All at once... I know. The only thing Lee ever gifted me... pain. 

—Venom Symbiote

Appearing in "Exsanguination"

Featured Characters:

• Dylan Brock
• Venom Symbiote (Main story and recap)

Supporting Characters:

• Maniac / Venom (Lee Price) (Temporarily re-bonds to the Venom Symbiote; bonds to Meridius)

Antagonists:

• The Structure
  • ⏴ Unnamed priest (Main story and flashback) (Death)
• The Captive (Threkker) (Apparent death)
• Meridius (Eddie Brock)

Other Characters:

• Toxin (Mentioned)
• Catholic Church (Only in recap)
• Venom (Eddie Brock) (Only in recap)
• God (Mentioned)
• Blade ("Eric Brooks") (Mentioned)
• Absent Throne (Mentioned)

Races and Species:

• Human-Symbiote Hybrids
• Vampires (Main story and flashback)
• Humans (Only in flashback)
• Symbiotes (Main story and recap)
• Zombies
• Epsiloni
• Crows

Locations:

• Sol (Main story and flashback)
  • Earth (Main story and flashback)
    • United States of America (Main story and flashback)
      • New York (Main story and flashback)
        • New York City (Main story and flashback)
          • Manhattan (Main story and flashback)
            • East Village (Only in recap)
              • Alphabet City (Only in recap)
                • Our Lady of Saints Church (Only in recap)
          • Staten Island
    • Vampire Nation (Mentioned)
  • Sun (Mentioned)

Items:

• Maniac Symbiote (Merges with the Venom Symbiote)

Events:

• Venom War (Mentioned)

Synopsis for "Exsanguination"

Looking up at the vampiric priest, Dylan Brock exclaims that he recognizes him. Grinning, the priest muses that he overheard Dylan telling Toxin that he'd found out everything the Venom symbiote had ever done and assumed that had been a conversation, but now he realizes that Dylan experienced it firsthand by reliving the symbiote's memories. Advancing towards Dylan and drooling hungrily, the priest asks if he'd like to hear it from his side. The priest states that he met Eddie Brock some years ago at Our Lady of Saints Church, not knowing who or what he was at the time and only seeing him as a potentially dangerous man in need of helpful advice. Eddie had said he'd recently returned to a relationship with a partner who in the past had been controlling and abusive; the priest lamenting not having pushed for more details, noting that he should have advised Eddie to cut ties with his abusive partner as soon as possible--and the symbiote suspected he might do so in the future, taking over Eddie and viciously attacking him a half-hour later. The priest says he was left with three broken ribs, a fractured pelvis, and a tremor; but that the symbiote later paid a visit to his hospital room and apologized, saying it was trying to do good and offering the priest protection. Grimacing, Dylan asks how that went, and the priest scoffs that almost immediately after he was discharged from the hospital he was attacked by a pack of vampires and Venom never kept its promise to protect him. Drained of blood and dumped in a dumpster, the priest rose again as a vampire himself. Smirking, he says he has a new ministry and a new calling; advancing hungrily towards Dylan as he says that the boy is not so different—cast out from human society, abandoned by friends and family, and only a child at that. Grinning, the vampire priest says that while God may have abandoned Dylan, the Vampire Nation will welcome him with open arms. Telling Dylan not to be afraid and that the pain will only last a second, the vampire priest leans in to bite him.

In the graveyard, the zombified Lee Price picks himself back up, the undead Mania symbiote repairing his shattered skull as Threkker boasts that the pain his necromancy causes can last for centuries, as long as his thrall does, and that hosts like Lee with a deep need for a symbiote make the ideal bait; gloating that other symbiotes will be drawn in before long, making up reasons to investigate. The Venom symbiote is horrified by Lee's decrepit state, Threkker smirking as he mocks its empathy and stating that all what's left of Lee's mind can feel right now is unending pain. Blasting the Venom symbiote with a beam of energy from his hands, Threkker laughs wickedly as his energy blast incinerates a nearby tree; waxing philosophical on pain and death. Threkker boasts surviving being at the heart of a supernova, though he admits it weakened him enough that he was able to be imprisoned on Earth. Despite being frozen in stasis, Threkker notes that he could afford to be patient because he is something even greater than merely alive; blasting the Venom symbiote again and proclaiming himself immortal. Gloating that the vampires freed him to eliminate the Venom symbiote and its kind--seeing it as competition--Threkker scoops up its melting body and sneers that all of existence is prey to him, even the Earth and the Sun. As he prepares to devour the Venom symbiote, Lee bashes him over the head with his tombstone, Threkker caught completely off-guard. More annoyed than injured, he tries to puzzle out how Lee mustered the willpower to attack him; Lee slurring that Venom is his symbiote. Figuring out what Lee is saying, Threkker mockingly tells the Venom symbiote that its former host is still in there, fighting against his control to protect it, and that it must love him very much to do so. The Venom symbiote mentally notes that Lee never loved it, only seeing it as a tool or weapon he could use to get ahead and strike back at the world. Noting that now, as it is dying, it can empathize with that, the Venom symbiote bonds to Lee's undead corpse and merges with the remnants of the Mania symbiote. Inundated by his pain, the Venom symbiote compares the ceaseless burning agony to its namesake; and notes that the zombified Lee has nothing it can feed on to sustain itself or even a mind to converse with--just a howling void of yearning. Noting that Lee's last thought as Carnage murdered him was that he needed a symbiote to live, the Venom symbiote muses that perhaps its last thought will be that it needed a host to face death. Assuming the form it took while bonded to Lee while he was alive, the zombie's head and arms jutting from its neck and torso, the Venom symbiote declares its intent to make Threkker work for his meal.

Dylan grimly tells the vampire priest to go ahead and bite him, throwing a punch as the priest quips that that tends to be how it works... although in order to turn him into a vampire he'll need to drain him past the point of human death. Noting that adult humans take four pints to exsanguinate but that since Dylan's a child he should only take three, the priest casually catches Dylan's fist and twists his arm behind his back. Crying out in pain, Dylan shouts for the priest to get off him and warns him that he's not just some homeless kid. The priest mockingly sneers that Dylan's symbiote friends are nowhere to be found and sinks his fangs into Dylan's neck. Dylan's blood vessels turn black with symbiote matter and the priest recoils in disgust, wailing that Dylan's blood is tainted. Black blood oozes from the puncture marks as Dylan mockingly informs the vomiting priest that he's half-symbiote and that drinking his blood must've been like chugging motor oil. Picking up a chair, Dylan tells the priest to take a seat and smashes him across the back, wielding a chunk of one of the legs as an improvised stake. The priest sputters that Dylan is unclean and unfit to be saved by the Vampire Nation, Dylan smirking as he declares himself too badass for vampires. Flourishing the stake, he impales the vampire priest through the chest, mocking his lack of combat skills as he burns to ash and bones.

Amused, Threkker asks if Venom is offering itself in supplication to its deity, smirking and saying that he's charmed. The Venom symbiote notes that it should be afraid, but for some reason isn't. Speaking in the symbiote's voice, Lee's protruding head snarls at Threkker to choke on them, and the Venom symbiote wonders if Lee himself is somehow speaking through it. Threkker catches Venom's punch and starts tearing the symbiote away from Price's undead corpse, sneering that its life will smoothly slip down his throat as it starts draining their vital energy... before screaming in pain. Confused, Venom watches as Threkker retches and staggers, the alien vampire incredulously wondering what the sensation of his own flesh feeding on him is. Venom realizes that Threkker is referring to the one thing Lee Price ever gave it before. Grinning through ruined lips, Lee declares that what Threkker is feeling is pain. The Venom symbiote notes that Threkker's invulnerability means he has never felt pain before, and that he cannot feed on it without also experiencing the unending agony of Lee's undeath brought forth by his own energies. Wondering if this was how its ancestors defeated his, Venom mocks the increduous and terrified Threkker, telling him to go ahead and eat it. Ramming their fist down Threkker's throat, Venom tells him to partake of their Venom. Overloaded, Threkker withers into a dessicated husk that Venom casts aside, wondering if a being as powerful as Threkker can truly die. An unfamiliar voice congratulates Venom on their victory, Venom turning to see Meridius leaning against a nearby tree. Introducing himself, Meridius smugly asks if Lee would rather be bonded to a sick and dying symbiote or fresh and ageless symbiote matter. As Lee tears free of the Venom symbiote, it muses that this must be poetic justice for when it abandoned him. Reading the symbiote's thoughts, Meridius smirks and says it's ironic, engulfing Lee's corpse as he says that he'd thought that when they met again he would bond to the Venom symbiote once more, asking if it recognizes him. Confused, the symbiote says that it doesn't, Meridius noting that they've both changed... though the Venom symbiote isn't quite where he wanted it to be, taking credit for the changes it's undergone since bonding to Dylan. As the Venom symbiote melts, it asks who Meridius is; Meridius grinning as he says while it's been a few epochs since they last met from his perspective they once knew each other very well, giving it the clue that he was once a King on a Throne, but that now the throne is absent. The Venom symbiote realizes that Meridius is the mastermind behind everything that it and Dylan have suffered, disgustedly saying that Meridius has one--Dylan is dead and it is dying. Grinning, Meridius says that's why he's taking Lee as a consolation prize, noting that if he can't have the Venomworld that the symbiote would have become, he can use the "Zombiote" to make something similar. To twist the knife further as a form of "payment", Meridius reveals that Dylan is alive and that Eddie--the Venom symbiote's Eddie--is coming back to the present. As the symbiote finds the resolve to resist death, Meridius smirks and walks away, declaring that it's time for the war to begin.

Solicit Synopsis

See Also

• 11 image(s) from Venom Vol 5 34
• 1 reprint(s) of Venom Vol 5 34

Links and References

References