Every Symbiote Involved in Marvel’s Venom War, Explained

Marvel’s latest major event has arrived in the form of Venom War, and even at its outset, it is already shaping up to be one of the biggest confrontations anyone involved has ever seen. Not only is the King in Black himself, Eddie Brock, at the center of the action, but he has brought along every other King in Black he can for the ride.

As seen in the pages of Venom War #1 (by Al Ewing, Iban Coello, Frank D’Armata, and VC’s Ariana Maher), however, Eddie isn’t the only one with an army of symbiotes at his side ready to fight for what the believe is the future of the Marvel Universe. While Eddie leads one side of the battle, his son Dylan is standing on the opposite side of the battlefield with a symbiote army of his own. Worse still, even further interested parties are waiting in the wings for the right time to strike, and there is no telling who will come out on top once the dust has settled.

14 Eddie Brock is Leading the Charge in Marvel’s Venom War

Spider-Man may have been the Venom symbiote’s first human host, but Eddie Brock has always been the most iconic, not to mention important. Over nearly forty years, Eddie and Venom have played every role, from villainous terror to Lethal Protector to King in Black. At this point, Eddie doesn’t even need Venom’s powers, as he has developed greater abilities as a human-symbiote hybrid than he ever commanded.

Unfortunately, becoming the King in Black has only made things more complicated than ever for Eddie Brock, especially now that he has to fight an entire war for the future of the Marvel Universe. From what Eddie has seen courtesy of his seventh and final self, the Eventuality, something far more menacing than Knull is on its way soon, and the only way to stop it is to reclaim Venom as his own. Even worse, preventing a future where the whole world is one raging symbiote means leading the charge against his own son, Dylan.

13 Bedlam is Marvel’s Most Brutal King in Black

Not long after Eddie took up the mantle of King in Black, he began plumbing the depths of what his powers were truly capable of. In doing so, Eddie found that he could not just remotely pilot other symbiotes connected to the greater Hive but traverse time and dimensions just as easily as he could space. Soon enough, Eddie had made his way to the otherworldly Garden of Time, lorded over by the villainous Meridius, where he met his fellow and future selves, including the hulking Bedlam.

When Bedlam appeared, he seemed like an unstoppable, unthinking monster who only knew unfettered violence. This temporal duplicate wasn’t just fueled by the frustrations that Eddie would eventually come to suffer but also by the hatred for Spider-Man that he had seemingly shed years prior. Thanks to Meridius’ manipulations of his memories, Bedlam was reduced to a raging monster, at least until the true Eddie came along to show him that his anger was wildly misplaced.

12 Tyro is the Eddie Brock Who Was Never Quite Good Enough

Another of the Kings in Black who the primary Eddie came to know during his time in Meridius’ Garden, Tyro is the fifth iteration of Eddie Brock. While Tyro isn’t the most helpless of these Kings in Black, he is among the meekest. Of course, this is only because Tyro has dedicated himself to studying under anyone who will teach him, even if they don’t have his best interests at heart.

When Tyro was in the Garden of Time, he was constantly subjected to abuse at Meridius’ hands. As far as Meridius was concerned, Tyro was the most disappointing Eddie, one who was effectively incapable of standing up for himself. And, while this may have been true for some time, Tyro shed his need for Meridius’ approval when the villain’s true intentions were revealed. In doing so, Tyro has unleashed the power within him for what might be the first time since he let go of his former persona as Wilde.

11 Wilde is the Eddie Brock Who Found a Tragic Sense of Humor

Between the ferocious Bedlam and the uncertain Tyro, there was Wilde. The fourth Eddie Brock was sarcastic at the expense of all else. Once Bedlam’s rage finally died, an unsettling sense of humor set in to replace it, turning Eddie Brock into a version of himself whose overt nihilism was matched only by his disturbingly comical outlook on everything he had been through.

Wilde certainly isn’t the most formidable Eddie Brock the universe has to offer, but that doesn’t mean he is incapable of holding his own. Like his fellow alternate selves, Wilde is still a King in Black, and as such, he still commands powers beyond what the majority of other symbiotes can even imagine. At the same time, this particular Eddie hasn’t been back in the fight for very long, and there is no telling whether he is up for the battles ahead.

10 Dylan Brock is Waging All-Out War for the Fate of the Multiverse

On the other side of Marvel’s Venom War is Eddie Brock’s son, Dylan. Although Dylan is far less experienced than his father in superheroics, he has still lived through more than his fair share of epic confrontations. Dylan is also one of the few beings in the entire Marvel Universe who truly understands what it means to be a symbiote, which only makes him more willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that no version of Eddie ever reclaims the Venom symbiote.

Like Eddie, Dylan has had his own encounter with the Eventuality. And, like Eddie, Dylan has also seen what will happen if Venom falls into the wrong hands. Whereas Eddie saw a vision of Dylan engulfing the entire world with a single, unified Venom, Dylan saw a vision of his father threatening the future of all realities by promising that his defeat would usher in the end of the ninth and final iteration of the Marvel Multiverse. With that much on the line, there is no way Dylan is giving up without a fight, no matter how many versions of his father he has to take on along the way.

9 Toxin is Going Up Against the Strongest Symbiote It Knows

Spawned from the serial killer symbiote known as Carnage, Toxin’s origins were fraught with the threat of its progenitor destroying it outright for nothing more than existing. Since then, Toxin has teamed up with Venom numerous times, ultimately embarking on its heroic career with its original host, NYPD officer Patrick Mulligan. Over the following years, Toxin was hounded by numerous villains ranging from the demon Blackheart to the Dark Elder God Chthon, the former of whom ended Mulligan’s life before the latter left Toxin for dead.

During Knull’s invasion of Earth, Toxin’s survival was revealed. After even the progenitor of all symbiotes deemed Toxin a lost cause, it found its way to a new host in the form of the young Bren Waters. Despite Bren’s inexperience and Toxin’s injuries, they forged a bond that made them stronger than ever before. This kicked off what would become a successfully reinvigorated career as a symbiote superhero, one who is willing to follow Dylan Brock wherever he leads.

8 Rascal the Red Goblin Rounds Out a Trio of Young Symbiote Superheroes

Long before he ever came into contact with the Rascal symbiote, the young Normie Osborn knew all about the kind of horrors that the world of superheroes and villains had to offer. This was, unsurprisingly, because of his family legacy as the grandson of the original Green Goblin, whose various plots have frequently drawn Normie into situations that no child should ever have to suffer.

The first time Normie experienced being bonded to a symbiote was as the Goblin Childe, a transformation unwillingly forced upon him by Norman. This made him reticent to form a bond with the offshoot of Bedlam known as Rascal years later when Dylan offered it to him, though the promise that he could help save the world was all the convincing he needed. Once Normie embraced his new role as the Red Goblin, he quickly discovered how much good he could do, even with the shadow of the Osborn family curse constantly looming overhead.

7 The Sleeper Symbiote is Marvel’s Perfect Secret Agent

When the Venom symbiote reconciled some particularly harsh truths with Eddie Brock, it also brought about a new symbiote who would be brought into existence through a particularly difficult set of circumstances. Realistically, the Sleeper symbiote that Venom gave birth to never would have survived if not for the efforts of Alchemax’s own Doctor Steven, just as it would never have become one of the world’s greatest symbiote superheroes without the help of both Eddie and Dylan Brock.

Despite largely acting as an independent agent throughout its comic book career, the Sleeper symbiote has always stood firmly by the Brocks when needed. During Carnage’s attempted rise through the ranks of U.S. politics, Sleeper played a key role in infiltrating the villain’s operations and preventing what could have been the most disastrous election the country has ever seen. In the time since, Sleeper has rarely left Dylan’s side, and it is hard to imagine anything about Marvel’s Venom War changing that.

6 Flexo the Rubber Man is Doing the Best He Can

Flexo the Rubber Man is easily one of the most unexpected characters who could have possibly appeared in Marvel’s Venom War. When he was introduced back in Will Harr and Jack Binder’s opening story from 1940’s Mystic Comics #1, Flexo was little more than an oversized rubber robot with a heart of gold.

When Flexo returned to the modern day, however, it was immediately clear that the Rubber Man was always something more than meets the eye. Specifically, Flexo was fueled and inhabited by a symbiote of his own, one who never quite understood what was happening to it. This made Flexo the perfect prey for the likes of Doctor Doom. Yet, it also made Flexo much easier to win over when Dylan Brock extended the sort of kindness and consideration no one else ever had.

5 ​​​​​​​Venom has Rejoined Its Original Host for Marvel’s Venom War

When Venom was originally introduced, it was as Spider-Man’s new black costume, which he acquired during his time on Battleworld during the events of Marvel’s first Secret Wars. Soon enough, the symbiote revealed itself for what it truly was, and with that, one of the most infamous sagas incomic book history began.

Though it took decades for Venom to shed its hatred of Spider-Man, it has never forgotten the bond it shared with the wall-crawler. As far as Venom is concerned, Peter Parker was and will always be its most important host, even if only because Peter was the one who helped it come into its own for the very first time. Now, Peter is the one Venom has gone to for help navigating the situation it is in, and Spider-Man’s best advice has brought them together to face whatever comes next.

4 ​​​​​​​Liz Allan’s Misery Could Reshape The Venom War

Liz Allan is unique in that her trajectory has spun into directions that no fan could have seen coming. While Liz started her comic book career as a potential love interest for Peter Parker, she eventually became the wife of Harry Osborn. When that relationship fell apart, Liz didn’t fade into the background but stepped into a whole new spotlight as the head of Oscorp, and things have only gone in more unexpected directions since then.

After being blackmailed into cooperating with the Life Foundation’s various symbiote experiments, Liz was at a crossroads between heroism and villainy. Thankfully, Liz ultimately settled on the latter, leading her to an unexpected bond with the Misery symbiote. A hybrid of the Carnage and Anti-Venom symbiotes, Misery is unlike anything Liz or anyone else has ever seen. While Misery is horrifying as a rule, it is also a contemplative symbiote, which will prove instrumental in determining the outcome of the Venom War.

3 ​​​​​​​Meridius Has His Own Venom War Agenda

The sixth iteration of Eddie Brock, Meridius, designed and created the Garden of Time, which he inhabited alongside his fellow Kings in Black. Meridius also brought his fellow Kings of Black into the Garden in the first place, trapping all of them so that he could prey on their weaknesses to further his malevolent goals.

Of course, Meridius has been anything but successful so far. Not only was his Garden of Time destroyed by Carnage, but the other surviving Kings in Black have all turned on him. Currently, the only ones Meridius has to turn to for any help are the human members who comprise the boards of the Life Foundation. This may mean that Meridius doesn’t have the resources he once did, but it doesn’t make him any less devious or any less dangerous.

2 Agent Anti-Venom is Still Nowhere to Be Seen

Flash Thompson is undoubtedly one of the greatest symbiote heroes the Marvel Universe has seen, not to mention one of its most unlikely success stories. When Flash was introduced, he was a bully who was good for little more than terrorizing a teenage Peter Parker. As he grew up, Flash became less of an antagonist and developed his own personality and desire to serve his country in any way he could.

To that end, Flash enlisted in the military. Tragically, Flash lost his legs in battle, yet the Venom symbiote gave him a way to get back in the fight. Eventually, Flash traded in his black-and-white symbiote for something a little more eye-catching in the form of the Anti-Venom symbiote. Once again, Flash meets tragedy head-on, costing him his life but not his existence. From within the symbiote Hive, Flash’s consciousness in the form of his Codex managed to resurrect itself as a being of pure symbiote, setting the precedent that there truly is no way to keep Agent Anti-Venom down for good.

1 Marvel’s Widow is a Whole New Breed of Venom

The latest addition to the long list of symbiotes inhabiting the Marvel Universe, the symbiote known as Sliver, or Widow, is an offshoot of Venom that was bonded to the Black Widow herself, Natasha Romanoff. Despite having little experience with symbiotes, let alone those only recently born, Natasha almost immediately figured out her new powers, just as Sliver figured out its new host.

Although the two have had some minor hiccups along the way, Natasha and Sliver share what seems to be the most successful symbiote-host relationship ever. Their understanding of one another cannot be understated, nor can the endless patience that Natasha is willing to extend to her newfound partner. That being said, neither has entered into Marvel’s Venom War just yet, meaning there is still no telling which side of the battlefield they will end up on when they do.

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