Are Symbiotes Marvel’s New Big Universal Threat?

All-New Venom has a lot to live up to. Venom has been one of Marvel’s marquee stars over the past several years, as symbiotes become more and more important to the Marvel Universe. There were four candidates for the new Venom, a number that has been constantly whittled down through All-New Venom. Now, readers are about to get the answer they’re looking for with All-New Venom #5, a book that also continues to build one of the most intriguing ideas in the current Marvel Universe. Symbiotes have been a huge deal in the last few years, and it’s changed the balance of power, especially as more powerful ones come to Earth and reproduce. All-New Venom has been about the mystery of who Venom is, but it’s also been about how the world is reacting to the symbiote threat on other levels.

Over the years, the governments of the Marvel Universe have had to create more and more secret agencies to deal with threats to the planet. SHIELD was only the beginning, as groups like SWORD, HAMMER, and ARMOR have all appeared. All-New Venom introduces a new one, SCAR. The symbiotes have become a true threat and things might be about to change.

Symbiotes Have Become Exponentially More Dangerous

Symbiotes have always been dangerous, but there was a scale. So, Venom and Carnage, who were much weaker at first though still formidable on a one on one basis, were dangerous to New York City, but that was an individual basis. There were never that many symbiotes around, even with the various offspring that would show up. Put a symbiote on a character and they could do loads of damage, but there was usually just one of them. However, all of that changed in the last decade, beginning with the introduction of Gor the God-Killer. His All-Black the Necrosword was revealed to be a symbiote, one that had become a weapon over the millennia and drank the power of the gods it killed. This was the first indication of the symbiotes as a force beyond what they had been before. Venom and Carnage were one thing, but a symbiote that could kill gods? That was another level and it presaged the character that would change the threats of the symbiotes forever — Knull.

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Knull popped up in Thor, God of Thunder and Venom before battling Silver Surfer himself in Silver Surfer: Black. Around this time, Carnage was resurrected and connected to the energy of Knull, which brought about the story known as Absolute Carnage. This was the first time that symbiotes had been used on this wide a scale. Sure, there was “Venom Bomb” from Mighty Avengers, but that was just in one team book, not a big event. Absolute Carnage would be followed several years later by Knull in King In Black, where the Earth was invaded by symbiotes. Billions of symbiotes came to the Earth and it seems like there are more around than ever before. Suddenly, symbiotes are a force and can overrun everyone, putting them under the control of whoever was king of the symbiotes at the time. Such things can’t stand.

A Symbiote War?

All-New Venom has been setting up something rather interesting in the background of the book. To begin with, there’s SCAR. This new group is devoted to creating weapons and facilities to destroy and contain the symbiotic menace. There’s a prison in the book, one where Flash Thompson, back as Agent Venom, is working as a secret mole for symbiotes on the outside. It’s a very unique situation, and it’s looking like there may be some kind of skirmish between rebel symbiotes and the government arm built to fight them.

Remember — the Marvel Universe is a place where Sentinels were created to destroy mutants. If there’s an organization built to fight the symbiotes, that means there’s powerful anti-symbiote forces. Is All-New Venom heading towards a conflict that may take symbiotes back to the forefront of the Marvel Universe? Something is brewing behind the scenes and the threat of the symbiotes is just one factor in it.

All-New Venom #5 is on sale now.