Notice! Spoilers for Venom War #4!Eddie Brock has had many different identities over the years, but is most popularly known as Poison. But for a while in Marvel comics, Eddie wasn’t Venom – he was Anti-Venom. Now, that identity has returned just in time to help save New York City from an almost unstoppable threat.
New York City has been invaded by terrifying zombies, dead symbiotes that are merging with corpses or living people. Zombies have already managed to dominate several heroes and villains. They are a huge threat, but Eddie Brock easily defeats them with the return of an old identity in Poison War #4 by Al Ewing and Iban Coello.
Seeing the zombies running wild in New York, Eddie Brock uses his King in Black powers to extract Anti-Venom from Flash Thompsontaking the powers for himself and becoming Anti-Venom once again. Combining his Anti-Venom and King in Black powers, Eddie is able to “touch” all of the zombies with Anti-Venom, instantly destroying them and saving the day.
Eddie Brock briefly transforms into anti-venom, one of his most powerful forms
Poison War #4 by Al Ewing, Iban Coello, Frank D’Armata and Ariana Maher
Eddie has a long and complicated history with symbiotes. During a time when Eddie was suffering from cancer and had no bond with the Venom symbiote, he decided to work at FEAST, helping others before he died. While there, he was played by Martin Lee, who most fans know as Mr. Negative. Using his healing touch, Martin Lee not only destroys the cancer in Eddie’s body, but also causes theingesting parts of the Venom symbiote into your body to attach to white blood cellscreating a new symbiote known as Anti-Venom.
With a simple touch, Anti-Venom can burn away the influence of any symbiote he encounters.
This Anti-Venom form was one of Eddie’s best, as it sported a Venom design with inverted colors. Not only did it look cool, but it also deadly to any other symbiote. With a simple touch, Anti-Venom can burn away the influence of any symbiote he encounters. Combined with Eddie Brock’s King in Black powers, Eddie Brock is able to force any symbiote he has control over to come into contact with Anti-Venom, completely destroying them in the process. Unfortunately, Eddie was quickly forced out of this Anti-Venom form by Carnage, making this return short-lived.
Unfortunately, Anti-Venom’s return is short-lived in current Marvel lore
Eddie Brock will likely take on a different, darker identity in upcoming stories
Unfortunately, Eddie Brock was unable to remain as Anti-Venom for a long time – probably because it would make the solution to the intense Poison War very easy conflict. As Eddie Brock fights for his right to the Venom identity, it was nice to see another one of his identities return, if only for a little while. While Poison War continues to push Eddie and his family to the limit, fans will just have to tune in to see if Eddie Brock will return to his Poison identity or whether he will assume a different identity in the future.
Poison War #4 is now available from Marvel Comics!