I'm looking into Dylan's agonized eyes. I'm seeing the face reflected in them... and it's my face. It's my rage. An anger nobody else could know or fake or mimic--the rage of Eddie Brock. Bedlam is me... and I'm killing my own son! 

—Eddie Brock

Appearing in "The Cage Opens"

Featured Characters:

• King in Black (Eddie Brock) (Ghost, soul or spirit) (Remote-pilots the Warstar Symbiote, Unnamed Symbiote, and Symbiote Amalgam)

Supporting Characters:

• Venom (Dylan Brock) (Past and main story)

Antagonists:

• Absent Throne
  • Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards)
  • Meridius (Remote-pilots the Warstar Symbiote; impersonates Eddie Brock)
  • Alchemax (Past)
  • Bedlam (Eddie Brock) (Identity revealed)

Other Characters:

• Archer Lyle (Mentioned)
• Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Photo) (Past)
• Carnage Symbiote (Mentioned)
• Venom Symbiote (Past)

Races and Species:

• Humans
• Symbiotes

Locations:

• Timestream
  • 602nd Century
    • Deep Space
  • Earth-616
    • Earth
      • United States of America
        • New York (Past)
          • New York City (Past)
          • Central New York (Past)
            • Unnamed motel (Past)
        • California (Vision or hallucination)
          • Sacramento (Past)
            • Alchemax R&D Facility (Past)
              • Baywater (Vision or hallucination)
    • Klyntar (Mentioned)
    • Hell (Mentioned)
• Symbiote Hive-Mind

Items:

• Kang Armor

Vehicles:

• The Nathaniel (Kang's flagship)

Events:

• King in Black (Mentioned)

Synopsis for "The Cage Opens"

Onboard the Nathaniel, Kang the Conqueror lectures Eddie Brock, saying that Eddie's main problem is that he still sees himself as human despite now being a psionic entity indwelling an entity of protoplasmic living darkness, capable of assuming nearly any form imaginable. Saying that Eddie's only limits are his lack of understanding and imagination, Kang smirks as he turns to see Eddie has shifted the Warstar symbiote into a more combat-oriented form sporting ridged horns similar to Meridius'. Stating that Eddie still lacks full control, Kang notes that he's chosen a battle configuration and asks what he's planning on fighting. Eddie says that he saw something when he became unstuck in time: a vast conspiracy called the Absent Throne that's hunting his son Dylan and the Venom symbiote. Kang asks if Eddie warned Dylan, Eddie saying that he did but his message was rambling and vague. Recalling that he told Dylan to find Archer Lyle, Eddie wonders why he thought of her -- Kang interrupting to say Eddie thought of her because he was going to think of her. Confused, Eddie asks what Kang means and the warlord conjures a gun and launches into a lecture on the intricacies of time-travel while firing at Eddie to test his defences. Saying that the wheel of time generally only turns one way and that trying to change what's already happened will only create divergent offshoot timelines, Kang notes that he's found ways of circumventing this but would never teach them to an amateur. Kang tells Eddie to work with the cards the past has already dealt him, perhaps by contacting Archer and warning her about the Absent Throne and Dylan, and makes the analogy of dancing between raindrops instead of wrestling the thunderstorm. Punching Kang to the ground, Eddie snaps that he's not going to think small and take baby steps when it comes to protecting his son, and will wrestle the whole sky if he has to. Picking himself up, Kang warns Eddie that he cannot fight time itself and hope to win, and that his fight to derail continuity will only end in suffering. As Kang asks Eddie to reconsider, Eddie thanks him for his training but refuses to be swayed even by his self-proclaimed oldest friend. As Eddie's consciousness vacates the Warstar symbiote, Meridius takes over it and asks Kang how it went. Kang replies that he gave Eddie just enough of the truth about time travel to make things dangerous for him, and planted a suggestion in Eddie's mind that will work in Meridius' favour. As Kang says he can do no more, Meridius grins and says Kang has done more than enough, and that when Eddie exits the labyrinth of the timestream he'll be waiting at the end of it.

Travelling backwards in time, Eddie hopes that with Kang's training he can get close enough to the present to make a meaningful change, fretting over the visions he keeps seeing of Dylan in pain, a look of utter horror and despair on his face. Taking over one of the symbiotes left on Earth in the wake of Knull's invasion, Eddie emerges from a sink -- briefly taking on an appearance similar to Meridius as he manifests his humanoid form -- and terrifies a middle-aged employee of Stark Industries. Using the man's laptop, Eddie notes that he's roughly six days before his death and sends Archer an email warning her that he's going to die, informing her about Dylan, and asking her to look into the Absent Throne. Feeling the timestream tugging on his consciousness, Eddie vacates the symbiote and wonders if what he's done is enough to keep his son safe. Deciding to fight the pull of time and find out, Eddie feels Dylan in pain and takes over an amalgam of symbiotes at an Alchemax laboratory. Seeing Dylan strapped to an operating table, Eddie is so horrified that Absent Throne got to his son that he can't stabilize his form. Fighting against the pull of the timestream, Eddie breaks the straps binding his son to the table and assures Dylan that he's trying to come back, asking if he got in touch with Archer yet and assuring Dylan he can trust her and the Venom symbiote. Dylan interrupts, shouting that Archer was the one who turned him over to Alchemax, and that bonding to the symbiote in the first place is what got him in this mess. Shocked, Eddie berates himself for saddling Dylan with the Venom symbiote and expecting them to get along like he had, and recalls that Archer never really liked him even when they were working together; almost missing Dylan saying something about encountering multiple versions of Eddie who've given him contradictory messages. Wondering if he can be in two places at once or if Dylan's in more danger than he realized, Eddie vows to set things right and prove Kang wrong. As he loses his hold on the gestalt symbiote, Eddie tells Dylan that the Venom symbiote will come for him... while resolving to erase these events by making sure Dylan never bonds to the Venom symbiote in the first place.

In the timestream, Eddie focuses on Dylan and travels to shortly before his death, watching his son pack and speak to an imposter Eddie Brock who he realizes is Meridius in disguise. Deducing that Meridius is behind everything, Eddie vows to stop him but can't find a symbiote to indwell, instead jumping into his past self's body at the point in time where his consciousness was rescuing the refugees from the Skrull space-pirates. Grabbing his smartphone, Eddie calls Dylan and kicks himself when Dylan nearly alerts Meridius to what's going on. Instructing Dylan to waylay Meridius' suspicions and buy them some time, Eddie tells him to sneak out and come to the old motel he's been staying at. When Dylan asks how he can trust Eddie, Eddie is hurt to realize that Dylan can't, and tells his son to trust himself before warning him not to bond to the Venom symbiote. Hanging up, Eddie realizes he forgot to warn Dylan not to trust Archer, resolving to tell Dylan when he arrives. Just as Eddie plans to take Dylan and get out before the helicopters arrive, his past self's consciousness abruptly returns and jettisons him from his body back into the timestream, setting in motion the events of his death and everything that came after.

Eddie finds his astral form immersed in an ocean of viscous blood-red symbiote ooze that burns with intense rage and hatred. As Eddie wonders if he's inside Carnage, Meridius' voice speaks, mockingly calling Eddie his most faithful servant and saying he knows from personal experience that escaping one's destiny is harder than it seems. As Eddie wonders if he's back in the Garden of Time, Meridius says that he's not but that he should understand now that he cannot escape his fate. Meridius' face appears from the darkness, saying that if a mind can move through time it can also be forcibly moved, captured, and chained, and that wherever there's a symbiote it can become a cage -- a Klyntar -- for Eddie. Meridius reveals that more than one mind can indwell a symbiote and that he's trapped Eddie's consciousness inside Bedlam. Eddie abruptly finds himself seeing through Bedlam's eyes as the colossal crimson symbiote impales Dylan through the heart -- the very thing Eddie was desperately trying to prevent -- and reveals his human form. Despairing, Eddie realizes that Bedlam's rage and bloodlust are not Carnage's but intimately familiar, and the face he sees reflected in Dylan's horrified gaze is his own -- Bedlam is Eddie Brock.

Solicit Synopsis

See Also

• 4 image(s) from Venom Vol 5 9
• 1 reprint(s) of Venom Vol 5 9

Links and References

References