WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Venom #28 by Donny Cates, Juan Gedeon, Jesus Aburtov and VC's Clayton Cowles, available now.

In Venom #26, Eddie Brock went up against a mysterious new villain who called himself Virus. This character wore an old War Machine armor, and he was armed with symbiote-hunting technology, as well as an old Goblin Glider and pumpkin bombs. Virus rapidly set his sights on Venom, blaming him for everything bad that had seemingly happened to him recently. And because of an ill-timed attack inside the Maker's laboratory, Venom, Dylan and Virus were all transported to an alternate reality depicting a twisted future where the Earth was ruled by Codex and his symbiote Avengers.

Now,in Venom #28, Virus finds himself in the thrall of Codex and reveals his identity after a bit of questioning. As it turns out, the mysterious Virus is actually Mac Gargan, the long-time Spider-Man villain who most famously operated as Scorpion.

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After Eddie, Dylan and Virus first arrived in this alternate reality, they were rapidly attacked by this universe's version of the Avengers, which are actually symbiotes controlled by Codex. Eddie and Dylan were able to escape, but Virus wasn't so lucky. He was taken to the team's headquarters, the Hive, where he met the mysterious Codex.

Codex had his followers remove Virus' helmet, but he didn't recognize the person in the armor. What he was interested in knowing however was how he was able to get his hands on restricted weaponry. Therefore, in Venom #28, Virus is being interrogated by Codex and his chief scientist, a symbiote version of Doctor Octopus.

As the issue comes to a close, Virus finally reveals that he is Mac Gargan -- the Scorpion -- and he joins forces with Codex to take down Eddie Brock.

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In 2019's Absolute Carnage event, Cletus Kasady tried to collect the codex left behind in every person who had ever bonded with a symbiote in order to awaken the dark god Knull. One of his targets was Mac Gargan, who had a brief stint as Venom. In Absolute Carnage #2, Cletus went after Mac, and he ripped into his spleen to collect his codex. However, before Carnage could kill him, Miles Morales' Spider-Man arrived just in time to save Gargan, and Eddie Brock then dragged him away from the confrontation. The Scorpion was safe from Carnage, but the damage had been done: Mac Gargan was now paralyzed from the waist down.

Now, Gargan has returned, and it looks like he blames Eddie Brock for everything that's happened., evne though Carnage actually injured him. Because of this, he made it his mission to hunt Eddie down. He found the Fixer, and bought an old War Machine suit and Goblin tech off of him to put together his Virus persona.

But Codex gives Gargan something even better: his very own symbiote. As we know, symbiotes can heal certain wounds, and they can replace lost limbs. With it, Mac is able to walk once again, and he uses it to create a new, symbiote-powered Scorpion suit. He's got his prehensile tail again, sharp claws for hands, his own symbiote-inspired logo and an overall frightening new look that brings together the most dynamic elements of his classic Scorpion costume and the symbiote suit he wore as Venom.

Having shed his Virus persona, Mac Gargan is the Scorpion again, and he might just be more dangerous than ever.

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