Appearing in "Pages 2-19: They Fight"
Featured Characters:
- Eddie Brock (Bonds to Bedlam)
Antagonists:
- Absent Throne (Mentioned)
Other Characters:
- Hell Hounds
- Chasm (Ben Reilly) (Mentioned)
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Mentioned)
- Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- United States of America
- California
- San Francisco
- Baywater
- Renegades Bar (Ruins)
- California
- United States of America
- Astral Plane
- Venomworld
Vehicles:
- Time Platform (Mentioned)
Events:
- Dark Web (Referenced)
Synopsis for "Pages 2-19: They Fight"
In the ruins of the Renegades' bar, Eddie Brock tells Bedlam that his only way out is in chains. Bedlam sneers that Eddie's gone soft and that the only way he's leaving is in a coffin on his way to a closed casket funeral. Lunging at each other, Eddie punches Bedlam in the face, knocking out several teeth, while Bedlam rips out a chunk of his abdomen. Grabbing Eddie's head, Bedlam repeatedly slams his face into the bartop, Eddie grabbing ahold of it and ripping it off to bludgeon his dark counterpart with. Spotting a semiautomatic shotgun taped to the underside of the bartop, Eddie impales Bedlam with it and shoots him multiple times in the chest. As Eddie says that was fun, Bedlam transforms the gaping hole in his chest into a fanged maw and chomps down on him, chewing him up and spitting out a mangled wad of flesh and bone.
Outside the bar, the Hell Hounds are shocked as Eddie's masticated form shoots through the wall, spattering on the ground. One thug offers another some gum, but as Eddie begins rapidly regenerating the second thug vomits in disgust and horror. Mostly in one piece, Eddie tells the thugs to save some gum for him, picking himself up as Bedlam storms through the hole in the wall, roaring that he's the real Eddie Brock and that Eddie is just a mistake --an offcut from a dead timeline. Eddie says that his whole life was one big mistake, but that he's the one with the body. Leaping over Bedlam's punch, Eddie fires nerves out of his hands like webbing, latching onto Bedlam's head. Projecting himself into Bedlam's mindscape, Eddie finds himself in a version of Venomworld with a massive red blob floating overhead. Bedlam's voice sneers that Eddie should've just fought him in the physical world, and that not having his memories or emotions like love and compassion for their son has freed him from the human baggage weighing Eddie down. The red blob transforms into a massive version of Bedlam, who roars that pain makes him stronger as he attacks Eddie. Evading, Eddie notes that he remembers reading something similar in the bodybuilding websites he frequented back when he was obsessed with getting as jacked as possible. Evading and dashing up Bedlam's arm, Eddie says that all he was doing back in those days was running away from responsibility and accountability for the pain he caused himself and others. Noting that it's time for that to change, Eddie leaps into Bedlam's maw. Forming a head on his tongue, Bedlam snarling that he'll devour Eddie's mind bite by bite, but Eddie uses the tongue as a springboard to rip through the roof of Bedlam's mouth into his brain.
Eddie finds himself in a throne room made of bones, scoffing that this used to be what passed for his mind. Confronted by Bedlam in the form of his clean-shaven past self, Eddie disdainfully dismisses him as a muscle-bound bully addicted to rage and refusing to take responsibility for his mistakes. Grinning wickedly, Bedlam declares that Eddie made a huge mistake coming into his mind, since now he can destroy Eddie's consciousness and take over his body. As they trade blows, Bedlam sneers that he's the real Eddie Brock and that Eddie has lost his edge; transforming into Venom. Eddie scornfully rebukes Bedlam for referring to himself in the first person as Venom, evading Bedlam's claws and grabbing ahold of his chest. Saying that Bedlam is the one who's lost everything after Chasm violated his mind, Eddie says that all Bedlam can be is the old Venom -- the revenge-obsessed monster willing to kill anyone who gets in his way -- because that rage and pain is all he is. Saying that his dark counterpart is incomplete and empty, Eddie rips Bedlam in half and scornfully asks whether he's been doing any Lethal Protecting, plotting revenge against Spider-Man, or just simmering while waiting for Meridius to boss him around. As Eddie says that without Bedlam he is still Eddie Brock but that without him Bedlam is nothing, Bedlam -- reduced to a puddle of symbiote ooze -- manifests a head and begs Eddie to help him. Extending his hand, Eddie says that together they can be Venom as long as Bedlam remembers he's the one in charge, Bedlam's symbiote form bonding to him.
In the physical world, Bedlam bonds to Eddie's body and transforms into a four-armed crimson version of the Warstar symbiote, Eddie cracking his knuckles and saying it's time to go see a man about a time machine.
Solicit Synopsis
NOT YOUR FATHER'S BEDLAM!
As Eddie Brock finds his footing in the Marvel Universe, he's going to need to come face to face with the very worst parts of himself in the form the time-displaced monster called BEDLAM! Eddie's always been his own most brutal critic, though, and this titanic beatdown will be no exception – and something NEW will be waiting on the other side! (Hint: it's that GIANT RED DUDE WITH FOUR ARMS RIGHT ABOVE THIS TEXT!)Trivia
- Eddie using his nerves as webbing is similar to when Zombie Spider-Man did the same along with his veins and arteries.[1]