Peter Milligan and Derick Robertson are at the helm of Toxin: The Devil You Know, with some funny and interesting developments from newly introduced characters Toxin and Pat Mulligan. When a jailbreak leaves New York overrun with super-villains, enter Pat Mulligan, a former New York police officer who shares his body with a young simbiote called Toxin.

Mulligan wants to use his “powers” reasonably as a man of the law it is only right that he tries to serve and protect, Mulligan also has to balance Toxins more blood thirsty inclinations and steers Toxin towards the “bad guys”. And the “bad guys” in this series where not that memorable, characters like King Cobra, Wrecker or Razor-fist to meekly challenge Mulligan/Toxin.  It wasn’t about the villains; we’re talking about a simbiote here. This is the story of the relationship between Toxin and Mulligan and that is where this story falls down. We have seen all this before with Eddie Brock and Venom that it is difficult to bring a more interesting element to the table.

This was a disappointing read, which is sad because the character of Toxin had a lot of potential.  The problem with characters like Toxin is that he is spun out of a side character like Venom that has resonated with readers, so much so Venom has its own movie. Unfortunately, there has not been many interesting standalone comic books of Venom that have developed the character of Venom and whomever his host is at said adaptation of Venom so what are the chances of a newer adaptation being able to do it.  That being said there is some interesting moments in the story that felt a bit forced and while the story didn’t bring anything too exciting for readers of Venom and Carnage alike you should still give this a read.

Categories: Rob reads

Tags: #comics, #graphicnovels, #marvel, #spiderman, #venom