All-New Venom #6 Reveals How Mary Jane Fused With The Symbiote (Review)

All-New Venom, for its first five issues, teased who was the new symbiote host to Marvel’s most popular living costume. At the tail end of issue five, the shocking secret was revealed as Mary Jane Watson had bonded with Peter Park and Eddie Brock’s old costume, creating a very new Venom as a part of the Marvel Universe. Now, for the latest issue, writer Al Ewing and artist Carlos Gomez are documenting how MJ became the new Venom and what that means for the future as Marvel takes a very dynamic route to the character who has been villain, anti-hero, and nearly everything in-between.

The lion’s share of the issue, as stated above, focuses on the fallout from The Venom War crossover and how Mary Jane became permanently bonded with the symbiote. Using both Robbie Robertson and Paul as exposition dumps here, MJ and Venom explain that thanks to the events of the previous symbiote conflict, both beings were in dire straits. The symbiote had been struggling with both an anti-symbiote poison and “Time-Travel Reverse-Carnage Goop” while Mary Jane’s Jackpot gear had been altered to unleash her full power, but in doing so, making it drastically more dangerous. With MJ and the symbiote having little recourse, they not only bonded but were fused on a molecular level to save both of their lives, creating a brand-new Venom unlike anything before.

[RELATED: Mary Jane and Venom’s Origin Story Includes One Major Detail That Will Change Everything]

The Good, The Bad, And The Paul

Let’s get the good elements out of the way to kick this review off right. Robbie Robertson has the best selling points for this new union in that we never have actually seen a Venom that is a straight-up superhero before. We’ve seen anti-heroes and military men like Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson wear the symbiote, but a more light-hearted take on Venom. Ewing has a good understanding of the characters involved here and creates some witty banter between all parties involved. Gomez’s art here also works well in terms of the quieter, conversational moments as well as some of the more horrific elements in the issue.

Speaking of the horrific elements, Ewing and Gomez capture MJ’s current predicament in some of the creepiest body horror seen in recent Marvel comics. Thanks to her Jackpot tech going awry, Mary Jane’s skin is falling off, her bones are breaking, and her atoms are being turned into dust, sometimes all at once. These elements work well in setting the stage for why this new Venom needed to be created in the first place, though all isn’t sunny for this new status quo.

Mary Venom Watson

Unfortunately, All-New Venom’s latest entry is bogged down far more in the negative than the positive. Mary Jane’s current status quo is so reliant on the events of the Venom War that it seems quite confusing if you didn’t read that crossover. This is to say nothing of MJ’s current status as Jackpot, which requires tomes of knowledge to understand how she got super powers and decided to patrol the streets of New York City. Normally, continuity is something that can be overcome but it feels much more like an anchor around a reader’s neck than a benefit.

Of course, the biggest negative here is Paul and I’m not even approaching this from the idea of the general hatred of the character himself. Obviously, many Spider-Man fans haven’t been big Paul-enthusiasts since the character was introduced as little more than a barrier between Peter and Mary Jane being together and it certainly appears as though Al Ewing himself falls into that camp. The idea of making Paul less likable is one thing, but All-New Venom turns him into an annoying caricature where you can’t help but feel that it’s only a matter of time until he hits the bricks in this relationship.

Ewing makes Paul come across as something of a simpering, love-struck hindrance to Mary Jane herself, to say nothing of Dylan Brock taking the chance to drive the stake that much deeper into his heart. While Mary Jane’s character works well in this quagmire, it feels as though Paul and Dylan make for a gruesome twosome of a supporting cast. All-New Venom has promise in that it presents plenty of enticing story beats for the future but where the series is now? Something needs to change.

Rating: 2.5 Out Of 5

Published by Marvel

Released on May 7th, 2025

Written by Al Ewing

Art by Carlos Gomez

Color Art by Frank D’Armata

Letters by VC Clayton Cowles

How have you felt about the All-New Venom? Let us know in the comments!