What is Queen in Black actually about?
I’ve been having a hard time actually pinning down this event. I understand, from a plot perspective, what’s happening... But, that doesn’t seem to be what the event is about exactly. Thus far, it’s read like a retread of Secret Invasion or any other ‘outside cosmic force attacks Earth’ story. Which it is. Is that all? The premise – and the build-up of the first issue – treated the invasion like a secondary concern to a certain extent. It’s what matters to the heroes of Earth. But, the story is about Hela being the Queen in Black, her failed efforts to eliminate Knull, his return wielding light powers, and the ways in which they’ll fight one another with Earth trapped in the middle. So far, it’s very much been ‘alien invasion’ and little else. Even the one tie-in series to address the idea of Hela and Knull specifically as threats, Defenders of Light and Dark, reads like it’s hand-waving at the idea, buying time until the main series eventually turns its attention to that portion of the conflict.
Honestly, the event, to this point, makes me think it’s simply buying time until the actual conflict occurs. Last week, I compared Al Ewing’s approach a bit to Jim Starlin’s when he wrote The Infinity War and The Infinity Crusade, events where it’s obvious that the actual plot would have taken up only two or three issues if it was only the Adam Warlock/Thanos/portion of Warlock’s psyche made manifest, but various ‘side quest’ plots involving the more popular Marvel heroes were grafted on to make the story an event. The skill with which Starlin did that is why I consider him the greatest superhero comic event writer. If Ewing is doing something similar, it lacks balance. Queen in Black isn’t expansive enough to provide the fodder for the various tie-ins of Starlin’s events – and it hasn’t made enough progress on the Hela/Knull front.
However, those events by Starlin were progressive stories that built on what came before and were not the culmination of his time writing those characters. Queen in Black is the conclusion of Ewing’s time writing Venom and any Symbiote books – while also possibly being the only time he can treat Hela as a new/forgotten threat given the events in Thor. When this event is over, Venom will be written by Charles Soule, writer of Venom Unchained. In a sense, this event is about getting Eddie Brock into a specific place for that new run. That’s what Venom Unchained #2 very much feels like: a comic about moving from one place to another.
The first issue ended with Brock still in prison despite his expertise on Symbiotes looking like his chance out. The final page ended with the appearance of Sleeper, a cat-like Symbiote, in his cell. This issue is all about moving Brock from a cell to rescuing Dylan from the Symbiote Intelligence. That’s all. Just like Venom Unchained is a tie-in that meant to move Brock from Carnage to Venom for Soule. If that sounds like a negative, I don’t intend it as such. It’s nice to see a book that so clearly has an agenda and a direction. If this is another stop on the Brock redemption tour, then it’s a solid one that sound and logical. Various elements all work together: Sleeper, a child of the Venom Symbiote, helping Brock save his child; Brock, trying to not be like the Venom of old, taking on a muscle-bound alien Symbiote that eats a dog; and Brock going from trapped in a cell to finding his son trapped in a different sort of cell. It’s a neat and efficient comic that serves a purpose, while being internally sound and balanced.
It reads like a side quest of the event. All it does is explain how Brock went from prison to teamed up with Sleeper in New York to save Dylan. It’s not written by Al Ewing. But, given that part of the function of this event is to both conclude Ewing’s story with Brock and set up the next Brock story by Soule, what Soule is doing here is very much the point of Queen in Black, from a certain perspective. In a sense, the event is about how you get from Carnage #10 to Venom #1. For a certain segment of readers, Venom Unchained could be the most essential part of the event. The story of Eddie Brock could be all that matters.
*
The invocation of Secret Invasion earlier wasn’t by accident. I’ve been thinking
about Queen in Black in relation to
that event, specifically with respect to killing. It’s a minor point or,
rather, easily overlooked that two weeks in a row, we’ve had characters make
strong statements about not killing Hela’s invasion forces. In Queen in Black #3, Spider-Man chastises
Dylan Brock and even webs up his sword arm to stop him from killing any of the
Symbiote-aliens; in Venom Unchained
#2, Eddie is extremely firm with Sleeper about not killing, in his efforts to
no longer be that sort of violent person. It doesn’t stop Brock from embracing
that side of him when facing off with one of Hela’s troops. A major criticism
of Secret Invasion was how casually
heroes that normally have a moral code against killing would kill the invading
Skrulls and the way that betrays a racist and/or xenophobic outlook. It seems
like Queen in Black is being written
with that somewhat in mind with numerous attempts to either downplay the idea
of killing or showing the invaders still alive after being neutralised.
Now, Venom Unchained #2 does have Eddie giving in and killing his opponent. It’s presented as a personal struggle for him and him giving in to an easy past. More a relapse than anything. Faced with something like his old self, he reverts to that old self. The entire scene is set up by having that Symbiote invader eat an old woman’s dog and Eddie plays with that idea when he eats the invader’s arm before beheading him. There’s a dark comedy in the way the old woman lauds Brock for killing the invader because it ate her dog; almost a sense of satirising her for valuing that one life above another. That some death is good, while other death is bad. Even Brock seems taken aback by her remarks.
That’s not to say that Queen in Black doesn’t fall into some of the same traps as Secret Invasion; I found it notable that there were explicit efforts to not repeat that event with respect to killing the alien invaders indiscriminately.
Next week: Venom #261
