Venom #39: The God of Mischief

The time-traveling, dimension-hopping journey of Venom has been a long winding road and, thankfully, writer Torunn Gronnbekk is taking the time to fill in potholes for a much smoother ride. The most glaring question answered is how Meridius, the evil and tyrannical variant of Eddie Brock from a distant future, made it to modern day after being ditched on prehistoric Earth. It turns out his omnipresent immortality is not limited to the garden he once ruled over, so Meridius survives the extinction event and walks the planet for millennia, only becoming more jaded as he lives through mankind’s history of failure and bloodshed.

Countless centuries later, Meridius has settled down as the next door neighbor to the Brock family and becomes a specter haunting the life of Eddie, bearing witness to the events that shaped his adult life. Even more trippy is the fact that Meridius is viewing his own origin, yet remains emotionally distant from it all; an excellent and subtle way of establishing how all humanity has been stripped from him.

Artists German Peralta and CAFU play with the passage of time expertly, knowing which key details to throw into a scene to clue a reader into what era of human history it’s set in. Even more impressive is how the various forms of Eddie Brock: from child to teen to adult man, are consistent and believable as the stages of the same individual’s life.

Despite spacious cover real estate and theatrical introduction last issue, Loki’s involvement in Venom #39 is more of a footnote. Yet he serves his purpose as plot device well, transporting Old man Dylan Brock from point A to point B, crossing the finish line to forge the weapon needed to prevent doomsday. And while Dylan’s journey can’t help but feel like a subplot when compared to the more fascinating odyssey of Meridius, there is at least gratification in seeing the main goal achieved. But whether Dylan has arrived too late to make a difference is a question for the ultimate chapter to answer.