TRIGGER WARNING: Mention of Suicide

Wolverine’s been a part of countless teams in Marvel Comics, but one team created by an evil version of Venom might just take the cake for overpowered heroes and villains. That said, there are some surprising weaknesses within this team, hinting at limitations to its true potential even if every character were at full strength.

In Venom (2018) #28, written by Donny Cates with art by Juan Gedeon, readers are introduced to an absurdly powerful new team made up of symbiote versions of Wolverine and several of his toughest friends and foes.

In this arc, Dylan Brock is teleported to a dystopia ruled by a symbiote hivemind, where once allies like Wolverine, the Thing, Juggernaut, Sabretooth, and Omega Red exist as horribly warped versions of themselves. While they retain some aspects of their original personalities, they are ultimately mindless killing machines, taking the form of familiar characters.

Wolverine's Evil Venomized Team is Stacked with Marvel Heavy Hitters

The Symbiote Hivemind and Its Limitations

The main difference in this alternate Marvel Universe is in Dylan Brock’s origin. In this world, Eddie Brock committed suicide before becoming Venom, leading Dylan’s mother, Annie Weyling, down a darker path as Venom herself. While Annie eventually became a hero, Dylan was corrupted by Knull, eventually subsuming most of the world’s heroes into parts of his symbiote hivemind. Now, Annie is this world’s Agent Venom, spearheading the resistance against Dylan’s despotic regime, so obviously the appearance of her alternate-universe son comes as a shock and brings up some bad memories.

In this alternate universe, Wolverine’s new evil team may not be as formidable as their regular Marvel Universe counterparts. Dylan points this out right away, noting that in this world, Juggernaut never obtained the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. This claim is quickly proven true when the still-heroic Deadpool in this world manages to blow himself and Wolverine’s team up, bringing an ignominious end to what should have been a powerful force. The fact that even Logan doesn’t survive suggests that either his healing factor is absent or it's counteracted by the symbiote’s vulnerability to fire.

Venom’s Copies: The Limits of the Symbiote Codex

Why Even All-Powerful Venom Can’t Replicate Unique Abilities

This final confrontation thus brings up an interesting point about the very nature of this villainous team. Venom calls them "copies," which suggests that they’re not the original Logan, Juggernaut, etc. The Venom genetic hivemind, the symbiote Codex, can create copies of its former hosts with versions of their powers. However, as the issue shows, it can’t recreate unique magic like the Gem of Cyttorak. Even in a world where Venom is all-powerful, there are still limits to what it can do, and it can’t recreate the edge that characters like Wolverine and co. have.

Venom (2018) #28 is now available from Marvel Comics!