Warning: Contains SPOILERS forVenom War #5
Since the name “Knull” was introduced in 2018,Venom’s legacy has been on a slow path leading into the multiversal time-spanning conflict that has been the Venom War. But, the war is over and, with no obvious winners, readers are left to wonder about an eventuality. At the end of the multiverse, waiting to be reborn in the dawn of the next, the King in Crimson awaits.
Venom War #5 -by Al Ewing and Iban Coello - marks the end of a six-year-long journey that has seen the multiverse sway and succumb to the might of the symbiotes. What began as a fight for survival against the wrath of a singular god, transformed into an infinitely spanning war that threatened toengulf the multiverse in black.
However, persisting through the chaos and past the countless bodies that lay in the wake of the symbiotic conflict, a singular red symbiote remains. Clinging to what’s left of his life,Carnage’s pale white eyes glare at his destiny.
The King in Crimson is On the Horizon
Venom War #5- Written by Al Ewing; Art by Iban Coello; Color by Frank D’Armata; Lettering by VC’s Ariana Maher
Asthe Venom Warcloses and the countless lives across time and space begin to recover from the abhorrent terror that the conflict inflicted,there still exist some loose threads. Throughout the war, Dylan Brock was visited by a future incarnation of his father who had embraced his role as the King in Black. Eddie told of his destiny, of his Eventuality. He is destined to become the end of all things. With or without the war, that future remains unwavering. Eddie has explained that when the current multiverse expires, he will remain andbecome the Anti-All of the next.
Gold Venom Makes Marvel Debut With Anti-Carnage Powers in Hand
Venom’s newest golden power-up transforms the symbiote into the perfect weapon against Carnage, but it tragically comes with a lethal cost.
However, after imparting his terrifying purpose to his son, Eddie alsoreveals the existence of another.At the end of all time, there will beanother hand of destruction equal to the Eventuality.This power, persistent and unmatched, will become so unstoppable that, by nothing more than sheer will and tenacity, it too will become an eventuality. Whenthe Eighth Cosmos breathes its final breathsand the Ninth takes its first, engulfed in a sea of blood and agony,the King in Crimson.
Carnage Knows His Destiny is to Be King, But Needs Someone Else to Achieve It
While, yes, it’s obvious thatthe King in Crimsonis some incarnation of Carnage, it hasn’t been known if it would be Carnage alone. Carnage is an especially powerful symbiote, able to exist without a host and having dragged his way to godhood already. However, it’s worth noting that Venom doesn’t become the Eventuality, Eddie does. So, without a host,how does Carnage become the King in Crimson?How does Carnage come to possess the same control Eddie has had over the Symbiote Hive? To reach his destiny of damnation,Carnage needs a host.
With no energy to even muster a final prayer to God, a Crimson Devil answers.
In the present, frail and dying, Eddie Brock is left without his other. Back in the church where everything began, Eddie barely holds himself together. With no energy to even muster a final prayer to God, a Crimson Devil answers. Alongside Eddie Brock, Carnage pointlessly clings to life, feeling his death creep closer and closer. Carnage knows that the war is over, and, in his own sick way, that he’s won. But Carnage has also seen his future. He has also seen the King in Crimson. So, the Devil makes a bargain; to live, Eddie and Carnage must bond.
Carnage Needs a Real Host to Ascend to Godhood
Eddie Brock Still Has an Eventuality to Achieve
When Carnage first attemptedhis ascension toward godhood, he was stopped at the Halls of the All-Knowing. In the library of the Omnipotent City, Carnage roared at the Lord Librarian, demanding to know why hehad yet to become a true god.The symbiote had overcome his natural weaknesses, he set into motion Knull’s arrival and Eddie’s ascension, and he traveled across space and time to dominate the final King in Black in Eddie’s temporal line. Before banishing Carnage back to the present, the Lord Librarian told the symbiote that he was andwould remain nothing without another half.
The King in Crimson is Coming, as Marvel Builds A New Color of Symbiote God Even Scarier Than Knull
The King in Crimson is almost here, and the multiverse isn’t ready for the horrors that are to follow. Move over Eddie Brock, because Carnage is King.
Symbiotes weren’t made to exist alone. Knull did not design their kind to stand by themselves.A symbiote needs a host. When Carnage arrived back in the present, he took note of his mistake and created a new Cletus Kasady from the carrion of yet another victim of his bloody crusade. However, a corpse is not a host andthe current Cletus is a fake.Carnage needs a host to reach his future, a future that readers know ends in Eventuality.The final piecethat Carnage needed to begin his proper ascension to godhood wasEddie Brock.
The Crimson Devil Will Soon Take a Hero For His Own
Eddie Brock Trades in Black for Crimson
It has all been made clear thatCletus Kasady was never meant to take Carnageto the doors of divination, it’s been Eddie Brock this whole time. As the Venom War ends and Marvel prepares forOne World Under Doom, Carnage and Eddie still have a destiny ahead of them. The Eventuality still waits at the end of time and so too does the King in Crimson. Brock is the only human, aside from Dylan, to have seen what’s to come. He is the only host who knows what it feels like todiscard mortality and embrace eventuality.
Eddie Brock’s future is no longer with Venom, instead, it is marked by oceans of blood and endless Carnage.
Eddie Brock will become the King in Crimson.EddieBrock will become the Eventuality. Eddie Brock will become the Anti-All. This, Carnage knows. Carnage is a tactician who always plays a bigger game. He’s seen what is to come and he knows that the only path to get there is with Eddie Brock. Transcending beyond what Knull ever could or had ever intended his creations to be able to, Carnage, alongside Eddie, is on the next path of their mutual evolution. Eddie Brock’s future is no longer withVenom, instead, it is marked by oceans of blood and endless Carnage.
Venom War #5is available now from Marvel Comics.
Venom
Venom is a symbiotic alien entity bonded with various human hosts, notably Eddie Brock and later Flash Thompson. It grants superhuman strength, agility, and a shape-shifting black costume. Initially a Spider-Man villain due to its origins, Venom evolved into an antihero, battling both villains and his own dark impulses. The character embodies themes of duality and redemption within the Marvel Universe.
