Venom: The Enemy Within #2
King of the Goblins
Eddie Brock has been brought to an underground cavern by a horde of goblins. There, before a stone throne, Brock witnesses as Morbius the Living Vampire is teleported before them. Thinking that Brock summoned him, Morbius is about to attack. However, Eddie's symbiote has recovered from the goblin's sonic attack, allowing him to turn into Venom once again. The pair come to blows, until Venom knocks Morbius into the wall, causing it to crack open enough for sunlight to shine through. Sensitive to sunlight, Morbius recoils in pain. Likewise, the goblins are scared off by the sunlight. This momentary pause leads both Venom and Morbius to realize that neither of them is working for the goblins. Learning that he is in San Francisco, Morbius asks Venom to fill him in and learns about the goblin invasion that began on Halloween. Morbius then details how he was teleported away from New York City by some powerful force.
They back the throne room where they see a demonic face painted on the wall in luminescent paint. Noticing that the demons seem highly disorganized, the pair deduce that their bringing Morbius here was an attempt to find a leader that can guide them. However, instead of gaining an ally, Morbius is about to leave Venom to deal with this on his own. That's when they are ambushed by the goblins once more. When Venom begins to web up the goblins, they unleash another collective sonic blast. Thankfully, Morbius pushes Venom out of the way. However, the sonic blast strikes the wall of the subway tunnel, causing the concrete to shatter. This causes water to flood into the tunnel, sweeping everyone away. Morbius strikes his head as he is pulled by the current, but he is saved by Venom. He quickly pulls a containment lever, that closes off the flooded part of the tunnel. Finding another fissure in the subway tunnel, the pair decides to follow it up to the surface. Smashing their way through the concrete, they find themselves inside Alcatraz Prison. While in the city, Charles Palentine uses his position to convince the people of San Francisco that the goblin invasion is a biblical plague. He manages to capitalize on the people's paranoia, he gets the police on his side. He then uses his growing power base to oust the current mayor of San Francisco and take control of the city. He then calls on the people of San Francisco to help him burn down the city in order to purge it of the goblin hordes. This causes people to riot in the streets as those against Palentine clash with his supporters. Meanwhile, back in the tunnels, the goblins have gathered in their underground throne room. Suddenly, Demogoblin teleports in the chair before them and demands to know who summons him. When the creatures don't reply, Demogoblin becomes furious, prompting the goblins to lunge at him. At that moment, at Alcatraz, Eddie Brock finds a prison cell with a goblin face painted on one of the bricks. Discovering that it can be removed, Eddie finds a cubby where a diary owned by a man named Charles Palene has been hidden.
The first entry in the diary dates back to the year 1961.[1] At seventeen years old, Charles Palene set off an alarm when trying to break into a bakery. Fleeing the police, he happened upon the Library of Rhan. Peaking in one of the windows, he found some cultists performing some sort of ritual where they are about to sacrifice a young woman. When a goblin sneaked up behind him, Charles recoiled and ended up smashing through the window interrupting the ceremony. The leader of the ceremony decided that Charles would now become part of their ceremony. As he struggled to get free, Charles grabbed the strange necklace that the leader was wearing. Luckily, before he could be sacrificed, Charles is saved by the arrival of the police. He was still brought before the courts and was sentenced to five years in a juvenile correctional facility. Although they took his valuables, they determined that the necklace that he pulled off the cult leader to be worthless glass and let him keep it.
Palene soon broke out of the juvenile facility and was on the run from the law. Whenever he would look at the strange necklace in the middle of the night, he thought he could see strange goblin-like creatures lurking inside. Unfortunately for Charles, he was soon caught by the authorities, and this time was sent to Alcatraz to serve out the rest of his sentence. While in prison, he decided to try and learn more about the strange necklace that he had. He learned that it was a ceremonial necklace in an old book on the occult. Learning a special incantation, Charles made it one night in his cell, summoning the goblins. He soon learned that as long as he wore the necklace they would no harm him and do as he says. Charles then had the demons dig him out of prison and he then went into hiding until he was able to shed his checkered past. That's when he reinvented himself as Charles Palentine and began his quest for power so he could get revenge against the very city that incarcerated him. As Brock finishes reading the diary, Charles Palentine addresses his followers assuring them that he will protect them from the goblin horde.
At that moment, in Alcatraz, Eddie and Morbius hear the sound of thousands of scrambling feet. As Eddie changes into Venom, they are ambushed by Demogoblin who is leading the horde of the goblins behind him.
Recurring Characters
Venom, Morbius the Living Vampire, Demogoblin, Charles Palentine
Continuity Notes
The date in this diary should be considered a factual reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. This is because Palene found a magical means of prolonging his life, therefore all dates and locations stated in his diary are not affected by the Sliding Timescale except in the case that as the Modern Age slides forward, it moves further away from the early life of Charles Palene.
