Donny Cates has been carving out his own piece of real estate within the Marvel Universe predominately with his fantastic runs on Thanos and Venom. His penchant for darker toned narratives is not only serving him well, but serving up some of the best stories Marvel has to offer. Following up his stellar turn on the monthly Venom title, Cates has given us the first of a series of one-shots based on the horror tinged symbiote saga and titled Web of Venom featuring the likes of Venom and Carnage. The first entry is an origin tale of sorts, Ve’Nam #1 features one heck of a cast of characters including Nick Fury who is desperately in need of a new weapon to fight an enemy unlike any he has faced before. The S.H.I.E.L.D. veteran recruits none other than Wolverine to aid him in his search and soon finds more than he bargained for when an alien ancestor of the Klyntar symbiotes known as the Grendel   makes short work of shredding Fury’s men. This leads Fury to Rex Strickland and gives Cates an opportunity for some extremely satisfying character development that shines some light on the current state of affairs in the Venom ongoing series. Sound a bit like Predator? Well Cates definitely pays homage to the 80’s action film in his narrative, calling to mind the tense, suspense filled jungle thriller in only the best possible ways.
Cates’ white knuckle narrative leaves the starting gate tense and ramps up the tension with each panel, the pace is deliberate and measured, punctuated with gory scenes of the symbiote’s handy work, leading to some plot twists that would make M. Night Shyamalan exclaim, “What a twist!” One flaw in Cates’ symbiotic symphony is that the momentum seems to sputter out a bit before the final page. For all the taut suspense and perfectly timed twists the narrative kind of lumbers home in a conclusion that is still satisfying but somehow feels “phoned-in” in light of the top-notch storytelling that precedes it.
Visually, Juanan Ramirez matches Cates darker tone and raises it. He weaves shadow and light into a macabre ballet of violence that is at times sublime in its terrifying tableau. The symbiote is menacing, calling to mind H.R. Giger’s Alien with its jagged teeth and long slender talon-like fingers. Ramirez definitely has a handle on this horror thing the one problem i had with this issue was some of the panels appeared to be awkwardly “cut off” diminishing some of the more complex compositions.
Cates and company succeed overall with a solid narrative and engrossing plot. Ve’Nam delivers some really great moments and some truly memorable dialog. As the first in a series of one-shots this book sets the bar fairly high for those to follow and begins the labor intensive work of building a Venom-verse inside the larger Marvel Universe. Not only do these books showcase Cates’ ability to carry an ongoing series based on essentially a Spider-Man villain, but to do so without a single appearance of the aforementioned Web-Slinger is a testament to his character work as well as his storytelling. Take note Sony, this is how you build a Spider-Manless Venom-verse. 4/5
