WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Venom: First Host #3, by Mike Costa, Mark Bagley, Ron Lim, Andrew Hennessy, Scott Hanna, Dono Sanchez-Almara and Clayton Cowles, out now.


Venom: First Host has tackled the history of everyone’s favorite symbiote in ways we’ve not seen before. In the first few issues of the miniseries, we've learned that the first being to become bonded to the Klyntar symbiote known as Venom wasn’t Peter Parker at all, but a Kree warrior called Tel-Kar. And when he comes to Earth to rejoin with his long-lost partner, things do not go well for its current host, Eddie Brock. It does, however, lead to some interesting revelations about the symbiote’s, well, baby.

This spawn of Venom isn’t the first time the symbiote has had a child, of course. Carnage was the first that we know of, a force of destruction who was created when the Venom symbiote, which lay dormant in Eddie’s bloodstream at the time, left behind a piece of itself that bonded with the psychopathic murderer Cletus Kasady. Shortly afterward, Eddie was kidnapped and the Venom symbiote was forced to spawn five more children by the sinister Life Foundation, a secret society that planned for the inevitable apocalypse by organizing a utopian society, which they wanted Klyntar to act as security for. They spawned the symbiotes known as Agony, Phage, Riot, Lasher and Scream.

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Recently, in the ongoing Venom series, the former Lethal Protector has been dealing with the Klyntar God returned to reclaim all its children (aka every symbiote). But before that, in the previous Venom series, Eddie Brock had to deal with the symbiote giving birth yet again. A new symbiote was spawned from his suit and, to keep it safe, has been kept hidden away at Alechemax under the care of Liz Allen. Liz has promised to keep the "child" safe in exchange for the unique opportunity to experiment (non-invasively, of course) on it. Venom: First Host picks up on that plot thread, which in turn leads to the events of issue #3.

Tel-Kar has shown his true colors, and when he confronts Eddie and is shocked to learn that the Venom symbiote does not want to go with him, he kidnaps its offspring. Left with no choice, the symbiote abandons Eddie and bonds once again with Tel-Kar in order to protect its child. Tel-Kar drops the offspring and escapes, leaving Eddie naked and helpless. In First Host #3, however, Eddie is shocked to discover that Venom’s child has been talking to him throughout the issue. He then decides to bond with the offspring himself, in order to bring Tel-Kar down and save his symbiote.

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Immediately when Eddie bonds with the offspring, there’s a noticeable difference. Instead of looking like Venom, Eddie looks like a cross between a symbiote and a Celestial, with multiple eyes and bright yellow claws and chest details. There’s no discernible face to speak of, though later in the issue we see his signature toothy grin. But more important than the cosmetic differences is the new symbiote/human hybrid's drastically different powerset.

Even more interesting is that the new abilities aren't all geared towards offense. For example, he's able to discern things that should be unseeable. Eddie has reluctantly joined forces with the Skrull Warbride M’Lanz to track down Tel’Kar, and when Eddie calls her out on having a cloaked ship outside the Alchemax building, he explains to her that he can “see” it.

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Aside from the powerful new ability to see cloaked objects that are designed to be invisible to sight and radar, the new Venom speaks of being able to feel things around him rather than see them. There’s also the impressive array of chemical and pheromone production at its disposal; using either liquid or aerosol-based application, the new symbiote can release stimulants to their enemies that can confuse as well as “bring on euphoria or sleep.” Perhaps more useful is the suggestion that, by unleashing a unique mixture of pheromones, they can persuade anyone into doing practically anything, and more than that, make it feel like it was their idea.

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The full extent of this new symbiote offspring’s powers have not yet fully been explored, but already they’re described as immature, meaning there's no knowing just how powerful they can truly get, or what other powers are waiting to manifest. Already though, you get the sense that this child of Venom is a lot less reliant on physical strength and more able to call upon subtle, tactical advantages to manipulate their surroundings. Just how useful these new powers will be against Tel-Kar and their parent symbiote remains to be seen, but Eddie will surely have a few more tricks up his sleeve before Venom: First Host is over.