Venom Space Knight 4: Marvel Unlimited Review

Venom Space Knight 4
Writer: Robbie Thompson
Artist: Ariel Olivetti
Publisher: Marvel Comics

As I said in the previous Venom review, this was a book that I wanted to read but for some reason I didn't. I am glad that I saw it on Marvel Unlimited last month and was debating on buying the whole series or just wait each month to read it on Unlimited. I am still leaning towards buying them in trades instead of getting all the individual issues.

We pick up from last issue, which had the symbiote piloting the ship. Flash asks why he never tried separating and doing things on his own before,  and he told him that he couldn't, but he is able to know since he was "Cleansed". It refers us to Guardians of the Galaxy: Planet of the Symbiotes, a story that I have not read yet, but now I need to so I can see what happened to Venom.








We learn that he can be separated for an hour, but he prefers the joined state. Then all of a sudden the ship gets blasted and crash lands.   Venom joins with Flash to protect him from the crash and they try to locate 803 who let them know they are under attack. It reminds me of C3-PO always stating the obvious, but I don't mind it since he brings some good humor to this series.
  803 advises them that they are under attack from Pik Rollo a vicious criminal wanted for murder, treason, and arson in fifteen systems. Pik Rollo looks like a giant panda with a lemur type tail, and she goes in right for the attack on Venom. She knocks his block off and rips 803 in half as he yells, "At last, sweet release".

I wanted to laugh since he has wanted to die since issue one, but I felt bad for the guy and was already thinking about how less fun the book would be without him here for the comedy relief.

Venom and Pik Rollo slug it out, and they beat the crap outta each other and then they both get shot?! Yup shot. A UFO looking spaceship blasted them and two freaks come out talking about their master and how he needs warm bodies. I was thinking the master uses the bodies of great warriors in some sort of "Avatar" way that allows him to take them over...

 ...But instead he has them in an arena with other captured creatures and they need to fight some giant lizard type creatures in a battle to the death.

 The group puts up a pretty good fight, but they all die except Venon and Rollo. Venom asks why she was trying to kill him, and we learn that her baby was kidnapped and she was forced to do the bidding of Mercurio who it turns out is the one responsible for all the crap that Venom was going through in the first three issues. All the weapons and devices that Venom destroyed were his, and he wanted Rollo to kill him,

 Venom offers a deal to Rollo, they make it out alive together and he will help her get her baby back. Since they are both too tough to actually defeat each other Rollo goes down and the master vomes down to speak with Venom the "Lone" survivor. As Venom thought, the master made the mistake of coming on to the battleground. Rollow pops up and rips his head off!

 They get surrounded by the troops and are about to get ready to battle the whole troop when they all knelled down and proclaimed them their masters. Venom told them that they are free, but they said they have to serve their masters.  Venom tells them to wait a moment while they take care of something and they head back to their ship. We learn that 803 survived!! He is pretty tough for a droid with a death wish. It turns out that 803 rebuilt the ship while they were battling in the arena.

 They take off to get Rollos's baby as the book comes to an end. I am not sure why they didn't take the troops with them since they pledged their allegiance to them, Maybe this will be something that pays off later, but they would have better odds if they had more troops helping them out.

We see this image for the next issue and poor Baby Rollo is chained up with Mercurio looks rather menacing. What a jerk! I can't wait to see what happens to this panda baby stealing creep in issue five.

As usual Robbie Thompson delivers the goods, making him one of my favorite writers. The art is still as amazing as ever as well, It really pops and the inks are great. I always dread when I love the artist and writer teams on a book because it usually doesn't last too long. I hope this is not the case here, and that they stay on together for a long time. In all, this was a great issue from a great series. If you are not already reading it, I recommend that you check it out on Marvel Unlimited.

4.5/5 Beards