r/comicbooks 8h ago

Cover/Pin-Up Venom #261 - Variant Cover by Ito

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1.1k Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

215

u/Zack_Thomson 7h ago

I see Spidey's entering his Mister Freeze era

68

u/LosIngobernable Kingpin 7h ago

How’s this run been?

114

u/WhyPlaySerious 5h ago edited 5h ago

Paul is broken up with (which is basically treated as a celebration with how its framed, drawn, and coloured) and dies in it which is a win in my book

43

u/Prof-Ponderosa 6h ago

I like it. It’s a great twist on the character with MJ as the lead

58

u/maynardftw Arseface 5h ago

OH right MJ exists, I was for real like "What the fuck is Jean Grey doing with Spider-Man"

That suit just looks like a Phoenix costume, the only thing giving it away is that it's Spider-Man there and by that association we can assume that's not ink coming off the suit.

38

u/KingKuntu 5h ago

Phoenix force and a simbiote fighting for the same host sounds like it could be interesting tho

23

u/BlackJimmy88 4h ago

That was the theme of a Marvel Rivals season and battle pass a few seasons back. Some characters got phoenix skins, some got symbiote skins and some got a mishmash of both.

4

u/maynardftw Arseface 4h ago

I mean I haven't read the current Venom run but after the King in Black storyline what the fuck else can you do with Venom

Everyone was Venom, then the planet was Venom, there's a Venom universe where all the symbiotes come from, they were vampires, they were zombies, they were Spider-Man, they were controlled by some guy (repeat this step fifteen times for each individual Some Guy who may or may not have ended up all being the Same Guy eventually) and it's like

What

What's MJ gonna do after that

Is Venom's entire timeline throughout all of time and space not already completely written out throughout several universes? Is this just one of the universes where that's not true?

5

u/GolemMaker 5h ago

They should have given Jean the symbiote instead of “Jackpot”

1

u/zero_ms Spider-Woman 2h ago

I think Phoenix wins that fight easily, but I'd be interested in something like this.

2

u/Appollix 5h ago

Here I thought it was black widow. Didn’t she also have the venom symbiote recently?

1

u/NewLibraryGuy John Constantine 2h ago

What would you suggest as the jumping on point?

8

u/newbiggielefts 5h ago

It's Ewing so even at its worst it's still good enough to pass the time and not be completely shit. Among his Marvel work it's probably towards the bottom though.

6

u/USB_FIELD_MOUSE 5h ago

I’ve really been enjoying it. Never cared much about venom as a solo book. Came into cause I heard Dylan was very anti Paul. Which was fun and I loved it. But the art and the writing has me hooked. Hell it even makes Paul not entirely hateable.

0

u/candles2121 5h ago

It’s been fun, but people like to bitch about everything

0

u/Iokua113 5h ago

Depends on your mileage for gross character assassination.

25

u/theghostwhorocks 5h ago

I fell off of Venom a while ago because I lost interest. But this cover is one of the coolest! A truly fantastic piece of work. I'm tempted to hunt this one down for it alone.

1

u/Many_Swordfish3446 2h ago

Yeah, it's a really nice piece of at work. Kinda pulls you back in even if you dropped the series a while ago.

15

u/WinXPbootsup 4h ago

I'm not following this run, but this cover looks SICK

18

u/TheRealGo-ToGuy 8h ago

Ok damn I love this

10

u/HotTakes4HotCakes 5h ago

Does the mask not match the reflection?

1

u/Zick-zarg 2h ago

I think it is more the hand that shouldn't be where it is? with this hand position, the mirrored head looks more like a hologram than a reflection on the tube's surface.

also, the hands reflection is missing.

1

u/-Nicolai 2h ago

Yeah it doesn’t look quite right

3

u/Monster-Zero 4h ago

haven't been following Venom recently, but i guess now that the audience knows it's MJ there's no need to have her Venom form be a big hulking dude anymore? what's the in-story reason for that?

8

u/andjuan 4h ago

She and the symbiote finally accepted each other

1

u/WhyPlaySerious 46m ago

An explanation to further fanservice that would make Hideo Kojima proud, lol.

5

u/playwthfire 4h ago

I'm not really into this run as Mj as Venom tbh but the variant cover looks amazing

5

u/Confident-Leg107 5h ago

"Don't worry MJ, I'll let you out once we discover the cure for 23 stab wounds to the back"

2

u/Ashwilliams2814 3h ago

We're up to fifteen!

3

u/Death_sayer 4h ago

Peter Freeze? Victor Parker?

3

u/Ashwilliams2814 3h ago

This gives strong "Victor and Nora Freeze" vibes in a very Sad Love way.

4

u/BoogerSugarSovereign Spider-Man 4h ago

Has Peter ever worn a lab coat over his suit before in an issue? Ngl I kinda hate it and think this cover would hit harder without it

5

u/Geminilasers 4h ago

Seems like a Superior Spider-Man thing to do.

1

u/FilthycasualTM 3h ago

"Wait, Peter, you look tough. Let me take a photo"

1

u/Desi_Vigor 3h ago

Dumb stories these days…

1

u/SuperZX 2h ago

Is this Alex Ross?

3

u/WhyPlaySerious 1h ago edited 1h ago

Marvel and DC have been employing a lot of fan artists/rule 34 artists lately who have incredible work and are getting popular on Instagram and Twitter to do their variant covers now. This is done by an artist whos goes by Ito, and whos online handle is @ItoScaresMe

1

u/SuperZX 1h ago

Damn, he's really good, I confused him with Ross

1

u/WhyPlaySerious 56m ago

Yeah, this new initiative to find which artists people love online and then 'officializing' them by giving them actual cover work is really cool to see. There is a sea of talent opened up to the industry now.

Joshua Swaby and Jhony Caballero are two more artists who are an example of this. They both have very distinct but amazing artstyles, and now they can shine on actual covers sold in stores.

1

u/AdministrativeSite70 1h ago

Haven't been getting this book but that's a cool cover 

1

u/esperx27 1h ago

Why did I think that was Jean at first

1

u/sdtsanev 44m ago

It's gorgeous and I want it! The series doesn't really match that dark of an aesthetic, but who cares, it's a variant!

1

u/Rosy-Pine 34m ago

saw this and the colors on that suit are actually insane, ito went off

1

u/Mistervimes65 The Comedian 23m ago

Amazing cover art!