Warning: Contains spoilers for Venom #14As the horrifying events of Dark Web continue to escalate, Eddie Brock—the father of Venom's newest host Dylan Brock—has finally transformed into the hyper-violent Red Symbiote known as Bedlam in Venom #14. Throughout the current run of Venom, Eddie Brock has had his consciousness thrust into the otherworldly Garden of Time where he has met a variety of Symbiotes like Meridius, Tyro, and Bedlam, before learning the terrifying truth that all of them are future evolutions of Eddie himself stuck in a predestined time loop. Desperate to escape the Garden and save his son, Eddie thrusts his mind into a piece of Symbiote goo in Limbo, where he falls into the clutches of Chasm and the Goblin Queen, setting up his eventual transformation into Bedlam.
After Brock's physical body dies and his mind slips into the time stream, the unstable Eddie witnesses the future "death" of his son Dylan and the Venom Symbiote after being stabbed in heart by a ferocious Red Symbiote Bedlam. In the prelude to the Dark Web event—a crossover between the X-Men and Spider-Man that sees vengeful clones Ben Reilly and Madelyne Pryor setting the demons of Limbo loose onto New York City—Eddie is manipulated by Ben and Madelyne into helping their cause in exchange for bringing him to Dylan. The two spurned clones revert Eddie's mind back to his original Venom form, when Venom was a bloodthirsty villain obsessed with murdering Spider-Man and eating his brains.
After temporarily betraying Maddie and Ben to go after Spider-Man, he once again returns to the Goblin Queen's side to help her in their attack on the X-Men's Treehouse in Venom #14, written by Al Ewing with art by Bryan Hitch. Madelyne and Hallow's Eve are under the impression that all the X-Men are out fighting the pandemonium happening in the city, and are surprised that the X-Men's most powerful member Synch has been left behind at the Treehouse to protect their base. After breaking into the Treehouse, the mindless Venom attempts to defeat Synch, but is easily beaten by Everett who uses his power-synching ability to copy the powers of the King in Black and use them in a way that the devolved Eddie/Venom can not. Synch mocks Eddie for his failure and Venom runs away in fear and embarrassment, his typical black speech bubbles slowly turning red, which shows the inevitable evolution of Eddie into Bedlam. When the transformation is complete, Eddie has fully turned into the horrifically powerful Red Symbiote.
Bedlam Is Destined To Stab Dylan Brock Through The Heart
Bedlam is an interesting evolution in Eddie's role as father to Dylan because he attempts to use his violence to make Dylan and Venom stronger, perceiving them as weak and unwilling to do what is necessary to survive. This is something that Eddie would never do if he was not so broken by self-hatred, fear, and rage. As Venom #14 ends, Dylan confronts Eddie in his Venom form, set on fighting his father in the confrontation Eddie has seen from the past. The preview for next issue shows a vicious fight between Bedlam and Dylan's new "Codex" form. Thankfully, Tyro told Eddie that Bedlam knows Dylan will survive the attack, and that it will make Dylan "stronger." This shows that Bedlam only stabs Dylan with the knowledge that his son will not die.
Red Symbiotes like Carnage have been established as being the strongest Klyntar, so Codex is in for a truly brutal battle with his father Eddie Brock as the rage-transformed Bedlam battles his own son Venom in a fight that may lead directly into the upcoming Summer of Symbiotes event.
Venom #14 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.