long enough to formulate a real plan. The scenario lends itself well to awkward comedy, and its fun use Ms. Watson skills as an actress, a once-formative trait of her’s that modern writers tend to shun.

And of course Carlos Gomez, the other half of this superstar creative team, ensures that the fight, although fake, still leaves one heck of an impression. Gomez continues to embrace the differences between Mary Jane and the symbiote’s previous host, not just in physique, but also their approach to combat. Far from the tanking bruiser Eddie Brock was, this Venom is quicker and more acrobatic, more imaginative in the application of its shapeshifting abilities. It makes sense, given the host’s and symbiote’s mutual history with Spider-Man, that they would model their tactics and heroic persona after him.

Naturally, things can never go according to plan, as the anti symbiote agents swoop into the scene to turn this farce into a real battle. Ironically enough, Paul Rabin and Dylan Brock, the two people Mary Jane is fighting too keep safe, wander right into the danger. On top of all this, the Sleeper symbiote, which has been secretly possessing the body of Rick Jones, decides the chaos provides the perfect opportunity to break his friends out of containment. The only obstacle in his way is the dastardly Doctor Octopus, the government taskforce’s secret weapon. All of Venom’s threats are closing in, and issue #7 sells this heightening of stakes with expert skill.