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Venom Vol 5 29

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I'm thinking more clearly than ever--and with my new mindset I know exactly what I have to do to break that doomed future... both the Earth's... and mine. Brock's son. He's the key... the Codex, if you will. Hmm. Did I say Brock's son? So it goes. It's useless pretending I have anything in common with that caterpillar of a man... or that I feel anything for his brat.

—Meridius

Appearing in "Palindrome"

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  • Time-Swords

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Synopsis for "Palindrome"

In the Garden of Time, Tyro watches as Meridius smugly calls his past selves brutish cavemen as Space Venom fights Bedlam in an attempt to save Finnegan. Reflecting that he was once Venom before becoming the King in Black, Tyro notes that he used to be Wilde--standing on Meridius' opposite side--but wants to become Meridius himself, hence his nickname. Tyro recaps that the Garden of Time is a prison for his past selves -- Eddie Brock as the King in Black, the hulking rage-fuelled brute Bedlam, the wry and sarcastic Wilde, himself, and the cold and calculating Meridius-- and that none of them like each other. Observing the five other Eddies, Tyro suddenly recalls a memory he'd lost when Chasm violated his mind--a warning that time moves strangely in Limbo and can take more than one track to double up on itself. Concerned about the possibility of a seventh Eddie showing up, Tyro tries to warn Meridius--who contemptuously snaps at him to shut up and do as he's told. As Meridius vanishes into the time-stream, Tyro concurs with Space Venom sarcastically calling Meridius a nice guy before noting that nobody can say he didn't try. Noting that he's been trying for a long time to learn what Meridius has to teach only to be rebuked and castigated, Tyro laments that at least when he was Wilde he was naive enough to find humor in the situation. Deciding that the fault lies in Meridius for not wanting to teach him, Tyro notes that he's always been his own worst enemy and that if he wants to take control of his destiny he has to do so himself rather than waiting for his future self to teach him.

Plunging into the Symbiote Hive-Mind, Tyro finds himself surrounded by the astral corpses of the Symbiote Hive. Horrified by the carnage, Tyro wonders what spurred Meridius to commit genocide on the symbiotes and suddenly senses a disquietingly familiar presence. Tyro finds himself confronted by a massive disembodied Venom hand with flaming fingertips, which introduces itself as the Eventuality. Realizing that this must be the seventh Eddie Brock, Tyro has a vision of countless other versions of himself--different tracks on the time-loop created by Meridius, other possible paths leading to this exact moment of enlightenment. The Eventuality explains that all the paths Eddie can take after becoming the King in Black lead to it, and that the very nature of the King in Black is one of eternal servitude maintaining the universe from the Void. Vehemently rejecting this fate, Tyro plunges into the timestream in a panic, recalling his past failures at changing the past and deciding to turn to the one master of time-travel to have helped him previously and called him a friend: Kang the Conqueror.

Finding Kang in the process of exterminating the earliest ancestors of species of alien reptile that will one-day evolve sentience and stand in his path of conquest, Tyro indwells a Warstar-class battle-symbiote and introduces himself as Eddie Brock, the King in Black. When Tyro asks if they've met before, Kang--intrigued--says they haven't but that Tyro has caught him in a good mood, agreeing to help Tyro in exchange for Tyro helping him. When Tyro expresses reluctance, Kang says that he won't ask for anything Tyro isn't willing to offer, and that while he can be a dangerous enemy he can also be an invaluable friend. Conjuring a hologram of the universe, Kang says that if Tyro is willing to learn what he has to teach, all this could someday be his. Over time, Kang helps Tyro remember his human face as Eddie Brock--something Tyro scornfully notes Meridius never would have bothered doing. Regaining his self-confidence, Eddie learns the arts of combat and strategy under Kang's tutelage, coming to see him as the only real friend he's ever had. In return, Eddie helps Kang create the Warstar symbiotes and deliver them to a future Kang at an earlier point in time who will field-test them before passing them on to Kang's past self--creating a convoluted time-loop in the process. Noting that for all its apparent complexity his crisscrossing road through time starts with his son, Dylan, Eddie sadly notes he hasn't thought about his son in a long time and that perhaps it's better this way--the last time he tried to intervene, Dylan almost died as a result. However, having mastered time-travel with Kang's tutelage, Eddie is now able to project his mind into the timestream without manifesting. Wanting only to check on his son and the Venom symbiote to make sure they're safe, Eddie instead bears witness to the Venom symbiote's ultimate form--having engulfed the Earth and merged with it to become a Genius Loci called Venomworld. Enraptured, Eddie returns to find he has at long last become Meridius.

Observing Dylan as Codex, brandishing All-Black the Necrosword, Meridius concludes that in order to escape his destiny of becoming the Eventuality he must evolve the Venom symbiote to its apex before reclaiming it, and that Dylan Brock's King in Black powers are the key to doing so. Repudiating his past as Eddie Brock, Meridius sneers that he no longer feels anything but cold contempt towards Dylan, and that he's more than willing to sacrifice not only Dylan but the Warstar symbiotes he helped create to get what he wants. Turning on Kang, Meridius uses his own words against him, mocking him for having become over-reliant on symbiotes and threatening to shut his conquests down by turning his own soldiers against him. Pleased by this development, Kang agrees to Meridius' terms and helps him locate the Final Hive at the End of Time -- where all the surviving symbiotes have gathered to wait out the end of the eighth cosmos and the beginning of the ninth. As Kang asks if Meridius is sure he wants to commit genocide on his own subjects, Meridius sneers that they'll make better subjects once he's done with them before goading Kang by asking if he's sure he's capable of wiping the symbiotes out. Incensed, Kang takes the bait and has his fleet open fire on the Last Hive. When Last Hive withstands Kang's assault, albeit weakened, Meridius notes that it's impossible to destroy the Hive from the outside and says that it's his turn. Diving from Kang's ship and plunging into the Last Hive, Meridius finds himself in the heart of the Symbiote Hive-Mind, surrounded by the symbiotes' astral manifestations. Observing that the symbiotes have managed to form a perfectly harmonized pacifist society, Meridius contemptuously informs them that they have displeased their god before gleefully slaughtering them. Revelling in the act of genocide, Meridius builds the Garden of Time from the Last Hive's physical remains--setting the trap for his past selves to ensure his own existence. One by one, they arrive: Space Venom popping out of a lake of living abyss to be greeted by Meridius, Finnegan returning in despair at having failed to change the past and being tortured by Meridius--something he looks forward to doing, Bedlam being forged in rage by Chasm's violation of his mind before transforming into Wilde when said rage burns out while squatting in a destroyed bar, and Tyro being born of renewed despair and a desire to join the winning side; their paths intersecting six times over in the Garden of Time.

Greeting the earliest Eddie Brock iteration, Meridius seethes that he hates his primary self most of all for having caged them with the inevitability of becoming the Eventuality by becoming the King in Black in the first place, but is smug in his assurance that he alone has the key to escape. Internally gloating that his victory is assured and that any further prepwork can be accomplished via time-travel, Meridius introduces Space Venom to Tyro and Wilde, twisting the truth by saying that they're Eddie's successors as the King in Black and arrived at the Garden the same way he did. As Tyro interjects, Meridius snaps at him to shut up--briefly surprising himself with his own anger and hatred, having expected to feel sympathy or at least pity towards his past self, before dismissing Tyro as a snivelling wretch he feels nothing but contempt and disgust towards. As Tyro apologizes, Meridius recalls there's something he'd wanted to say back when he was Tyro, a warning he wanted to deliver to the Meridius of his own track through the time-loop, but that he can't remember what it is. Deciding it can't have been important, Meridius declares himself the master of destiny itself and smugly turns to watch as the fight between Bedlam, Finnegan, and Space Venom breaks out... oblivious to the Fantastic Four's Time-Sled--piloted by the resurrected Eddie Brock and a temporal offshoot of Bedlam--making a beeline for him from behind.

Solicit Synopsis

EDDIE BROCK’S TOUR DE FORCE CONTINUES!

While chaos has reigned for Dylan Brock and the Venom symbiote, EDDIE BROCK continues to kick ass and take no prisoners, fighting like hell to get back to them! Eddie started as a King in Black and has gone on a transformative journey that has put Meridius’ very existence into a state of uncertainty! But with Meridius’ fate thrown into question, so is Eddie’s — and his transformations aren’t over…

Trivia

  • The issue itself is a palindrome, with the panel layout and character placement being mirrored.

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