After spending weeks in the high-security superhuman prison the Raft, Eddie Brock thinks he’s found his way to freedom. When Hela the new Queen in Black sends symbiotes to take over Earth, Eddie starts a riot in the hope of using the chaos to escape.
Unfortunately, he gets hit with a taser and placed in solitary confinement. But it’s not all bad because a different symbiote is here in his cell. When it comes to symbiotes, can Eddie turn his luck around in King in Black: Venom Unchained #2?
Eddie Makes a Deal
The tiger-striped cat symbiote tells Eddie it’s wrong for him to be imprisoned and alone. The creature reminds Eddie of the days when he was the King in Black, back when he was connected to every symbiote at once. Eddie recognizes his visitor as Sleeper, the youngest of Venom’s children. Sleeper wants to right a wrong, but it can’t do the job alone. Sensing a chance to regain his freedom, Eddie accepts the offer. Sleeper bonds with him, giving Eddie a Venom-like form adorned with sleek white markings.
The Breakout
Guards in the control room notice there’s trouble in D Block. They say Edward Brock was put in solitary after trying to start a riot, and they no longer know what he is. As alarms sound, Eddie makes it clear he knows Sleeper is more independent than most symbiotes and isn’t helping out of kindness. He’ll help Sleeper in return but within reason. There’s a symbiote attack on New York and stopping it could clear his name. But as long as they’re bonded, there will be no killing. Sleeper agrees to the terms of the deal.
Trapped under heavy fire, Sleeper uses its chemical synthesis abilities to retaliate. It produces octane, pure gasoline, triggering a massive explosion that rips through the prison walls.
In the smoking rubble, Eddie panics over his strict no-killing rule. Sleeper points out that the guards’ heavy armor kept them alive, though Eddie warns the symbiote should never rely on sheer luck like that again. When surviving guards order the others to take him out, Sleeper urges him to fly. Wings sprout from the symbiote, allowing Eddie to soar away over the bay toward the Manhattan skyline.
The Symbiote Alliance Invades New York
As they fly over the water, Eddie sees that New York City is under siege by the Symbiote Alliance, an invading alien force answering to the Queen in Black. Down in the streets, black-and-blue symbiote soldiers clear out the city and enforce an eradication order against anyone left behind.
An elderly woman is hiding behind a dumpster in an alley with her small dog Twinkie, whispering they’ll be okay if they stay quiet. A symbiote soldier spots them, snatches the dog with a tendril, and swallows it whole. Eddie drops into the alley to confront the soldier.The soldier asks what Eddie is, since he seems to be one of the Queen in Black’s servants but doesn’t honor her will.
Eddie assumes that Mary Jane Watson (who’s currently bonded to Venom) is the Queen in Black Sleeper tells him it’s not Mary Jane, but it leaves Eddie for a while because it has things to do. It tells him to defeat this fool and wait to hear from it. “Big things lie ahead… for both of us,” Sleeper reminds him.
Left defenseless, Eddie gets slammed into brick walls and tossed through rubble by the soldier. He realizes the suit Sleeper left him isn’t a full symbiote, but it can do almost everything one can. He only has to learn to control it. He tells himself to pretend he’s Venom again and to remember the joy and power of that bond.
The leftover suit responds to his force of will, surging into a massive, classic Venom form. Channeling his old instincts, Eddie bites straight into the enemy soldier, devouring the alien and cracking that it tastes like a dog.
Sleeper Reveals the True Enemy
The elderly woman is pleased the thing is dead, though she wishes Eddie had tortured it first, and she weeps over her dog Twinkie. Eddie awkwardly says Twinkie is surely in a better place. “All dogs go to heaven, right?”
Sleeper returns and starts speaking in his head again. “Oh, now you’re talking to me,” Eddie snaps. “I could have been killed!” Sleeper says it believed in him and that he’s far too special to die in a dirty alley, but he now has to reach Sleeper quickly. Eddie asks where he’s supposed to go, so Sleeper tells him to listen to the sleeper agent, the piece of itself left in his suit. Eddie swings off as the woman clutches Twinkie’s leash.
While swinging through the damaged city, Eddie says he’s had enough of the cryptic comments and Sleeper vanishing at the worst moment. He wants to know why Sleeper broke him out of prison. Sleeper replies that Eddie is “still in prison, I think.” He says Eddie is trapped in his own mind, spirit, past and mistakes. Sleeper broke him out of the physical prison, and the others are up to Eddie. It says it’s helping because Eddie is close to its father Venom and “family matters.”
Eddie doesn’t buy it because he knows Sleeper needs him for something. Sleeper admits it needs someone to operate the sleeper agent symbiote while it’s busy with another task. Eddie is the best candidate because of his experience with symbiotes. Eddie guesses this is about the Queen in Black. Sleeper confirms it and reveals her true name is Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death.
It says that if he helps defeat her, “all your dreams will come true.” Eddie points out that if a Queen in Black is anything like a King in Black, she’s one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Sleeper says it has a plan and that they’ll start “with that,” pointing a paw.
“Oh no,” Eddie says.
We see Spider-Man leaping past a huge green, Venom-faced dome crackling with lightning. Beside him is Mary Jane in her Venom form amid the wrecked metal. Inside the glowing green mass lies a pale blonde male who looks like he could be a kid. “Dylan,” a horrified Eddie whispers.
