Eddie Brock is sitting at a waterfront picnic table at sunset with his son, Dylan, who’s enjoying some strawberry ice cream.
“You know what, Dad?” Dylan asks.
“What’s that?” Eddie wonders.
“I think we’re going to be okay.”
Eddie is surprised by Dylan’s words. It wasn’t long ago when the boy could barely look at him and chose to live with Mary Jane “MJ” Watson and her “clown” boyfriend Paul instead. But Dylan says he’d rather focus on what’s next than on what’s done, and that he wants a dad. When Eddie spots a mysterious blonde woman on the beach and wonders who she is, Dylan quips he’ll only get the answer in his dreams.
Unfortunately, this idyllic scene is nothing but a dream. Eddie’s partner, Sleeper (a cat-shaped symbiote), keeps shouting at him to wake up from outside the dream. “I wish I didn’t have to do this, Eddie,” Sleeper says before bites down hard on Eddie. The dream shatters as Sleeper pulls Eddie out of unconsciousness.
Back to Reality
Eddie wakes up in a pile of rubble, surrounded by smoke. He asks what happened but Sleeper says there’s no time. Though he does admit he bit Eddie, injecting adrenaline “and a few other choice compounds” to get him up and moving. He also warns Eddie to be wary of the Kree warriors enhanced with symbiote abilities by the Queen in Black roaming the area.
Despite his grogginess, Eddie remembers that Hela is the Queen in Black now. Sleeper then explains what happened. Eddie took out the Symbiote Intelligence, saving Dylan back in Queen in Black #3. He then fought a rearguard action against the “Kreebiotes” who came to rescue their leader to buy Spider-Man, MJ (who’s now bonded to Venom) and Dylan enough time to escape. In the process, he took a nasty blow to the head that knocked him out cold.
The Kreebiotes only want to rescue their intelligence so they aren’t after Eddie and Sleeper, but they will kill them if they get in the way. The plan is to get past them. “But let’s have fun with it,” Eddie says as he slams his fist into a Kreebiote.
The adrenaline has him overconfident, thinking he could take them all alone. Sleeper says it’s just the “go juice” talking and tells him to focus on getting to a spot where they can web themselves out. Eddie objects to this. How can they just walk away and leave an alien kill squad in control around innocent people? Sleeper coldly replies that the people aren’t their problem because they’re “about to be someone else’s problem.” Eddie hesitates only to get punched in the back of his head.
“The people of this world aren’t your problem either. Now let’s go!” Sleeper tells him.
Eddie reluctantly swings away from the pursuing horde, but he warns Sleeper they’re going to have a conversation soon.
Inside the Mindscape
Later that evening on a rooftop, Eddie demands answers. Why did Sleeper break him out of prison in the first place? Why have they been taking strange “side trips” since they escaped? And what did Sleeper mean when he said the fate of the world was someone else’s problem?
Sleeper only gives Eddie cryptic answers, saying some things are bigger than Eddie, even bigger than Sleeper. He tells Eddie to turn around and says “You’ll figure it out.” Eddie does, and it’s at this moment when Reed Richards’s experiment in Queen in Black #4 allows the Venom symbiote to spread across the globe. He finds himself in the symbiote’s mindscape, a cracked, icy landscape of blue crystals with a large chained crystal overhead. “Oh God. I know this place” Eddie says with dread. “This was never supposed to happen. I stopped it.”
“Lots of things aren’t supposed to happen,” Sleeper responds. “And then they happen.”
As Eddie looks around the mindscape, he sees people trapped inside the giant crystals. He asks if everyone is stuck in here. Sleeper confirms that every living person on Earth has been linked into a single symbiote hive mind. That is roughly eight billion minds trapped together. Eddie asks if this nightmare was caused by the Queen in Black or the dark god Knull.
“Actually, no,” Sleeper says. “Now, more than ever…we are Venom.”
At that moment, a massive, floating Venom head appears above them. He starts listing opposite concepts: (father, mother, child, loved, alone, together, lost, found, healthy, sick, insane, sane. He cries out that there are simply too many minds to hold. The mental strain shatters the crystals, sending screams echoing through the mindscape as Eddie collapses.
Sleeper’s True Plan Revealed
Sleeper admits that this is why he broke Eddie out of prison. His “father” can’t hold this massive world-hive together on his own. Because Eddie was the King in Black and learned to exist within endless minds without losing himself, Sleeper brought him here to guide Venom. When Eddie asks how is he supposed to do that, Sleeper snaps that if he wants to be a hero and save the world, now is the time to do it.
Eddie calls out to Venom, tells him to focus on his voice. He reminds Venom that holding billions of minds together is possible because Eddie already did it when he was the King in Black. Venom snaps back that he is not Eddie, he is completely alone. But Eddie promises he’s back and ready to share the load. He tells the symbiote to use his memories, experience, and strength.
Things Will Be Different Now
Venom starts to calm down and takes on a slim, tall form. He thanks Sleeper for bringing Eddie right when he was needed most. Sleeper says he cares in his own way.
Venom says he sees through the “plan within the plan,” tracing Sleeper’s moves all the way back to when the Toxin symbiote was bonded to Rick Jones. Eddie is left completely confused by the reference, but it isn’t explained here. Venom tells Sleeper that if he can take the throne he should, and he won’t stand in his way. Sleeper may be “the King in Black the symbiotes need.” Sleeper shifts into a large yellow-and-black armored form and says, “We shall see.” But Queen in Black #5 does confirm he becomes the new King in Black.
Venom asks Eddie why everything always comes back to him. Even though Venom is connected to every soul on Earth, it always circles back to Eddie Brock even though their partnership usually brings disaster, terror, and pain. Eddie touches the symbiote as tendrils wrap around his hand and replies, “Because together…we are special.”
Venom steps out from the broken crystals in his classic form and declares, “This time…it will be different.”
