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Meridius is a major antagonist in the Marvel Universe, serving as the main antagonist of the 2021 Venom series and the Venom War Event. He is a future iteration of the codex of Eddie Brock strapped in the Symbiote Hive-Mind in a paradoxal timeloop, in which Eddie will go through five iterations before Eddie ultimately becomes him.
He has an intense grudge and hatred against Eddie Brock and his other past iterations for condemning him at the timeloop and wants to corrupt the Venom Symbiote to prevent himself from becoming the final future iteration of Eddie Brock, the Eventuality.
Biography[]
Meridius first appears in the Spider-Man/Venom Free Comic Book Day One Shot in 2021 where he observes Venom and Eddie Brock who plans on making his move. In the new Venom series Meridius, who takes over one of the Symbiotes under Eddie Brock uses it to go on a rampage and then leads the Absent Throne, manipulating the events and causing pain to both Eddie Brock and his son Dylan to corrupt the Symbiote. He had Eddie killed in an explosion and also plans on using Dylan Brock as a pawn although he calls out Eddie for abandoning his son to play god. He also manipulates Archer Lyle, Carlton Drake, Arthur Krane, and Liz Allen into tormenting Dylan and forcing Venom to evolve. He is also shown to know Kang and has recruited him in his plans. He introduces himself to Eddie Brock who ended up in the Garden of Time alongside other Kings in Black, pretending to be an ally, however he can barely hide his content for the other Kings in Black, causing Eddie to see through his lies.
Later, Meridius appears to Carlton Drake about his plans and apparently was the one who reverted Drake back to his normal self somehow, summoning Bedlam into antagonizing Dylan.
Meridius also makes an appearance in the 2022 Spider-Man/Venom One Shot, where we see his plans for the future. In the current Venom series Meridius talks to Kang about his plans for Eddie Brock and later when Eddie goes back in time and ended up inside Bedlam, Meridius mocks him for trying to change fate and tells him that he is inside Bedlam forcing him to watch as Bedlam killing Dylan and revealing that Bedlam is in fact an evil version of himself and later all Kings in Black are all future versions of Eddie Brock in a time loop, including Meridius himself.
In the Dark Web event, he appeared to Eddie Brock who had lost his memories and became Bedlam mocking him and explaing on why Bedlam is obsessed with being Venom as it is his sense of self and later heals him convincing him to make his own weapon before leaving.
In the Thor crossover, Meridius disguises himself as his past self Eddie Brock to help stop Bedlam's child and later reveals himself after the child escapes. taking the red hammer "Hellnir" it made but was stopped by Thor and escaped.
In the Venom War event, Meridius disguises himself as a businessman in order to gain a deal with Alchemax and it's CEO, Liz Allan (current alias Misery). He, along with Alchemax develop the "Zombiote", an extremely dangerous offshoot of symbiotes which makes its victims mindless and hungry for flesh. Shortly after arriving to the Alchemax meeting room, he unleashed the Zombiotes upon New York City, causing them to consume innocent people, Several heroes such as She-Hulk and villains such as Shocker were seen defending New York City or themselves amongst the madness.
In Venom War Lethal Protectors #1, he can be seen making a brief cameo, warning Silver Stable to "stay out" of his affairs. As the Zombiotes continued to invade New York City, Carnage arrived with All-Blood the Necrospear at the Alchemax asking for Eddie Brock's "soul on a platter". Meridius explained to Carnage that the purpose of him being there was to watch from the sidelines as Dylan and Eddie fight for the Venom symbiote. When he claims the Venom symbiote for his own, he will "kick things into high gear". Meridius noted to Carnage that the zombiote strain spreaded like a disease, with each bite birthing a new Zombiote. While Corpses of the zombiotes become "crawlers", living victims are even more dangerous, retaining all their original speed in strength in addition to unknown abilities that Meridius has as well. These living victims are referred to as "swingers".
After Meridius explained his goals and intentions to Carnage, he laughed in his face and told him that the vision that he showed Eddie of him destroying the garden only assisted him and that the future he will be building is all his, not his "idiot sons". Carnage then proceeded to threaten him with All-Blood the Necro Spear, however Meridius quickly laughed it off saying that despite all the power Carnage has within the spear, he was still standing. Carnage tries to descalate the situation, and gives Meridius a warning "That no matter how much he may has rigged the game, there's always a wild card." During the fight, Meridius took all blood the necro spear. As the two concluded their conversation, Flash Thompson/Agent Anti-Venom arrived in New York, saving a Mailman from Meridius' zombiote infection. Carnage later left humilated and broken, and released itself off of Cletus Kasady who insisted that he was "going his own way."
Meanwhile In the arena, Flexo accidentally shot Eddie Brock, who bonded with the venom symbiote along with his son, Dylan. Together, they fought Bedlam slamming him on the ground. Bedlam was slashed by Dylan's symbiote blade, which made his symbiotic material start to disintegrate, knocking him down on the ground and reducing him to a puddle of goo. Agent Anti-Venom (Flash Thompson) arrived on the scene, destroying Bedlam possibly for good. Toxin greeted Agent Anti-Venom, being happy to see him. Spider-Man left the scene to fight the arachniote, which he would save Jackpot (Mary Jane) from. Agent Anti-Venom explained to the team that zombiotes were invading new york city and they had to stop them from infecting more citizens. Toxin and Venom looked at Agent Anti-Venom with a confused face, asking what Zombiotes were. The zombiotes broke into the arena and bit the announcers, as well as several more people that were in the crowd. The team proceeded to fight the zombiotes, including a zombiote-infected Lee Price. As they continued fighting, Dylan asked his father to tell Agent Anti-Venom about Meridius, explaining that Meridius was mercilessness in hunting him and was the reason why flash experienced his first death. Dylan later experiences the revelation that the zombiotes know how to fight them, but they don't know how to fight their master Meridius. Venom tried to reassure Dylan that Meridius was one of the possibilities, and that he was doing everything in his power not to become him. Dylan said he understood, but in order to win against the zombiotes one of Eddie and Venom's only options would be to use his authority as the King In Black to control the symbiotes. However, in order to do this Venom needed to stop the bond with Dylan, to which he reluctantly agreed.
Eddie proceeded to modify flash's Anti-Venom symbiote and bonded with it. Eddie proceeded to enter into a tranquil state, "freeing the living, and letting the dead rest." This was interrupted by meridius using all blood the necro spear, who then added the attribute of the carnage symbiote to the zombiotes.
Dylan understood that this was Carnage attempting to establish a symbiotic bond with Eddie and begged him to fight it. Eddie refused, succumbing to the carnage symbiote. Out of nowhere, future Dylan arrived, apologizing to his father as he loaded his gun and prepared to fire. Left with no other choice, both versions of Dylan killed Eddie with a backstab.
However, it was revealed that Eddie survived the lethal hit. He was separated from the codex, transforming him back into a regular human and was no longer considered a human symbiote hybrid. Future Dylan shot his present counterpart with a magic bullet, transforming him into “eganraC” or “Anti-Carnage, with the appearance of a golden hue.
Anti Carnage proceeded to slam Meridius into the ground. He continued to punch Meridius, but halted his fist when Meridius revealed himself underneath his symbiotic mask. Meridius pleaded with his son, telling and asserting to him that he was his father even now. Eddie, lying on the ground had attempted to persuade his son not to listen. Meridius tricked him within this moment of weakness and proceeded to enact a brutal uppercut on his son. He laughed at his son and mocked him, dumbfounded on how he would fall for that trick. Meridius called his son a child, and scolded him for thinking “small.” He explained to Dylan the concept of a “Venomworld”, where every living being was nothing more than a cog within his master plan.
Meridius continued to express his dominance over Eddie and his son, comparing them to a Precambrian life form compared to himself who was a fish crawling from the sea. All the while, Eddie looked at Meridius with a serious face. He tells Eddie that he has always hated him, but he was always within him.
In a moment of anger, Eddie rushed at him and tried to slam him to the ground, while Meridius continued to mock him , saying that Eddie was only human now that he had been severed from the codex. Eddie yelled at Meridus, saying that he has only gone backward rather than evolving forward. Eddie told Meridius that he lacks a heart, a soul, and by extension his humanity. He demanded to know what Meridius gave it away for. Meridius answered by telling him that power was the reason he gave those things away, and ultimately revenge. Meridius using his blades stabs Eddie, leaving him to bleed out. He threw Eddie to be devoured by the Zombiotes.
As he looked back on his present counterpart suffering, he laughed with all of the air within his chest. Dylan was a perfect opportunity to strike, and took All Blood from him while he wasn’t looking. Dylan stabbed Meridius in the chest, and drove it through his heart. Meridius screamed in agony as he felt himself fading out of existence. The people of New York City watched as the Zombiotes - alive and dead began turning into a star colored mist, disappearing for good. Meridius had died, and with him his creations.
Powers and Abilities[]
As a King In Black and one of Eddie's Temporal Offshoots, Meridius had access to the following abilities:
Venom Symbiote:
- Superhuman Strength
- Superhuman Speed
- Superhuman Durability
- Superhuman Regeneration
With his authority as the King In Black, Meridius had additional abilities:
- Symbiote Authority/Lordship
- Time Travel
- Weapon/Tool Manifestation
- Wing Manifestation
In addition, Meridius was also a master strategist, businessman, and manipulator, able to coerce scientists at Alchemax into developing several Anti-Symbiote weapons as well as the Zombiotes for him.
Trivia[]
- Issue 9 of the 2021 Venom series ad shows Eddie in the Warstar Suit very similar to Merdius hinting that Meridius was a version of Eddie Brock from an alternative future, something that was confirmed next issue.
- As of Venom War #3, his ultimate goal was to have the majority, if not all of Earth transformed into "Zombiotes", thus making it into a "Venomworld". in addition to rebuilding his beloved "Garden Of Time" - his former base of operations made up of every symbiote that has ever lived.
