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In the world of Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow, the Venom symbiote has evolved to become every bit as dangerous as the King in Black.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow #4 by Chip Zdarsky, Pasqual Ferry, Matt Hollingsworth, and VC’s Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
The latest incarnation of Marvel’s long-running What If? series has transformed one of the most iconic Spider-Man sagas of all time into one of the darkest versions of Peter Parker’s life. The series has returned to when Peter first donned his symbiote suit and seen the symbiote twist the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man into a sadistic killer. Now that he is free of the symbiote, Peter finally has a chance to finish this fight for good.
Unfortunately, the symbiote has sought out the last person it should ever get its hands on, and thanks to Reed Richards’ amazing mind Venom has just become as dangerous as Knull.
While the Sinister Six were able to rid Peter of the maniacal symbiote he had grown so attached to, Venom itself has had a much harder time letting go of its former host. The symbiote remembered Peter’s previous meetings with Reed Richards and the tests that he had run. Apart from being the most obvious threat to its existence, Reed was also the best choice when it came to helping the symbiote to thrive, and it didn’t take long for the leader of the Fantastic Four to be overcome by the living darkness. After turning the Baxter Building into a veritable factory for symbiotes, Venom moved on to covering the structure itself in symbiotic ooze in a way similar to how Knull transformed the same skyline during King in Black. In fact, it seems that Venom has decided to beat Knull to the punch by several decades in this retelling of the classic black suit saga by releasing a number of symbiote spores.
This is not the first time that Venom has been weaponized in such a way. Even before King in Black, the Venom symbiote was used to produce a symbiote virus that was unleashed on Manhattan in 2008’s Mighty Avengers #7 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. This attack was countered thanks to the combined efforts of Iron Man and Reed Richards, but this is not the case for the Manhattan of Spider’s Shadow.
Much like Knull’s invasion, this version of the Venom symbiote has managed to claim most of the heroes gathered within moments of unleashing its spawn. While Captain America and She-Hulk stand tall in their new aberrant forms, the other X-Men and Avengers can only try to stave off the tendrils of living darkness that are closing in around them. The scale of this attack might pale in comparison to the events of King in Black, but the fallout could easily be just as catastrophic.
When Knull invaded the planet, he didn’t have the world’s greatest mind working on his side. Instead, Knull’s undying faith in himself played a large part in his defeat as his overconfidence undoubtedly led him to underestimate Eddie Brock and his allies.
This time around, the Venom symbiote is fully aware of its limitations and has gone to great lengths to overcome them. If it is this dedicated to becoming even more formidable, there is little chance that even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will stand a chance against it. With any luck, Peter Parker will find some weakness within the symbiote that even it doesn’t realize it has. If not, the world of Spider’s Shadow might come to its end almost as quickly as it was introduced.
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