Creators: Dan Watters (writer), Marco Ferrari (artist), Pierluigi Casolino (colorist), Rus Wooton (letteter)
Story: Matt Trakker meets up with Dusty Hayes in New Orleans to stop someone with a mask on from hurting people. Matt and Dusty talk a lot about the past and more details emerge on how everything is connected. Miles Mayhem (leader of V.E.N.O.M.) ended up putting a dangerous mask on a random individual to distract Matt while Mayhem goes and does something else.
Writing: The beginning jumps right into the story with very little carry over from the previous issue. We get another classic mask character (Dusty Hayes) introduced along with his jeep, Gator, (though it doesn't change to a boat this time). The end of the issue also brings in Buddie Hawks too. And Miles traveling to Boulder Hill, NY was a nice inclusion as well. Overall, while most of the issue is Matt and Dusty trying to help Buddie, there is a lot of talking about their past and hinting how the masks were made and what Matt has done.
Art: Ferrari provides a lot of action scenes in this issue, with Matt and Dusty trying to track down a rogue mask and stop it from hurting other people. Even though we get a lot of talk of the past, everything does take place in the present. Ferrari also gives us a different mode for the Gator - instead of a jeep and boat, it becomes a 3-wheeled motorcycle. The art wasn't the strongest in this issue, with a lot of generic backgrounds as the characters are driving or running. Colors are strong though.
Overall: While the lack of a real connection to the previous issue is a bit jarring at first, it was nice to get a background issue, even if everything isn't fully fleshed out yet. We seem to have a good team so far introduced of classic Mask characters now and building the team should be coming next. We still haven't really explored Venom yet, though. The art took a bit of a dive in this issue compared to the previous issues.
