One of the X-Men's most dangerous foes, the fearsome Goblin Queen, is back, and this fall she is teaming up with Venom to plague Spider-Man and the mutant heroes alike in the upcoming Dark Web crossover. Despite being two of Marvel Comics's most popular franchises, Spidey and the X-Men haven't shared substantial panel time in recent years - until now.
The Goblin Queen, also known as Madelyne Pryor, has a long and sordid history with the X-Men. A clone of Jean Grey, she married Cyclops after Jean was thought lost following the Dark Phoenix Saga. Madelyne then turned to the dark powers after Scott left her and their infant son to rejoin his old team in Bob Layton and Jackson Guice's X-Factor #1. This culminated in Madelyne becoming the demonic Goblin Queen and trying to summon the demons of Limbo in the middle of New York City in order to exact her revenge in the memorable Inferno event from 1989. She returned to trouble the Children of the Atom several times in the decades since, and now seems to have expanded her hit list to include Peter Parker.
This November, Marvel is kicking off the Dark Web crossover event between Spider-Man and the X-Men with a Venom prelude issue, showing what role Venom will play in the upcoming story. Since the start of the new Venom ongoing series by Al Ewing, Ram V., and Bryan Hitch, Eddie Brock has rejoined his former symbiote to go on epic adventures across time and space. According to Marvel's recent announcements for Venom #13 by Ewing and Hitch, Venom is coming back to Earth - just in time to get tangled up in the Goblin Queen's web.
Both Spider-Man and the X-Men have gone through difficult times lately - Peter is estranged from his friends, family, and Mary Jane, while the X-Men are currently fighting a war with the Eternals in the A.X.E.: Judgment Day crossover event. Looking at Madelyne's history, she is likely to use the heroes' weakened state to enact her villainous plot. Readers know from this year's Free Comic Book Day with Spider-Man/Venom #1 that Madelyne has teamed up with Ben Reilly, Peter's clone who recently turned to villainy. It remains to be seen what Eddie's part will be in the story, but given his own difficult history with Spider-Man, he is a natural ally for Madelyne to approach. And if Venom finds himself "surrounded by enemies," as the announcement states, it makes sense that he will be open to finding new allies.
The new Venom run focuses in part on Eddie's difficulties as a single father to an estranged son Dylan, and it is likely that the Goblin Queen will use Eddie's concern for his son to further her schemes. Madelyne herself was a single mother to Nathan Summers, the mutant hero better known as Cable, and she will probably use this commonality to gain Eddie's trust. Since Venom has fairly consistently been on the side of heroes in recent years, it's unlikely that he will remain adversarial to Spider-Man and the X-Men in the long run. But for the duration of Dark Web at least, the enemies of the Goblin Queen have reason to be afraid.
Source: Marvel