Dylan Brock Becomes the War's Final Card in 'Queen in Black' #3 — Plus Every Tie-In Cover for August

Marvel revealed the cover of 'Queen in Black' #3 and its August tie-in lineup, where Hela and Knull's symbiote war crashes into Earth — and Eddie Brock's son Dylan ends up the most-wanted being in the cosmos. Al Ewing and Iban Coello headline the Ryan Stegman cover for issue #3, while tie-ins from Tom Waltz, Charles Soule, and Carlos Gómez expand the saga across Defenders, Thor, Venom, and a brand-new Venom Unchained mini.

Marvel just laid out the August battle plan for Queen in Black, the symbiote-soaked crossover spinning out of Al Ewing and Carlos Gómez's Venom (2025) run — and the new cover for Queen in Black #3 makes one thing clear: Dylan Brock is the most dangerous person in the universe right now, whether he likes it or not.

After fans got their first taste of the event during Comics Giveaway Day, Marvel has now unveiled Ryan Stegman's cover for issue #3 alongside the full slate of August tie-ins. The setup: Hela has seized Knull's throne and now commands a legion of symbiotes as the Queen in Black. Knull, in turn, has conquered the Lightforce Dimension and crowned himself the God of the Void. Two of the galaxy's deadliest evils are at war — and Earth is the prize they're both fighting over.

Queen in Black #3 — The Codex Becomes the Endgame

The official solicitation is one of those tightly wound Ewing pitches that doubles as a pressure cooker: "The Codex is the key! Hela wants him as her secret weapon — Knull just wants him dead!" Translation: Dylan Brock, the symbiote Codex made flesh, is the only viable bargaining chip on the board, and both gods want him for opposite reasons. The issue puts Eddie Brock and Venom in rare alignment — neither wants Dylan to die — and Marvel is teasing the "rollicking return of the Fantastic Five" on top of it.

If you've been following Ewing's Venom, this is the natural detonation point: every thread the run has been pulling on (the Codex, Hela's coup, Eddie's fractured relationship with his son) gets wound around the same axle.

Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #2 — Iron Man and Beta Ray Bill's Strike Teams

The flagship tie-in is Tom Waltz's Defenders of Light and Dark, which follows two strike teams — one assembled by Iron Man, the other by Beta Ray Bill — as they go on the offensive against the dual threat of Hela and Knull. Issue #2 raises the cost: in-fighting and tragedy threaten to seal the team's fate before they can even reach their target. Marvel teases a mysterious "Plan B" that could turn the tide, which in event-comics shorthand usually means somebody is about to do something very stupid and very heroic.

Queen in Black: Venom Unchained #2 — Eddie Brock Breaks Out

Charles Soule's Venom Unchained drops Eddie Brock into one of the messier corners of the crossover. Sleeper — Eddie's symbiote offspring and serial wild card — has just busted him out of prison, except the world Eddie's walking back into is one where Hela is trying to wear it like a crown. Eddie wants to help, or at least to protect the people he loves. Sleeper, predictably, has a different agenda. Expect a tug-of-war between father and son symbiote-style.

Queen in Black: Thor #1 — Beta Ray Bill at the Edge of Space

Ewing returns to one of his signature characters with Queen in Black: Thor #1, where Beta Ray Bill takes the fight to Hela at the edge of space and grapples with what it actually means to be the heir of Thor's story. The kicker: somewhere on Earth, Sigurd Jarlson is still walking around as a mortal, and the Death-Goddess has plans for the Mortal Thor that Bill doesn't see coming. "A man with a hammer," Marvel teases, "is about to face the ultimate test."

Venom #261 — A Very Old Enemy Comes Back

The deepest cut of the August lineup is Venom #261, which digs into Marvel's Silver-Age symbiote lore. The pitch: long ago, a friend of Reed Richards had a problem with an alien costume that wouldn't come off. Reed blasted it loose with a sonic weapon and locked it up for study — and now, with the world ending, he has to break it back out and hand it a chance at redemption. Venom holds, in Marvel's own words, "one heck of a grudge."

What This Means for Marvel Comics Fans

Two things are worth flagging as the event ramps up. First, this is functionally the Venom mega-event the line has been building toward since Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman re-mythologized the symbiotes back in 2018 — Knull as a god, the Codex as cosmic inheritance, Dylan as the heir. Hela's coup gives Ewing a reason to detonate all of that lore at once instead of teasing it across years.

Second, the tie-in structure is unusually disciplined. Each spotlight book is doing one job: Defenders of Light and Dark covers the team-vs-team war, Venom Unchained tracks Eddie, Thor handles the cosmic theology, and the main Venom book follows Dylan and Mary Jane through their personal arcs. Readers can pick a lane without buying everything — but readers who buy everything get a saga that should pay off the better part of a decade of symbiote build-up.

Mark July 1 for issue #1 at your local shop. The August wave starts the war in earnest.