Four armed is not always forewarned
Edge of Venomverse Unlimited is an Infinity Comics webcomic from Marvel Comics. It's written by Clay McLeod Chapman and J. Holtham.
Connected to the shared Marvel Universe, the twelve-issue series acts as a prologue to the Death of the Venomverse event, showcasing Alternate Universe versions of the antihero Venom.
The supervillain Carnage is ascending to godhood, and he's methodically exterminating alternate versions of Venom from the multiverse. Anne Weying, Earth-1051's Agent Venom, is trying to reach them first, to save them.
As with Marvel's other Infinity Comics, the series is (at least initially) only available via the Marvel Unlimited app.
The first issue was released June 13, 2023. The final issue (#12) was released August 29, 2023.
Edge of Venomverse Unlimited contains examples of the following tropes:
- Alternate Universe: Each story is set in a different alternate world within the multiverse containing the 'main' Marvel Universe (Earth-616).
- Animal Superheroes: In "Chew Toy" (#5), Earth-97161's Venom is a puppy in a pet shop. By the end of the story, five more superpowered symbiote animals have appeared, each bonded to one of the Life Foundation symbiotes.
- Call-Back: The Venom in "Nightmare on My Street" (#7) is Earth-6510's version of Ghost-Spider antagonist the Bodega Bandit — seemingly the same version who briefly cameoed in Spider-Verse Unlimited (2022) (#35-36), in an arc that established that the Bandits are an Alliance of Alternates and exist across many worlds. As Carnage points out, he may be a Venom but he's still doing what Bodega Bandits do, building a legend and keeping his city's people alert.
- Conjoined Twins: "Separation Anxiety" (#6) introduces Edmund and Allen Harris, who are joined at the shoulder. When their doctor discovers Edmund has a mysterious tumour (actually their world's Venom symbiote), she suggests they undergo separation surgery to prevent it from spreading to them both. While the twins reluctantly agree to the surgery, the symbiote lashes out and attacks the doctor for trying to separate its hosts from each other, only being stopped from killing her by Anne Weying's intervention.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: In "Party Animals" (#8), Clown Venom initially gets the upper hand against Carnage with comedic gags, such as tying its tentacles into balloon animals or holding him upside-down by the ankles and having the kids beat him like a piñata. Enraged by this humiliation, Carnage immediately turns the tables — impaling Clown Venom through the heart before lopping his head off.
- Dead Person Impersonation: In "Hail to the Chief" (#4), Carnage is revealed to have killed Earth-654's Eddie Brock and have been impersonating him to catch President Eugene Thompson off-guard, interviewing him out of curiosity as to how a bully-turned-jock-turned-soldier was able to be elected President.
- Eye Scream: In "Deep Freeze" (#3), Greg gets slammed face first into a container holding a cryogenically frozen head. It shatters and he's blinded by the supercooled liquid.
- Hollywood Exorcism: In "Cast Me Out" (#1-2), the priest tries to exorcise a teenage girl, not realising that she's the host of an alien Venom symbiote, not a victim of Demonic Possession. It ends predictably badly for him.
- Impersonation-Exclusive Character: We never get to meet the real Eddie Brock in "Hail to the Chief" (#4), due to a Kill and Replace gambit before the story starts.
- Infinite Canvas: As with Marvel's other Infinity Comics, it’s presented in the vertical scrolling variant. Each issue is a single long page, with one column of panels.
- Jumping Out of a Cake: Carnage makes its appearance in "Party Animals" (#8) by erupting out of a child's birthday cake and trying to disembowel Clown Venom with an arm-blade.
- Knight of Cerebus: Unsurprisingly, stories get darker when Carnage appears. In every story where he finds a version of Venom before Anne does, that Venom dies.
- Losing Your Head: "Deep Freeze" (#3) introduces Earth-51412's Venom, who was bonded to Howard Stark. Howard Stark is now a cryogenically frozen severed head, and Venom has been trapped with him for decades. When the head's thawed out, the symbiote manifests legs and scuttles about like a crab.
- Monster Clown: "Party Animals" (#8) introduces Earth-8819's Venom, a clown at a children's party. He manifests his symbiote when the kids become a handful, deliberately scaring them, but still acts as an entertainer and doesn't actually hurt them.
- President Superhero: President Eugene "Flash" Thompson of Earth-654 is secretly the host of the Venom symbiote, which he attributes with him turning his life around and making something of himself. Despite worrying that his supporters finding out will ruin his chances of re-election, he reveals himself as Venom during his Fourth of July speech; and while his supporters are initially shocked, they quickly begin cheering for him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- In the second issue, the Venom symbiote bonded to Charlotte verbally tears into her father for ignoring her pleas for help, locking her up in a barn, and letting the priest torture her before physically tearing into him as well.
- In the third issue, Carnage disguises itself as a woman and tricks a scientist named Greg into giving it access to a cryogenics lab where that universe's Venom symbiote is hiding. Upon revealing itself, it mocks the scientist for thinking with his reproductive anatomy instead of his brain before killing him.
- Rotating Protagonist: Each story is set in a different Alternate Universe with a different Venom. Only Carnage and Anne Weying, Earth-1051's Agent Venom, are recurring characters.
- Shout-Out:
- The Venom of Earth-51412, introduced in "Deep Freeze" (#3), is a bonded to Howard Stark's severed head and spawns a set of crab-like legs to scuttle around with — similarly to the Norris-Thing's detached head.
- The title of "Nightmare on My Street" (#7) is an homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street, with the Venomized Bodega Bandit going out of his way to scare people to spread his legend instead of just robbing stores like the others.
- In "Nightmare on My Street" (#7), when Big G tries to dissuade M2 from entering the haunted bodega, M2 quips that he "ain't afraid of no ghost."
- Clown Venom from "Party Animals" (#8) is a spoof of Pennywise the Dancing Clown from It — being introduced after a swarm of balloons fill the screen, holding a red one in front of his face before it pops, and having sharp teeth, a slavering tongue, and red pom-poms down the front of his body. Unlike Pennywise, Clown Venom seeks to entertain kids and only scares the children after they annoy him.
- To Serve Man:
- In "Cast Me Out: Part 2" (#2) Charlotte's Venom symbiote eats her father to punish him for neglecting and abusing her.
- In "The Hunting: Part 2" (#10), Kraven and Electro come across the Green Goblin's empty costume while investigating the seemingly empty mansion on Governors Island. While Electro wonders what happened, Kraven spots a gnawed-clean skull with the top crunched off... seconds before Venom attacks them.
- Trampled Underfoot: In "Deep Freeze" (#3), Earth-51412's Venom is bonded to the severed head of Howard Stark, and scuttles about on crablike legs grown by the symbiote. Carnage ends the story by seemingly stomping it to death.
- Villain Team-Up: "The Hunting" (#9-12) sets up the origin of the Symbiote Six from Death of the Venomverse, with a new Sinister Six hunting down the missing Spider-Man, who he disappeared following a clash with the Green Goblin. The six are initially unaware that the shadowy spider-themed figure prowling Governors Island is actually the symbiote-corrupted Spider-Man. In the final issue, Kraven proposes that the symbiote become the seventh member of the team, offering himself and the others up as its new hosts after Spider-Man perishes.
