Venom’s son is taking over his dad’s mantle in Marvel’s new comics

With the end of the Venom-focused King in Black event, Eddie Brock and his symbiote have a brand new status quo: Eddie is the new King in Black, the guy that the whole symbiote species looks up to as a leader. In this week’s Venom #200, a finale issue for Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s run on the character, we found out exactly what that means.

With his new ability to see through the eyes and direct the actions of billions of symbiotes throughout the galaxy, Eddie is fighting bad guys and doing good on a much, much bigger scale. But, all that hivemind time is taking its toll, aging him overnight into solid Old Man Venom territory.

So it’s a good thing there’s some young blood around to merge with his original symbiote and fight bad guys in New York City.

What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? 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. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)

Image: Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman/Marvel Comics

Cates and Stegman introduced the world to Dylan Brock, the son Eddie never knew he had, who’s got his own weird symbiote-related powers, and now Dylan Brock, angry high school student with a good heart, is teaming up with his dad’s symbiote to fight crime — with his dad observing and advising through psychic linkup. It’s Batman Beyond, but with Venom, and that’s a great formula.

Image: Vita Ayala, Chriscross/DC Comics

Static is back in comics for a new generation of readers, and I think one of my favorite things about it is the clear anime and manga influence in Chrischross’ fight choreography. It’s a great fit for the character.

Image: Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz/Marvel Comics

The X-Men bought a zoo terraformed Mars in a single evening this week, and I like to think that Magneto was humming “Mars, Bringer of War” the whole time he was dragging iron-rich asteroids from the Kuiper belt to Mars’ core, just like that bit in The Venture Bros.

Image: Bones Leopard, Kelly Matthews, Nichole Matthews/Boom Studios

I just thought you’d like to know that there’s a comic out now where the Magical Girls are secretly evil and the monsters they fight are people who absorb power through human touch — like queer smooching — and use that power to turn into things like large pink axolotl dragons. That seems relevant to at least some of you.

Image: Tom King, Bilquis Evely/DC Comics

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow started this week with a swash buckling adventure when Supergirl gets roped into an alien teen’s revenge quest on a planet with a red sun, but what’s really going to keep me coming back for more is Bilquis Evely’s art, as always.

Image: James Harren/Image Comics

The one thing I can say for certain when I pick up an issue of Ultramega is that it is going to do something I absolutely could not have predicted. Like the severed head of a kid’s giant hero father dropping back to earth, still alive, after a decade. I know virtually nothing about the Kyodai hero genre it’s playing with but I am fully bought in.

Image: Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo/DC Comics

Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo’s Nightwing is basically “What if Nightwing was the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye,” and I am not complaining. Also I would like to know where in the DC universe Barbara got that t-shirt.