Warning! Spoilers ahead for Venom #30
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics' Venom, it may have just been revealed that Eddie Brock and his symbiote missed out on Marvel's King in Black event. For several issues now, Venom, Eddie, and his son Dylan have all been trapped in a dark alternate future of their own reality, one where Dylan Brock has grown up to become the evil Codex, ruling and controlling an entire symbiote hive that has taken over the entire globe, save for a small handful of resistance fighters. After saving the day and defeating Codex in this issue, Venom and Dylan find a way to get back to their own reality, but they may have just missed out on Knull the Symbiote God's entire invasion of Earth with his symbiote legions.
In the new issue from writer Donny Cates and art by Luke Ross, Venom #30 sees Venom allying themselves with the resistance movement and their leader, this realities' version of Eddie's late wife Anne Weying, bonded to her own Venom symbiote. Together with the rest of the resistance forces, Venom and Anne bring Dylan to his dark counterpart, and their minds merge together, providing Codex with memories he never had of love and belonging, being together with a family. This allowed the darkness to leave this alternate version of Dylan, and his symbiote hive was neutralized.
Despite this version of reality being saved in Venom #30, Venom and his Dylan still had to wait a full year before a new chronal gateway could be created, allowing them to return to their own world. Unfortunately, something drastically wrong has happened in the time that they were gone: the entire world has been covered in darkness. Dylan asks his father if they made it home on the last page, and Eddie confirms that they did, but that all of the stars have disappeared.
With the next issues of Venom will tie in to King in Black, it seems as though this current issue is indicating that Knull is responsible for the lack of stars, and that he might have already taken over the Earth with his armies in the year that Venom and Dylan were gone. The other heroes in the Marvel Universe may have failed to stop his onslaught without them, and Knull may have been too powerful for them to defeat.
While this is just conjecture, Venom definitely missed out on something big regarding Knull while he was away. Perhaps the stars going out is just the first wave, but it would be far more crazy and intriguing if the primary and original symbiote hero in the Marvel Universe actually missed out on the publishing wide event that's all about symbiotes. Sure it's not Venom's fault and they didn't intend to be trapped in an alternate reality, but being away for that long is bound to have some significant repercussions. Fans will just have to wait and see what form they'll take when King in Black hits comic book store shelves next month.