WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Symbiote Spider-Man: Crossroads #3, available now from Marvel.
Symbiote Spider-Man has taken readers back to one of the most iconic periods in the titular hero's life, and now Crossroads has sent him on what might be his most mind-bending adventure yet. After being sent hurtling into the interdimensional Crossroads, Spider-Man has found himself lost in a whirlwind of otherworldly landscapes and impossible terrain. Thankfully, with some outside assistance from an old friend, Spidey has managed to land somewhere relatively familiar.
However, the Deviants, the future MCU villains of Marvel's upcoming Eternals, are not happy that their efforts were so rudely intruded upon in Symbiote Spider-Man: Crossroads #3 by Peter David, Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Frank D'Armata and VC's Joe Sabino.
Spider-Man's trip through the Crossroads left him face-to-face with an enraged Hulk, leaving him in the middle of a fight he only survived thanks to being imbued with the power of the Norn Stone. This ancient Asgardian artifact was exactly what Karnilla was after when Spidey initially confronted her, leading to his interdimensional exile in the first place.
After dislodging from Spidey and becoming embedded in the forehead of Bruce Banner, the hunt for the Norn Stone boiled over into a massive brawl between the Guilt Hulk and Asgardian Valkyries, with the latter having cut their way through dimensions to find their quarry. Before anyone can be cut down permanently, a portal in the sky opens to pull the displaced heroes out of the fray and away to places unknown. While they may have been intended to land in the Crossroads from whence they came, Spider-Man and Hulk instead fall through the void and into the bowels of a massive, mechanized facility, where two heroes end up in the crosshairs of Deviants.
Before the titular hero can get oriented with his new surroundings, Spider-Man is greeted with guns pointed his way commanded by a particularly menacing figure. Despite the fact that Spider-Man had only moments ago been battling against the demonic Hulk, it looks like the two of them will be teaming up before long as the Deviant Kro takes an excited interest in the Norn Stone lodged within the Hulk's head.
Kro, who made his first proper appearance in the Marvel Universe in 1976's Eternals #1 by Jack Kirby, is the Deviants' most famous recurring villain. Over the years, he has fought against the Eternals countless times, even holding his own in direct combat with the iconic Ikaris, although Kro has never achieved the heights of power he has aspired to. Now it looks like that might all change thanks to the Norn Stone, which Kro immediately recognizes as "the Matrix." While the Norn Stone's power is both imparted and determined by the artifact itself, it would appear that Kro has an intimate knowledge of the Norn Stone, as well as how to harness its power for himself.
Assuming this is indeed the case, Spider-Man may have just landed himself in a far worse situation than the one he just left. Fighting the Hulk and Valkyries in the prehistoric jungles of Dinosaur World isn't exactly a relaxing getaway, but it has to be better than battling an army of unstoppable Deviants in their own home turf.
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