Marvel made Venom a god and Thanos president of the Eternals

Venom was given an entire crossover to do symbiote shenanigans the last time he got one. Eddie Brock, now the god of all the symbiotes has the ability to fly around their minds as they please, wherever in the universe.

This week’s Venom#1 has a new power. Eddie is able to piggyback all over the heads of all symbitoes Time, resulting in some pretty freaky visions — and an easy way for writers Al Ewing (The Immortal HulkRam V (Swamp Thing) to tease what’s coming up in the new series.

Is there anything else happening inside our favourite comics’ pages? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. It may not provide enough context. However, there will be many great comics. You can also read the previous edition if you haven’t seen it yet.

“Hello, Eddie,” says a venom symbiote in the shape of a man, with no face but round, red, glowing eyes, in a room of alien astronauts it has just violently slaughtered in Venom #1 (2021).

Don’t worry, there’s still street-level Venom adventures to follow, as Eddie’s son Dylan partners with the Venom symbiote for bad guy beat ‘em ups. But for Eddie’s god-sized powers, there are god-sized problems, like this symbiote-inhabiting entity who may or may not call itself Bedlam.

Only thing I do know is that I don’t like his eyes.

“Hey, kid. What’s up?” says Killer Croc, who, even kneeling, looms hugely above Robin/Dick Grayson in Robin & Batman #1 (2021).

Robin & Batman#1 Sweet Tooth’s Jeff Lemire taking a swing at Dick Grayson’s early days as Robin with the help of Dustin Nguyen’s moody watercolors. The thing I liked best about it was the end of It issue tease, where it seems like Killer Croc is going to become a player in the narrative because of an unexpected connection: He used to be among the “oddities” displayed by the circus that employed the Graysons.

“Your choice is supposed to define you. It’s your everything. It’s who you’re going to be after you leave here,” explains a bald teen character as he walks away with a record of Hall and Oates’ Private Eyes. A pregnant teen next to him yells “Hey!” in What’s the Furthest Place From Here? #1 (2021).

What’s the Furthest Place From Here? #1 is set in a strange world where life ends the moment you turn 18, strange wraiths patrol the streets, and gangs of teenagers tribalize around decaying retail establishments, building their own culture around artifacts they don’t even understand, Mad Max style. If that didn’t seem weird enough, one of the main characters is pregnant and none of them even know what that is. I’ll definitely be reading more issues.

“I sometimes forget how much politics can refresh the spirit,” says a triumphant Thanos over the body of Zuras in Eternals #7 (2021).

Oh! Oh! That is a great sentence!

A prospective member of the warlike Bana-Mighdall is accepted for choosing a nonlethal weapon while her cohorts are rejected for choosing guns in the backup story of Wonder Woman #781 (2021).

If there’s one thing that back up stories — a classic superhero tradition that DC has revived across many of its biggest titles this year — is the opportunity to world build in ways you can’t in the main title. Vita Ayala’s short story on how women get inducted into Bana-Mighdall continues the trend of adding cultural tradition to Wonder Woman canon. (That is, the warlike, not immortal offshoot of the Amazons who rejected the Greek gods to form their own secret warrior society in Man’s World.)

Four power-rangers like characters loudly and woodenly discuss how they suddenly have vast martial artist knowledge. A panel later, a fifth character points hilariously at a silver automobile while shouting “I’m connected through lei energy to this legendary ghost car!” in Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton #6 (2021).

It’s a terrible tragedy. Six Sidekicks for Trigger KeatonIt’s over. I have one last panel to share from it. stillThis makes me giggle as I stare at it right now. His tiny arm!

The Thing stands shocked over a red field filled with what appear to be the corpses of every entity in the Marvel Unvierse, including Eternity, Arishem, Galactus, Surtur, Fin Fang Foom, and many many other superheroes in The Thing #1 (2021).

Walter Mosley and Tom Reilly’s The ThingIt is truly a throwback back to the beginning Fantastic Four in that it’s a supremely weird comic where anything and everything can happen without seeming repercussions. Ben Grimm, however, is there to anchor it all emotionally.

“You’re trying to build a new generation of villains that you can control?” asks James Gordon. “What better way to advertise our wares than to pit them against your caped crusader?” responds a creepy man in Joker #9 (2021).

I’m confident enough to say that James Tynion IV’s Joker has absolutely exceeded my expectations and just keeps peeling off more and more layers of a “rotten rich” onion, as with this final revelation of why the Joker has such a mad-on for the invisible hyper-rich of the world: They’re Try to clone his body. Why? You can, too. They are supervillains controlled by their designer mindsProtecting and concealing their interests is our job. It’s absurd, but it seems to make perfect sense in a super-univers.

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