HCB Two-in-One

Reviews: Madman

Rat Queens #1

Writer: Kurtis J. Wiebe
Artist: Owen Gieni
Letterer: Ryan Ferrier

Rat Queens is back! Happy day, clowns, wizbangs, and stuff! I honestly can’t remember when the last issue of the first volume came out off hand, but it’s been a long damn time. So long that we questioned if our beloved band of riffraff were gone for good.

A few things have changed in Rat Queen Land; one being the obvious reboot back to #1 and the other being the fact we’ve another new artist on the book, one Mr. Owen Gieni. I have no clue who he is, but after reading his first issue behind the scribbles, I’m not going to complain. Gieni will be the fourth artist on this book and it just might be a cursed gig. Original artist Ron Upchurch got himself arrested for domestic violence. Stjepan Sejic took over but soon had to quit because of health reasons, and Tess Fowler took point. I’ve no clue why Fowler was replaced but was saddened to hear of her departure, because her issues were pure eye candy. Gieni will do though.      

The writing is as foul-mouthed and hilarious as it’s ever been. Wiebe is on point. I totally can’t remember much of what happened in the first volume, so I’ll definitely be doing some rereading of a few issues. Hannah, Violet, Dee, and my personal favorite, the hippy Halfling rogue, Betty, are back in force. As an added bonus, Braga, the orc warrior, joins back up with the Queens in their quest for plunder, glory, and other unmentionable things. I don’t want to drop any major spoilers so I won’t give away any of the other surprises. I’m super excited this series is back and so happy Wiebe didn’t muck up one of the best comics hitting print these days.

Venom #4

Writer: Mike Costa
Artists: Gerardo Sandoval
Inker: Victor Olazaba
Color Artist: Dono Sanchez-Almara

Venom and I go way back. In my youth I snatched anything dealing with Venom up greedily. I developed my man-crush on Peter Parker’s thrown away nightie in his tonguey spittle, brain-eating phase of the early-to-mid-90s and have enjoyed following and seeing the evolution of the Venom symbiote. In fact, one could say that the Venom character has “evolved” more than any other character in the MU. He’s gone from super villain to an antihero… A true Grey Jedi.

According to S.H.I.E.LD, Venom is one of the greatest threats to humanity, along with Magneto, Doctor Doom, and Red Skull…that’s some pretty legit company. Venom was separated from host Flash Thompson under yet to be revealed circumstances and has since bonded with one of Black Cat’s lackeys named Lee Price. Lee is a discharged army ranger-turned-supervillain. So far he hasn’t gone full-on villain and it seems that maybe Thompson and the powers that be did too good of a job neutering the Symbiote as it now repeatedly pleads with it’s host that there be no more killing, Innocents or otherwise.

The artwork has been solid up to this point and the minor tweaking to Venom’s appearance is a positive. The plot so far has been engaging and fresh, which is also a definite positive. This book has gone from a habitual automated purchase to a must-read since the first issue in this new volume of the ever-entertaining saga of Spider-Man’s unwanted undies.