One of Spider-Man’s most popular villains is getting a make-over.
A new Venom is swinging into Spidey’s life, but this time the person behind the mask is one of the most familiar foes from Peter Parker’s past.
If you don’t want to know more, stop reading now.
According to USA Today, the new Venom is Peter’s old high school nemesis, Flash Thompson. Flash is given the symbiote black suit by the U.S. government in order to create a black-ops version of Spider-Man. The storyline will debut in “Amazing Spider-Man 654” which hits comic book stores today.
The issue will also have other surprises, including “a change to the roster of Spider-Man’s superpowers,” according to Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott.
Next week, “Amazing Spider-Man 654.1” — part of Marvel’s Point One Initiative to draw in new readers and also written by Slott — will feature the first mission Flash goes on as Venom. And then March 2 brings the debut of a Venom ongoing series, with the creative team of writer Rick Remender and artist Tony Moore.
Readers can expect “a big dollop of high adventure, dipped in international intrigue puree and sprinkled with a healthy love of Sean Connery 007 films,” Remender says. “It’s full of big action and classic Spider-Man villains but is always mindful to place our hero, Flash Thompson, in difficult situations that demand he use as much brain as brawn.”
The Venom symbiote was most recently on Mac Gargan, the former Scorpion who was transformed into the hulking, cannibalistic and psychotic villain, but when it came time for a new host, Spider-Man editor Stephen Wacker thought Flash was a good idea.
The character’s been around since the beginning — namely “Amazing Fantasy No. 15” in August 1962, the same first appearance as Peter Parker and his web-slinging alter ego. Flash was the high school jock who picked on Peter relentlessly, and then, when some people first saw Spider-Man as a nuisance, he became the superhero’s biggest fan — which irked Peter to no end.
Since then, Slott says, Flash has grown richer as a character. Writer Marc Guggenheim’s story in 2008, in which Flash loses his legs while saving his U.S. Army unit, was one of the single best issues of Spider-Man in years, Slott says. (Flash also served in the Vietnam War in the comics of the 1970s.)
Flash even became friends with Peter, in addition to working at the local VA hospital and fostering a relationship with Betty Brant. “We’ve seen him keep moving forward,” Slott says.
So when he gets the call to be the new Venom by the feds, of course he’s going to jump at the chance.
“He gets to live out all these different kinds of dreams he has,” Slott says. “He gets to serve his country again as Venom. When he’s in the suit, it grows legs for him and he can walk again. And he gets all the powers of a Spider-Man. He gets to be the government’s black-ops Spider-Man.
“Suddenly, we’ve got Venom going after terrorists, Venom being a secret agent, and Venom fighting abroad, and that’s kind of interesting.”
The people who have worn the Venom symbiote have tended to go violently insane in the past — including Gargan as well as the original Venom, Eddie Brock — and the government knows that. So Flash can wear the suit only 48 hours at a time, and then the suit is stored back in a vat.
Flash also has a military handler who has a kill switch in case he gets angered or enraged and becomes full-on Venom, Slott says. “But when he’s on a mission, he gets to have a spy persona. He gets to be in the James Bond tux, playing games of Monte Carlo and having a great time. Even though at heart he’s this high school football jock, he gets to live out a James Bond-like fantasy, too.”
Adds Remender: “Here you have a guy famous for his temper placed in a symbiote armor that will overtake him should he ever lose his temper. Flash is a terrific character full of real depth, a war hero who gave his legs for his country now being asked to make one more sacrifice. And it is a sacrifice — a big one.”
One more caveat: Flash has only 20 missions he can go on as Venom, and then it’ll be passed off to the next grunt. If that’s his tour of duty, what will happen as he gets closer to the end and can’t let go of being able to walk again or these new powers? The new Venom will also be popping up in the Amazing Spider-Man book, and Slott is cagey about whether Flash will have the same love for Spidey that he once had.
Spider-Man first encountered the alien symbiote when it merged with him on Battleworld during the Secret Wars maxiseries of the mid-1980s. (It also gave him cool black threads for a while.) When Spidey learned of its true origins, he rid himself of it, and the dark liquid mass quickly found a new best friend in the form of Brock, a newspaper reporter.
Designed by artist Todd McFarlane, Venom became an immediate hit in the comics world and the pre-eminent Spider-villain in 1988, and he’s been a consistent part of pop culture ever since.
“Everyone knows all the characters that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby co-created for Marvel, your Spider-Mans and your X-Mens and your Fantastic Fours,” Slott explains. “And then you look at who are the characters that have become wildly popular and stayed popular in the next age of Marvel Comics? They are few and far between. You’re looking at basically Wolverine and Venom. Like all superheroes, you do have to reinvent them for every generation.”
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