MARCO SPEAKS SPIDEY: VENOM #257 REVIEW

3 days ago 8

This issue turns “Death Spiral” into a true nightmare

This is one of the strongest chapters in “Death Spiral” so far because it finally brings the arc’s horror, guilt, and desperation into one focused collision. Charles Soule writes this issue like a panic attack that keeps getting worse, but what makes it work is that the chaos never feels empty.

Every fight beat, every grotesque twist, and every near-miss lands because the story keeps reminding us what is actually at stake: Peter’s family, Peter’s body, and Peter’s already fragile sense of responsibility. This is not just another symbiote brawl. It is a story about helplessness, fear, and the unbearable possibility that Spider-Man may not be enough this time.

PROS:

What really gives the issue its bite is how effectively it splits the action across multiple fronts without losing momentum. At F.E.A.S.T., Torment and Carnage turn a place of safety into a slaughterhouse, and that contrast gives the book some of its nastiest energy. The scenes with May and Anna are especially effective because they strip away superhero spectacle and replace it with raw vulnerability. These are not just civilians in danger. These are the people Peter is terrified of failing, and the comic knows that. Meanwhile, Anti-Venom and the others trying to contain the situation add force to the issue, but the emotional center always pulls back to Peter and the cost of being too late.

One of the best things about this chapter is how it handles Torment. He is unsettling not just because he is violent, but because he is so obsessively deliberate. Carnage is chaos, appetite, and bloodlust, but Torment makes the horror more intimate. He wants pain to mean something. He wants suffering arranged, shaped, and understood. That makes him feel uniquely creepy in a Spider-Man comic, and the script uses that well. His dialogue has that unnerving mix of theatricality and sincerity that makes him feel less like a monster of the week and more like a genuine psychological threat. But it is his addiction to the order of spirals that also almost instantly puts him at great odds with Carnage, who murders indiscriminately. It’s going to be a lovely showdown between two killers from totally different worlds and philosophies.

Peter, meanwhile, is written exactly the way he should be in a story like this: exhausted, funny, stubborn, and deeply human. His quips are still there, but they feel more like survival reflexes than carefree banter. That balance matters. The humor never undercuts the danger; it reveals how Peter keeps himself moving even while everything is collapsing around him. When the issue reaches its later turns and Peter is pushed to his absolute edge, the comic earns that escalation because it has already shown how battered he is physically and emotionally. By the time the final pages hit, the cliffhanger does not feel cheap. It feels cruel in exactly the way a good penultimate chapter should.

Visually, the issue is terrific. The art sells both velocity and dread, shifting from explosive combat to outright horror imagery with real confidence. The carnage at F.E.A.S.T. feels claustrophobic and ugly in the best way, while the final transformation and closing splash lean fully into nightmare territory. The color work especially deserves credit for making the issue feel feverish and unstable, whether in the sickly glow of danger or the infernal reds and oranges of the symbiote violence. This is a book that wants you to feel trapped, overheated, and constantly off-balance, and it succeeds.

If there is one thing this issue does especially well, it is make the reader feel that “Death Spiral” is no longer just escalating outward, but inward. The threat is not only to Peter’s loved ones. It is to Peter himself, to what he represents, and to what happens when his pain is weaponized against him. That final page is a brutal hook because it suggests the next chapter will not just be about stopping a villain, but about saving Spider-Man from becoming part of the horror.

CONS:

If there is one thing I’ll complain about, it’s how MJ is getting less spotlight than I initially expected and desired. I would really like to see her shine more in terms of action and involvement, especially as we are making our way toward the end of it all. Perhaps she will get her moment of glory next chapter. But right now, I just feel her presence is being dominated and overshadowed by the rest of the cast.

Overall, this issue is a tense, ugly, effective middle-to-late chapter that pushes this arc into genuinely compelling territory. It delivers the monster-movie intensity you want from a symbiote story, but backs it up with emotional stakes that actually matter. More importantly, it leaves you with the exact feeling a chapter like this should: dread. Not just because the villains are closing in, but because Peter may be closer than ever to losing something he cannot simply web back together.