august 2013 previews

August 2013

VENOM #39
CULLEN BUNN (W)
THONY SILAS (A)
Cover by DECLAN SHALVEY
• Venom’s secret identity is discovered! And not by whom you’d expect!
• A hit has been taken out on Venom’s life--and cold-blooded killers are crawling out of the woodwork to collect!
• Even in tough times, every super hero needs a sidekick, right?

SUPERIOR CARNAGE #2 (of 5)
KEVIN SHINICK (W)
STEPHEN SEGOVIA (A)
Cover by CLAYTON CRAIN
VARIANT Cover by RAFA GARRES
• CARNAGE IS CAPTURED! But can the Wizard and Klaw subdue him long enough to create their SUPERIOR CARNAGE?
• KEVIN SHINICK (Avenging Spider-Man) and STEPHEN SEGOVIA (X-Treme X-Men) perform unspeakable acts to create their own monster issue!

THUNDERBOLTS #14
CHARLES SOULE (W)
Jefte Palo (A)
Cover by JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO INFINITY TIE-IN
• New Ongoing Creative Team!
• While the Avengers are away…the THUNDERBOLTS STRIKE!
• Can they take out all of NYC’s mafia before…anything goes wrong?

ultimate spider-man 23

One Year Later

In the second page of Ultimate Spider-Man 23, Venom makes an 'appearance' :

I don't really consider this an appearance  since it doesn't take place within the story, so it won't be listed in the checklist. I just wanted to mention it in case anyone would like to pick up this issue solely for this page.

[Thanks to Anti-Poison for the tip]

rough sketches of venom 37 by declan shalvey

Shalvey Sketches

In today's interview with Robot 6, Declan Shalvey shared some rough sketches of his cover for Venom 37:

Your main work for the past couple months has been drawing Venom for Marvel. Venom’s a very cartoonish character visually, but adding the military approach Tony Moore did gives it a little more substance. Visually, art-wise, what’s it like drawing a character that you can do more with than a standard human body? 
Venom has been a great book to work on, but the character specifically has been a real pleasure to draw. I think Tony designed an excellent costume that’s a great mix of military gear, organic elements and that classic Venom still incorporated. I had a hard time getting my head around how to draw him at first, but then everything clicked together and now drawing him is like second nature. I think what I've done with him is stray a little from what Tony did, especially in the eyes. The goggle-eyes weren't working for me, so I wanted to make the eyes creepier, and because the costume itself is a living thing, I could incorporate small changes quite organically. The suit allowed me to be a lot more expressive with how I drew him. The panels where Flash loses control were great to draw because I could actually change his physical appearance to portray his emotions, which is a great tool to have and something you couldn't do with another masked character like Spider-Man for example. Balancing that grounded military look with the more cartoonish symbiotic elements was really interesting and satisfying.

venom sales

Venom Sales Data

Diamond Comics Distribution's comic book sales data.  Keep in mind that these numbers are only estimates, and they do not factor in sales from newsstands, book stores, or overseas markets.

Month	Comic	Rank	Est Sales	% Up/Down
Apr 2013	Venom 34	94	22,119	-0.93%
Apr 2013	Venom 33	93	22,326	-0.84%
Mar 2013	Venom 32	100	22,521	-3.92%
Feb 2013	Venom 31	91	23,441	-4.51%
Jan 2013	Venom 30	83	24,548	-0.38%
Jan 2013	Venom 29	82	24,641	-3.64%
Dec 2012	Venom 28	85	25,572	-17.83%
Nov 2012	Venom 27 Venom 27.1	74 85	31,121 25,729	-1.85%
Oct 2012	Venom 26	80	31,708	+25.63%
Sept 2012	Venom 25	89	25,240	-16.08%
Sept 2012	Venom 24	76	30,078	+12.01%
Aug 2012	Venom 23	91	26,854	+0.45%
Aug 2012	Venom 22	93	26,734	+0.74%
July 2012	Venom 21	88	26,538	-1.51%
July 2012	Venom 20	87	26,945	-6.10%
June 2012	Venom 19	86	28,696	+1.37%
May 2012	Venom 18	92	28,307	-6.13%
May 2012	Venom 17	84	30,155	+6.03%
Apr 2012	Venom 16	77	28,440	-1.45%
Apr 2012	Venom 15	73	28,858	-0.25%
Mar 2012	Venom 14	69	28,929	-12.79%
Feb 2012	Venom 13 Venom 13.1 Venom 13.2 Venom 13.3 Venom 13.4	61 72 75 78 76	33,170 27,517 27,152 26,966 27,123	+15.45%
Jan 2012	Venom 12	66	28,732	+0.25%

REVIEW: venom war

The new Ultimate Venom's reign of terror ended a couple weeks ago, but I am just now getting a moment to collect my thoughts on his debut in Venom Wars.  Was he a better Venom than the original? Here are my thoughts.

The Story: After killing Betty Brandt, Venom arrives in front of Miles' door looking for Spider-Man.

The Good: The Look - I like the look artist Sara Pinchelli gave to the retooled Venom.  For some reason the monstrous design works in the Ultimate Universe for me.  The Fights - Venom vs Spidey in the streets and then again in the hospital rank up there as some of the best symbiote fight scenes in recent memory.  I especially appreciated the call back as Miles tries to remember how Peter originally handled Venom.

The Bad: Venom - Lets start with the host - who is he?  This arc was the first Miles Spidey story I read; Conrad Marcus means nothing to me.  At least with the original Venom, they developed the story of Eddie Brock Jr. within the Venom arc so you knew a little bit about the host as well as the suit.  Speaking of the suit, how about bridging the gap between when we last saw the suit (and Eddie) to this new Venom's sudden appearance. 

The Overall: 2.5 outta 5.  I am a fan of Ultimate Venom (more so his first appearance than his latter ones), but I just didn't get excited enough for this Venom 2.0.  Sure this was a HUGE arc as far as story development for Spider-Man, but as a Venom fan I want more story for the villain.  I guess my biggest complaint is that I don't like how Bendis writes symbiotes.  Hopefully he will change my mind when (if) Miles battles a new Carnage down the road.