The newly apotheosized Carnage symbiote of Earth-616 has set out to usurp the throne of the King in Black and is rampaging across the Multiverse killing every incarnation of Venom it can find. To oppose this dire threat, Anne Weying — the Agent Venom of Earth-1051 — assembles a multiversal team of Venoms to stop it... if Carnage even can be stopped.
In 2024, a sequel anthology—Venomverse Reborn—was announced.
Death of the Venomverse
Death of the Venomverse includes examples of the following tropes:
- Alliance of Alternates: The Extreme Venomverse and Edge of Venomverse Unlimited prelude tie-ins show Agent Venom (Anne Weying) travelling the Multiverse recruiting different incarnations of Venom to help fight Carnage, including a version of Eddie Brock who became Spider-Man, a samurai Venom whose symbiote takes the form of a katana. In addition to the Venoms who Anne recruited in Extreme Venomverse, a variant of Dylan Brock introduced in Extreme Venomverse but not shown being recruited and a version of Dreamstone Venom are shown in the first issue. The second issue shows a version of Agent Venom with a spider emblem resembling Lee Price's, though it's unclear who it is.
- Assimilation Backfire: In Issue #3, Carnage — faced with Silence, Anti-Venom, and Anti-Carnage — assimilates the latter into itself in order to become immune to their symbiote-purging touch. This backfires as the Anti-Carnage symbiote begins tearing Carnage apart from the inside-out, allowing the symbiotes it had assimilated to begin to break free.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: The cover for the first issue shows the deific Carnage standing atop a massive heap of dead Venoms.
- The Atoner: Anti-Carnage, introduced in the third issue, is a variant of Cletus Kasady who bonded to the Anti-Venom symbiote and is — like mainstream Carnage during AXIS — is dedicated to atoning for his sins.
- Back for the Dead:
- Issue #1 shows two of the surviving Venoms from the original Venomverse — Venomized Rocket Raccoon and Venomized Wolverine — as well as an Ant-Venom variant being attacked and killed by Carnage.
- Agent Spider-Man and Agent Deadpool from Venom (Vol. 4) make a comeback... only to die fighting Carnage, the former being Portal Cut and the latter being Eaten Alive — though the second issue reveals he survived thanks to his healing factor.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Despite the Symbiote Squad's best efforts, Carnage kills Knull and absorbs his power, then slaughters almost every remaining member of the Symbiote Squad — with only Agent Venom, Silence, Agent Anti-Venom, Symbiote Spider-Man, Asgardia, and Chaos Engine being confirmed to have survived.
- Boldly Coming: In the second issue, Earth-616's Carnage kills Shriek due to her body containing a sonic-resistant codex, not from having bonded to a symbiote herself but from her having had sex with her world's Cletus Kasady while he was bonded to Carnage.
- The Bus Came Back: Rather than the Eddie Brock of Earth-616 being the main character as in previous Venomverse events, the Anne Weying of Earth-1051 — who hasn't been seen since the "Venom Beyond" arc of Venom (Vol. 4) — is the main character, being shown travelling the Multiverse to recruit an army to stop Carnage in Extreme Venomverse.
- Character Death: The series very much lives up to the title Death of the Venomverse, with each issue having Carnage kill at least one character:
- In the first issue, Venomized Rocket Raccoon, Venomized Wolverine, Ant-Venom, Agent Spider-Man, Mania, and Venomized Electro are all killed by Carnage.
- In the second issue, Venomized Doctor Octopus, Venomized Lizard, Venomized Kraven, Venomized Vulture, Samurai Venom, the Dylan Brock from Extreme Venomverse #1's "All in the Family", Venomized Black Cat, and Shriek are all killed by Carnage.
- In the third issue, Venoman-Thing, Space Knight Venom, and Anti-Carnage are all killed by Carnage.
- In the fourth issue, Anti-Venom, Dreamstone Venom, and all the manifested codices are killed by Carnage, who reabsorbs the latter. Carnage also kills the Silver Surfer to absorb the Power Cosmic.
- In the fifth issue, Magneto, Thor, and Venomized Rhino are killed by Knull; while Cyclops, Jean Grey, Knull, variants of Host Rider and Venomized Gwenpool from the original Venomverse, Venomsaurus Rex from Edge of the Spider-Verse (Vol. 3), LMV, Venom Noir, Venomized Jeff the Land Shark, and Major League Venom from Extreme Venomverse, the Dreamstone symbiote, and Earth-1051's Dylan Brock are all killed by Carnage.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The final battle in the final issue goes about as well as can be expected. Virus, acting on Anne's statement that they need to stop Carnage no matter the cost, repeatedly disobeys her order to send the remaining members of the Symbiote Squad home and instead sends them out to fight Carnage... who effortlessly slaughters almost all of them using his array of absorbed powers.
- Dimensional Traveller:
- Carnage is travelling across the Multiverse killing every version of Venom it can find, training to be able to take on the Eddie Brock of Earth-616.
- The first issue shows Anne Weying travelling the Multiverse to assemble an army of Venom incarnations, including an Eddie Brock who became Spider-Man, a samurai Venom wielding a cursed sword, and Virus.
- Do Wrong, Right: When attacking Mania, Carnage mocks her for not using her Hell Mark to its full potential and sneers that it's going to take it from her and put it to good use.
- Evil Versus Evil: In the final issue, Carnage and Knull duke it out. The remaining heroes of the universe Knull is invading assume that this means Carnage is at least pulling an Enemy Mine, but Carnage and Knull take time out of their fight to slaughter them before resuming their battle.
- Failure Knight: In the first issue, it's established that Carnage has killed twelve Venom variants, with Agent Venom and Virus playing catchup. This leaves Anne extremely frustrated and determined to succeed when they finally catch up to Carnage and see he's about to eviscerate the teenaged Andi Benton. Andi being killed anyway leaves Anne deeply shaken, especially when Space Knight Venom (Flash Thompson) — who, in keeping with Venom: Space Knight, feels guilty over abandoning his Andi to join the Guardians of the Galaxy — lashes out at her for being sidelined. The second issue has her sink even lower after two attempts to ambush Carnage gets the bulk of her army killed, and by the finale she's totally crushed — having lost everyone she loves in a futile attempt to stop Carnage that only made it stronger.
- Heinz Hybrid: In the final issue, Asgardia reveals that like Dylan Brock she's part symbiote and part human, in addition to being part Asgardian.
- In Spite of a Nail: Issue #1 shows a recreation of Amazing Spider-Man #345... right up until Earth-616's Carnage kills Venom at the exact moment the symbiote rebonds to Eddie Brock in Ravencroft, leaving an awestruck Cletus Kasady still in prison. However, Carnage states that despite Venom having been killed before the symbiote spawned, he'll still become his universe's Carnage.
- It's Personal: Upon hearing that Carnage killed a variant of Mania, who he feels guilty over abandoning, Space Knight Venom (Flash Thompson) is enraged and berates Anne for not bringing him along to save her.
- Jidaigeki: Taigami's side-story is set in feudal Japan's Heian Period in the year 977, where a young samurai named Kintaro intervenes to save a farming village from an "oni" — a sloth bear possessed by the Carnage symbiote — using a symbiote of his own called "Clinter".
- Kill the God: An article published by Marvel promotes the fifth and final issue as a showdown between Carnage and Knull for the title of the King in Black. While the solicit proclaims that Carnage wins, the cover shows Knull standing triumphant atop Anne's corpse while holding a defeated Carnage by his horns.
- Legacy Character: The first issue shows that Mac Gargan's Virus armor from "Venom Beyond" has been repaired and is being worn by an ally of Anne's stated by Carnage to be a former Venom.
- Love-Interest Traitor: In Issue #2, the Shriek from Chaos Engine's universe assumes Earth-616's Carnage is her world's Cletus Kasady back from the dead and is more than eager to pick things up where they left off. Carnage plays along just long enough to get her to drop her guard, then guts her to absorb the sonic-resistant codex left in her womb from her and her world's Carnage's intimate activities.
- Portal Cut: Agent Spider-Man meets his end when Carnage drags him halfway into a portal and then closes it to bisect him.
- Power Parasite: Carnage has been absorbing the symbiotes and codices of some of the Venoms it kills in order to absorb their powers. In the first issue it does this to Venomized Wolverine, Ant-Venom, Mania, and Venomized Electro.
- Multiversal Conqueror: As established in Carnage (Vol. 3), Carnage is seeking to destroy all of existence by becoming a King in Black, and its ambitions are corrupting and corroding the Web of Life and Destiny. Interior art of the first issue showcased as promotional material and issues of Extreme Venomverse show Carnage travelling the Multiverse killing various incarnations of Venom.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Anne's intervention to save Mania results in the death of Agent Spider-Man (who was a close friend who'd been with her through the War on Codex), and Andi recklessly charging in to try to save him and Agent Deadpool only leads to her being killed and her demonically-enhanced symbiote assimilated by Carnage. Anne is left shaken by this and lashes out at Virus when he tries to console her.
- The Symbiote Squad's intervention to save Knull in the final issue distracts the King in Black long enough for Carnage to get a killing blow in.
- In the final issue, Virus disobeys Anne's order to send everyone back to their home universes, instead throwing every surviving member of the Symbiote Squad at Carnage while repeating her statement from earlier in the issue that they have to stop Carnage no matter the cost... which gets almost all of them killed, including Virus himself.
- Papa Wolf: Venom: Space Knight (Flash Thompson) is livid to learn that Carnage killed a variant of Mania (Andi Benton) to obtain her Hell-Mark, and when the Symbiote Squad visits a world where his now-deceased counterpart had a daughter with Valkyrie they're both more than happy to call each other family. When Carnage is about to kill Asgardia, Flash charges in the save her, which gets him impaled in her stead, to Silence and Asgardia's horror.
- Reclaimed by Nature: The beginning of the third issue has Carnage visit a world where Dr. Theodore Sallis bonded to the Venom symbiote to become what Carnage cheerfully dubs "Venoman-Thing", trekking through the overgrown ruins of a city to find its quarry's lair.
- Remember the New Guy?: One of trio of Sym-Soldiers from Earth-1051 is a character called Agent Hawkeye, who looks suspiciously similar to Agent Mania from Venom (Vol. 4)'s "Venom Beyond" arc — having the same spiky hair and purple tint — but is said to be Clint Barton rather than Andi Benton.
- Semi-Divine: In Issue #3, the Symbiote Squad sets out to recruit Asgardia, who turns out to be the demigoddess daughter of Agent Venom (Flash Thompson) and Valkyrie (Brunnhilde).
- Series Continuity Error:
- Web of Carnage established that Carnage became immune to fire and sonic attacks after merging with All-Blood, but the first issue establishes he's still vulnerable to them and is seeking to become immune.
- In the third issue, the Virus armour is revealed to be piloted by Earth-1051's Dylan Brock... who is somehow a child again despite having aged to adulthood in Venom (Vol. 4).
- Weaponized Teleportation:
- At the end of the first issue, [[spoiler:when confronted by a Venomized Electro, Carnage Tele-Frags him, explosing his body from the inside and then absorbing his symbiote — and with it his electrokinesis.
- When Silence tries to one-shot it with her cleansing touch. Carnage opens one portal in front of her and another behind her, resulting in her slashing herself with her own claws.
- Would Hurt a Child: Carnage kills the teenaged Mania (Andi Benton) in the first issue, and in the second issue he guts the variant of Dylan Brock from "All in the Family".
- Villain Team-Up: At the end of the first issue, Carnage picks a fight with a Venomized version of the Sinister Six comprised of Doctor Octopus, Electro, Rhino, the Lizard, Kraven the Hunter, and Vulture. By the second issue, he kills all but Rhino, who joins Anne's team for a chance to avenge his fallen comrades.
Final Escape
- Apocalypse Cult: The Sons of Chaos are a band of thugs who revere Carnage — who they call "the Master" — and seek to further his goals. For his part, Carnage doesn't care one whit about them and is only using them to amuse himself.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Professor Healey sacrifices himself to destroy his time machine to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
- For the Evulz: Carnage's goal isn't to cause massive amounts of death and destruction or to become a god, but with the relatively Poke the Poodle goal of randomly scattering people throughout the timestream using Professor Healey's time machine. Why? Because chaos, that's why!
- Time Machine: Professor Healey invented a time machine in the hopes of using it to travel back to a simpler time in his life, but Carnage wants to use it to sow chaos.
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The story is set at some point during Venom's period as an antihero, where he was still intent on getting revenge on Spider-Man but begrudgingly puts precedent on protecting innocents.
Kid Venom
- Bond Creatures: Kintaro's symbiote consuming the symbiotes that are bonded to animals both grants him the abilities possessed by those animals and lets him speak to and understand them.
- Jidaigeki: The series takes place in Japan's Heian period, in the year 977.
