I liked Candy!
This little mini-series is supposed to have us delve into the mind of Venom/Scorpion (Mac Gargan) while he is “role-playing” as Spider-Man on Norman Osborn’s Avengers team. It would seem that Venom isn’t always following Norman Osborn’s rules of conduct in public and word is starting to get back to him about it.
I have no idea what is supposed to come out of this story as far as character development goes, but the initial set-up seams to lean towards Osborn slowly losing control over Mac Gargan while simultaneously introducing us to a new character called “The Redeemer”. A villain’s villain, imagine that. Another sub plot here (
or is it the main plot?) seems to deal with Venom/Scorpion exacting a little bit of revenge on good ol’ J. Jonah Jameson. Setting up to kill 2 birds with one stone (or is it 3 birds?), Gargan looks like he’s planning to frame J.J.J. for murder, while he is posing as Spider-Man (
let’s not forget that as far as NYC is concerned, Osborn’s Spider-Man is the real Spider-Man)
Chris Bachalo is handling the art chores on this one, and I have this weird love/hate relationship with the guy. I was a huge fan of his Generation X run and I really love his covers, but I have a real hard time following his story telling. Sometimes his lines are sharp and clean and other times there is so much trash thrown into a panel that I have no idea what’s going on. His style is definitely unique and I can easily pick it out in a pile, but I’m not sure he could have been the best choice for this story. Every time he’s ever drawn anything Spider-Man related, it’s made me cringe. I don’t know why, I just don’t like it. I’m not saying the art was bad… I just didn’t like it.
Brian Reed injects a lot of humor in this story and you really have to appreciate the interactions between all the characters involved. I had fun reading it, although when coupled with Bachalo’s “toony” art style, I can’t seem to decipher what the vibe of this story is. Is it supposed to be a little silly? I can’t seem to take the story all that seriously, but considering the main character is a homicidal symbiote alien wearing maniac .. you’d think there should be some seriousness in this. One thing’s for sure.. this Venom really enjoys what he’s doing.
Anywho, I’m still on the fence about this, so that’s why I only gave it a 2 star rating. I couldn’t justify squeezing it to 3 stars even though I wanted to, but the next issue will probably be better as the story starts to unfold, I’ll probably appreciate it more and get a better feel for what’s going on.