All-New Venom # 3

 By Mark Rodriguez 

The mystery continues to determine which one of the four suspects, Robbie Robertson, Rick Jones, Luke Cage or Madame Masque is the All-New Venom. When Doctor Fortissimo, his AIM soldiers and Chance gather at one of Madame Masque's known hideouts, Venom appears. Chance shoots Venom in the face, leaving a gaping hole. Dylan Brock is watching and says that rules out Luke Cage. What happens next?

The story continues as Chance stares at Venom that has a huge bullet hole where his face should be. Chance says he made a bet with either Taskmaster or Black Ant on whether or not it was Luke Cage wearing the symbiote. They have a similar height and similar build and he figures Cage missed the hero life. If Venom was Cage, the bullet would have bounced off his head instead of going all the way through, so the human host must be shorter. Now he guesses it might really be Madame Masque under the symbiote. 

Dylan watches through the window and says it might be Masque... but also Robbie or Rick. Venom, who has now regrown his face back, says he sees Chance's bet and raises it. Venom forms wrists guns. Chance crosses his arms and says that wrist guns are his thing. The AIM soldiers yell to each other to open fire. Venom agrees and opens fire upon them.

 

The bullets Venom fires are actually like web-filled paint balls. One of them hits one of the AIM soldier's guns right as he pulled the trigger. The other soldier after him tells him how to re-direct the kinetic energy but the explanation on how to do so is so long, the gun explodes before he can do anything. Venom tells the guy to build a safety feature that takes less to do than say next time. The soldier weakly pulls a thumbs up and thanks Venom for the feedback. 

Doctor Fortissimo blasts Venom with 150 decibels from his sonic cannons. While Venom has built a tolerance for sound, it still packs a punch.  Chance yells that he's going to burst everybody's ear drums. Fortissimo doesn't care and cranks up the volume. Venom tries desperately to keep himself together as he's getting ripped off his host. Dylan watches as the shock waves move towards him, shattering the window in front of him and cutting him up. Venom turns and notices Dylan.

Venom screams Dylan's name and charges towards Fortissimo. The villain calls for Venom to stand down, Venom leaps up and lands on Fortissimo, slamming him down. He tells Fortissimo that he can hurt him, but hurting a child, his son, is where he puts his foot down. As he says this, the enraged symbiote slams his foot onto Fortissimo's arm, smashing the armor.

Venom stomps onto his other arm, pinning the villain down with both feet. Venom asks Chance if he's going to take his shot, asking if he likes his odds. Chance puts his arms up and asking if there's no hard feelings. Venom webs him up and says he's a smart boy.

Dylan notice the gash on his cheek and says he'll need stitches. He tried to get away but Venom grabs him and lifts him up by one of his tentacles. Venom asks if he knows what time it is. Dylan is angry Venom is joking around. He says he broke their bond, he ran away and he left him alone again. Venom apologizes and says that the Spider-Man in him. Dylan says he can tell what parts of his behavior are from Venom and what parts are from his new host, which he intends to find out. Venom says that Dylan should go home with the family that Flash set him up with. 

Dylon says the 'two rich snots' don't know him and aren't his family. He says Venom is his family and asks why he isn't with him now. Dylan is also angry at the deal Flash made so he could live with MJ and Paul. He says Bren went to his big house while Normie and Rascal joined the Young Patriots. He asks why Sleeper isn't with him. Venom says he knows where Sleeper is and he's working on it.

Venom says they can't say too much in public since webbed up villains still have ears. Chance says he doesn't mind. He already missed General Hospital so he might as well enjoy their soap opera.

Venom tells Dylan that he's safe with his new foster parents and his safety is his top priority. He says their bond is of father and son. Dylan wants him back but Venom says that right now it can't be possible. He hugs him and says none of this means he loves him any less. Dylan guesses he's Robertson. Venom tells him to stop. 

Dylan asks if he at least knows where his father is. Venom says Eddie was last seen at the Church Our Lady of Saints, after they got rid of the Zombiotes. Dylan says they never found the body, unless he's currently Venom. Venom says he'd be able to sense if Eddie was dead, but where he is, he can't follow. Dylan brings up his suspect list again and asks if he's Madame Masque. Madame Masque herself appears and says clearly not, unless there's someone else under her mask.

Venom tells Dylan to get behind him. Masque says she's not going to hurt a child, and doesn't intend to hurt Venom either. She says she owes her for covering her escape. Folson was so busy fighting against Venom he never chased her. Venom asks how she got away from her containment at the trial.

Masque explains one of her heels had a Directional Sonic Drill, and one of the security guards retired to parts unknown after coming into an inheritance. She asks Venom if he intends to leave with the boy and a nice pay out for his services, or if they're going to have a problem.

Venom says Madame Masque is a bad guy and when he sees bad guys, they'll always have a problem. Masque asks if Venom ever looked in the mirror and starts to open fire on him. Venom grabs Dylan and leaps out of the way. The bullets are incendiary shells. Venom tells Dylan to stay flat and crawl under the smoke. Venom leaps over the gun fire and socks Masque across the face, sending her flying back against a bunch of crates.

Madame Masque says she's wounded but this is when she's most dangerous. She can detonate all of her ammo and burn the whole building down. She says she's sure Venom's son already got out, but she mentions all the webbed up bad guys. She asks if Venom is capable of letting them all die just so she can score a win. Chance pleads for Venom to listen to Masque. Masque tells Venom that the others aren't relative and are just bad guys. She asks Venom if he will choose to leave her alone and put out the fire, or will he risks so many lives as a Lethal Protector. 

Venom chooses to put out the fire and tells Madame Masque that he's not done with her. Fortissimo is impressed by Venom's fire-retardant webbing. Venom tells him to keep quiet.

Dylan returns home and sneaks back into his bedroom window, where Paul is waiting for him. Paul says MJ just called, being worried about him, like he had been for the last couple of hours. Dylan says Paul doesn't know what he's going through and he isn't his father. Paul says he might not be, but unlike his real father, he is here for him now. Paul says all he can do is continue to try his best, hoping to get a second chance to make up for the blood on his hands. Paul taunts Dylan on 'not knowing what he's going through' and says he'll call MJ. He tells Dylan to get some sleep.

Elsewhere, we see Madame Masque speaking to someone off panel. The person she's speaking with asks about the point of their meeting. Madame says it's the usual point when two villains meet, similar enemies and similar goals. She wants AIM under control and he wants AIM under his control, so they can help each other. The man says he heard she met Doctor Fortissimo. Masque says Venom took care of him before she even got there. She says it was easy to play Venom, he cared more about saving random nobodies that taking out the actual threat. She pulls out a vial or some blue substance and says Venom didn't even notice she was able to take it.

The man appreciates how Madame Masque has vision. He comments that this is why Andrew Forson needs to go. We see she was talking to MODOK, who comments on how Dr. Forson was too small minded. MODOK asks Madame Masque if she's ready for them to get started.

 

My Thoughts-

A very action-packed issue as Venom faces several villains, all while making sure that Dylan is safe. For people keeping score, this rules the suspects down to two people, Robbie Robertson and Rick Jones. Luke Cage is too tall to be the mystery host, who is shorter when they're not Venom, plus he's bulletproof so Chance's shot would have bounced off his head, rather than shoot through it. We actually saw Venom and Madame Masque as two separate people, so that naturally rules the villain out. Right now the hints are Venom's fatherly talk, which could have come from Robbie, or his wisecracking banter that could have come from Rick.

One thing I noticed about this All-New Venom is that he has regular non-sharp teeth. Whenever Dylan was in danger though, Venom flipped out and retained more of his usual appearance with the sharp teeth. This Venom is also a lot more non-lethal, so he's not killing people and eating brains. While, I wouldn't push it when he was that angry, the most Venom did was possibly break Fortissimo's arms rather than all-out maul him to death. We still don't know why Venom chose this new host and why 'things have to be this way'. 

Most of the issue takes place in Masque's warehouse so we didn't get another scene of what Robbie and the others were doing during all of this. We can only have Cage, Robertson and Rick leave and come back at the same time, each with a convenient excuse, before it gets ridiculous. They were going to work together to find out who Venom is. I doubt they would have found out about Chance almost shooting Venom's head off, but they should find out that Venom was fighting against Madame Masque as a separate entity. Ruling her out will only cause more friction between the three.

I did like the joke when Venom gave the AIM guy advise on their tech and the guy appreciated the feedback, as well as Chance's line about Venom and Dylan's soap opera. Venom is right though, Dylan kind of opened himself up as a target, which puts him as well as MJ and Paul in danger if Masque were to seek retaliation.

Speaking of which, now we have MODOK coming into this. I'm curious to see what plans Masque and MODOK cook up next issue, as well as finding out what that vial was that Masque stole.