Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Venom (Eddie Brock) (First appearance as Venom)
Supporting Characters:
- NYPD
- Officer Gary (First appearance; dies)
- Anne Weying
Other Characters:
- X-Men (Vision or hallucination)
- Wolverine (Logan) (Vision or hallucination)
- Storm (Ororo Munroe) (Vision or hallucination)
- Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) (Vision or hallucination)
- Colossus (Piotr Rasputin) (Vision or hallucination)
- Cyclops (Scott Summers) (Vision or hallucination)
- Avengers (Vision or hallucination)
- Captain America (Steve Rogers) (Vision or hallucination)
- Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man (Rhodey Rhodes) (Vision or hallucination)
- Hawkeye (Clint Barton) (Vision or hallucination)
- Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) (Vision or hallucination)
- Thor (Vision or hallucination)
- Galactus (Vision or hallucination)
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Vision or hallucination)
- Hulk (Bruce Banner) (Vision or hallucination)
- The Thing (Ben Grimm) (Vision or hallucination)
- Wrecking Crew (Vision or hallucination)
- Bulldozer (Henry Camp) (Vision or hallucination)
- Wrecker (Dirk Garthwaite) (Vision or hallucination)
- Thunderball (Eliot Franklin) (Vision or hallucination)
- Piledriver (Brian Calusky) (Vision or hallucination)
- She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) (Vision or hallucination)
- Enchantress (Amora) (Vision or hallucination)
- Volcana (Marsha Rosenberg) (Vision or hallucination)
- Titania (Mary MacPherran) (Vision or hallucination)
- Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) (Vision or hallucination)
- Lockheed (Vision or hallucination)
- Ultron (Vision or hallucination)
- Lizard (Curt Connors) (Vision or hallucination)
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Symbiotes
- Mutants (Vision or hallucination)
- Asgardians (Vision or hallucination)
- Taa-ans (Vision or hallucination)
- Flock (Vision or hallucination)
- Robots (Vision or hallucination)
- Human-Reptile Hybrids (Vision or hallucination)
Locations:
- Earth
- Battleworld (Vision or hallucination)
Items:
- Venom Symbiote
- Doctor Octopus' Tentacles (Vision or hallucination)
Events:
- First Secret Wars (Vision or hallucination)
Synopsis for 1st story
Some time after the Sin Eater Incident, Eddie Brock - disgraced and disowned, relegated to writing drivel for tabloids - returns to his low-rent apartment to hear his estranged wife Anne Weying leaving him a message asking to come sign the divorce papers. Depressed to the point of suicide, Eddie goes to Our Lady of Saints Church to pray for forgiveness before killing himself. As he confesses that he can think of nothing other than killing Spider-Man - who he blames for his humiliation, a black tear once again drips from the statue of Mary's eyes and whips towards him - latching onto his eye before beginning to spread to the rest of his body. As Eddie screams, the priest tells him to keep it down or he'll call the police, peeking out of his confessional to see Eddie struggling to rip the living darkness away from himself. As the symbiote bonds to him, Eddie sees a vision of Spider-Man fighting in the first Secret Wars, of him finding the symbiote and bonding to it, and of him ultimately rejecting it. Snarling that Spider-Man tried to kill them both, Eddie collapses as the symbiote recedes into his body. A pair of police officers arrive, the priest telling them that Eddie was covered in something that looked like blood. As Eddie stirs, the police officers - assuming he's high on drugs - ask if he remembers what he took. Eddie vomits out the symbiote, which covers his body and lashes out at the policemen with a flurry of tendrils. As the priest - convinced a demon is before him - utters a prayer, the policemen open fire, but the symbiote blocks the bullets. Transformed into a muscular version of Black Suit Spider-Man, Eddie snares one of the policemen with a tendril as the other cop and the priest flee. Carrying the body of the dead cop with a tendril, the symbiote-clad Eddie rips through the church's door, sprouting spider-legs and looming over the priest. Eddie asks the priest for forgiveness regarding the lies he'd told and for killing the policeman. The other police officer tries to ram him using the cruiser, but Eddie uses the symbiote to toss him into the side of the church. When the terrified priest gives Eddie his forgiveness, Eddie leaves and transforms the symbiote into street clothes.
Returning to his apartment, Eddie spots Anne and the lawyer waiting outside. As he ponders that to do, the symbiote uses its tendrils to shave his stubble and transforms into a black suit, wordlessly telling him that he doesn't need her anymore. Eddie signs the divorce papers using a pen formed from the symbiote's biomass, but when Anne complements him finally taking some responsability he lashes out and snarls that Spider-Man ruined their lives. Anne angrily retorts that Spider-Man doesn't have a clue who Eddie is, and that Eddie doesn't know who he is either. Struck with a sudden epiphany, Eddie runs into his apartment, the symbiote covering his body. Staring into his reflection, Eddie addresses the symbiote and says that it knows who Spider-Man is beneath his mask. As Eddie begins to laugh, the symbiote manifests a too-wide mouth, its teeth morphing into fangs as he howls with distorted, maniacal laughter.
