Marvel Reveals Wolverine Has Ties to Venom Symbiotes

Throughout the newest run of Venom comics, writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman have completely re-written the history of Symbiotes from the ground up, changing everything we thought we knew about the story of the Klyntar race. A new chapter of this tantalizing history was released this week, in the form of Web of Venom: Ve’Nam #1, a one-shot book that takes readers to the jungles of Vietnam. Little did we know, this book (drawn by Juanan Ramirez) includes one of Marvel’s most popular characters, forever tying them to the history of Venom.

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for Web of Venom: Ve’Nam #1! Continue reading at your own risk…

Ve’Nam tells the story of Rex Strickland, a Vietnam veteran who was introduced in Venom #1 as one of the first humans to bond with a Symbiote. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. found a Symbiote dragon frozen in ice and, after the loss of Captain America, decided to use it to form a new batch of super soldiers. As you can probably guess, this updated take on Project Rebirth goes horribly wrong, the Symbiotes within the soldiers reconnect to their hive mind, and begin killing hordes of fellow American soldiers.

Knowing he needs to try and stop the Symbiotes before any more damage is done, Fury recruits the one man he knows can handle something as devastating and dangerous as this: Wolverine.

Fury and Wolverine head into Vietnam to track the Symbiotes and put a stop to them. Even though Wolverine is an incredibly fighter with a flawless healing factor, even he can’t hang with the group of Symbiotes. He takes them head-on, but it’s only a matter of time before he’s overpowered. It’s Rex Strickland who comes back to save Wolverine, repaying the Canadian hero for taking the same action earlier in the book.

When all is said and done, Rex bonds with his Symbiote once again, realizing that it’s not a monster and has the capacity to separate from the evils of the hive mind. He launches Wolverine to safety before Fury blows away the entire jungle. When Fury goes over the debriefing with Rex later, the two agree that Wolverine was never there in the first place, striking him from the official record.

This isn’t the first time that a popular character has been tied to Venom’s updated (and much more interesting) backstory. In the Venom ongoing series, it was revealed that Thor had battled Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, on multiple occasions.

Did you expect to see Wolverine appear in Web of Venom this week? What other Marvel characters do you think will be tied to Venom’s history? Let us know in the comments!

P.S. Click here to read our full review of Web of Venom: Ve’Nam #1.