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Monday 4 November 2024

URBAN FANTASY MARVEL FICTION REVIEW: What If... Mark Spector was Host to Venom? - Mike Chen

Publisher:  Del Rey

Release Date:  22/10/24


Book Blurb:

Marc Spector and Venom engage in a battle of wills in the next adventure of an epic multiversal series reimagining iconic Marvel origin stories.
So many worlds, so little time. Infinite possibilities, creating infinite realities. Long have I watched Marc Spector cheat death in the name of the Egyptian god Khonshu. But…what if Moon Knight was subsumed by a Venom from another universe?

Marc Spector is used to voices in his head. He’s used to waking up disoriented, unsure what his alters, Jake and Steven, might have been up to. He’s used to having an Egyptian god command him as Moon Knight, his avatar of justice and revenge. What he’s not used to: staring into the face of a literal, out-of-body doppelganger.

Another Marc, crash-landed from an alternate reality, begging for help? Yeah, that is a new one, even for him.

But before he can really process anything beyond Khonshu’s incessant alarm bells, it becomes clear this 
other Marc didn’t travel solo. Some kind of alien ― a symbiote named Venom― casts off its current host and begins to merge with Marc, forcing Khonshu away from his chosen champion and claiming Moon Knight for its own. The formerly stark white suit that struck fear into the hearts of criminals now looms as a jet-black shadow over friends and foes alike. Marc’s lethal prowess fueled by Venom’s penchant for violence carves a trail of chaos as they comb through the vigilante’s torturous past.

Yet a sliver of hope remains: Finally free of Venom’s control, the 
other Jake and Steven re-gain consciousness to find themselves in a strange reality, without their Marc, but with a strange bird-like god insisting that “they will do.” Desperate, lost, and running out of time, the pair make a deal: become Khonshu’s new avatar to track Venom’s path of destruction, save this universe, and just maybe figure out a way back to their own


Review:

I've always loved the "What If..." TV series so to get chance to read a Venom/Moon Knight crossover was pretty exciting for me, especially as I got to love the character in the Marvel series as I didn't know anything abou the character beforehand.


This book is pretty faithful to the TV series versions of the characters with the reader being able to easily see the various personalities as the actors involved.  It worked wonderfully well for me, although that said I don't know how the comic fans will take to it.  For me, I loved the visual writing, I loved the chance to get to see a different side to all the various characters involved, the prose that kept the action moving at quite a pace and of course a story arc that was a pure joy for me to savour.


All round I was very happy with this title and I will be noting the authors name as I like the writing style, as well as looking forward to the next "What If..."  Magic.

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