Summary

• "The Nativity" arc in Venom #164 features the alien symbiote becoming "pregnant" and giving birth to the Sleeper symbiote, resulting in Eddie Brock having vivid nightmares and experiencing symptoms similar to an expectant parent.
• Venom's captors plan to bond the newborn Sleeper symbiote with Mac Gargan (the Scorpion), but Venom escapes and leaves Sleeper in Alchemax's protection, intending to raise it the right way and prevent it from becoming a monster.
• Sleeper develops unique chemokinetic powers, including the ability to produce corrosive agents, communicate telepathically through pheromones, and create drones of itself. It becomes a hero, helps defeat Knull, and eventually forms a new symbiote called the Sleeper Agent to disrupt Carnage's plans to weaponize symbiotes.

Since their introduction to the Marvel Universe, symbiotes such as Venom have produced some of the strangest, most mind-bending stories of all time. Without a doubt, "The Nativity" arc (by Mike Costa and Mark Bagley) is among Venom's most unusual stories, featuring the alien symbiote becoming "pregnant" (while Eddie Brock was his host) and giving birth to the Sleeper symbiote. As seen in the pages of 2018's Venom #164 (by

Mike Costa, Mark Bagley, Scott Hanna, Dono Sánchez-Almara, and Clayton Cowles), Eddie had a nightmare about Venom's symbiote children. He awoke screaming before succumbing to sudden vomiting, much like an expectant parent would during their first trimester.

After being knocked out by Shocker, Eddie had another dream involving one of the alien symbiotes in a baby stroller. Worse than their vaguely disturbing nature, these visions quickly became more literal than figurative. It wasn't long before FBI agent Claire Dixon kidnapped Eddie and loaded him into a truck, revealing that Eddie was going to be a father to a child he wasn't truly aware was on the way. This in and of itself wasn't all that unlike the previous experiences the Venom symbiote had gone through when giving birth to the likes of the twisted villain Carnage or the Life Foundation symbiotes. However, the breed of symbiote that emerged from this pregnancy couldn't have been more unexpected.

Updated by Timothy Blake Donohoo on December 20, 2023: A lot has changed for Venom in the comic books released in the 2020s. Having since transitioned from a lone Lethal Protector to the King In Black, Venom is a much different character than he once was as a mere Spider-Man villain. This change of pace has also affected those around him, including Venom's offspring, who have a new status quo of their own.

The Evolution of Venom and Eddie Brock's Other Child

During the second part of “The Nativity” arc, Agent Dixon revealed she planned to take the newborn offspring of Venom and Eddie for the Symbiote Task Force, who would then forcefully bond it to Mac Gargan, the Scorpion. However, Venom escaped with the help of Spider-Woman and gave birth to Sleeper at Alchemax. Eddie and Venom agreed to leave Sleeper under Alchemax's protection, with the caveat that they could only study the symbiote in a non-invasive manner. Venom visited Sleeper at least twice a week, intending to raise it the right way. He didn't want Sleeper to bond with a host at a young age and become a monster like his other symbiote children.

In Venom: First Host (by Costa, Bagley, Ron Lim and Paco Diaz), the Venom symbiote's original host, Tel-Kar, kidnapped Sleeper from Alchemax, and threatened to bond with it unless Venom left Eddie and re-bonded with him. Hoping to protect Sleeper, Venom bonded with Tel-Kar, who then left Earth. Angered that its father was taken, the Sleeper symbiote bonded with Eddie, and went into space to confront Tel-Kar. Afterward, Eddie again bonded with Venom, and Sleeper lobotomized Tel-Kar, using his body as a host to explore the vast reaches of space. This allowed Sleeper to connect with the greater universe, being exposed to cultures and species it never would have met otherwise. It also endeared Eddie to Sleeper in a way that few other hosts have established with their symbiotes.

The Sleeper Symbiote Is a True Powerhouse

While Venom has had several children, Sleeper is unique because of the circumstances that surrounded its birth and its special chemokinetic powers. Besides the standard powers of other symbiotes, Sleeper can produce liquids and aerosols that function as corrosive agents. These can be used as weapons just as well as they can provide cover for a more clandestine approach to any situation. Venom and Eddie's child can also produce pheromones that allow it to communicate telepathically. Over time, the latter of these abilities has evolved to include the ability to create drones of itself which the Sleeper symbiote can maintain control over from afar.

After taking over Tel-Kar's body and exploring space, Sleeper returned to Earth to help defeat the symbiote god Knull and save many lives during the events of 2021's King in Black (by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman). Since then, Sleeper has taken on the likes of the Dark Carnage symbiote and the Life Foundation. In the process, the Sleeper symbiote hasn't just made itself into an indelible part of Eddie Brock's corner of the Marvel Universe, it has become a hero that Venom and Eddie could be proud of. In fact, Sleeper has become multiple heroes that Venom and Eddie can be proud of, and all thanks to its evolution into a whole new breed of Sleeper Agent.

Sleeper Agent Became Marvel's Most Underrated Symbiote Superhero

Sleeper Agent

Following the escape of Cletus Kasady and Carnage's attempted rise to power, the Sleeper symbiote returned to the Brock household to keep watch over them, though not entirely. By leaving a piece of itself behind within Flash Thompson's fellow veteran and ally Hank Hensley, Sleeper formed a new symbiote that it could keep track of remotely. This gave rise to the Sleeper Agent, whose name was fitting considering Hank himself had no memories of his actions as a symbiote superhero. Hank and the Sleeper Agent proved instrumental in disrupting Carnage's plans of seeding himself within the United States government. This was only the beginning of Sleeper's stellar career.

Much like they did when placing Hank within Senator Krane and Carnage's campaign, Sleeper and his fellow heroes got Hank to sign on as a security guard for the Life Foundation upon their own return to prominence. As such, Hank was in prime position to be reactivated as the Sleeper Agent when Dylan Brock got captured. While there is certainly a question to be asked of the ethics of using Hank as an unwitting soldier in the war against those who would weaponize symbiotes for their own purposes, there is no doubt Sleeper has quickly become one of if not the most effective symbiote agent to date.

Aiding Dylan Brock

Since these events, Sleeper has continued to aid Dylan Brock and Venom. The children of Venom and Eddie Brock are far more cordial and familial than the Life Foundation symbiotes, who are also Venom's kids. The two have come up against the threat of Absent Throne, which is a mysterious organization with all manner of influence around the world. That's along with the aforementioned Life Foundation, which is still gunning for the Venom symbiote. Unfortunately, Dylan was eventually captured by their enemies and nearly killed, forcing one of the Venom children to take drastic measures to save him.

Reactivating its essence inside Hank Hensley, Sleeper took the fight to their mutual enemies and successfully bonded the Venom symbiote with Dylan in order to save the boy. Unfortunately, this had a different effect than desired, turning Dylan into Codex. This is just one of the forms taken by the many "children" of Venom and Eddie, who are usually villainous. Nevertheless, Sleeper has proven to be a staunch ally of the former Lethal Protector, proving that heroism may run in the family. The irony is that this all started with a story best described as making Eddie Brock pregnant.