WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Venom #30 by Donny Cates, Luke Ross, Jesus Aburtov and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Ever since the end of the Absolute Carnage event, the symbiote god Knull has been traveling through the cosmos, unleashing death and destruction as he heads towards Earth. But while the cosmic villain has been on the war march, Eddie Brock has been busy elsewhere -- in another universe, in fact. Indeed, in the latest storyline of Venom, Eddie and his son Dylan were accidentally transported to an alternate reality. This parallel world was overrun with symbiotes, and they were all controlled by someone known as Codex.
Now, after months of being trapped in this other universe, it's time for Eddie and Dylan to finally return home. But there's only one problem: they're too late, Knull is already here.
In Venom #30, Eddie Brock joins forces with this parallel world's freedom fighters -- an entire squad of Agent Venoms -- in order to defeat Codex. The villain, as it turns out, is a grown-up version of his son, Dylan, and he is extremely powerful. However, thanks to the real Dylan, the connection between Knull and Codex is severed, and the latter is, for all intents and purposes, defeated. His control over the world's symbiotes is broken, and the people that were trapped inside are freed.
Now, freedom has been restored to this world. But while the mission may be done, Eddie and Dylan can't exactly go home yet: this alternate reality's Reed Richards needs more than a year to build another portal that will take them back home. Therefore, Eddie and Dylan spend over a year in this new world, taking some much needed time off. But, eventually, the portal is ready, and it's time for them to leave.
Once they return home, however, they are shocked to find the prime Earth has gone through a cataclysmic ordeal. The sky is nothing but darkness, and there isn't a single star left shining. And with this tease, the issue comes to a close, promising that the story will continue in the soon-to-debut King in Black crossover event.
Knull has been on his way for a long time, but it now looks like he's already here. We don't yet know the reason the sky is black, but there are two possibilities: either Knull destroyed every star in the galaxy as he traveled to Earth, or he somehow used his powers to cover the planet in darkness. Whatever the case is, it's bad news for Venom and son.
Also, this poses an interesting question. Since Eddie spent more than a year in an alternate universe, did a full year pass on the regular Earth as well? If that is the case, then perhaps Eddie has just glimpsed the future of the Marvel Universe, one year later -- a future that would come into being should he fail to stop Knull. But that means he would have to travel back to the present as well.
This black sky leads to plenty of questions but thankfully, answers will arrive as King in Black kicks off.