Venom by Donny Cates & Ryan Stegman Ending At Issue 200

As the King in Black event continues to unfold, Marvel Comics has announced that Venom‘s current era will come to an end with Venom #200. In April — the same month that Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther run concludes — Venom’s anniversary issue will bring the story that Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman began with Venom #1 in 2018 (Venom #200 uses legacy numbering dating back to 1993) to a close. Marvel also revealed the cover to Venom #200, via IGN, showing Venom sitting upon a throne, dragon-like wings on full display and holding a crimson blade, possibly hinting that Venom will come to be the new ruler of the symbiotes after Knull’s defeat.

“It’s something that we’ve been building to, and building to, and building to. Now we’re here,” Cates tells IGN. “Ryan and I talk about that a lot. About how Ryan will send in a new page or King in Black, and it’s finally like a drawing of something that we’ve all been thinking about, a particular moment or a scene that we’ve all been thinking about for almost four years now. So it’s pretty surreal. It’s crazy. It really is a testament to how awesome the Marvel fanbase has been and the Venom fans in general, that they’ve supported the book so much. That this crazy idea of this Knull thing has stuck around so long, that we’re actually getting to do this.”

Stegman is one of a group of artists working on the milestone Venom issue. The other participating artists are being kept secret for now.

Cates hints that both the main King in Black series and the Venom tie-in issues are priming Eddie Brock for a new era to come. “Both King in Black and the Venom tie-ins themselves are both structured to really, really, really give a new status quo, to give gifts back or add things to the Marvel landscape,” said Cates. “So far we’ve been pretty destructive. So far we’ve been taking things away. So without saying too much, the Venom storyline that follows the events of King in Black is really a fun chance to be a little bit more introspective and to get a little bit more – surreal is maybe a word for it – and go into the depth of the void, and Knull’s abyss, and see what’s in there and really feel the suffering and all those things.”

Venom #200 goes on sale in April.