Saddle up for the origin of Venom Horse

The list of participants in the upcoming ‘Venom War’ crossover continues to grow, with Venom Horse, the Fantastic Four, Kang and Doctor Doom getting involved.

The first salvo in the Venom War will hit next week, and with it comes word that Al Ewing and Carlos Nieto will do a one-page comic in each issue to introduce you to the character find of 2024 — Venom Horse.

If you missed his appearance in the trailer for the third Venom film, Venom Horse is, well, a horse with a Venom symbiote. In the trailer it looks like he’s literally taken over by Eddie Brock’s Venom symbiote, but in the comic, who knows — but we’ll find out during Venom War with “this special bonus saga” that will “introduce Venom Horse and share his wild origins as he busts free of captivity.”

Clayton Crain is doing variant covers featuring Venom Horse for each issue of the miniseries:

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Father battles son in this summer’s ‘Venom War’ by Al Ewing + Iban Coello

Thanksgiving at the Brock household is going to suck this year.

Eddie Brock and his son Dylan have shared the name “Venom” since Al Ewing took over the title back in 2021, but glimpses of the future have shown both of them that there can be only one. So, in the mighty Marvel manner, father and son will sit down at the kitchen table and talk it out …

Not really! Get ready for Venom War, a five-issue miniseries that will see the two face off for the mantle of Venom, with plenty of other symbiotic heroes getting caught in the crossfire. Artist Iban Coello joins Ewing for the August-debuting title.

“This is what we’ve been building to since the start of this wild and way-out symbiote odyssey—the fateful confrontation between father and son,” Ewing said. “Where better to have it than inside the squared circle? And who better to bring this all-action epic to the page with than my old buddy Iban Coello? I’m tellin’ ya, goo believer—this is vehemently varied Venom violence like never viewed, and only one host can wear the symbiote when the dust settles! Who’s it gonna be?”

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Return to a ‘lake of goo’ in ‘Venomverse Reborn’

Hang with Venoms from around the multiverse in the new anthology series.

Rumors about the death of the Venomverse were apparently exaggerated, as Marvel has announced a follow-up anthology, Venomverse Reborn, for this summer.

Each issue will feature multiple stories by different creators starring different Venoms from around the multiverse. They’ll also include a framing sequence by Venom writer Al Ewing and Danilo S. Beyruth that will “lay the groundwork for the next symbiote epic.”

“I’m doing the framing sequence for these issues, and that means I get to see every one of these new symbiote sensations hit my inbox before anyone else outside editorial, and that’s definitely a perk of the job,” Ewing said. “As for what’s in that framing story—if you’ve been a fan of some of the more cosmic aspects we’ve brought to Venom of late, you should be more than happy. But the beauty of an anthology series like this is that there’s something to please everyone who dives into our lake of goo.”

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‘Blood Hunt’ tie-ins bring a new team of Avengers, vampire Doctor Strange and more

The vampire apocalypse will rage through many Marvel titles this summer.

Marvel’s Blood Hunt event continues to spread in scope; in addition to the eight tie-in miniseries they announced last week, they’ve also announced the seven regular titles that will take part in Marvel’s big vampire apocalypse.

Given that the main Blood Hunt book is written by Jed MacKay, it’s not surprising to see Doctor Strange, Avengers and Vengeance of the Moon Knight will tie into the bigger story. There’s also three Spider-Family titles on the list, which is rounded out by the Fantastic Four.

Here are a few things you can expect from the tie-ins:

  • With the current Avengers roster involved in the main Blood Hunt title, the Avengers ongoing will instead focus on a ragtag team put together by the guy who invented ragtag teams of Avengers, Steve Rogers. This 2024 version of Cap’s kooky quartet is actually a quintet, as it’ll feature Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Hercules and Hazmat.
  • Blade will show up in a number of places during the crossover, including in Miles Morales: Spider-Man.
  • The Venom issues will see the resurrection of a former host of the symbiote Venom — Lee Price, who became Venom in 2016 but was killed off in 2019 after Eddie Brock took the suit back.
  • Black Panther isn’t the only hero to become a vampire, as Doctor Strange will also be infected.
  • But don’t worry, T’Challa and Stephen — Mr. Fantastic is on the case, as he searches for a cure for vampirism in Fantastic Four.

Six of the ongoing series tie-ins will run for multiple issues, with the only exception being Amazing Spider-Man, which just gets a single issue before spinning its story off into the Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt miniseries. You can find covers for the May issues, along with descriptions and creative teams, below.

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Cafu gives Carnage a frightening makeover in Marvel’s ‘Symbiosis Necrosis’ event

Venom and Carnage will try to eat each other again in a four-part event this spring.

Venom and Carnage will cross over in March and April, bringing together Cletus Kasaday and Dylan Brock for the first time, and debuting a new look for Carnage.

The crossover will be written by Torunn Grønbekk and Al Ewing, with art by Ken Lashley, who also will do a series of connecting variant covers for the crossover, and Pere Pérez.

“There is some family drama going on here because technically they’re both the child of Eddie or Venom in a sort of strange way and it felt natural to bring them together,” Grønbekk said on the This Week at Marvel podcast. “It brings up, especially for Dylan, all the secrets that Venom has kept from him. Venom was the one who made Eddie do horrible things. If Dylan sees the full extent of what Venom has done in this world, it might not be great.”

Here’s the new look for Carnage, designed by Cafu:

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Venom faces the Purple Man in Michelinie + Sandoval’s ‘Venom: Separation Anxiety’

The retro miniseries kicks off in May.

Venom co-creator David Michelinie returns to the character again this year for another miniseries set during Venom’s early days.

Venom: Separation Anxiety by Michelinie and Death of the Venomverse artist Gerardo Sandoval will feature Eddie Brock encountering the Purple Man, who uses his powers to steal Brock’s symbiote and become “The King in Purple.”

“I’m always delighted to write a new Venom story in a retro background,” Michelinie said. “With ‘Separation Anxiety’ as the required theme, the problem became how to do something that’s already been done—have Eddie Brock separated from his symbiote ‘other.’ So I thought, what if there was a deeply creepy villain with a decidedly bloodthirsty agenda who was able to take bits of Eddie’s symbiote away every time the two touched, with that enemy slowly growing stronger as Venom slowly grew weaker? And that was the nugget that became ‘The King In Purple.'”

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Everybody gets to be Venom in new ‘What If?’ miniseries

‘What If? Venom’ imagines different characters playing host to the symbiote, courtesy of Jeremy Holt and Jesús Hervás.

You get a symbiote, you get a symbiote, and you get a symbiote … Marvel has announced What If? Venom, a five-issue miniseries that’ll debut in February.

Jeremy Holt and Jesús Hervás will send the Venom symbiote on a “tour” of the Marvel universe, showing what might have happened if it used She-Hulk, Wolverine, Loki, Doctor Strange and Moon Knight as its host.

“Having the opportunity to play within the Venom sandbox is cool. Having the opportunity to bond five iconic heroes to the alien parasite is cooler,” Holt said. “In doing so within the What If…? concept, I’ve had an absolute blast crafting a linear revisionist history that’s provided me the latitude to introduce distinct versions of the anti-hero that we’ve all come to love.”

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Prepare for Batman Day

Check out comics and graphic novels arriving this week by Rafael Grampá, Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki, Tom Scioli, Joshua Williamson, Simone Di Meo, Al Ewing, Sam Maggs, Greco Ornella and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.

With Batman Day coming up on Sept. 16, DC will release several new titles and collections featuring the Dark Knight this week, including the new Rafael Grampá Black Label Batman project and a Batman and Robin ongoing. There’s also a new Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki graphic novel, a new Daredevil title and a pair of biographical graphic novels on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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Chaos reigns in Marvel’s annuals this summer

Scarlet Witch, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel and more will be drawn into a plot by Agatha Harkness in ‘Contest of Chaos.’

There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned summer annual crossover, nor is there anything like a good old-fashioned superhero tournament. And Marvel has both going on this summer.

In the spirit of Atlantis Attacks and Contest of Champions, this summer will bring Contest of Chaos, which will run through several Marvel annuals and features a rejuvenated Agatha Harkness using her chaos magic to cause “Let’s you and him fight” confrontations between different Marvel characters.

Stephanie Phillips is spearheading the event, which will kick off with a prelude issue in Scarlet Witch Annual #1 by Steve Orlando and Carlos Nieto. It’ll then run through eight other Marvel annuals, including the big finale in Avengers Annual #1 in September.

Here’s a rundown of who is fighting who, and when and where …

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Get a better look at the characters from ‘G.O.D.S.’

Several variant covers arriving in August offer a look at the cast of the new series coming from Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti.

A series of variant covers released by Marvel gives us our first good look at the characters who will appear in the upcoming G.O.D.S. by Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti.

The upcoming series, which will launch sometime in the fall, was previewed on Free Comic Book Day, where we got out first look at a character named Wyn. But the variant covers, all of which will land in August, reveal several more characters interacting with some old favorites from the Marvel U.

“When I came back to Marvel a few years ago, I wrote two series bibles. The first was House of X and the other one was G.O.D.S.,” Hickman said back in March. “To say that I’m excited to finally be able to share this story with everyone is a massive understatement. G.O.D.S. takes place in its own special corner of the Marvel Universe — in the cracks that lie at the intersection of science and magic — and revisits some characters and concepts that we’ve reimagined for a more modern, continuity-driven audience.”

Here’s a look at the covers:

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Cullen Bunn returns to Marvel for ‘Death of the Venomverse’

The five-issue miniseries is one of many projects coming during the Summer of Symbiotes.

Cullen Bunn, writer of everything from Agent Venom to Drax to the X-Men, has been absent from Marvel for a number of years now, but that’s about to change. Marvel announced that Bunn will return — “maybe for the last time” — to write the upcoming Death of the Venomverse series with artist Gerardo Sandoval.

Marvel revealed the news along with a lot of other announcements related to their “Summer of Symbiotes” publishing initiative at this weekend’s C2E2 in Chicago.

In his newsletter, Bunn said the series involves Carnage embarking on a vicious bloodbath across all of reality, with a terrible agenda that would result in “death and destruction for all reality.” A group of Venoms from different universes team up to stop Carnage.

“The series was originally meant to be called Venomverse 2 or something, but I lobbied hard for Death of the Venomverse, and I’m not going to let that be an empty promise,” Bunn said.

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Slugfest | ‘Summer of Symbiotes’ leads to ‘Death of the Venomverse’

Plus: Marvel Artist’s Editions, Dark Horse graphic novels, Spider-Verse, variant covers and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel has revealed more details and a teaser image for Summer of Symbiotes, something they teased last October along with several other events for 2023. It’s less of a single-story crossover and more of a moniker they are using to describe a whole bunch of different symbiote-themed series, miniseries and events.

While many of the events teased on the image we’ve heard of before, like Carnage Reigns and Extreme Venomverse, there is one new one listed — Death of the Venomverse, which echoes the Death of the Spiderverse storyline we’re seeing in Spider-Man.

Here’s the description from Marvel:

It’s all leading to this! The epic adventures above are spiraling towards an explosive destination, and not all of your favorite symbiotes will survive the journey. The Carnage symbiote is more bloodthirsty than ever and heads to the multiverse for its greatest killing spree yet. But what is it after? Find out more when this upcoming limited series is announced at the Marvel Comics: Spider-Man & the Venomverse Panel at C2E2 2023!

C2E2 is coming up this weekend. Here’s the full teaser image:

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