Venom War

[Clive_Reston]

Venom War isn't over yet, but here's a rough sketch of where we are so far. The "war" proper seems to be happening over the course of just an hour or two, at "Grand Garden Arena." (Perhaps that is somehow distinct from Madison Square Garden, which we saw very recently in Fantastic Four 21-22...)

VW: Carnage 1 (1-7): appears to be some time a week or so before the war
VW: Carnage 1 (8-20) and 2: still before the war, "two days" after the earlier scene; Dr. Frekk is alive and well

The early part of Venom War: Venomous 1 is apparently the same day as VW 1. Dr. Frekk is taken out of action.

Venom 35 is interleaved with Venom War 1: time-split Eddie appears, the symbiote is heading to Peter's place, Old Dylan meets Young Dylan.

Venom 36 is approximately a "Days of Future Past"-type riff; after its dystopian future opening, it has a scene that overlaps with VW 1 (21-22). Then Old Dylan goes back to the past for a fetch quest that begins in the middle of ASM 28 and has gone on for a couple more issues--as of Venom 38 we're still back there.

Venom War: Spider-Man 1-2 take place as Peter is going across town between pages 29 and 31 of Venom War 1. (There's a scene in which Meridius is at Alchemax by himself, which... is maybe going to have to be a flashback to just before the scenes with Meridius in VW 1.)

VW 1/2 (in which Venom Horse escapes) and the final scene of VW: Venomous 1 seem to be happening during the last scenes of VW 1.

Venom Horse has escaped as of the first scene of VW 2. After page 7, where Misery leaves the building, her thread continues in VW: Venomous 2, in which Agent Anti-Venom appears.

By this point, the zombiotes have gotten loose. While (or sometime near the time that) the action of VW 2 (8-21 or so) is going on, VW: Lethal Protectors 1 (in which zombiotes are attacking Misery) happens; so does VW: Venomous 3.

VW: Wolverine 1 happens on a "Tuesday," "the day the Venom war began." Zombiotes are all over the place! VW: Deadpool 1-2 are also generically during the zombiote outbreak, and so is VW: Daredevil 1, and so are VW: Zombiotes 1-2. Fair to assume that the Venom Horse backup stories in VW 2 and 3 happen around here too.

In VW: 3 (1-15), Agent Anti-Venom seems to be past the action of VW: Venomous 2. At the end of that sequence, several characters head off to VW: Fantastic Four 1, per an editorial note.

Most of VW: Spider-Man 3 is a hallucination, but pages 17-18 overlap with VW 3 (16-20), and VW: Spider-Man 3 (19-20) happen after that scene.

VW: Wolverine 2 purports to take place on the second day of the zombiote outbreak. I am not yet convinced that it will extend to a second day, but we'll see.

[Michael]

Here's another problem, though. How much time takes place between Blood Hunt and Venom War?
Venom 34 takes place during Blood Hunt. In it, Meridius merges with Lee Price and leaves the Venom symbiote behind.
In Venom 35, the Venom symbiote goes to Peter's apartment to warn Peter of Meridius, and it explains the plot to Peter in Venom War 1.
So you'd think only a few hours passed between Blood Hunt and Venom War. But it seems like much more time passed.

[Clive_Reston]

Venom 34 takes place during Blood Hunt. In it, Meridius merges with Lee Price and leaves the Venom symbiote behind.
In Venom 35, the Venom symbiote goes to Peter's apartment to warn Peter of Meridius, and it explains the plot to Peter in Venom War 1.
So you'd think only a few hours passed between Blood Hunt and Venom War. But it seems like much more time passed.

The symbiote doesn't decide to seek out Peter until Venom 35; before that, it's been skulking around and waiting to die. And it was in very bad shape at the end of Venom 34--weeks could reasonably pass after that while it waits for litterbugs to drop chocolate wrappers in the cemetery.

That said, there are surprisingly few overlapping characters between Blood Hunt and Venom War thus far, and I haven't seen anything that can't be reconciled with them happening very close to each other. For Spider-Man, there doesn't seem to be a problem to date, and I don't think we've seen MJ as Jackpot in ASM since before Blood Hunt. Wolverine is just being, you know, Wolverine. There may be some context in the forthcoming Blood Hunt: Fantastic Four.

[Clive_Reston]

Well, Venom War is done now, and I guess the big challenge will be finding time within it for all the tie-ins to happen, since the entire "war" itself appears to take place in roughly the duration of a wrestling match. (Although, as it begins in VW 1, it's evening, and the sun appears to be rising on VW 2 (20). Even so, that requires everybody to stand around the ring, not doing anything, for quite a while. Maybe it's... one of those 5 AM wrestling matches?)

The zombiote attack begins early in VW 2, ends midway through VW 5, and encompasses almost all of the tie-ins.

VW: Fantastic Four 1 only has a minute or two of "real-time" events, immediately after VW 3 (1-15).

VW: Spider-Man 3 (19-20) overlaps with VW 4 (1-8), and VW: Spider-Man 4 follows Peter out of that.

Mostly I just want more Venom Horse.

[Michael]

One other thing to note- Venom War apparently takes place after Raid on Graymalkin. In Venom War: Wolverine 2, the X-Men appearing are Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee. Nightcrawler and Wolverine. Nightcrawler arrives at the orphanage where the X-Men are staying in Uncanny X-Men 3, and by that time Wolverine has left to fight Sarah Gaunt. Wolverine's eyes are injured in that fight and he's blind until after the scene in issue 6 where Jubilee is captured and sent to Graymalkin. So Venom War apparently takes place after Raid on Graymalkin.

[Clive_Reston]

Alternately, it could take place relatively soon after the end of Krakoa, and some time before Uncanny X-Men begins! When Rogue sees Logan in Uncanny #1, she says "Ain't seen you since--" --and doesn't complete that sentence. Avengers 13 implies that Blood Hunt is very soon after Fall/Rise; as I noted above, it's possible for Venom War to follow hot on the heels of Blood Hunt; and Uncanny seems to begin quite a while after the end of Krakoa.

[Michael]

But Avengers 17-18 take place shortly after Blood Hunt and Scott and Quentin are already in Alaska. More specifically, Avengers 17-18 have to take place after the last story in X-Men 35, and in that story Gambit and Rogue are in Mexico, Wolverine's with his "pack" and Scott is showing Beast the Alaska base for the first time. Plus, in Uncanny X-Men 1, the eye of Agomotto is said to be in Dr. Strange's possession. Maybe we'll get more clarification in next week's Avengers issue.