Queen in Black (2026 series) #3

The symbiote forces of Hela, the Queen In Black, are attacking Earth while those of Knull, now a god of light but still evil, are not far behind. While Iron Man is leading teams against them in space (in the QIB: Defenders Of Light And Dark mini-series) other heroes are fighting Hela's troops on Earth.

Beast (Hank McCoy), Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) and Emma Frost have flown the X-Men's Blackbird to Pisa, Italy to face Skrulls inhabiting Klyntar (Venom) Symbiotes turned into life-size versions of 4 of Marvel's giant monsters. They've already made the Leaning Tower Of Pisa lean even further. Emma says she can't tell if there are more shape-changing Skrulls hiding in the crowd because they have thought-masking tech. CapM flies out to tackle pseudo-Fin Fang Foom who lands a mighty blow. But she absorbs the energy and fires it back as heat which shreds the Symbiote covering, and Emma sends her astral form to mess with the Skrull's mind and make him shrink down to normal size. Then Emma mentally forwards Colonel Danvers' command to 3 *heroes* hidden in the crowd. Giant-Man (Raz Malhotra), Goliath (Tom Foster) and Atlas (Erik Josten), eager to prove himself after supporting Dr Doom recently (in the Thunderbolts: Doomstrike mini during the One World Under Doom event), grow to giant-size to battle the other 3 monsters. But CM has to dissuade GM from using the Tower as a weapon.

In New York a conflict is continuing from last issue where Skrull and Kree Symbiotes combined to create the Symbiote Intelligence, similar to the Supreme Intelligence that used to rule the Kree. Hela sent Symbiote-ised Noh-Varr to capture Dylan Brock, the Prince In Black, who is currently clothed in the Toxin Symbiote - and he achieved that by using his Nega-Bands to quantum-swap Dylan inside the SI's huge mobile container.

Now Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Mary-Jane Watson, currently wearing the original Venom Symbiote, are trying to get Dylan out. But the SI sends a Symbiote tendril out to attack them. SM tells MJ to bulk up her Symbiote and grab 1 of the SI container's legs to stop it from escaping while he tries to break the glass. He fails but is joined by another Symbiote he recognises as Sleeper, who turns out to be worn by Eddie Brock, the original wearer of Venom (if you don't count SM himself) and Dylan's father. (QIB: Venom Unchained #1 explains how Sleeper rescued Eddie from jail.) The Venom Symbiote also considers Dylan his son, and due to their current strong bond so does MJ. Anyway, Sleeper recognises the 'glass' as Kree military-grade polycarbonate and he knows that it is vulnerable to fluoroantimonic acid (real stuff apparently) which makes it brittle enough for him to smash through and grab Dylan.

But Dylan is still wrapped in the Intelligence's tentacles and Eddie fears a tug-of-war could kill him. Sleeper is an offspring of Venom and thus considers Dylan his brother, and he suggests helping Dylan/Toxin break themselves free. But Dylan doesn't want to use Toxin to become Codex because then the SI would learn the secret of his Chainbreaker power to forcibly 'conscript' Symbiotes, which would make Hela unstoppable. (He's just worked all this out in the Venom #260 tie-in.) So Sleeper lends Dylan part of himself so he can escape from the SI without becoming Codex. And Eddie/Sleeper grab another of the SI's metal legs and alongside MJ/Venom they topple the SI, smashing his container.

The part of Sleeper then leaves Dylan/Toxin/Codex to return to Eddie and the rest of himself. They advise Dylan to seek sanctuary with the Fantastic Four in the Baxter Building (which was his intention last issue anyway). They have other work to do (in the rest of the QIB:VU tie-in mini) but for the moment they'll just prevent some armed Kree Symbiotes from following him. Dylan, Spidey and MJ all web-sling off to the BB, with Spidey unhappy about Sleeper spraying the soldiers with deadly fluoroantimonic acid.

As they approach the BB the trio see a rocket leaving the building. But just then they're attacked by winged Skrull Symbiotes after Dylan. MJ/Venom sprouts wings too, to fight them off while SM and DB get to safety. Venom forms a gun which fires impact webbing at the foe. Spidey heads for an open window which his how he broke in to the FF HQ the 1st time (way back in the original Amazing SM #1). But a flying SkrullBiote attacks them and Codex forms a spike to slash it. Spidey stops him because he doesn't approve of killing, but Dylan explains that his 'sword' doesn't kill, it frees the Symbiote from Knull's hive-mind. However Peter points out that they've established (last issue) that it doesn't work on Hela's Symbiotes. They're inside the BB now and MJ/Venom joins them, definitely *not* as much against their 'son' Dylan doing anything to stay alive. MJ points out that Dylan's part of *his* family now and Peter wouldn't want to lose any more family members (a low blow reference to Pete's Uncle Ben in SM's origin).

They're greeted by Invisible Woman and Mr Fantastic who inform them that the rocket contained Black Cat who's gone to implement a plan of Reed's (in the tie-in #14 of her current series). They also say that Thing has gone to join Human Torch and their guest Nova (who we saw joining the fray last issue). We notice that Reed and Sue's chest emblems are now a stylised 5 (or S), and Reed offers the trio emblems like it to form a temporary Fantastic Five!

In Times Square the Skrull Captain Alliance, Human Torch and Nova are still fighting Noh-Varr+Symbiote. Johnny Storm's chest symbol also changes to a 5 which he interprets as Reed Richards' way of telling him Spidey got there OK. (Spider-Man has on occasion been a member of the FF.) But on the other hand it might have been a side-effect of Noh-Varr's Pocket Battlefield, Utopian Kree tech which 'creates sensory distortions and manipulates local physics'. CapA explains this is why Torch's flame doesn't affect NV's Symbiote because he's created a pocket where heat is cold. So HT uses heat subtraction to afflict the foe with 'hot' ice. And Nova hits him which shatters his Symbiote, freeing Marvel Boy.

Nova picks up the unconscious youth and blames the current Galactic Union which excludes them both. He wonders if Noh tried to fight the Symbiotes alone, or if he he accepted a Symbiote to get revenge on the Union. But his musing is interrupted by the arrival of another pod from space which opens to let out Firelord wearing a fireproof Symbiote.