Warning! Spoilers for Venom #1 by Marvel Comics
Eddie Brock's reign as the King in Black is underway in the pages of Marvel Comics, and a mysterious force is already threatening his rule. In Venom #1, the King in Black ends up face-to-face versus a murderous symbiote from the future who claims that his throne will soon be empty - which leads the hero spiraling through time to find answers.
Eddie Brock passed on the role of Venom to his son Dylan, assuming the mantle as Marvel's new King in Black following the defeat of Knull. In Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, and Frank Martin's recently wrapped up run on Venom, the God of Symbiotes nearly succeeded in enveloping the entire Marvel Universe in darkness with his symbiote army. But, thanks to the Enigma Force, Brock became the villain's equal and ended up killing the ancient being for good. After Knull's defeat, Eddie agreed to become the new King in Black and leader of the symbiotes. Meanwhile, Dylan has struggled with his father being gone (in space) and becoming the new Venom.
In Venom #1 by Ram V, Al Ewing, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, and VC's Clayton Cowles, Eddie's King in Black is more than 12,000 light-years away from Earth, where he investigates a distress call sent from a spaceship. He teams up with three symbiotes in what appears to be an attack on a relief freighter by space pirates. Eddie shifts from taking control of each of the three symbiotes as he discovers marauders on board. However, once he ties them up, he shifts his mind to one of the symbiotes on the ship's escape shuttle and finds that another symbiote ally is being controlled by something claiming to be from the future - and that it's murdered the ship's entire crew.
Eddie is unable to jump into the mind and control the murderous symbiote. Instead, the mysterious villain claims it has a message from the future, telling the King in Black that he shouldn't "sit too comfortably on your throne..." as "soon... it will be empty." Before disintegrating, the symbiote tells Eddie that the message is "... not a threat. Not a warning. Simply a statement of fact."
The future is looking bleak for Eddie Brock, as the symbiote tells him his rule as King in Black will soon be over. In response, Eddie manages to time travel to the far future, where he runs into a being known as Meridius, who welcomes him to his "garden." How Meridius connects to the King in Black or Eddie's future remains to be seen, but it's clear, the former Venom may be losing his throne almost as soon as he gained it. Will the new King in Black fall like the future symbiote foretold? Readers will find out more as the series continues. Venom #1 is in comic book stores now.