Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Marvel Comics, Venom | Tagged: al ewing, all you zombies, bryan hitch, by his bootstraps, marvel, robert heinlein, venom

Robert Heinlein's All You Zombies In Today's Venom #10 (Spoilers)

By His Bootstraps is a novella by Robert Heinlein published in 1941 in Astounding Science Fiction and has been reprinted several times. Considered a perfect time loop story, it sees a student working on a mathematical time travel thesis, visited by a time travelling stranger, is taken 30,000 years to a future both dystopic and utopian in equal measures, though another stranger tries to prevent it. He is then commanded by that world's dictator to recruit himself from the past, which he does. Later he goes back to try and prevent it. Later he travels to the future to become its dictator. Almost twenty years, Robert Heinlein doubled down with –All You Zombies– is a sci-fi short story written in one day, rejected by Playboy and published in 1959 in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine. It features a story in which every main character is the same person, time travelling and going through gender reassignment surgery. He is first tricked into impregnating his younger female self by a version of his future self, who then becomes pregnant with himself. One version of the character concludes the story, asking "I know where I came from—but where did all you zombies come from?"

And so we get to today's Venom #10 by Al Ewing and Bryan Hitch, in which it has already been revealed that the big bruiser working for Meridien, Bedlam, and the one who in the past murders his son, Dylan Brock… is Eddie Brock himself. This is an Eddie whose body has been destroyed, and can now travel through time, forming himself wherever and whenever he emerges.

Previously, Venom had met various other symbiotes in this place, including Finnegan, who tried to warn him of something before being attacked by Bedlam.

It really doesn't matter.

Because now we know that he was only fighting another time-displaced version of himself, admittedly one driven mad by time travel.

But today, we see it from another perspective, that of Finnegan, who begins again because he is Eddie Brock, too, trying to prevent the battle and save his son.

With the Finnegan version of Eddie Brock trying to put right what once – or what one day will be – wrong. But as Meridien says, it doesn't matter. It has already happened.

Because everyone is Eddie Brock at different times in his life. Also, look how Bryan Hitch switches the perspective, less the hero shot of the original, now far more passive in terms of perspective, with the audience stepping away, watching alongside Eddie. One of him.

And yes, that includes the Big Bad.

And no matter how many times Eddie Brock lives this moment, he can't change it even if he wanted to.

Which also means that no matter how many times he time travels, he will never be able to rescue his son, Dylan.

Unless… and here's a thought. And it depends just how much they are going for a Robert Heinlein time-travel story like All You Zombies. There have been previous stories about Dylan's conception, son of Anne Weying, who became pregnant while bonded to the Venom symbiote, created by the symbiote hive-mind in order to destroy the symbiote god Knull.

Is there any chance that Dylan is also Eddie Brock? That he isn't dead but will re-emerge as the man who will one day become a disgraced journalist? Or even that his symbiote origin nature will see him become a blob of symbiote jelly, captured on the patchwork planet for Secret Wars, to be found by Spider-Man in need of a costume? How much does Al Ewing like Robert Heinlein anyway. All You Zombies are belong to us.

VENOM #10
MARVEL COMICS
MAY220945
(W) Al Ewing (A/CA) Bryan Hitch
THE COLOSSAL CAPSTONE TO THE SECOND ARC OF THIS EPIC NEW ERA OF VENOM!
Torn across space and time through the symbiote hive, Eddie Brock's soul is pushed to its absolute limit! Manipulated and maligned by forces stronger than himself, Eddie has no choice but to watch in horror as his son, Dylan, and the Venom symbiote are stabbed in the heart by BEDLAM!
RATED T+In Shops: Sep 14, 2022
SRP: $3.99

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