Review: Venom: First Host #5, the end of a chapter
After 5 issues, Venom: First Host comes to an end. Fortunately, the finale concludes the series in a satisfying way. Read our review below!
All good things have to end, and that’s the case with Venom: First Host too. A mini-series that tells the story of the symbiote’s first host coming back to Venom’s life. And even if the finale doesn’t feature a great final battle, it wraps things up on the best way possible. My main fear coming out of Venom: First Host #4 was that the ending could risk feeling a little rushed. However, that’s not the case at all. It delivers a proper send-off for the saga and an entertaining read for everyone that’s been following the series up until now.
The good
The thing that I enjoyed the most about this issue were the illustrations. They look great, and some problems that the series had in that regard were not present here. As I said earlier, there isn’t a huge and violent final battle for the Lethal-Protector, but the action itself looks good. Unlike other issues, the illustrations on the fight segments are really detailed and provide you with a sense of speed and strength for the characters. That’s always welcome in comic books, and I certainly enjoyed that here.
The story is also good for the most part. It manages to end the series on a high note. But while it solves many plot threads from the series, there’s one character sendoff that feels kind of underwhelming. After everything that has happened so far, that character just kind of goes and that’s it. There’s no proper goodbye. Aside from that, there’s nothing but good things to say about the story and the way it manages to do so much with very limited time. There aren’t loose ends and every character’s arc comes to an end in a great way (except for the one we mentioned above). And speaking of character’s endings, the way the main bad guy is defeated is awesome. It’s unexpected but effective.
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The final battle is short, but it gives Eddie a great challenge as he’s the one that has to face it. It serves as a nice conclusion for Brock’s story, and it establishes why the symbiote and Eddie really need each other. It was a good tactic but it also brought something bad to the table (more on that later).
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Overall, Venom: First Host has a great story. Not without its flaws, but it entertained all the way through. And it’s always nice to see who was the symbiote’s very first victim.
The bad
One of the main problems with the whole series was the lack of Venom and his natural violence. You’d be surprised that he doesn’t get appear that much on a series titled Venom First Host. And that’s also the case here, as he’s not even present for the final battle. The main character since the very beginning has been Eddie Brock and that’s not bad at all. But seeing Venom get a very limited amount of time to shine (even in the action segments) is not that great.
And there’s also one other thing that, when you think about it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. And that’s the way the villain comes back for the final battle. Let’s just say that it’s pretty much left unexplained. He or she kind of just appears at the end because there needed to be one last confrontation, I guess. But at that very moment I couldn’t help but think “Wait, what are you doing here? How on Earth did you come here?”. And that dragged me out of this experience more than I would’ve liked.
Next. Review: Spider-Geddon #0 is the start of something big. dark
In the end, Venom: First Host #5 serves as a great conclusion for the series, just not a perfect one. There were some flaws here and there (as in almost all comic books). Fortunately, there were more good things than bad ones, and for that reason, this issue will be enjoyed a lot by many fans of the series.
Mike Costa, Mark Bagley, Paco Diaz, Andrew Hennessy, Dono Sánchez-Almara, VC's Clayton Cowles. . Venom: First Host #5. B+.
So what do you think about Venom: First Host as a whole? Let us know in the comments below! And stick around with Whatever A Spider Can for more comic book reviews.