WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Venom #26 by Donny Cates, Iban Coello, Juan Gedeon, Jesus Aburtov and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Donny Cates' acclaimed run on Venom has had Eddie Brock face the history and legacy of the fearsome symbiotes as he prepares for the arrival of Knull, the symbiotes' dark god. However, the series' latest issue has him face off against a Venom symbiote not from the Klyntar race, but developed synthetically in the Ultimate Universe.
In a shocking twist, the symbiote not only falls in the hands of a familiar foe, but quickly proves itself to be much more powerful than Eddie's classic symbiote.
Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley reimagined Venom for the Ultimate Universe in 2000's Ultimate Spider-Man #33, intentionally straying away from the extraterrestrial origins of the symbiote in the main Marvel Universe. Instead, the synthetic lifeform was developed years ago by Richard Parker and Eddie Brock, Sr., ostensibly as a cure for cancer -- but really part of a secret project to create a new generation of super-soldiers as the nations of the world raced to get their own, government-sponsored roster of superheroes.
While a rogue sample escaped and caused a private plane carrying the Parkers and Eddie's father to crash, killing all occupants, another portion survived in hiding for years, with Bolivar Trask intending to exploit it for himself.
As Peter and Eddie continued their fathers' research to perfect the protoplasmic organism, the symbiote bonded with Peter, who was able to maintain a semblance of control due to his superhuman abilities as Spider-Man. Freeing himself by electrocuting the symbiote, Peter attempted to destroy it, only for a jealous Eddie to permanently bond with it and become the Ultimate Universe's version of Venom.
More feral than the Earth-616 iteration, Ultimate Venom requires to constantly drain the life force of victims to avoid it consuming its host body. A second Venom later appeared in the Ultimate Universe, with Oscorp employee Conrad Marcus bonding with the symbiote before going on a murderous rampage until he was stopped by Miles Morales.
Following the events of the Marvel Multiverse-shattering crossover event Secret Wars, the Maker -- the evil Reed Richards from the Ultimate Universe -- arrived in the main Marvel Universe to continue his sinister agenda. The Maker had taken a particular interest in symbiotes, studying both Eddie and his son Dylan as he sought to unlock their extraterrestrial secrets for himself.
After seeing their awesome power firsthand during the recent crossover Absolute Carnage, the Maker managed to acquire a vial containing the Ultimate Venom symbiote, plotting to improve upon it. This is only possible due to its synthetic nature, as opposed to the Klyntar's more natural abilities.
Sure enough, the Maker's improvements to the Ultimate Venom symbiote are immediately noticeable, with Eddie's symbiote unable to identify its Ultimate counterpart due to its artificial background. Now bonded to the Ultimate symbiote, the Maker is able to defeat Eddie in a single punch, with the sheer force of the blow temporarily separating Eddie from his symbiote.
With Virus suddenly appearing on the scene, the battle is interrupted -- but at no point does the Maker seem to be outmatched by the Klyntar symbiotes. The villain is still very much in control of the situation. Dylan is unable to use his powers to take control of the Maker's symbiote, so the Ultimate Universe's greatest villain has just made himself significantly more deadly.