WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Venom #20 by Donny Cates, Iban Coello, Zé Carlos, Rain Beredo and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.

The Maker, an "evil version" of Reed Richards, hails from the Ultimate Universe. This twisted Mister Fantastic escaped the destruction of the Ultimate U during the 2015 Secret Wars blockbuster event series, eventually turning up as a villain in New Avengers. However, his most surprising appearance as an antagonist came when he appeared in Venom #7. Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote had just fought Knull, the god of the symbiotes, leaving them both unconscious. When Eddie woke up, he found himself in the clutches of The Maker, who now displays a new interest in alien symbiotes.

After filling Eddie in on being controlled by the symbiote while unconscious -- which involved a trip across the country from New York to California to visit his father -- The Maker revealed he is working for an organization called Project Oversight. Their name is pretty much the only information we're given about the group, aside from describing it more as a gathering than an organization.

RELATED: An Ultimate Universe Weapon Is Back - and In the Worst Possible Hands

Venom put The Maker and Project Oversight on the backburner for the Absolute Carnage event series, which brought back the sadistic killer Cletus Kasady and his Carnage symbiote as they tried to awaken Knull. Eddie was able to kill Cletus, but in doing so he sent Knull on an eventual collision course with the Earth, most likely in a sequel event sometime next year. Maker volunteered his services during Absolute Carnage to help the heroes extract symbiote codex samples from their bodies, but his machine turned out to actually collect the samples instead of destroying them.

The reason Maker wants to collect symbiotes is revealed in Venom #20 while he speaks to an individual on a holographic projection. The Maker has been conducting experiments to open a portal back to the Ultimate Universe. However, what he's found is too many trips between dimensions causes tremendous stress on a human body and mind. But on his last attempt, the synthetic symbiote from the Ultimate Universe made it through a rift to Earth-616, also called the Marvel Prime Universe.

Maker deduces a symbiote is fully capable of traveling between dimensions, and if he can repair this one, it will allow him to go back to his original universe. This leads to the big reveal that the group behind Project Oversight is the Council of Reeds

RELATED: Venom's SECRET Superpower May Save Marvel's Universe

The Council of Reeds debuted in 2009's Fantastic Four #570. The group consists of versions of Reed Richards from across the multiverse, who all come together to help make the Multiverse a better place. The downside is each Reed Richards had to leave their universe behind while they convened in their headquarters in the space between universes.

After most of the Council died fighting Celestials, they returned in Marvel 2-in-One Annual #1 during an adventure with Doctor Doom, The Thing, Human Torch and Dr. Rachna Koul. Now, The Maker is looking to join his multiversal brothers, but one key factor has kept him from becoming a full-time member. If The Maker can restore the Ultimate Universe, then he will be granted admittance, since no member of the Council of Reeds comes from a broken universe.

This means The Maker will be paying very close attention to Dylan Brock going forward. Failure is not an option for the Council of Reeds, and Maker does not intend to look like a fool or a failure in front of his peers. Marvel teased plans to resurrect the Ultimate Universe, with the world making a shocking cameo appearance in Spider-Man II #5. And if The Maker does join the Council of Reeds, who knows what other machinations they will cook up from the shadows.

KEEP READING: Marvel Just Found a Way to Bring Venom Into the MCU