WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for King in Black #5, by Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, Jason Keith and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
King in Black has taken the Marvel Universe to the brink of absolute darkness, but Eddie Brock was there to bring it back into the light in incredible fashion. While Eddie became one of the crossover's greatest heroes and a legitimate Marvel god, the road to where he sits now was long and bloody, and it included more than a few stops along the way that Eddie Brock would certainly rather forget.
However, Eddie has come out the other side all the better for it, even if it did kill him before it made him stronger. As impressive as his recent rise to greatness is, we're taking a look back at how Venom rose up after his fall from grace.
Eddie Brock's first enigmatic appearance in 1986's Web of Spider-Man #18 by David Michelinie and Marc Silvestri set an ominous tone for the character's professional demise. Eddie Brock had made a name for himself as a prolific journalist before caving to pressure and revealing an innocent man to be the Sin-Eater. Unfortunately, this was the same day that Spider-Man caught the actual Sin-Eater and brought him to justice, which also brought Eddie's career crumbling down around him. In grief and shame, Eddie found himself in Our Lady of Saints Church on the same night that Spider-Man rid himself of the symbiote which had threatened to consume his life entirely, and thus, Venom was born.
Venom's introduction in 1988's Amazing Spider-Man #299 by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane wasted no time establishing his terrifying nature, not to mention his hatred for Spider-Man. Though Venom was imprisoned before long, he soon escaped by tricking and subsequently killing a guard before hitchhiking back to Manhattan for another shot at killing the Wall-Crawler. Venom's villainous days saw him face off against Spider-Man time and time again, though he could never effectively kill his rival. When the two met for what was supposed to be their final, lethal confrontation, Spider-Man and Venom found themselves working together to save Eddie's wife Ann Weying as well as other innocents. In the end, Venom put aside his hatred for Spider-Man so long as the mutual hunting came to an end.
Eddie left for his hometown of San Francisco after making his truce with Spider-Man to recreate himself as a hero. Unfortunately, nefarious forces such as the Life Foundation and Carnage would continuously drive Eddie to the verge of villainy, a line that he would cross back and forth for years to come. His morality wasn't the only thing that Eddie would grapple with, as the Venom symbiote itself came to blows with its host more than once. The darkest of these sabotages came in the form of cancer, which had been brought on by his symbiote and nearly killed Eddie.
This only led to Eddie Brock's rebirth as Anti-Venom in the '00s. As Anti-Venom, Eddie both fought against the New Avengers as a villain and gave up his new symbiote to become the savior of New York during the events of 2011's Spider-Island. What followed were years of on-again-off-again heroics, with Eddie becoming host to both the Toxin and Sleeper symbiotes in between stints hosting Venom. None of these experiences would be as Earth-shattering as his first encounter with Knull, though, which left Eddie nearly dead before bringing him into contact with the son he never knew he had.
Eddie found Dylan living with his own father, Carl, an angry and abusive man that Dylan begged Eddie to kill. Eddie wasn't willing to end his father's life, but he was more than happy to take Dylan under his wing and be the father he himself had never had. It didn't take long for Cletus Kasady to catch up to the two of them, intent on releasing Knull from his prison by consuming every Codex it could find, including theirs. Eddie never quit fighting for his son, not even when he was transported to another world lorded over by an evil version of Dylan himself. Their time together on that alternate Earth gave Eddie and Dylan a chance to be the normal, happy family they never got the opportunity to be on their own Earth. The newfound dedication to his son not only made Eddie Brock a better person, it drove him to be the greatest hero that has ever lived during Knull's invasion.
Eddie Brock died by Knull's hands while trying to protect his son. He woke up as a Codex inside the symbiote Hive, and even in his death, Eddie continued to battle for the one person who mattered more to him than anything else ever could. Alongside the Codex of Flash Thompson, who Eddie finally got to acknowledge as a true hero, Eddie charged headfirst into the fray. Not only did Eddie stare down Knull yet again within the Hive, even his symbiote pushed through the dark god's influence to bond with his host once more. With Venom, Eddie was able to rip his way out of the Codex and into the real world, where the Enigma Force waited to turn him into the ancient and mythical God of Light. In yet another rebirth, Eddie struck Knull down once and for all, culminating in the greatest end that fans could have asked for, and opening the door for Venom to reinvent himself once again as the new benevolent King in Black.
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