This did not have to be anywhere close to good. “Toxin”, the son of Carnage, grandson of Venom; a “New Avengers Tie-In” - who cares?? They could’ve easily phoned this one in and yet Peter Milligan and Darick Robertson somehow made something half-decent out of this?!
Pat Mulligan is former NYPD turned host to the latest member of the Symbiote family, Toxin. Together they take out the scuzzbags - and these are some bottom of the barrel villains we talking bout here! - of Noo Yawk while Pat pines after his wife and new son who he’s gotta distance himself from to protect them from Toxin.
The story is no great shakes. Milligan throws nobodies like King Cobra, Wrecker and Piledriver at Toxin to easily slap down while making a laughable big bad in Razor-Fist, a guy with two swords for hands! Coupled with the Darick Robertson art, Razor-Fist was like someone who’d stepped out of the pages of The Boys, he was such a goofy, almost parody, character!
The difference here though is that the villains aren’t the point; they’re there to inform the characters of Pat and Toxin, whose pairing and conflict is the real story. Pat’s self-imposed estrangement from his wife and newborn feels corny until there’s a clever development later on involving Toxin (though it still seems a bit silly overall), and Pat “tames” Toxin through some pretty crazy stunts. I appreciated that it’s a distinct Symbiote story from the ones we’ve seen with Venom and Carnage.
Milligan very unsubtly presses the Jekyll/Hyde comparison and there isn’t much to Toxin’s character, but I guess if he is a kiddie Symbiote then he’s well-written in being kinda dumb and overexcitable. Darick Robertson’s design isn’t amazing but he smooshes Venom and Carnage’s looks together and the effect is ok. And I’m a huge fan of Darick’s art so seeing a whole book of it was awesome.
It’s not a mind-blowing read or even that good but Toxin: The Devil You Know was surprisingly not bad. It clearly had some thought and effort put into it and it shows by not being totally uninspired or boring drek. It’s certainly better than every Venom book I’ve read so if you’re a fan of Marvel’s Symbiotes, maybe give this one a shot?
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