WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Venom #35 by Donny Cates, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Ryan Stegman, Kev Walker, Danilo S. Beyruth, Ron Lim, Guiu Vilanova, Gerardo Sandoval, Mark Bagley, JP Mayer, Jay Leisten, Kev Walker, Scott Hanna, Victor Nava, John Dell, Frank Martin, Chris O'Halloran, Jim Campbell, Matt Milla, Alex Sinclair, Chris Sotomayor, Richard Isanove, and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
After defeating Knull and taking his place as the god of the symbiotes, Eddie Brock has found himself busier than ever with all of the responsibilities that come with his newfound power. Of course, Eddie Brock is far from the genocidal maniac that his predecessor was, and as such has introduced his fellow symbiotes to a new era of unprecedented freedom.
Unfortunately, Venom #35 shows why he might have just created Marvel's next big symbiote problem by giving them free reign.
While Eddie's day is full of simultaneous meetings with the likes of the Avengers and Krakoa's Quiet Council, he has also made some time to meet Spider-Man for lunch and catch up on everything that has been going on since Knull's defeat. Eddie is happy to explain after dealing with the most poorly timed armed robber in the city, telling Spider-Man that he is merely piloting multiple symbiotes at once as an extension of himself. It's an important distinction from the sort of control that Knull used to exert over his progeny, as the symbiotes must now accept Eddie into their form in order for him to pilot them. This is a sort of freedom that the symbiotes haven't known since Knull was imprisoned hundreds of years ago, and one that could create a deadly serious problem for the new King in Black.
Eddie Brock and the symbiotes he pilots are far from the only symbiotes on Earth, and that is something that the recently resurrected Flash Thompson just learned when the Guardsmen show up to apprehend a rogue symbiote working at a coffeeshop. While Flash is able to help them, the encounter leaves him with the revelation that there are thousands of symbiotes that have been stranded on Earth as refugees of Knull's war. These symbiotes, now have an autonomy that many of them have likely never experienced, are simply trying to make lives for themselves alongside everyone else on the planet.
As the presence of the Guardsmen attests to, these symbiotes are seen as invading monsters by many. It isn't hard to imagine that unless something changes soon, there could be yet another war between symbiotes and humanity on the horizon. And since Eddie freed the rest of the symbiotes, this situation could spiral out of hand very quickly.
This isn't an issue that is likely to be swept under the rug or kept from Eddie's purview, though that doesn't mean it won't still grow out of his control. It is no small consolation that every other hero has offered Eddie whatever support they can. Having everyone from the Avengers to mutant-kind on his side is sure to be invaluable in the days to come, but Knull's invasion swept the entire globe before any of them could do much more than surface-level damage to the former King in Black or his army. And now, only time will tell if these symbiotes will be forced to relitigate Knull's symbiote invasion on their own terms.
Venom Turns a Familiar Marvel Hero Into the Symbiote's Host