I can feel it. Your desires, your thoughts: "No killing, Venom. No breaking bones. No teeth. No claws. No tearing flesh." And yet, when we bonded, Dylan, something changed. I am... different... unleashed somehow... because of something within you. But you're turning away from it, locking it up in some dark corner because you're afraid... afraid of who we really are. Afraid that it means you're going to walk a road just as lonely as your dad's. You know my name, boy. You know its meaning, deep within your bones. I am strife. I am glorious war. Wherever I go, the battle shall follow, like a shadow you cast over all those you hold dear and close. Your father knew this. 
Appearing in "Too Late For Heroes - Part 1"
Featured Characters:
- Venom (Dylan Brock) (Main story and flashback)
- Venom Symbiote (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Sleeper (Main story and flashback)
- Jake Yahkin (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Antagonists:
- Life Foundation
- Carlton Drake
- Mr. Carson
- Jury (Mentioned)
- Meridius (Mentioned)
- Bedlam (Cameo)
- Hell Hounds (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Other Characters:
- Alchemax (Mentioned)
- Liz Allan (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- Senator Arthur Krane (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- Peter Krane (Mentioned)
- Symbiote Task Force (Mentioned)
- Renegades (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Numerous unnamed bikers
- Seven Saints (Mentioned)
- Eddie Brock (Only in recap)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- United Kingdom (Only in flashback)
- United States of America
- California
- Baywater (First appearance)
- Renegades Bar (First appearance)
- Hell Hounds HQ
- Modesto (Referenced)
- Baywater (First appearance)
- California
- Chile
- Ildefonso Archipelago
- Life Foundation HQ
- Ildefonso Archipelago
- Hell (Referenced)
Items:
- Spearhead Armor
Synopsis for "Too Late For Heroes - Part 1"
Six days after the Clarksfield Incident, Liz Allan reflects that the doubt she felt when subjecting Dylan Brock to tortuous experiments has been absolved after Venom and Sleeper, two symbiotes with whom she'd thought she was intimately familiar, rampaged through the Alchemax lab; and that she now knows that everything she'd been warned about is true. Thinking to herself that the symbiotes are evolving and adapting, and that Dylan Brock -- innocent or not -- is responsible, Liz concludes that no matter how much she wishes it wasn't true, if left unchecked the symbiotes will cause a war that will endanger the future of humanity. Speaking on a televised interview with Senator Arthur Krane, Liz lies by saying that the symbiotes attacked unprovoked, telling the people of the world what they need to hear, and therefore must be considered an organized and hostile threat. Liz pledges all of Alchemax's research and resources to Krane's Symbiote Task Force, lamenting that she and Dylan have to be enemies and that she'll be lucky if he's the only casualty of what's to come. Thanking her, Senator Krane says that he has been involved with congressional meetings on how best to handle the symbiote menace, that military and private support has been authorized, and that the Life Foundation -- as humanity's preeminent authority on symbiotes -- has been made the government's chief consultant on matters related to them.
Watching the interview on a view screen, Carlton Drake remarks to Mr. Carson that everything is falling into place, telling him to put together a team fit to be made into a next-generation Jury, and that their benefactor's agent -- Bedlam -- is also in pursuit of Dylan Brock and the Venom symbiote.
Thirteen days after the Clarksfield Incident, Jake Yahkin enters his bar in Baywater, California. Opening the door to his office, he tells Dylan Brock to get up, saying that he took him and his weird cat in out of pity but that if Dylan wants to stay he'll have to earn his keep. Tasking Dylan with cleaning and bringing fresh kegs up from the cellar, Jake tells him to keep Sleeper out of sight since he's expecting visitors who aren't very pet-friendly. Later, as Dylan wipes down the bartop, he asks Jake about the sudden influx of vistors given that the bar's usually mostly empty. Jake responds that he put the call out to his old biker gang, the Renegades, who used to run Baywater back in the good old days of mullets, bullets, and motor oil. Lamenting that the town's fallen into the clutches of a violent rival gang called the Hell Hounds, Jake says that someone or something attacked one of the Hell Hounds' weapon caches and he's worried they'll try to start a gang war over it. As Jake asks if Dylan knows anything about what happened, Dylan smirks as he recals laying waste to the depot as Venom, and says he only knows the gist of what happened from the rumors flying around town, but that he thinks it's a good thing that someone's willing to stand up to thugs like the Hell Hounds and protect the good people of the town. Sighing, Jake says that Dylan had best keep his opinions to himself, and remarks that the real reason he took Dylan in was because of the Big Dipper emblem on his jacket, which reminded him of the Seven Saints, a crew he'd run with when he was younger and more idealistic. Jake grouses that all a lifetime of fighting got him was a bum hip, a deaf ear, and a bar that almost nobody comes to; drinking a toast to his old friends before warning Dylan once again that running his mouth about opposing the Hell Hounds is liable to get him killed.
At the Hell Hounds' HQ, the leader of the gang, Len, interrogates one of the survivors of the attack on the weapons depot. Tied to a chair, the thug stammers that it was a symbiote, but Len doesn't believe him and tells his second-in-command to execute the unfortunate thug as bloodily as possible. Snapping that the next person to tell him it was a ghost or a bear or an alien will be chain-hauled down the highway until they're a bloody smear on the pavement, Len assumes the hit was the work of a rival gang and tells his thugs to hunt down whoever was responsible and strike fear into the people of Baywater while doing so. Len's second-in-command, Trevor, asks if anything should be done about Jake Yahkin, noting that he's been rallying the remnants of the Renegades and that some of their men are concerned he's trying to take back the town. As Trevor notes that Jake's too old and beaten-down to want to start anything, Len concurs but says that the Renegades cannot tolerate anything that makes them look weak if they want to maintain their grip on Baywater and working relationship with the cartels in Mexico; and that Jake will suffice as an example to remind whoever's really responsible that the Hell Hounds aren't to be trifled with.
Sitting on the roof of Jake's bar with Sleeper, Dylan looks out over the nighttime town. Manifesting its humanoid form, the Venom symbiote remarks that they've been staying in one place for too long, demanding why Dylan wants to stay in some nowhere town fighting battles that aren't his to fight when they're being hunted by half the world and still aren't sure what's going on with Eddie. Retorting that he hasn't forgotten anything, Dylan tells the Venom symbiote that he's not his father and that Eddie wanted something better for him than to inherit the darkness that comes with being the symbiote's host, and that if they're going to work together it has to be on Dylan's terms. The Venom symbiote replies that it can feel Dylan's desire to be a hero, that he doesn't want it to kill or manifest its fangs and talons, but says that when they re-bonded a change was catalyzed within it because of something within Dylan. The Venom symbiote scoffs that Dylan wants to deny his inner darkness because he's afraid of of what he and the symbiote really are, and that he's afraid that he'll end up living a life full of loneliness and suffering like his father did. Snarling that Dylan knows the meaning of its name, the Venom symbiote declares that it is strife and war and death incarnate, the shadow Dylan now casts over his friends and loved ones, and that Eddie Brock knew and accepted that. As Dylan reiterates that he's not his father, Sleeper interrupts and points out a fire on the horizon -- a result of the Hell Hounds' rampage through Baywater. As Dylan declares his intent to intervene, the Venom symbiote bluntly refuses until Dylan reminds it of what happened the last time they separated for a prolonged period of time. Snarling in frustration, the Venom symbiote bonds to Dylan and they set out to investigate the fire. In the bar, one of the Renegades bursts into the bar and informs the others of the Hell Hounds rampaging through Baywater, but Jake vetoes getting involved -- saying he didn't call them up to start a gang war, and that they'll keep to what's theirs. As the Hell Hounds terrorize a group of civilains filming their rampage on smartphones, Venom lands in their midst, roaring as he forms an arm-blade.
Elsewhere, Bedlam -- disguised as a human save for his face -- sits at a bar watching a news broadcast reporting on the fight between Venom and the Hell Hounds before leaving to pursue his quarry.
Solicit Synopsis
"DESTRUCTION" BEGINS HERE!
Dylan Brock is in the fight of his life — and he may be in it alone! As he and the VENOM symbiote continue to learn to live together without Eddie Brock, the LIFE FOUNDATION has activated a deadly new operative named the SPEARHEAD! Dylan and Venom aren't the only ones dead in his sights — every single symbiote they (and YOU!) have ever known and cared about is as well!
