Throughout the Queen in Black crossover event, Hela (the Asgardian Goddess of Death) has seized Knull’s power to become the new “Queen in Black.” To solidify her rule, she leads an army of symbiote-infected alien forces against Earth. But Knull refuses to go down without a fight. Now reborn as a god of light, Knull is heading to Earth to carry out his own invasion of the planet. A team consisting of the Avengers, the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Friends led by Tony Stark (Iron Man) are the planet’s only hope of surviving. Though things get complicated when Hela targets Eddie Brock’s son Dylan Brock over his “Chainbreaker” ability to sever symbiote connection to her hive.
Earth’s Last Stand
Marvel’s heroes are fighting a frantic, multi-front war across the globe. They’re stretched so thin that every team is just praying the others aren’t losing as badly as they are.
Over in England, Captain America, Falcon, Hercules, Wonder Man, and Lightning are overwhelmed by the symbiote-infected Chitauri aliens. They call for backup from Britain’s superhero agency, MI-13, only for a single vigilante named Outlaw to show up. He tosses a bug-bomb grenade at the aliens as he explains how MI-13’s budget was gutted after a political group calling themselves the “New Hydra Party” convinced the Prime Minister that superheroes were corrupting the youth. Cap doesn’t even have time to digest how absurd that sounds before jumping back into the fight.
Speaking of Logan’s (Wolverine) team, in Japan the Mentelleronites continue to give him and Storm (Ororo Munroe) a hard time by manipulating reality. Storm has lost track of all the times they’ve been turned into X-Babies but Logan reminds her to focus on who they are at their core.
Down in Italy, the X-Vengers are tangling with giant symbiote-Skrulls. Since Emma Frost can only telepathically clear one mind at a time, the plan is to punch them out and let her clear the symbiote before Hela summons more.
Over in Egypt, Vision and Scarlet Witch are holding off incoming pods of symbiote-infected Rigellians. Wanda uses her magic to rip open a portal directly to the “Purple Dimension” to suck the enemy’s landing canisters straight out of the sky.
Time for Plan B
Meanwhile, Iron Man’s Defenders are getting pummeled by Knull and his hard light constructs. Iron Man finally admits that Cable wins and decides to execute Plan B.
And what is Plan B? Preposition a bunch of interdimensional teleporters across realities to set off a chain reaction that drags Knull and Hela to the same room. Now the two nightmare gods have no choice but to fight each other and take their attention away from Earth.
Firelord Hits Times Square
Firelord, now bonded with a symbiote, arrives in Times Square in service of Hela. “Tricks and schemes are meaningless when what wins the day is power,” he says.
Between him and the Kreebiotes, Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Nova (Richard Rider), and Captain Alliance are struggling to hold the line. It doesn’t help that Nova’s Nova Force is at 9% and he needs some more time. Thankfully, the Thing (Ben Grimm) shows up to fight Firelord.
In the Baxter Building, Sue and Reed Richards (Invisible Woman and Mister Fantastic) discuss a “revoltin’ development.” There are currently five different fronts on Earth and two in space. There are three extra Kree warships to deal with because Black Cat’s mission went south. They need to reboot the symbiote intelligence using Kree Supremor genetic material, which Felicia was meant to deliver. She succeeds, shouting “Supremor seed deployed!” and a symbiote-infected Kree monster is overwritten. It taunts them, saying they’d never succumb.
Kree Supreme Intelligence appears and says they foresaw this ten thousand years ago. They have second- and third-order plans to mitigate such ambitions. An off-switch in the Kree communicator implants activates, and the symbiote-Kree grab their heads in pain. Only the highest levels of the Kree military could have triggered it.
This gives Nova enough time to pull off a risky trick. He uses Johnny Storm’s flame to supercharge his own Nova Force, unleashing a massive “Nova Flame” combo attack that knocks Firelord out for good.
A Desperate Experiment
Back in the Baxter Building, Mary Jane Watson (now bonded to Venom) and Dylan Brock are lying on lab tables, linked by glowing strands. Reed reasons that since Venom bonded to both Dylan and his father Eddie at the same time during the Venom War, it can happen again. If it works, Reed can boost it and broadcast it into space like radio. This could unlock Dylan’s “Chainbreaker” ability, taking out Hela’s army or even Hela herself in one move.
There’s just one problem. Eganrac, the “anti-Carnage” is liquid gold inside Venom is bad news for any symbiote it touches, including Venom. Reed plans to use that reaction to distill the anti-Carnage out of Venom. Toxin’s instinctive reactions will guide the equipment to siphon it off one molecule at a time. Since it’s been holding Venom back for months, that should give him a major power boost. Reed just hopes there aren’t any unknown elements in play.
Around the world, heroes notice the symbiotes losing their cohesion. It seems like the odds are finally leaning in their favor. But soon, things get out of control as Reed begins to suspect if the anti-Carnage has a magical component to it. Over in Egypt, Scarlet Witch gets a terrifying vision of an all-consuming darkness. Reed broadcasts a distress call to all Avengers warning that Venom is out of control and he’s trying to reverse the process.
Welcome to Venomworld
Before anyone can respond, massive black symbiote tendrils erupt from the Baxter Building, wrapping itself around the entire planet. Cap gets dragged underground in England, tendrils swallow the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy and the Pyramids in Egypt. Ot isn’t long until Earth is completely encased in a living symbiote shell.
Suddenly, the perspective shifts into a muted, black-and-white world. The heroes hear a voice saying everything is under control, that it’s all right to be afraid, because they are not alone. Standing before them is a towering MJ in her black-and-gold Venom form. She introduces herself as their host in the Venom mindscape. All 8.3 billion people on the planet are connected as they share the same symbiote. MJ warns that things are about to get crazy, but if everyone stays connected and together, there’s nothing the “First Global Symbiote Consciousness” can’t accomplish.
The issue ends with a shot of Earth looking like a giant Venom head with a molten orange tongue stretched out into space announcing “…We are Venomworld!”
