Venom Bedlam- Trick or Read 2024

By Mark Rodriguez

It looks like Halloween Comicfest has been replaced by Trick or Read.... and while last year Dark Horse, IDW and Kodansha released free comics alongside Marvel during the spooky season, this time only Marvel offered a small sample. Out of the five books released this year, Jupi and I only grabbed three. I went for the Venom one, so let's check it out.

"They Fight" opens with Eddie Brock facing off against a red monster named Bedlam. Sometime earlier Eddie was separated from Venom, and the symbiote attached itself to his son. Eddie was sent to limbo where he became Bedlam, but the forces with the hellish dimension tore them apart. Now Eddie faces Bedlam in a small town run by gangs.

Eddie tells Bedlam the only way out for him will be in chains. Bedlam says the only way out for Eddie will be in a coffin. The two throw punches, and the larger monster grabs Eddie's head and slams his face into the floor. Bedlam asks Eddie if he likes apples. Bedlam slams Eddie's face into the floor several times while using terms like 'how do you like them apples' and 'bobbing for apples'. Eddie tears off a piece of the floorboard and smashes Bedlam across the face with it.

Eddie notices that there's a semi-automatic shotgun strapped underneath the floorboard. Bedlam yells out threats and Eddie slams the floorboard into the monster's chest and fires off a few rounds. Eddie tosses the floorboard aside, thinking the fight was over. Bedlam gets up with a gaping hole in his stomach that turns into a giant mouth. The mouth devours Eddie whole and starts to crunch away.

Bedlam spits out a bloody mess and it goes through the wall where some gangsters were hanging out. The gangsters are surprised, and one of them gets nauseous as the chewed up mess reforms back into Eddie. Eddie makes sure his organs and bones are alright and tell the guys to clear some space for round two.

Bedlam smashes through the wall saying he's the real Eddie Brock and the one he is fighting is just an offcut from a dead timeline. Eddie says they're all mistakes but he's the mistake that has the body. Eddie leaps over Bedlam and lands behind him. He fires off his nerve endings as if they were webbing and they latch onto Bedlam's head. Eddie admits using his own nervous system as a weapon hurts like hell but he needs a way to enter Bedlam's mind. 

Eddie enters Bedlam's mindscape seeing a mostly empty void with chains keeping an orb of flesh suspended in mi-air. Bedlam says his mind is clean and perfect, without Eddie's baggage and his son weighing him down. Bedlam's mind only has hate and pain, and the pain makes him stronger. The orb turns into a giant version of Bedlam who breaks free of its chains.

Eddie says he's done running from himself as he runs up the giant Bedlam's arm and heads towards his mouth. Inside, Eddie confronts his younger self, when he was still lost and consumed by anger. As they both fight, the younger Eddie says this is still their mind and only he can be on top. The younger Eddie says he's the version of himself before he lost everything. He says the older Eddie can only be Eddie, but the younger version can still turn into Venom.

Eddie grabs onto Venom says the pain that he keeps talking about come from the memories he lost. He tears Venom apart and tells Bedlam that he's just an empty costume and without him he's not even real. Eddie tells the symbiote that ever since Chasm messed with his mind, his emptiness has been tearing him apart. Eddie says he can still be Eddie without the symbiote, but the symbiote is nothing with him. He says they can still be Venom, but he will be in charge.

The symbiote merges with Eddie, turning in a larger more muscular version of Venom with four arms and a reddish color. He says now that they got things settled, they're going to find a man about a time machine, as the frightened gangsters look on.

"Who are the Fantastic Four?" is a short re-telling of the Fantastic Four. Susan Storm retells how they went on a mission in space and were hit by cosmic rays. Reed became Mister Fantastic who can stretch his limbs, Johnny became the Human Torch who can engulf himself in flames and fly. Ben turned into a powerful rock monster named the Thing. Susan can turn invisible and create forcefields and is now the Invisible Woman. We see a short fight against the Mole Man, in which they quickly defeated him. The world was never the same since.

My Thoughts-

I haven't kept up on Venom's current adventures, so the summary before the story started helped a lot. I just know that currently Eddie's son has the symbiote, there's a Venom War event comic where several people want the symbiote... and in a slightly unrelated note, now the Black Widow has a symbiote. I would have preferred some sort of stand-alone story as you're kinda thrown into the thick of things.. Eddie fighting this Bedlam creature with some context added, but not the same as if you've been keeping up with him. 

I do wonder how this new four-armed red Venom is going to factor into things. I assume if he appears like this in his future on-going series and the Venom War event comics, this issue will explain how this new form came to be. 

The Fantastic Four back-up is a nice thought rushed stroll down memory lane. I'm a bit confused why it's in here. We're still far off away from that Fantastic Four movie being released and there isn't some major Fantastic Four related event coming up that I'm aware of. It was just a random inclusion. I see there's a 'who is the Fantastic Four' advert also on the cover of the Spider-Boy Trick-Or-Read comic, so I'm assuming it's the same story. I guess Marvel really wants you to know who the Fantastic Four is. I'm thinking in this case a short re-telling of how Eddie first became Venom would have been more fitting.

I can't say too many negative things, especially since the comic was free. There was some cool fighting in this one, especially the floorboard scene. I am confused how Eddie can mold his body around without a symbiote attached to him, but I'm sure it's explained in the main series. As always with these books this is the hook that's supposed to grab you and make you want to get more Venom comics to get the full story. I have been picking up the Black Widow Venomous series. If a red four-armed Venom appears in later issues, at least I'll know why.