Death of the Venomverse

Venomverse

by Cullen Bunn, Gerardo Sandoval (Illustrator), Victor Olazaba (Illustrator)

Kill all Venoms! After being spurned by Cletus Kasady and remaking itself in Knull's image, the Carnage symbiote has been building up its powers, extracting unique abilities from villains all across the Marvel Universe. Now, at last, it is ready to traverse the Multiverse with one goal in kill any and all Venoms! But why? And who is the Agent Venom battling across realities to stop it?! As Carnage's savage, symbiotic rampage through realities threatens to end the Venomverse, will Agent Venom manage to recruit enough allies to even stand a chance? Or could it be that Carnage is destined to win? Legendary creator David Michelinie brings you a classic tale in the vein of LETHAL PROTECTOR - or is there more than meets the eye? And brace yourself for Kid Venom! Collects Death of the Venomverse (2023) #1-5.

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Horror, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

168 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2023

About the author

Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

Reviews

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should just be called Carnage Rules the Multiverse LOL
Since losing his connection to a host (Cletus Kasady) Carnage has been seeking a way to become all powerful. Having lost the weakness of a Host body, he now only has 3 weaknesses left, the same as most symbiotes: fire, electricity, and sonics. By jumping through the multiverse, Carnage is able to kill and absorb the Codex of any Venom, and gain its power and abilities. Standing in his way is an Agent Venom, Anne Weyring from Earth-1051, and her other Venoms. (Basically kind of a Spider-Verse idea, but all Venom.
By the end, not only has Carnage eliminated all the symbiote weaknesses, but has also absorbed Anti-Venom antibodies AND one of the universe's Knull, making him a King in Black (or Red, in this case) outright. What is his end goal?
Overall, this was very violent and typical of Carnage, which worked. Definitely worth a read if you love the character.
Recommend.

[Shane Stanis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything a multiversal event should be:
Punching
Variants galore
Straightforward story you can jump into without know much
Easter eggs
Stabbing
Zillions of battle splash pages
Punching

It got a little muddled towards the end, but it still passed my Secret Wars test: if at any point while reading it do I think, “this is so stupid and I love it!”

[Ahadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is AMAZING unlike other books where the heroes win which gets boring sometimes this book has the opposite everyone died, and I mean everyone it was crazy this book was worth it and I recommend reading this

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okayish event/story and its a sort of sequel to the Venomverse stories the same writer did but I'd recommend reading Cates venom run to understand a lot of things happening here, also the Carnage 2022 series which sets up Carnage going through the multiverse and killing symbiotes and gaining their power..

And here's a continuation of that as he is killing variants left and right to get their powers, and what I love about the story is how it has a band of heroes aka Symbiote squad led by Agent Venom Anne from Cates run and the VIRUS, and who it turns out to be is interesting, and I love how it shows trying to stop this foe but how unstoppable he has become and their failings and all and through the issues you can see Carnage taking down enemies and yeah maybe thats one of its negatives also, its like put a symbiote on a hero or villain and say they are from diff. realities and for some people it may be not that appealing and may take them out of the story as its just killing for the sake of the event but then again its carnage and the last thing this character is.. is rational so him going on a binge feast of murder and mayhem is normal for the character.

And I like how the writer keeps that tone, and especially in the end when Carnage takes on Knull of other reality and wins and I am guessing this is all set to upgrade Carnage to god level for the big Carnage vs Venom in Al ewing run, which I am so looking forward to now..

And the way it ends is very different and yeah maybe its setting a future story to come but in many ways its like "tbc" and for some readers it being not a thing contained to itself is a turn-off, and so choose what side you will, but its a fun event story with lots of murder and mayhem and showing the true threat that is Carnage and does well to give readers of the symbiote comics a lot of easter eggs and payoff that I liked as well!!

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise is sound...
Carnage continues on its quest to become even MORE powerful. It is now jumping from dimension to dimension killing Venom variants that have powers. It's pretty much the opposite of the Spiderverse stories. This is hopeless. Carnage is laying waste to ALL of these multiverse Venoms.

We get callbacks from previous storylines and issue arcs. This is five issues of, 'Hey. We brought this up months ago in another series. Remember this thing?' It's still fun to see all the different Venomized characters. It hasn't quite burned out like the Spiderverse stories did.

If you've read ANY Venom stories in the last 5 years, most of this should make sense. There's at least one version of a character you're familiar with. Mania pops up (from whatever universe). Silence also shows up (the 616 Andi in her latest symbiote outfit). We have Agent Parker and Deadpool making an appearance. There's even the Symbiote Six (Venomized Doc Ock?).

The ending is going to be divisive. It ends on a downer and you'll need to...
BE READY FOR THE NEXT SERIES CONTINUING THE STORYLINE.

See you all in a few months for the 'Carnage' (2023) TPB review?
------
Bonus: Why aren't they sending the Poisons after Carnage? Did I miss something?

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Between this and Carnage Reigns, Marvel really dropped the ball with everything Ram V set up with his Carnage book.

This series follows the Carnage symbiote, now basically omnipotent after absorbed superpowers from across the multiverse. Venoms from every possible world unite to try and defeat him, which goes about as well as you'd expect, with a downer of an ending that made me wonder why I'd bothered at all.

The art's nice at least, Gerardo Sandoval's always a treat on symbiote books, and I do like that Cullen Bunn never misses a chance to bring Andi Benton back into the mix. This just feels like...not what Carnage was aiming for, for the past year and a half.

[Crazed8J8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tale, and I chose to read this without having read much of the recent books that came before (which means, there was a LOT that I was missing.)
Overall, though, a quick romp through the Multiverse of Venoms. A lot of neat versions, and a fast and fun read. Ended on a bit of a fizzle though.
the back-up stories were both good, too, and those were pleasant surprises.
Decent pacing and solid artwork throughout. I enjoyed it.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

What you see is what you get, pretty much without exception. If you want to see Carnage killing off a multitude of different versions of Venom, well that's what you're in for. The art's not bad and the story, while a bit depressing, isn't terrible. It also doesn't seem to be complete at the end. Will there be another story arc to wrap this up?

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hop to one universe, kill or assimilate, hop to another universe, kill or assimilate, throw in lots of metal imagery.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story makes me shrug.

The backups don’t fit.

[Yasser Maniram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vibrant, energetic art and one-liners. Great for fans of Carnage, Venom, mutants.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. It was pretty anticlimactic for me. Just kind of ended and not in an interesting way.

[Maeve Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the kid venom story in the end

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprise ending.

[Roman · Rating 1 out of 5]

​​Коли Марвел анонсували "Death of Venomverse" я пожартував про те, що вони повернули Бана, але це було б тупо правда? Тобто, логічно якби цю серію дали писати комусь з тих хто працює над серіями про симібонтів зараз, тим же Юінґу, Пакнаделу та того ж  Мікеліні би покликали, не на бек-ап, а на основу (Рама Ві не називаю, бо підозрюю, що він вже давно вирішив помахати ручкою та піти ексклюзивно в DC). Однак ми таки отримали Бана на сценарії, але хей, цього разу у нас сюжет про Карнажа, а не пойзонів, може і вийде щось хороше.

Сам сюжет продовжує лінію Карнажа з його сольної серії в якій він поглинув здібності різних поганців і вирішив знищити Веномів з різних світів. В результаті сюжет йде за формулою в якій Карнаж вривається в якийсь всесвіт, загін Веномів йде за ним, Карнаж поглинає чиїсь здібності, починається бійка в якій Карнаж/Веноми отримують на горіхи і відступають, після чого цикл повторюється. І все би нічого, але написано це максимально нецікаво та ніяк, за жодного з персонажів не переживаєш оскільки, майже, всі вони є рандомами яких і вигадали для того щоб вбити. Єдині хто мені концептуально сподобалися це симіботична Валькірія та Веном гітарист, от їх хотілося б ще побачити.

Щодо малюнку то тут ситуація трохи краща, якщо в першому номері малюнок Сандовала мені взагалі не сподобався то в наступних він вже видав щось більш-менш непогане, ну або я просто звик до його стилю в наступних номерах.

Повертаючись до сюжету то найбільше мене вибісило те, що в серія закінчилася відкритим фіналом. І я розумію, що історія Карнажа продовжиться в його новій соло серії у якій він повернеться до Клетуса, але через це "DoV" відчувається як трата часу. І до речі про возз'єднання з Клетусом, а нафіга Карнажу до нього повертатися? Він тут переміг і довів, що успішно здатен діяти без господаря. В чому сенс?

В результаті серія яка повинно було бути кульмінацією "літа симібонтів" вийшла величезним не вартим уваги пшиком. Тепер чекаємо на нову серію про Карнажа від Ґрьонбек,а щодо Бана то сподіваюсь, що йому дадуть якусь серію про Маґнето і не будуть підпускати до Дедпула.