Marvel’s Venom War has given Dylan Brock a whole new look, and it’s all thanks to the latest Hybrid symbiote.

Venom War #2 picks right back up where the previous issue left off, with the impending battle between Eddie and Dylan Brock and their respective allies interrupted by the sudden arrival of none other than Spider-Man. While Spider-Man has bonded to the Venom symbiote all over again, throwing a major kink in Eddie and Dylan’s plans, the latter Brock has an idea of how to get back in the fight—and it all hinges on a whole new breed of the symbiote Hybrid.

Written by AL EWING Art by IBAN COELLO Colors by FRANK D’ARMATA Letters by VC’s ARIANA MAHER Design by STACIE ZUCKER Main cover art by IBAN COELLO & FRANK D’ARMATA Variant covers by IBAN COELLO, SKOTTIE YOUNG, PEACH MOMOKO, LUCIANO VECCHIO, CHRIS GIARRUSSO, and CLAYTON CRAIN

Marvel’s original Hybrid symbiote made its comic book debut back in 1995’s Venom: Along Came a Spider #1 in the issue’s backup story, “First Touch,” by Evan Skolnick and Patrick Zircher. A combination of the Life Foundation Symbiotes Riot, Phage, Lasher, and Agony, these four were subjected to a series of gruesome experiments that culminated in them taking on a composite form. Initially, the Hybrid symbiote bonded to the Guardsman Scott Washington. However, their time was short before the symbiotes were separated and Washington was killed by Eddie Brock.

Since then, the Life Foundation Symbiotes who once composed Hybrid have worked together across numerous storylines such as Carnage U.S.A. They have even come together as Hybrid time and time again with hosts ranging from Deadpool to the villainous Reed Richards known as The Maker. Most recently, the Hybrid symbiote was corrupted by Knull during the events of King in Black, leading to an explosive confrontation between it and Andi Benton, the current host to the Silence symbiote and the former host of Scream.

This new Hybrid symbiote is composed of Dylan Brock, who himself is a human-symbiote hybrid, as well as the Sleeper and Flexo symbiotes. While Sleeper is one of the many offspring of Venom, Flexo has far different origins. First seen in Will Harr and Jack Binder’s story “Introducing, Flexo the Rubber Man,” from the pages of 1940’s Mystic Comics #1, the eponymous entity was once understood to be little more than a flexible, rubbery robot with a heart of gold. In recent years, Flexo’s origins have been rewritten, with an unnamed symbiote lurking at the core of the so-called Rubber Man’s “technological” secrets.

Venom War #2 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.

Source: Marvel Comics