[…] Moving into a house alongside his father, Venom, and Sleeper, Dylan was enrolled in Midtown High School but struggled to cope with his pent-up rage and frustration at his powerlessness, inability to adjust to civilian life after having spent much of his life fighting, and Eddie frequently neglecting him to attend to his obligations as the God of the Symbiotes. Picked on by bullies like Kenny McFarlane Jr., Dylan frequently got into trouble and ended up in detention, leading Eddie to task the Venom symbiote with keeping an eye on him.
While walking home from school, Dylan came across Jack O'Lantern mugging a woman and intervened, but was shot in the chest when the Venom symbiote attempted to scare Jack O'Lantern away. Out of desperation, the Venom symbiote bonded to Dylan and they trounced Jack O'Lantern together. Eddie approached them and remarked that he had anticipated Dylan becoming his successor, questioning his son's alterations to Venom's appearance but giving Dylan his blessing to operate as a superhero.
His father's work as the King in Black meant that Eddie stopped being around Dylan for long periods of time, leaving for days and even weeks at a time. This - along with the Venom symbiote also leaving to wander the city on its own - left Dylan feeling abandoned. One night, Dylan was woken up by his father, who told him that they needed to go. However, as he packed Dylan received a phone call from his actual father telling him that the Eddie that was in their house was an impostor and he needed to secretly leave. Dylan was instructed to go to an old motel near Central New York, and he went along with Sleeper. Before Dylan could reunite with his father, a military helicopter swooped in and fired a rocket that shot past Dylan and blew up the motel, killing Eddie. Dylan ran towards the flames but was stopped by the Venom symbiote, bonding with it against his father's orders and going berserk, slaughtering the soldiers sent to apprehend him for killing his father. After the fight, Dylan escaped with the Venom symbiote and Sleeper. Following instructions left by Eddie via voicemail, they eventually met with an old friend of his father, Archer Lyle, while being chased by the Life Foundation.
Archer revealed to Dylan her investigation on Absent Throne, an organization pulling the strings of corporations and politicians. Dylan and Sleeper later followed her to investigate a research facility in Plymouth while leaving the Venom symbiote behind, but this turned out to be a trap as Archer was working with Alchemax CEO Liz Allan, leading to Dylan and Sleeper being captured.[38] While Dylan was being experimented on, the symbiotes that were on some containment units in the adjacent room started getting controlled by what seemed to be Eddie Brock, who was alive and made the symbiotes merge. As his father's conscious quickly banished, Dylan briefly talked to him before being freed by the symbiotes. Dylan then went to rescue Sleeper from his containment unit but was met with various armed guards. Cornered, he was saved by the Venom symbiote who bonded with him.
After escaping Alchemax, Dylan, Sleeper and Venom stayed at the bar of a retired biker named Jake Yahkin that used to lead a biker gang named the Renegades on Baywater, California. One night Dylan and Venom fought a biker gang called the Hell Hounds, who were wreaking havoc in town. During the fight, Sleeper separated from Dylan to distract the Life Foundation, while Dylan returned to help Jake at his bar. Unfortunately, Venom was attacked by a colossal symbiote called Bedlam, which prevented Dylan from reaching Jake, leading to his death. The symbiote revealed to Dylan that he was a King in Black with the goal of making Venom stronger before transforming into his human self, leaving Dylan to gaze the face of his father.
Mortally wounded, Dylan was tossed aside by Bedlam and left to die. Too weakened to heal him, the Venom symbiote extracted his consciousness as a codex and escaped, leaving Dylan's body to be taken by the Life Foundation and put on life-support. Inside the Venom symbiote's mental world, Dylan's codex was attacked by manifestations of its corruption and fought them until a cloaked and hooded figure called the Keeper intervened. The Keeper explained that in order to survive Dylan needed to return to his body, but that with Eddie's death the time had come for him to learn the truth about his origins. Unmasking himself as a copy of Eddie Brock's memories, the Keeper transformed into Venom and challenged Dylan to a fight. While Dylan initially refused to fight his father, he manifested an arm-blade and cut the Keeper down in self-defence, and the Keeper assured Dylan he was ready to face the truth before bonding his symbiote to Dylan's astral form. Ascending into the Klyntar within "Venomworld", Dylan learned the truth of his origins and manifested All-Black the Necrosword.
Dylan's physical body was rescued by Sleeper, who took it back to Baywater and re-bonded it to the dying Venom symbiote. Assuming an adult form resembling his counterpart from Earth-1051, Dylan accepted his true nature and took the name Codex.
