Agent Venom just made his triumphant return to the Marvel Universe…sort of.
SPOILERS for Venom #8 by Donny Cates, Iban Coello, and Andres Mossa follow.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Flash Thompson started out his life in the Marvel Comics universe as Peter Parker’s high school bully. Flash matured over time. He idolized Spider-Man and that idol worship inspired him to enlist in the army.
While overseas, Thompson lost both of his legs. He returned home a war hero but struggled with alcoholism. He recovered, and while his friends and family through his days of active duty were over, that turned out not to be the case.
Flash was chosen for Project Rebirth, a modern version of the same project that created Captain America. The United States government had come into possession of the Venom symbiote and wanted to bond it to a soldier to create the ultimate black-ops super soldier. Thompson was that soldier.
Thompson became Venom. At first, his relationship with the symbiote was contentious and he limited his time bonded to the creature. As time went on, his connection to the alien creature deepened. The symbiote began to admire Thompson’s selflessness and bravery. Thompson taught the Venom symbiote what it means to be a true hero. He even went into space, visited the symbiote homeworld, joined the Guardians of the Galaxy, and enlisted in the Spaceknights.
Eventually, Thompson returned home and through a series of events he lost the Venom symbiote. He eventually came face-to-face with the symbiote again in an Alchemax laboratory after the symbiote had returned to original Venom host Eddie Brock. Spider-Man dumped a vat of anti-venom serum on top of both hosts. Venom returned to Brock but Thompson was turned into a new version of the hero Anti-Venom. As Agent Anti-Venom, Thompson became a popular superhero, but he died heroically during the battle against the Red Goblin.
Since then, Brock has learned a lot about the Venom symbiote. One of those things is that Thompson is definitively the symbiote’s favorite host. That’s something Brock struggles with, but he’s struggling more with the fact that his symbiote has seemingly been lobotomized while saving his life.
Brock and the symbiote are now captives of the Maker, a villainous Doppelgänger of Mr. Fantastic from a dead universe. The Maker has acquired a biological sample of Flash Thompson and discovered that the symbiote leaves traces of itself within former hosts that store information about that host.
This is crossing the line for Brock. He decides to make his escape. He takes out the Maker quickly and makes a run for it, but it soon pinned down by guards. The symbiote takes the biological sample of Thompson and shatters its container, absorbing the biological markers.
Agents Venom is let loose once more:
Brock knows this is really Thompson, just an imprint of his memories interacting with the symbiote, but Agent Venom gets the job done. There’s even a moment when Brock is forced to let go of his resentment and admit the truth about Agent Venom:
After the escape, Brock visits Flash Thompson’s grave and pays his respects. Brock notes that Thompson’s personality has faded and he won’t be able to access it again.
Based on Marvel’s recently publishing and marketing around Venom, the success of the Sony Pictures film featuring Eddie Brock, and Donny Cates’ own assertions in interviews that Eddie Brock is the one true Venom, it seems that Eddie Brock will be the Venom for the foreseeable future, despite our opinion that Flash Thompson is actually the best Venom. With that in mind, it is nice to see Thompson’s Agent Venom get one last moment of glory and praise from both Brock and Cates before laying that era to rest.
What do you think of Agent Venom’s surprising, if brief, return? Let us know in the comments!
Venom #8 is on sale now.
