REVIEW: Venom - Lethal Protector : Demons Occultatum

After the way that “Rise Of Carnage” perverted the title of “Lethal Protector”, I had some initial hesitation while picking up this book. Once I opened it and found the style to be faithfully 90’s and written by the hand behind the original series, David Micheline, I recognized that my go-to Marvel vs. Capcom fighter was ready for another crazy adventure that would not damage his legacy.

Multiple stories are told at once here in this first issue of Lethal Protector all bound within the realm of sci-fi and the never-ending thirst for redemption from the main character. Venom appears to be fresh off of getting fired from the Bugle, and is swinging into his ex-wife’s house just to find her engaged to another man while he’s sleeping in abandoned buildings and subway stations, inadvertently scaring off women while stopping them from getting mugged.
What Micheline is doing here is bringing Venom back from the godhood that the recent mythos has pedestalize everyone’s favorite symbiote to the heights of.

I can’t see myself being a child in this era and being inspired to get a Klyntarian spider-symbol on my chest with the complicated creature Eddie Brock has become. This Eddie though is a loveable loser, and exemplifies the anti-hero I know and love : “Obsessed with justice … and killing Spider-Man”. Fault is this version of Venom’s of flavor, and the taste is one of tested fire, like Bizarro mixed with The Punisher – this is Venom trying his hand at the super-hero thing and though it may look goofy in some instances. Most of the scenes are in the lab and amongst Taskmaster’s henchman, to endear these new characters to the audience. But Venom has been on the block and at the core of Venom’s actions his efforts are not based in humor, but insanity, something that the films based off this era could never understand or fully realize.

That’s okay though, because Micheline is willing to take the Marvel faithful back to school, but even though this can serve as a remedial course, truly this remix of “Venom : Lethal Protector” follows the same vein of “X-Men Legends” or “Spider-Man Ben Reilly”, but without the same promo campaign for either title. But ever the underdog, Venom would be proud of the rollout for this series with Valenza’s base colors, Fiorelli’s art that is far from Clayton Crain level, but captures the simplicity of Venom’s first foray into his own comic series, finding his own legs. Well, Eddie should not have any problem now, with the rich universe built around him that Spidey doesn’t even have to pop his head into one issue of this new series ! Ask Venom what it’s like to be around for thirty plus years and he’ll probably say : “Seniority has its perks, and this is one of them.”

Score : 3/5

(W) David Michelinie (A) Ivan Fiorelli (CA) Paolo Siqueira