Marvel Just Put a New Spin on Venom’s Signature Catchphrase

Marvel is giving a new meaning to a popular Venom voiceline. Venom: The Last Dance opens in theaters this month, with Sony Pictures promoting it as the final chapter in Tom Hardy’s Venom saga. Over in the comics, Marvel is in the middle of an important symbiote storyline that pits father versus son. Venom War features Eddie Brock and Dylan Brock battling to see who will become the one true Venom host. Of course, there are some other antagonists at play as well, namely Eddie’s evil counterpart from the future, Meridius, and Carnage. With battle lines drawn, maybe it’s better having two Venoms than one, 

*WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Venom War #3. Continue reading at your own risk!

Venom War #3 comes from the creative team of Al Ewing, Iban Coello, Frank D’Armata, and VC’s Ariana Maher. The tension continues to mount between Eddie and Dylan Brock, mostly caused by the machinations of Doctor Doom and Kang the Conqueror. Dylan has bonded with the Flexo and Sleeper symbiotes as the Prince in Black to put a stop between Spider-Man‘s fight with Eddie, who has himself bonded with Bedlam. But Doctor Doom takes control of Flexo from the past, forcing Dylan to blast Eddie with fatal wounds.

On the other side, Kang triggers a failsafe in Red Goblin to take Doom’s proxy, aka Flexo, out of the equation. With Red Goblin and Flexo removing themselves from the battleground, all we’re left with is Dylan watching his father Eddie bleed out on a wrestling mat. Of course, we can’t have Venom War end on its third issue, and the way Marvel chose to end the issue will be music to the ears of Venomaniacs.

“We Are Venom” takes on a whole new meaning

Spider-Man and the Venom symbiote – who reunited at the start of Venom War – watch as Eddie Brock is slowly dying. Venom originally chose not to bond to either Eddie or Dylan Brock in order to stop two dystopian futures from happening. But now Venom is realizing just how much Eddie and Dylan really need it. Dylan needs Venom because he’s just a young teenager burdened by fate, while Eddie needs Venom to help him heal from his life-threatening injuries. 

Venom leaves Spider-Man and surges towards Eddie and Dylan, but instead of having to make the hard choice of which one to bond with, a compromise is reached. Spider-Man thought the solution was for neither of the Brock men to wear the symbiote, but it finds a better answer. Eddie and Dylan Brock will both serve as hosts for Venom at the same time, with Venom War #3 concluding with the duo declaring, We Are Venom!”

Marvel teases the All-New Venom

Even though Venom War is still underway, Marvel has started preparing fans for its aftermath. Al Ewing will continue to pen the Lethal Protector’s story alongside artist Carlos Gómez in All-New Venom. Unlike Ewing’s previous Venom – which was a time-traveling, cosmic affair – All-New Venom will be a street-level comic featuring a mystery character underneath the slimey symbiote suit. While the person’s identity is being kept a secret, we are given four suspects that Marvel fans will be familiar with: Rick Jones, Madame Masque, Robbie Robertson, and Luke Cage. 

“If people have a strong hankering for something different from me, this is that. It’s almost more like a Spider-Man-level story. It is set on Earth, very much in the normal New York City. Everywhere we go in the story is a place you could go, or at least the type of place you could go. Obviously, when we go to a warehouse… well, I do have a tendency to look up actual warehouses, and then change them just enough to pass legal. So yeah, everywhere we go in this story is a natural place you can go in New York City,” Ewing said of All-New Venom going the street-level route.

“So we take a swing away from the big cosmic thing,” Ewing continued. “The pendulum swings away from that and back into a much more intimate, character-based story, but also has a lot of that ground-level superhero action, where it’s less about cosmic entities battling in each other’s mindscapes, or mysterious zones beyond time, and much more on the street — slinging webs, slinging chains, doing the Venom thing. It’s almost like my return to an old-school sort of superhero comic, but with a couple of twists that we’re gonna have fun bringing in.”

Venom War #3 is on sale now from Marvel Comics. Let us know your thoughts on the issue and all of the other new comic book releases this week on social media @ComicBook!