The Marvel Universe has always been a place of cosmic shifts and multiversal madness, but sometimes the most compelling stories are found in the gutters of Staten Island. Web of Venom #1 (2026), written by Jordan Morris with art by Luke Ross and Ramon Rosanas, is a masterclass in blending street-level grit with the high-concept chaos of the symbiote mythos. It’s a story about a guy who just wanted to be “medium,” only to find himself bonded to a piece of history that’s anything but.
The Plan (and the “Thicc” Spider-Man)
The story kicks off with a classic superhero trope: the “repeat the plan” moment. On Page 3, we find a character who looks remarkably like Spider-Man, but with a significant bulk and a slightly off-model costume, perched on a beam overlooking a high-security area. He’s talking to himself—or rather, to the voice in his head. This is Fred Myers, the former Boomerang, and he’s clearly nervous. He admits he’s stalling because this is his first time being “possessed by an alien parasite” to pull off a rescue mission. The symbiote, ever the stickler for terminology, corrects him: “Symbiote, but understandable”.
The plan is simple: web-swing down, strike a “cool pose,” convince the guards he’s the real Spider-Man, and find out where they’re holding his friend. It’s a plan built on the hope that guards aren’t particularly observant. When Fred drops down on Page 4, the guards are immediately skeptical. “Did you get… bigger?” one asks. Fred, leaning into the absurdity, quips that the internet has been calling him “thicc,” which he takes as a compliment. When the ruse inevitably fails, Fred resorts to “the other way”—which involves a lot of “THUMPs” and “WHEEPs” as he starts taking out the security force with ease.
The Philosophy of the “Medium Boy”
As the action unfolds, the comic takes a brilliant detour into Fred’s psyche. Pages 6 through 11 serve as a retrospective on Fred’s life and his unique, somewhat pathetic, philosophy. He reflects on the death of his friend Herman Schultz, better known as the Shocker, who met a “cruel and untimely end”. For Fred, villains like them are just “cannon fodder” in the grand battles between gods and billionaires. They don’t want Infinity Stones or time travel; they just want to steal stuff and not have a real job.
After being killed by a vampire and resurrected—an event he describes as “insane” for a former baseball player—Fred decided to change his life. He didn’t go straight, but he decided to be a “medium boy.” He moved to a tacky townhouse on Staten Island, filled with “Live, Laugh, Love” decor that he kept as a reminder of his new, low-stakes life. He traded the Bar with No Name for a block bar with “B-minus mozzarella sticks” and focused on “medium-boy crimes” like shoplifting packs of nerd cards in hopes of finding foil variants. He was done with team-ups, having been burned by the Sinister Syndicate and the Masters of Evil too many times.
The Catalyst: Overdrive and the Doctor
Fred’s peaceful, mediocre life is interrupted when James Beverly, also known as Overdrive, comes knocking. James is working for Tombstone, who is handing out “enhanced powers” to street-level villains using radioactive slime and alien tech. Fred is resistant, fearing another death, but James insists the world is changing and they need to keep up.
Fred agrees to accompany James to a shady medical office run by a Dr. Dopson, purely to make sure his friend doesn’t get killed. The scene is pure noir-comedy, with Dopson performing invasive spinal surgery while smelling of tequila. However, the procedure is interrupted by the “Aberrant Crimes Division,” a government task force that raids the office. In the chaos, Fred is knocked out, and when he wakes up, his life has taken a sharp turn back into the “super” territory he tried so hard to avoid.
Meeting Passenger
While the raid was going on, Fred found himself in a lab where he encountered a jar labeled “PASSENGER”. Inside was a symbiote that had been on Earth since 1816, passed around from labs to flea markets for over two hundred years. This symbiote, who calls himself Passenger, had been connected to the hive mind the whole time, watching his siblings (like Venom and Carnage) go on grand adventures while he sat in a jar.
Passenger sees Fred as his ticket to freedom and an “adventure”. He offers Fred a “cooler outfit,” ruthlessly mocking Fred’s classic Boomerang costume for its “red skin tags” (the dots). Despite Fred’s initial refusal to be a host, the reality of the situation—and the fact that Overdrive has been captured by the government—forces his hand. Fred bonds with Passenger, taking the name “Comeback” and adopting a red-and-blue symbiote form that mimics Spider-Man to make the rescue mission easier.
The Breakout and the Battle with an Avenger
Returning to the present (the rescue mission), Comeback breaks into the holding cells. He finds a group of “freaks”—villains like Overdrive who have received Tombstone’s enhancements—locked in power-restricting cells. Before he can free them, he’s confronted by an unexpected obstacle: Hawkeye.
The veteran Avenger isn’t fooled by the Spidey-esque look. He recognizes the symbiote and fires a sonic arrow specifically tuned to disrupt the alien without hurting the humans in the room. It’s a desperate moment for Fred, but Overdrive manages to use his newly enhanced remote nanobots to leech tech from the room’s sound-dampening devices, creating a shield for Comeback. Passenger is thrilled, exclaiming that he’s only been out of the jar for a day and he’s already fighting an Avenger.
The Union of Freaks vs. Tombstone
The chaos escalates when Tombstone himself arrives, not to rescue his men, but to reclaim his “property”. He tells Hawkeye to step aside so he can take back the “freaks” he enhanced. This sparks a rebellion. The villains, led by Overdrive and inspired by Comeback, declare that they aren’t anyone’s property anymore. They are their own “freaks” and they refuse to be used as disposable lackeys.
Tombstone, unimpressed by this “rah-rah union,” threatens to tear them apart to get his tech back. In the heat of the battle, Passenger makes a pitch to Fred: “Keep me around after we get out of this. We can do some good. And have some fun”. Fred, seeing the value in being able to protect the “downtrodden lackey” and the “goon,” agrees. They become partners, at least “for now”.
The Cliffhanger: The Sorcerer Supreme
With the immediate threat of the government and Tombstone neutralized—or at least bypassed—Fred and Passenger prepare to escape into the night and lay low. Fred likes the “respectability” of the red-and-blue color scheme, and Passenger is happy to be out of the jar.
However, their escape is short-lived. As they are about to depart, they are intercepted by a group of mystical-looking agents. “Fred Myers!” they command. “You are in possession of the symbiote known as Passenger. You are coming with us—immediately. By order of the Sorcerer Supreme”.
The issue ends with a classic, “TO BE CONTINUED…???” leaving Fred “Comeback” Myers in a position he never wanted to be in: the center of a conflict involving the most powerful forces in the Marvel Universe.
