The extreme chaos and destruction that the symbiotes unleash upon the countless victims in the premiere issue of Web of Venom: Empyre's End by Clay Chapman and Guiu Vilanova are so great that all of the symbiotes' bloodiest conquests now pale in comparison. And what makes Empyre's End such a colossal moment in the symbiotes' overall legacy of bloodletting has little to do with the one thing that should have been its main influence: the long-awaited release of Knull, the God-creator of the symbiotes, from captivity.
The King in Black is back! Sure, the onslaught that occurs in the first issue wouldn’t have been possible without him, but Knull has yet to actually do anything, besides boast about his past exploits and promise the annihilation of anyone who has the immense misfortune of crossing his path. These are the deadliest symbiote assaults that fail to come even remotely close to the insanity that transpires in Empyre's End: Venom issues 5 and 6, the War of the Realms, Absolute Carnage, Carnage, U.S.A., and Venom vs. Carnage.
The main causes for the utter mayhem that takes place in issues #5 and #6 of Venom are, one, Eddie Brock combats the Grendel symbiote controlled by Knull from afar. Secondly, he battles him in an augmented state that’s amplified three-fold. While bonded with the Venom symbiote, Eddie not only merges with the Rex symbiote but with a host of high-power weapons from S.H.I.E.L.D. This explains why the ensuing fight is filled with bright lights and explosions (especially when Eddie throws grenades into the gaping maw of the Grendel symbiote and later implants time bombs in Knull). Then during the War of the Realms arc, Eddie bonds with the Dreamstone symbiote to stave off an invasion of Dark elves, battle against Asgardian demons of fire, tear apart blood-thirsty dogs, flip and split tanks in half, engage in high-powered skirmishes with a Jack O’Lantern amped up on the power of the Dreamstone and create an army of Venom symbiotes.
The body count in Absolute Carnage is so high because Carnage’s doppelgänger army rips the Codices from previous symbiote hosts (killing them in the process). Next, Carnage, empowered by the Grendel symbiote, first battles against Hulk who is bonded with the Venom symbiote, then Captain America, Wolverine, and the Thing after absorbing the Venom symbiote himself, and finally Eddie after becoming an amalgamation of Codices from Captain America, Wolverine, and the Thing. All this occurs as Carnage’s doppelgängers wreak havoc on Manhattan.
In Carnage, U.S.A., the fact that the Carnage symbiote bonds with Captain America, Hawkeye, Wolverine, and the Thing to fight against Spider-Man could have been enough to make the incident memorable, but then a team of soldiers equipped with symbiote-created weapons gets involved along with Scorn who has bonded with an airplane engine. On top of this, Carnage possesses a swarm of citizens to, first, pull their own teeth and, second, attack Captain America, Hawkeye, Wolverine, the Thing, and Spider-Man. Additionally, the final battle involves a massive tractor plow, possessed gorillas, giraffes and lions, and, of course, an airstrike.
Meanwhile, Venom vs. Carnage involves the latter eponymous symbiote attempting to murder his unborn offspring that asexually bonds with a policeman. These attempts begin with Carnage battling Venom in an area engulfed in flames (most likely due to their fighting), throwing the cop's pregnant wife down a flight of stairs (who Spider-Man saves), and getting run over by a subway train. Upon the birth of the Toxin symbiote, the final battle breaks out in, of all places, a cemetery during, of all times, a funeral. The epic proportions of the battle actually grow further when all three symbiotes along with Spider-Man and Black Cat duke it out in a massive grave amid corpses that date back all the way to the Mayflower.
All of these massively violent events come nowhere close to the chaotic incidents that transpire over the course of just a few pages in the first issue of Web of Venom: Empyre's End. Within that first issue, Knull’s invading army “silences” the entire population of a planet, massacres the crew of a space vessel, and actually bonds with the aforementioned vessel.