By Eric S Brown
It could be argued that the King in Black is perhaps the best, huge “event” that Marvel has
published in some time. It is high octane action right from its opening pages onward as Earth’s heroes struggle to protect the planet from an invading army of “Venom” symbiotes. There are numerous “cool” moments such as Iron Man’s first line of defense to the street level heroes of New York struggling to just save those that they can. Though at its heart, the King in Black is a story about a father and son, as Eddie Brock aka Venom does his best to prevent his past from coming after his son, Dylan, the event delivers everything a comic fan could ask for.
Donny Cates really hits his stride as a writer with this event an the art is nothing short of
awesome. The trade which collects the five issues of the core series weighs in at 160 pages with a very cool, scary, backcover shot of evil symbiotes raining down from the sky.
The King in Black‘s story holds more than a few surprises for Marvel readers. Many older fans will greatly get a kick out of how the King in Black ties into the classic Micronauts’ title the company published before losing the rights to many of its characters and name.
While the King in Black was a universe-wide event with numerous tie-ins, the core trade is
fantastic, stand alone read for those wishing to know what happened during the event without spending a great deal of money tracking down all the various issues.
