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, 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.
While Knull was defeated during the crossover event King in Black and Eddie Brock ascended to godhood to command symbiote armies across the cosmos, a few of the villains who have troubled Venom recently remain undefeated. Most notably, the Maker, the evil Reed Richards from the Ultimate Universe, remains on the loose, continuing to elude justice even after Eddie gained cosmic awareness.
And as the Marvel Universe begins to pick up the pieces from King in Black, the Maker is poised to launch the next major invasion as he musters his own forces.
The Reed Richards of Earth-1610, the Ultimate Universe, was introduced as a younger figure than his main universe counterpart, who similarly became the superhero Mister Fantastic and led his world's Fantastic Four. After the cataclysmic events of the 2009 crossover event Ultimatum, that saw the Ultimate Universe ravaged and many of its heroes killed, Reed proposed to Sue Storm who broke up with him instead. Maddened by the trauma of Ultimatum and his breakup with Sue, Reed killed his mother and created the supervillain mantle of Maker to shape the world in his image. Following the 2015 crossover event Secret Wars, Maker was stranded in the main Marvel Universe as the multiverse was reformed.
Forming the sinister organization W.H.I.S.P.E.R., Maker initially targeted characters that were originally from different realities before arriving in the main Marvel Universe before later crossing paths with the Future Foundation in deep space. Back on Earth, Maker took a particular interest in the Venom symbiote and Eddie's young son Dylan, observing that the symbiote of this universe was far different than the one he knew of back on his own world. Maker was last seen sent hurtling back to the reborn Ultimate Universe, revealing that his homeworld was in complete disarray with the apparent disappearance of the planet's premier super-team the Ultimates.
While Eddie can't seemingly follow Maker to the Ultimate Universe, his newfound cosmic awareness deduces that the supervillain is actually plotting to stage a massive invasion of the main universe. Eddie voices these concerns to the Avengers, urging Captain America and Earth's Mightiest Heroes to prepare for the coming assault. More than just Maker, Eddie suspects that the twisted villain is conferring with a new iteration of the Council of Reeds, a meeting of Reed Richards from parallel worlds across the multiverse with largely immoral motives that has made them more of a danger than an ally to the main Marvel Universe in the past.
The Maker nearly conquered his own planet, narrowly defeated by the combined efforts of the Ultimate Universe's heroes, before becoming a threat to the entire multiverse. With his research from his time in the main Marvel Universe in hand and back on his own world without the Ultimates to impede his plans, there's nothing to stop Maker from coming back more powerful than ever as a rematch against the main Marvel Universe's heroes is virtually guaranteed. Eddie Brock may now be a god but even he is left blind to Ultimate Reed Richards' wider machinations.