After having had a not  very good read of the X-Men :Gold Annual, I wasn’t sure where this book was going to take me. Glad they are using this years annual as a story building component. Was pleasantly surprised, as it took me to the first chapter of a cross over between Venom and the squad from X-Men: Blue. It’s 6 parts in total and is called “Poison X”. If you familiar are with the Venomverse series you have probably already met the antagonists of this story arc. Give you a hint…Rhymes with “himbiote”

I enjoyed the prospect of this crossover, as Venom and the time displaced younger X-Men have never met to my knowledge(prove me wrong internet).They cover a lot of ground in this first part as they obviously had more pages to work with. Would love to see this done more often, even if they are debuting a new character which what many annuals tend to be used for. That, and debuting new artists and writers also. I do have a bit of symbiote fatigue after the Venomverse event from last year but this does have a unique look to it so we’ll see how it goes.

I enjoyed seeing how a cool part of X-Men lore in the “The Starjammers” played into the story. A unique position for them to be in as far as where they fit into the narrative. Writer Cullen Bunn paced the story pretty well, and I liked the fact that a few of “wilder’ members of X-Men Blue team got benched for this adventure(and explained away pretty well) to better show the contrast between Venom and the X-Men :Blue team. Also enjoyed the inner monologue interactions between Eddie Brock and the Symbiote as they struggled for a balance.  I was a bit disappointed in the hook for next issue as I feel this particular  plot device has been done to death.

Enjoyed Artist Edgar Salazars take on Venom. “Toothy but muscular” always suited the character well. Edgar had a 3 issue run in the Uncanny X-Men about 6 months ago that I suspect helped him get this job. His take on the younger X-Men made them seem less “minor leaguer ” in my eyes just from his presentation alone. The variant cover art for this series is pretty cool also. The second part of this cross over lands Feb.14th.

P.S Pop back by on Jan.27th as we take a look at DC’s Raven: Daughter of Darkness #1