Remender Interview
In his most recent interview with CBR, Rick Remender talks about upcoming Venom issues as well as February's Venom Event - "Circle of Four." Here are some snippets (of the parts that got me most excited), for the full article go here:
"If you like the way things are playing out in 'Uncanny X-Force' I think you'll love the stories we having coming up in 'Venom,' which will stretch all the way up to issue #23. All of this involves a big plot that's been boiling in the background since issue #1 with Crime Master, his weapons dealing, and what he's ultimately up to," Remender explained. "Crime Master sets this all in motion by blackmailing Flash to go to Las Vegas to acquire something that he wants. What that is will be revealed, but not until issue #12. This thing that Crime Master is sending him to retrieve is in a casino in Las Vegas and is something that Spider-Man fans will be excited to see return. It's going to play a giant role in the story lines of this coming year."Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride! It's a good time to be a Venom fan!
In order to acquire the item Crime Master needs Flash goes A.W.O.L. with the Venom symbiote and the government responds by sending its other super soldiers after him. However, they won't be the only people hunting symbiotes.
"In issue #10 Captain America gets into a scuffle with Venom, which leads him to send the Red Hulk after Flash," Remender remarked. "Complicating things even further is our new supporting cast member Eddie Brock who is lurking in the background. He's become a Van Helsing style symbiote hunter with this sneaking suspicion that the symbiotes are a plague sent from the black depths of space to take over Earth. Who knows if he's right or wrong, but he's going to go out and kill them all to make sure they don't take over the planet. He's got this religious fervor. He's convinced that he's doing God's work here."
February's "Venom" #13 is the first chapter of the "Circle of Four" event by Remender and artist Tony Moore, which sees Flash Thompson arrive in Las Vegas for the beginning of a special 6-part story line guest-starring Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, the Red Hulk and X-23. "Everybody agreed that pinning it on the 'Venom' series proper was the right way to do it because it feeds out of so many things that are being built up in 'Venom;' his road trip to Las Vegas, why Crime Master sent him there, what he finds when he's there, and Rulk chasing him. The big reveal that he uncovers is that Vegas is the site of a power struggle taking place between Mephisto and Blackheart for control of Earth. I just love that, in the midst of all these threats, Flash can actually handle what he unearths [and it's] that, 'Oh the Devil and his son are trying to take over the planet.'
"During the course of this Ghost Rider is tricked into opening a centrifuge for Blackheart, which causes Hell to explode out of Hell and to start creeping across the Earth. So Las Vegas is transformed into Hell on Earth and it starts spreading. Johnny Blaze uses a relic to hold it back, but no one can get in or out of this sphere of Hell. So it's up to the people that are inside and that's Ghost Rider, Blaze, X-23, Red Hulk and Venom," Remender continued. "So while our story does pay visual homage to what Walt Simonson and Art Adams did -- and we got a Walt Simonson cover, which is pretty crazy -- it really needed to develop into something that felt like its own special thing."
Venom, X-23, Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze and the Red Hulk's struggle to save Las Vegas and the Earth from Mephisto and Blackheart begins in "Venom" #13. It then runs through issues #13.1-13.4 and concludes in issue #14.
The Venom event is also a story that will have dramatic impact on the lives of each of its main cast members. "After 'Venom' #14 nothing will be the same for Venom, Ghost Rider, X-23, or Red Hulk. All of us have plans to bleed these events into the characters' own books as well as my upcoming run on 'Secret Avengers,'" Remender remarked.
"Then for Venom, it changes the landscape of his universe entirely. The pieces are on the board to insure that Venom comes out of this a very different person. This journey for him takes him as low as I could possibly take character in a mainstream comic," Remender continued. "I just wish I could talk more about the coming arcs because I'm so excited about them. The stuff that's coming up with the symbiotes is so big and will have such a ramification on the Marvel Universe that Flash will all of sudden be placed in a situation where he's not just a covert ops super hero trying to save some lives. The fate of an entire continent might soon be in his hands. He's going to have to learn how to deal with that especially since he's also going to become an Avenger."
Venom will have a higher profile in the Marvel Universe in 2012 thanks to his upcoming membership in the "Secret Avengers," but he'll continue to be a vital part of the Spider-Man Universe as well. "The looming threat out there is what happens when Peter finds out? Everybody asks when we're going to hit that. That note is too powerful for me to hit casually. That note is a six-issue story that would be a terrific one to tell, perhaps during the summer the new Spider-Man movie comes out," Remender said with a laugh. "So 'Venom' is absolutely going to play a giant role in the Spider-Man universe moving forward. Flash and Peter's complex relationship will become more complex at some point I would imagine. Plus, 'Amazing Spider-Man' writer Dan Slott and I speak often and I would hate to give anything away, but I do believe Venom will play a role in next year's big Spider-Man story, 'Ends of the Earth.'"