Venom #33: Midnight Creature Feature

Artist Juan Ferreyra is the MVP of this month’s Venom #33, embracing the premise of Marvel’s latest crossover event to bring a one-of-a-kind atmosphere to the comic. With vampires walking free and unafraid throughout New York City, Venom must face off against monsters with larger fangs than even his own. But The symbiote is only half the person it used to be since parting ways with both Eddie Brock and his teenage son Dylan. Issue #33 follows the latter as well, as he attempts to survive the everlasting night.

The opening pages of the comic exemplify the level of fun that Ferreyra and Ewing bring to the rather basic synopsis of Blood Hunt. Most of the event tie-ins released so far portray the vampire invaders as an indistinguishable horde, only slightly more humanized than zombies. This creative team, however, takes the time to flesh out even throwaway vamps for the sake of worldbuilding.

Two undead pilots hailing from the 20th and 18th centuries fly a decrepit WWII bomber over the New York city skyline, reflecting on their immortality and loyalty to a mysterious master. Their mission is simply: drop a secret weapon in the middle of the city to cause as much chaos as possible. The weapon turns out to be a member of the Epsiloni race, predator to all organic life including symbiotes.

Ferreyra ensures that the confrontation between the two creatures, and the issue in general, oozes with a Tim Burtonesque spookiness. He ditches clean panels bordering in favor of organic, messy outlines. The lines fray at the corners like Venom’s webbing and presents each panel as if in a picture frame. The backgrounds come alive with a color palette of violent purples, sickly greens, and jack-o-lantern orange. Venom, existing without a host, takes on a more spindly, cartoonish form that would not feel out of place in an old creature feature. The one page spread of a decaying corpse rising from its grave is the comic’s pièce de résistance, solidifying it as a reliable horror story.