Written by Tony Bedard
Drawn by Scott McDaniel
Inked by Andy Owens
Published by DC COMICS
THE VENOM CONNECTION part 1 of 2
Hourman and Bane are two characters who make natural adversaries, as each man is granted superhuman strength, speed, stamina, other reflexes due to ingesting a drug. In Hourman’s case, it’s in the form of Miraclo pills which he himself invented, and in the case of the man known only as Bane, it’s in the form of a liquid drug known as Venom. Both drugs have also been shown to be addictive and prone to cause negative side-effects, especially when going through withdrawal.
Well this story features the 2nd Hourman. Rick Tyler is the son of Rex Tyler, who was the original Hourman.
Rick uses what is said to be an advanced form of Miraclo, hoped to be less-addictive. He also has the additional super-power of being able to see one hour into the future, although it doesn’t appear to be an ability that he can control, he just occasionally gets these vision of the future. This story opens with Rick in his car, speeding to his father’s house, because he’s gotten a vision that Bane is going to attack Rex, who at this point is happily retired and spending his days with his wife, Wendi.
Rick gets to his parents’ house, soon after Bane had already gotten there and attacked. After a brief Rumble, Bane relents and explains why he’s really there. At this point Bane has long since kicked his dependency on Venom, and operates without it (even without the drug he’s still a very strong man with exceptional fighting skills and a brilliant tactical mind). He’d returned to the South American island which he’d been born on, with intentions of taking over the local criminal underworld (and thus, the nation itself), but discovered that a new, less potent but even more addictive version of Venom was being sold on the street. While attempting to stop the drug trade, Bane is overpowers and forcibly injected with this new Venom, which is immediately addictive after the first hit. Now, if Bane doesn’t get a 2nd injection when the first one wears off in 24 hours, he’ll die from the withdrawal. He has been led to believe whomever is behind the new Venom has connections to the drug company that Rex worked for back in the 40’s. So, with reluctance, Rick agrees to take Bane to Rex’s old label to find the proof he needs.
I can’t say more, as that would reveal a pretty major spoiler (I’ll save that for the review of the next issue). But it’s one heck of a cliffhanger, trust me.
Tony Bedard writes all of the characters very well, and Scott McDaniel’s artwork is beautiful I really enjoyed this issue, with no complaints.
A+
https://www.comixology.com/JSA-Classified-17/digital-comic/28122
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