Appearing in "The Nativity: Part One"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Shocker (Herman Schultz)
- FBI
- Symbiote Task Force
- Special Agent Claire Dixon (Revealed to be alive)
- Numerous unnamed agents
- Symbiote Task Force
Other Characters:
- Liz Allan (Death in dream)
- Carnage (Cletus Kasady) (Dream)
- Anne Weying (Dream)
- Riot (Trevor Cole) (Dream)
- Agony (Leslie Gesneria) (Dream)
- Phage (Carl Mach) (Dream)
- Scream (Donna Diego) (Dream)
- Lasher (Ramon Hernandez) (Dream)
- Unnamed clerk (First appearance)
- "Old Man Tovar" (Harry's Gems' owner) (Mentioned)
- God (Yahweh) (Invoked)
- NYPD
- Sleeper Symbiote (First appearance; dream) (Unnamed)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- United States of America
- New York
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Harry's Gems (a jewelry store) (First appearance)
- Manhattan
- New York City
- New York
- Chthonic Island, Timor Sea, Indian Ocean (Mentioned)
- United States of America
Items:
- Carnage Symbiote (Dream)
- Riot Symbiote (Dream)
- Agony Symbiote (Dream)
- Phage Symbiote (Dream)
- Scream Symbiote (Dream)
- Lasher Symbiote (Dream)
- Shocker's Vibro-Shock Gauntlets
- "Energy guns"
- Incinerators
- Symbiote Control Collar
Synopsis for "The Nativity: Part One"
Liz Allen sits in a chair getting her toenails painted while working on her tablet, Eddie Brock noting that she's too busy to acknowledge him. He abruptly realizes that the substance coating her nails is blood, and that the person holding the brush is Carnage. Carnage cheerfully greets Eddie and stands to reveal Anne Weying sitting in a chair next to Liz; winking as he says he thought he'd stage a family reunion. Confused as to how Anne can be there when she committed suicide years ago, Eddie is horrified to see Agony, Riot, Phage, Lasher, and a somehow-alive Scream - all bonded to their somehow-alive original hosts - standing alongside Carnage. Eddie screams as he wakes up from his nightmare, vomiting into a wastebasket. Noting he doesn't usually puke after he dreams, Eddie asks the symbiote if that was its nightmare, but it cagily denies this and asks why he doesn't believe it. Transforming into Venom, Eddie brushes his suspicions aside and sets out to get some fresh air.
At a jewelry store, the Shocker tries to intimidate a thoroughly unintimidated clerk, who tells him to go ahead and trash the place since he only gets paid minimum wage. Annoyed at not being taken seriously, Shocker threatens to liquify the man's brains if he doesn't cooperate, and the man lets out an exclamation of fear. As the Shocker reiterates his demands, thinking the man is finally taking him seriously, a drop of green fluid lands on his head. Wondering if the store's got a leaky air conditioner, he looks up to see Venom standing on the ceiling, salivating profusely as he states Shocker mentioning liquified brains has made him hungry. Shocker blasts Venom, who laughs off the attack and tosses him into a display case. Shouting that he's not going back to jail, Shocker intensifies his vibrational attack, but Venom is unaffected. The clerk is awestruck as Venom shields him from the Shocker, who continually increases the power of his blast. Venom continues to mock him, but the symbiote expresses concern at the prospect of being injured by the sonic vibrations. Eddie assures it that the Shocker isn't capable of producing sonic attacks powerful enough to injure it, but the symbiote tells him it can't risk the Shocker hurting them and separates from him. Eddie is blasted into a wall and knocked unconscious, and the Shocker is momentarily incredulous at his victory before gleefully collecting his loot. Lauding the effectiveness of positive thinking as he runs into the street, the Shocker proclaims he can finally set up the cat shelter he's been planning before being promptly run over by a car and held at gunpoint by the newly-arrived police.
In another dream, Liz Allan pushes a stroller while remarking to Eddie that she doesn't know if they can afford to feed the baby, who she states is always wailing. She notes that at least the infant has his smile - revealing the stroller contains a symbiote, which promptly leaps out and devours her. Eddie wakes up on a rooftop, the Venom symbiote assuring him that he's safe. He demands to know why it ran away from the Shocker when they could have easily beaten him, and the symbiote dismisses Herman Schultz as an idiot and tells Eddie he's already been arrested. Eddie asks how the symbiote knows the Shocker's name, and it reveals it watches late-night news shows. Bemused at this, Eddie transforms into Venom and tells the symbiote it still shouldn't have run from a low-level sonic attack and that they could have taken him out before he posed a threat to it. As it transforms into civilian clothes the symbiote sullenly remarks it had to protect them, but Eddie scolds it; saying that "us" means himself and it, and that it making unilateral decisions could put them in danger. The symbiote starts to correct him on what it meant by "us", then decides against it; Eddie noting its strange behaviour and asking what it feels afraid of.
Before the symbiote can respond, a voice calls out to Eddie and he turns to see FBI Special Agent Claire Dixon, somehow alive and well after seemingly having been killed by Carnage following the battle against Chthon. She teases Eddie's incredulity at her apparent resurrection, remarking that most of the people in his life have died and come back - including Eddie himself; but the symbiote notes something's wrong as the street is suddenly devoid of civilians. When Claire asks if he isn't happy to see her, Eddie remarks he's found someone else and transforms into Venom. She pulls an energy gun out of her trench coat, but he leaps out of the way and turns invisible. Claire radios that the target is on the move as armored agents on the rooftops try to locate him with thermal sensors. Venom knocks one of the agents out, dodging blasts as the symbiote tells Eddie to kill Claire; but he refuses to hurt her while running away is still an option out of respect for their history together. As the symbiote becomes increasingly frantic to escape, Venom is blasted by several incinerator drones and knocked to the ground. The symbiote starts to separate from Eddie, but Venom is blasted by a number of agents until Claire tells them to stand down to avoid killing him. Knocked unconscious, Eddie is restrained and loaded into the back of an armored transport, Claire telling them not to let the symbiote touch them and to get a control collar on Eddie ASAP. The symbiote tries to bond to her, but the collar activates and shocks it into submission. Waking up from the pain, Eddie demands to know why she's doing this to him. Claire apologizes for attacking him, saying that if it were up to her she'd have left him alone and that she's doing everything she can to ensure he walks away clean; but that she can't risk the Venom symbiote being out in the open considering what's about to happen. When Eddie asks what she means, the symbiote laments keeping this a secret from him as Claire reveals it's about to spawn again.
Solicit Synopsis
THE NATIVITY Part 1
• EDDIE BROCK, together with his symbiote partner, is VENOM! But just when things seemed like they were going back to normal, Eddie learns a terrible truth: the symbiote has been keeping a secret from him.
• And after years together, this is the one secret that their relationship might not bounce back from…
• The march to Venom’s 30th Anniversary starts HERE!