Venom #154 is easily one of the best issues of the comic Ive read. With action, characterization, and a killer artist, it looks and reads fantastically. Pick this one up off the stands. Its awesome. Read Full Review

Paolo Siqueira's detailed, dynamic pages do a great job of bringing the symbiote's world and viewpoint to life while also bringing a more balanced, evenhanded look to a series that's often too stylized for its own good. Read Full Review

We get a peek into the squishy black head of the Venom symbiote this month, and it provides a welcome return to form after the oddly disjointed "Land Before Crime". However, the art isn't well-suited to the story, and you can't help but feel a bit more could have been done with the book's central concept. Read Full Review

While Eddie Brock dreams, his symbiote pal is thinking heavy thoughts about heroism and villainy. This is a wonderfully weird peek into Venom's head, and there are a lot of ideas to unpack. (Also probably a healthy heap of foreshadowing.) Paulo Siqueira's art makes it all look very glamorous, though he has his limitations when it comes to expressiveness for both Venom and human characters. Why is it that Mike Costa seems to be better at writing Venom the shorter his stories are? This one-shot is significantly more interesting than the whole three-issue arc we just finished. #154 just might be the start of something great - and it's thoughtful and entertaining enough on its own to make me hope that it is.

Venom #154 tells a lackluster story from the perspective of the parasitic character.

The issue begins at night, with Venom watching TV shows, and nothing much happens here. The symbiote continues to watch TV, looks into what his host Eddie is dreaming of and has some internal monologue that doesn't seem to matter that much, though he does wonder if he truly is a monster or hero during the story. In the morning, both host and parasite leave home to get some medicine to help them and from there, Venom influences Eddie to stop some crooks. Eddie tries to sell their TV to make money and Venom goes to a priest, using his sleeping partner to get there, to apologise for attacking the holy man in an earlier issue. The alien learns from the priest to earn love and swings away in the end.

Throughout the issue, we have three flashbacks showing us the previous hosts of Venom and his thoughts towards each of them, such as being hurt when Lee Price tried to use him for personal gain or when he felt like a hero when bonded to Flash Thompson, as he trusted the alien and called Venom his partner. These pages give us some insight as to what the symbiote thinks about it's previous hosts and how it felt to be bonded to them, whether it be as a tool used for power or as a friend treated as an equal.

The rest of the story isn't great. After getting their medicine, the two main characters don't really do anything of interest or of relevance. We learn that Venom really likes the TV and learns to earn love from the one he cares about (Eddie), but it's not enough.

The artwork here shows off the muscular Venom we all know well, though we do see how he looked when bonded to other hosts in flashbacks. The flashback imagery really stands out, since other pages don't really look that interesting. There isn't anything of note in the panels to be seen here, besides the Paste Pot Pete goons who try to rob a store. Sadly, they only show up for a few pages before Venom takes them out. Nothing really notable about their designs. Just regular guys wearing metal backpacks with tubes meant to be attached to their arms to fire glue. They don't even get to use their weapons here.

Overall, this just feels boring. The flashbacks are the only saving grace here. Venom doesn't do anything of interest and basically thinks about his relationship with Eddie and if he's good or bad. This story from the symbiote's perspective is just average. more