Marvel's new Kid Venom series brings a manga style to its young symbiote hero

Art from Kid Venom #1 — (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Manga creator Taigami made his Marvel debut with last year's "Summer of Symbiotes" initiative and a series of backup stories in the Death of the Venomverse limited series. That comic introduced Kintaro to the Marvel universe - a young boy from 10th century Japan who bonded with the symbiote Clinter in order to protect his people from attack.

Now Kintaro is getting his own four-issue series, written and drawn once again by Taigami. As Marvel's synopsis for the first issue reveals, Kid Venom #1 begins in Japan, in the year 977, but the publisher has also revealed that it won't be long before Kintaro finds himself in the present day.

We've got an exclusive preview of some unlettered pages from the first issue in the gallery below, which show off Taigami's distinctive art style, as well as John Tyler Christopher's distinctive Negative Space variant cover.

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Marvel's official synopsis for the first issue reads:

"EMBRACE YOUR INNER VENOM! JAPAN, 977. KID VENOM has made his presence known to the evil symbiotes taking people and creatures hostage… but who else has their eye on Kintaro and his symbiote? The world of KID VENOM expands as new characters and dangers are revealed! Breakout manga creator TAIGAMI continues his vision of KID VENOM in this brand-new series!"

Taigimi explained in a statement that Kid Venom is inspired by Japanese folklore. "There were already many Venoms and there were enough variations, so I thought it had be something totally new to be recognized," he said of how Kintaro differs from other symbiote characters. "In Japan, there are several famous folklores such as 'Momotaro' and 'Urashimataro.' Among them, there is a story of 'Kintaro.' The legend is about a boy who was strong, living with his mother in Mount Ashigara. He later was hired by Minamoto Yorimitsu, a very high ranked samurai and defeats many yokai. Later, he becomes one of the four samurai of Minamoto Yorimitsu. This story is a mix of folklore and a historical story from the Heian Era of Japan. So when I mixed symbiote to the legend of Kintaro, Kid Venom was born."

Kid Venom #1 is published by Marvel on July 10.

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Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.