Marvel Comics has been dealing with symbiotes, the strange alien creatures that turn people like Peter Parker and Eddie Brock into beings like Venom, for years, but it seems there are things Marvel fans still don’t know about them. For instance, it turns out they have a god.

Spoilers for Venom #3 follow.

Things have been going strangely for Eddie Brock lately. He’s been reunited with his symbiote and resumed carrying out his calling as a merciless protector of the innocent, but there seems to be something wrong with the symbiote's mental state. Eddie has been taking medication to keep the symbiote sedated, but the symbiote has begun to dream - something it never did before - of ancient days in the time of the mythic hero Beowulf. On top of that, it's begun taking control of Eddie, turning its normally white symbol red and showing a strange glyph on its face.

Thing got weirder when Eddie met Rex Strickland, a well-trained military operative who knows way more about symbiotes than anyone should. The reason for that is because Venom’s symbiote isn’t the first to come to Earth. It turns out that during the Vietnam War, SHIELD discovered an ancient symbiote and bonded the creature to wounded soldiers in an attempt to create super soldiers capable of swinging the tide of the war.

Rex was the only one of his platoon to make it out of Vietnam. When the others began to display erratic behavior, SHIELD put them in stasis. Rex recently contacted Venom and enlisted his aid to rescue his fellow soldiers. The rescue mission didn’t go as planned.

The soldiers Rex sought to rescue had long ago been fully taken over by their symbiotes. When Venom freed them, the symbiotic soldiers turned on their captors, killed them, and then sacrificed themselves to free the ancient symbiote trapped with them. That ancient symbiote took the form of a dragon and began rampaging through New York City.

Venom teamed up with Spider-Man Miles Morales to fight the beast. The plan seemed to be working. Venom lobbed Spider-Man into the monster’s mouth and Miles used a fully-charged venom blast to try to knock the creature out.

What he didn’t expect was to find a being inside the dragon, an incredibly powerful being calling himself Knull, god of the symbiotes:

(Photo: Ryan Stegman, Marvel Entertainment)

Knull doesn’t seem to be overstating his godly power or status. Venom’s symbiote seems to worship Knull, and Knull seems to have some kind of sway over the symbiote. What that means for Eddie and Venom going forward remains to be seen.

What do you think of the reveal of Knull, god of symbiotes? Let us know in the comments!

Venom #3 is now on sale.