From top to bottom: Venom (Eddie Brock), Spider-Man (Eddie Brock), Samurai Venom (Takemoto Tatsuya), Dylan Brock
Extreme Venomverse is a 2023 limited series from Marvel Comics with an assortment of writers and artists, overseen by Cullen Bunn. As with the 2017 series Edge of Venomverse, it's an Anthology Comic showcasing various incarnations of Venom from across the Marvel Multiverse.
The anthology also serves as a prelude to the Death of the Venomverse, showing the beginnings of Carnage's rampage across the Multiverse as Anne Weying — the Agent Venom of Earth-1051 — tries to establish an Alliance of Alternates to stop him.
The series is accompanied by an Edge of Venomverse webcomic in Marvel's Infinity Comics format.
The first issue was released on May 10, 2023. In 2024, a sequel anthology—Venomverse Reborn—was announced.
Extreme Venomverse contains the following tropes:
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: Felicia Hardy, a bisexual woman, bonds to the Venom symbiote in "The Sinister Secret of Black Cat's New Costume" and fully accepts it as a kindred spirit, immediately developing a rapport with it that lets her harness its abilities to a level Peter wasn't. Peter is initially horrified due to believing the symbiote to be a corruptive monster, only to be bluntly told that the symbiote's perceived negative traits were a result of Peter's own personal defects.
- Alliance of Alternates: Agent Venom (Anne Weying) from Earth-1051 is shown recruiting Spider-Man (Eddie Brock), "Samurai Venom" (Takemoto Tatsuya), Symbiote Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) from Earth-258, LMV from Earth-345, Black Fang (Dilann), Madame Venom (Edna Brock) from Earth-31913, Venom: Space Knight (Flash Thompson), and Major Leagues Venom (Ed Brock) into her team of Venom variants.
- Cyborg: In the second issue, S.H.I.E.L.D. tricks the Venom symbiote of Earth-345 into bonding to a Life Model Decoy of Eddie Brock designed to capture and imprison it. This backfires as the symbiote is able to hack into and assimilate the LMD to become a cyborg Venom.
- Decomposite Character: An Earth-311 version of Venom — Edwin Brocc — already appeared in 1602 Witch Hunter Angela #2, having been merged with a demon by the Enchantress. "Masque of the Red Death" debuts a new version of Venom in the form of jester Hieronymus Skelton, who is bonded to a proper symbiote and ends up the first shown victim of Carnage's rampage.
- Distaff Counterpart: Dilann, the daughter of Brokk, is a young cavewoman who is exiled from her tribe due to being seen as cursed and eventually bonds to a symbiote, becoming the Black Fang. As her name suggests, she is a female alternate-universe counterpart to Dylan Brock.
- Evil Weapon: The Venom symbiote of Takemoto Tatsuya's universe takes the form of a katana that transforms its wielder into an oni version of Venom clad in black samurai armour, and which he struggles to control.
- Gone Horribly Right: In "The Prisoner", Dum-Dum Dugan attempts to capture the Venom symbiote by tricking it into bonding to an LMD of Eddie Brock. The symbiote promptly overcomes most of the Restraining Bolts placed on the LMD and eventually assimilates it to become a cyborg version of Venom.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: In "The Best Part of Him", rather than bonding to Eddie over their shared hatred of Spider-Man, the Venom symbiote bonds to Eddie out of their shared desire for atonement — Peter Parker having perished attempting to force the symbiote off himself in this continuity. As such, the symbiote forces Peter's moral compass and sense of responsibility onto Eddie Brock, who doesn't really mind since it helps him become a better person in the process.
- Horrifying Hero: Ellie Ellison is a high-school student who can transform into Necroko, a dark magical girl whose go-to fighting style involves dismembering and devouring her enemies — leaving her classmates terrified of her alter-ego even after she saves them from rampaging lizard-men.
- Magical Girl Warrior: Ellie Ellison transforms into the magical girl Necroko using her magical hair-bow, in actuality the Venom symbiote. The symbiote bow transforms into a wand with its tongue acting as a whip, which Necroko uses to get around and fight. At the end of the issue, Ellie's crush Parker Piper gets bitten by a magical spider, with Ellie daydreaming of fighting evil by moonlight alongside her.
- Miss Kitty: Edna Brock is the tarot card-reading proprietress of a brothel in Earth-31913. Those who break her rules or come looking for trouble find she moonlights as the whip-wielding vigilante Madam Venom, and is more than happy to doll out harsh Western justice.
- Robotic Reveal: In "The Prisoner", the Venom symbiote jubilantly rebonds to Eddie Brock only to discover it's bonded to an LMD, the real Eddie Brock having been murdered by his cellmate Cletus Kasady.
- Self-Deprecation: The "The Sinister Secret of Black Cat's New Costume" has Black Cat and even the Fantastic Four poke fun at Peter Parker being the bad guy for freaking out and rejecting the symbiote when it had only wanted to protect and help him; attributes its acting out as a manifestation of Peter's guilt complex and commitment issues.
- Sinister Minister: The Eddie Brock of Earth-90214, the focus of "The Teeth of Beasts", starts out as a Catholic priest with a gambling addiction, but bonding to the Venom symbiote causes him to become a cannibalistic murderer who frames his crimes on an innocent man.
- Shout-Out:
- Issue #3 has a series of spoofs of classic comic strips, with Tales of the Black Costume being a parody of B.C., Carnage & Clete being a parody of Calvin and Hobbes, and Klyntar the Killjoys being a parody of Hägar the Horrible.
- "Sparkle and Shine" has Ellie reference the "fighting evil by moonlight" line of the English version of the Sailor Moon theme song.
- The title of Issue 5's "Full Metal Symbiote" is a reference to Full Metal Panic!, as is the appearance of Unit-1. The story itself is a love-letter to the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise.
- Super Family Team: In "All in the Family", Eddie Brock, Anne Weying, and Dylan Brock are all bonded to copies of the Venom symbiote, though only Eddie has control over it. Dylan succumbs to its control and goes on a rampage, trying to eat Lia — a homeless girl he'd befriended. Anne overcomes her fear of it to gain control and help Eddie stop Dylan. The issue is notably the only one that ends without connecting to the Death of the Venomverse, showing the Brock family adopting Lia and walking off into the sunset together.
- Villainous Rescue: In "Spider's Eclipse" — a follow up to Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow — Wilson Fisk bonds to a surviving piece the Venom symbiote to become King Pain and tries to kill Peter Parker. Just as Fisk is about to crush Peter's skull, Carnage impales him from behind, buying Peter just enough time to escape.
- We Used to Be Friends: The Eddie Brock of Earth-90214 was friends with mobster John Deward when they were younger and drinking buddies as adults, but when Eddie's gambling addiction got him deep in debt to John's bosses he was sent to collect, threatening to reveal Eddie's sins to his parishioners. After bonding to the Venom symbiote, Eddie pays John a late-night visit, the latter making it clear it's nothing personal and even offering Eddie a cup of coffee... only for Eddie to eat him.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Extreme Venomverse #2's "Masque of the Red Death" is is a Marvel-ized retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name, with a jester Venom named Hieronymus Skelton entertaining the court of Prince Ionello (based on Prince Prospero) and Carnage playing the role of the Red Death.
