Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Wraith (Zak-Del) (Main story and flashback) (Loses Exolon symbiote) (Death)
Antagonists:
- Kree Empire
- Numerous guards
- Death Troops (Named only)
- Symbiote Hive (Main story and flashback)
- Numerous unnamed Symbiotes (Main story and flashback)
- Knull
- All-Black Symbiote (Resurrection)
- Symbiote Dragons
Other Characters:
- Unnamed Kree woman
- Wraith's Exolon Symbiote (Joins the Symbiote Hive)
- Sim-Del (Only in flashback)
- Eros (Referenced)
- Thanos (Referenced)
- Gamora (Referenced)
- Nameless (Only in flashback)
- God of Light (Unnamed)
- Venom (Eddie Brock)
- Venom Symbiote
- Dylan Brock
Races and Species:
- Kree (Main story and flashback)
- Symbiotes (Main story and flashback)
- Exolon (Main story and flashback) (Origin revealed)
- Alien Gods
Locations:
- Large Magellanic Cloud
- Bennazar Rift (Referenced)
- Marxhotz (Named only)
- Black Site Kree Prison Facility
- Sim-Del's Laboratory
- Black Site Kree Prison Facility
- Marxhotz (Named only)
- Bennazar Rift (Referenced)
- Uncharted region of space
- Klyntar (Destruction)
- Exoteric Latitude (Only in flashback)
- Milky Way
- Hell (Invoked)
Items:
- Polymorphic Weapon (Destruction)
- Wraith's Teleport Gauntlet (Destruction)
- Knull's Armor
Synopsis for 1st story
In a black site prison facility on Marxhotz, a group of Kree Empire soldiers brutally beat an older woman. Appearing out of nowhere using a teleportation gauntlet he stole from Eros, Zak-Del - the Nameless Kree known as Wraith - muses about his past before telling the soldiers to unhand her. Taking hold of his shapeshifting Nameless weapon, Zak-Del notes that he has no reason to save the old woman but that it needs doing; lamenting that the gauntlet's weight slows his quick draw before gunning down the soldiers. Giving the old woman directions to a settlement of outlanders where she will be safe, Zak-Del reveals he was born on Marxhotz before walking away.
Traversing the rooftops, Zak-Del recalls that long ago Marxhotz had been a paradise thanks to the efforts of his father, Sim-Del, but that when the Kree Empire had found out what Sim-Del had been up to they had sent Death Troops to raze the city and built a city-sized prison complex overtop its ruins. Zak-Del contemplates teleporting to his father's lab - buried deep beneath the prison - with his gauntlet, before reminding himself that the gauntlet is unstable and using it too much will kill him. Pulling out his shapeshifting weapon, Zak-Del transforms it into an energy gun and burns a hole through the street to his father's lab. Descending into the lab, Zak-Del notes that the disk "Eros" had given him in exchange for Gamora had two sets of coordinates - the first of which had him to his father's old lab - and an encryption code he couldn't break. Changing his energy gun into a flashlight, Zak-Del approaches a wall covered in Kree script. Wondering what could be hidden in his past that could relate to his curse, Zak-Del transforms his weapon into a knife and stabs himself to regain some of his memories.
Experiencing a vision, Zak-Del recalls that his father had been researching a way to banish the darkness that preyed on them and had created a font of energy that could bring light to the galaxy. For this, the Kree Empire had sentenced him and the entire planetoid of Marxholtz to death; and Zak-Del - a child at the time - had been stranded in the Exoteric Latitude and infected by the Exolon, parasites formed from living abyss. Fully illuminating the wall to reveal the spiral sigil of the Symbiote Hive, Zak-Del laments that he never understood what his father was searching for or what he was so afraid of. Reaching out to touch a smaller sigil in the center of the spiral - a disk with six smaller disks arranged in pairs around its circumference - Zak-Del wonders aloud what his father had discovered; lamenting that he found nothing in his father's old lab but more unanswered questions.
Deciding to investigate the second set of coordinates, Zak-Del burns through his second-to-last teleportation and arrives at Klyntar, the Planet of the Symbiotes. As he walks through the desert, Zak-Del senses that the planet is alive and ravenously hungry, and that his Exolon is somehow related to it. He is suddenly struck by a vision of a human man named Eddie Brock, but before he can puzzle out what his Exolon is trying to show him Klyntar promptly explodes into a debris field of countless symbiotes. Adrift in space, Zak-Del senses a malevolent presence through his Exolon and draws a bead on a towering humanoid figure emerging from a mass of living abyss where Klyntar's core had been - again lamenting that his quick draw is too slow. Clad in a suit of black symbiote-armor with red dragon emblems on its chest and back, the humanoid entity - Knull, God of the Symbiotes - stretches and yawns. Shouting at Knull to look at him, Zak-Del lands on the mass of living abyss as Knull begins shaping it into a staircase.
Apologizing for not noticing Zak-Del, Knull states that he just woke up and has a lot on his mind, wondering if he knows Zak-Del from somewhere and remarking that something seems familiar about him. Promptly restrained by a pair of symbiotes, Zak-Del shouts that Knull is the Exolon God and has stolen his soul, but Knull bemusedly remarks that he has no idea what the "Exolon" that Zak-Del is ranting about are. Zak-Del furiously accuses Knull of lying, but Knull interrupts his tirade when he mentions the Exoteric Latitude and remarks that he does remember after all; telling Zak-Del that eons ago he had used the Exoteric Latitude as a dumping ground for his failed experiments when creating the symbiotes. Releasing Zak-Del from the symbiotes binding him, Knull jokes that while Zak-Del had spent his whole life thinking he'd been cursed, the truth wasn't nearly so dramatic - he'd just been contaminated by Knull's trash. Finally having the answers he'd sought, Zak-Del attempts to shoot Knull - intent on going down fighting - but his quick draw is again impeded by the teleportation gauntlet. Moving faster than Wraith can react and grabbing him by the throat, Knull sneers that Zak-Del was too slow and then rips the Exolon off his body - releasing Zak-Del from his "curse" as he'd desired.
Free but dying, Zak-Del is tossed aside and watches helplessly as Knull assimilates his Exolon into the Symbiote Hive, using it to resurrect All-Black the Necrosword while simultaneously manifesting symbiote dragons from the platform of living abyss spreading outwards around him. As Knull examines his new weapon, Zak-Del demands he finish him off and charges at him. Knull contemptuously kicks Zak-Del off the platform of living abyss and walks towards his symbiote dragons, intent on resuming his conquest of the universe.
Adrift in space after Knull's departure, Zak-Del resigns himself to death; but as he waits for the darkness to claim him one last time he suddenly finds himself engulfed by blinding golden light. Shielding his eyes, Zal-Del sees the sigil carved into the wall of his father's lab manifest before him - and with it a voice that burns through the void, speaking a name. Zak-Del is left terrified as the Light passes through him, its voice banishing the Void that had surrounded him moments prior, before disappearing as abruptly as it arrived. Left with one final mission by the Light, Zak-Del keys in the coordinates of the person whose name it spoke: Eddie Brock.
On Earth, Eddie Brock teasingly chastises his son Dylan for adding ketchup to his hotdogs; Dylan retorting that he likes them that way and that Eddie has no right to talk since he eats brains. Grumbling that he's never going to live that down, Eddie is surprised as the Venom symbiote alerts him to Zak-Del suddenly appearing in the middle of the street. Transforming into Venom, Eddie prepares to attack the interloper but is told to stand down by the Venom symbiote - which senses a connection to Zak-Del that it can't quite place and notes that he's dying anyway. As Zak-Del tells Venom to listen to him, Eddie retracts the symbiote from his face and demands to know who Zak-Del is and how he found them. His body fading away, Zak-Del warns Eddie that "it" is coming for him. As Eddie confusedly asks if he means Knull, Zak-Del using his last words to tell Eddie that Knull has an opposite - a God of Light. As Zak-Del disintegrates, Eddie is left confused and dismayed, staring down at the sigil of the God of Light burnt into the pavement where Zak-Del had been standing.
Solicit Synopsis
SPINNING OUT OF THE PAGES OF VENOM AND GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!
• Since his appearance in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, one thing WRAITH has made perfectly clear is that he’s hunting KNULL, the God of the Symbiotes.
• Now, in the wastelands on the outskirts of the cosmos, he’ll have his chance to face him…Notes
- Web of Venom: Wraith was accidentally released prematurely on Marvel's "Marvel Unlimited" app in July 2020, though once Marvel became aware of the leak it removed the issue.