Agent Venom, reporting for duty!
Venom (Vol. 2) is a 2011 - 2013 superhero comic series by Marvel Comics, co-written by Rick Remender and Cullen Bunn. Following Flash Thompson becoming the host of the Venom symbiote in Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man #654, it spans a total of 42 issues, making it the longest-running Venom comic until it was surpassed by Venom (Vol. 4) in 2021.Initially regarded with uncertainty by the fanbase, Agent Venom quickly became a fan-favorite and would go on to join the Secret Avengers, star in the 2012 reboot of the Thunderbolts as part of the Marvel NOW! publishing initiative, cross over with the Superior Spider-Man (2013), and eventually join the Guardians of the Galaxy leading into 2015's Venom: Space Knight. The run — with the addition of crossovers and concurrent series featuring Agent Venom — consists of:
- Venom (Vol. 2) #1 - #42 by Rick Remender and Cullen Bunn; art by Tony Moore, Tom Fowler, Stefano Caselli, Lan Medina, Lee Garbett, Sana Takeda, Julian Tedesco, Kev Walker, Robert Atkins, Declan Shalvey, Thony Silas, Marco Checchetto, Roger Robinson, Pepe Larraz, Kim Jacinto, Mike Henderson, and Jorge Coelho
- Minimum Carnage crossover with Scarlet Spider Vol. 2 by Christopher Yost and Cullen Bunn; art by Lan Medina, Declan Shalvey, and Khoi Pham
- Carnage U.S.A. miniseries by Zeb Wells, art by Clayton Crain
- Secret Avengers #23 - #37 by Rick Remender, art by Gabriel Hardman
- Thunderbolts Vol. 2 #1 - #23 by Daniel Way, art by Steve Dillon
Venom (Vol. 2) provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Remender and Bunn had drafted plans for Venom Vol. 3 that included a "War for the Symbiotes" arc that would resolve the "Spawning" plot-point,note and the "Descent" plot-point that would deal with Andi Benton's Hell-Mark. However, Marvel kiboshed these plans by giving Agent Venom over to Brian Michael Bendis for Guardians of the Galaxy, and Mike Costa writership of Venom Vol. 3. Thus far, both plot points remain unresolved.
- Abusive Parents: The third arc has Flash struggling to deal with his physically and emotionally abusive father, who is revealed to be terminally ill.
- Anti-Hero: As Agent Venom, Flash was a Military Superhero who would be sent on missions by the government, and wasn't afraid to use lethal force if need-be but generally tried to emulate his longtime hero Spider-Man. However, his occasional relapses into alcoholism, issues regarding his terminally-ill father, and failing relationship with Betty Brant led him to go AWOL in the wake of Spider-Island. Flash ultimately repudiated using lethal force unless absolutely necessary, and tried to coach his protege Mania to avoid killing as well.
- Arch-Enemy: The new Jack O'Lantern quickly shapes up to be the Green Goblin to Agent Venom's Spider-Man, gleefully threatening his loved ones and going out of his way to taunt Flash over his numerous personal problems.
- Back for the Dead: It's revealed that Betty Brant's older brother, Bennett Brant, is not only still alive but has become the newest incarnation of the Crime Master in the years following his apparent death. Betty is disgusted by her brother's descent into villainy, and kills him herself to save Flash.
- Bio-Armor: As Agent Venom, the symbiote takes on the appearance of military body armor, and Depending on the Artist also adopts a biomechanical appearance.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Crime Master blackmails Flash into helping Jack O'Lantern steal the Toxin symbiote from Blackheart by threatening his loved ones.
- Captured Super-Entity:
- The Venom symbiote has been captured by the US army and dosed with tranquillizers meant to chemically lobotomize it. Toxin and Carnage both mock it for having "lost its fangs", though it seeks to overcome the chemicals and rampage once-more.
- Blackheart killed Patrick Mulligan off-panel and took the Toxin symbiote for himself, intending to use it for his own nefarious purposes.
- Deal with the Devil: Agent Venom, Red Hulk, X-23, and Ghost Rider (Alejandra Jones) bargain with Mephisto to be resurrected in return for taking down Blackheart during the "Circle of Four" mini-arc. Mephisto surreptitiously bestows the four with Hell-Marks, making them potential successors in the event of the Descent.
- Demonic Possession:
- Following the events of "Circle of Four", Daimon Hellstrom — or rather, an evil clone of his — allies with the Department of Occult Armaments and helps them develop machines that mass-produce possessed humans. While investigating the DOA, Agent Venom is doused in demonic essence and possessed by a demon. The demon panics upon realizing it's possessed someone with a Hell-Mark and wants to be exorcised from Flash, though it and the symbiote strike up a brief Villainous Friendship by working together to overcome their respective impediments to taking over Flash's body.
- To fight Agent Venom, Daimon Hellstrom summons the Monsters of Evil — a group of monsters who have been possessed by demons. After Flash ends up being possessed, Hellstrom reveals his intent to to induct Venom into the Monsters of Evil as well. Mephisto later gifts the Monsters of Evil to Andi Benton, who uses them to fight the DOA.
- Destructive Romance: Flash loves Betty Brant, but is under orders to keep his activities as Agent Venom a secret. This — coupled with Flash's lingering trauma and anger issues involving his father — leads to them breaking up.
- Enemy Mine:
- Flash's relationship with the Venom symbiote consists of this for much of the series. Despite him initially revelling in the power it gives him (and eventually becoming addicted to it), Flash soon comes to realize that being a hero puts his loved ones in constant jeopardy dread the symbiote's bloodlust making him do something he'll regret. The symbiote deeply resents Flash suppressing it with drugs, and tries to leave him for Eddie Brock and Kaine Parker.
- The Crime Master blackmails Agent Venom into going AWOL and working with Jack O'Lantern to steal the Toxin symbiote from Blackheart, with Jack going out of his way to gleefully sledgehammer Flash's Trauma Buttons.
- Eddie Brock agrees to a temporary alliance with the Toxin symbiote for the purpose of killing Agent Venom, but once Flash manages to talk him down Eddie agrees to give Flash the opportunity to prove himself a hero. Flash's words to Eddie also inspire him to re-evaluate and embrace his relationship with the Toxin symbiote, as in Carnage Vol. 2 his new look apes off Agent Venom's.
- Evil Counterpart: Eddie Brock as both Anti-Venom and Toxin considers Flash — or rather, the Venom symbiote — to be this to himself, one of the reasons why he's initially hellbent on killing him. Flash delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech where he points out that he is The Fettered as he has people he cares about and wants to protect, whereas Brock was The Unfettered as Venom and is hypocritically lying to himself about the nature of his bond with Toxin.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Even though Flash tries to keep his activities as Venom strictly heroic, he's saddled with the symbiote's bloodlust and reputation for eating people. This leads to him getting into fights with various superheroes — including his idol Spider-Man and Captain America.
- Hulking Out: When Flash lost control of the symbiote, it would often ditch the Bio-Armor aesthetics and adopt a massive bulky form similar to Mac Gargan's monstrous Venom form, though it would sometimes straight-up adopt Eddie's Venom form as well.
- Inappropriately Close Comrades: Flash strikes up a surreptitious on-off relationship with Valkyrie as a member of the Secret Avengers, though they ultimately break up after Flash is used as a Honey Trap to steal her magic sword in Thunderbolts Vol. 2.
- I Have Your Wife: After figuring out that Agent Venom is Flash Thompson, the terrorist crime-lord Crime Master sends Jack O'Lantern to kidnap Betty Brant as punishment for Flash meddling in his affairs. While Agent Venom — or rather, Spider-Man — is able to rescue her, Crime Master uses his knowledge of Flash's secret identity to blackmail him on multiple occasions by threatening his loved ones.
- Intrepid Reporter: New character Katy Kiernan is introduced as a reporter investigating the Department of Occult Armaments, and strikes up an alliance with Agent Venom after he moves to Philly — though he accuses her of being an Immoral Journalist a couple of times. Despite a bit of Ship Tease between them, nothing happens and she disappears after the series ends.
- Kid Hero: Andi Benton is introduced as a lackadaisical punk girl who is a student at the high-school Flash becomes a gym teacher at. After Agent Venom accidentally bonds her to the Venom symbiote's clone, she becomes the anti-heroine Mania — as well as Flash's protege and surrogate daughter.
- Legacy Character:
- Flash Thompson becomes the host of the Venom symbiote as the military super-soldier Agent Venom.
- Eddie Brock becomes the unwilling second host of the Toxin symbiote, initially being controlled by it before returning to his Lethal Protector persona.
- The latest Crime Master is revealed to be a legacy of supervillain crime-lords, with the latest inheritor being Bennett Brant.
- The Jack O'Lantern claims to have killed the prior users of his codename.
- Let's You and Him Fight:
- Agent Venom comes to blows with Spider-Man while both of them are searching for Betty Brant, who was kidnapped by Jack O'Lantern and Crime Master. Flash's fear and rage let the Venom symbiote take over, and Spider-Man assumes that Venom is responsible and attacks him — the berserk symbiote trying to kill its one-time host not helping matters. This puts a bit of strain on Flash and Peter's friendship despite neither knowing the other's secret identity.
- In the Spider-Island tie-in, Flash is sent to bring in Anti-Venom so that his symbiote can be used to make a cure for the Spider-Virus. Anti-Venom attacks Agent Venom on-sight seeking to purge the Venom symbiote, which goes berserk and tries to take him over. It nearly succeeds in doing so and Flash almost lets it, but realizes that he'd be failing his mission and putting the lives of millions at-risk if he did so, and talks it into relinquishing Eddie and returning to him.
- In the "Minimum Carnage" crossover with Scarlet Spider Vol. 2, Kaine attacks Venom on-sight thinking he's involved with Carnage. The Venom symbiote promptly goes berserk and then tries to ditch Flash to take over Kaine, leading to an uneasy alliance between the two once Flash gets it under control.
- Magic Enhancement: After Circle of Four, Flash is imbued with the demonic Hell-Mark, a pentagram sigil that indicates his status as a potential successor for Mephisto. This lets him control lesser demons and demonically-enhanced creatures like the Monsters of Evil, and his protege Mania — who it's passed down onto — learns how to use it to conjure hellfire.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Flash being forced to keep his activities as Agent Venom a secret causes his relationship with Betty Brant to deteriorate, and when she finally finds out what he's really been up to she breaks up with him.
- Military Superhero: After being stripped from Mac Gargan in the wake of Siege, the Venom symbiote was used in a Super-Soldier program called Project Rebirth 2.0. The initial recruit, Cal Hendricks, lost control of the symbiote and was terminated, but Flash — at times barely managed to keep the symbiote's bloodlust in-check before going AWOL in the wake of Spider-Island. After being recruited into the Secret Avengers. He also joined Red Hulk's Thunderbolts'', but the team's willingness to use lethal force made it harder for him to suppress the symbiote so he ended up quitting.
- More Powered Protégé: While Agent Venom and Mania both share the same basic power-set, Andi Benton inherits the Hell-Mark that the Venom symbiote had been given by Mephisto and can use it to conjure hellfire and control demons.
- Off the Wagon: Flash's brutal realization that being a superhero isn't all sunshine and rainbows leads to him relapsing into alcoholism following being blackmailed by the Crime Master into going AWOL. He eventually picks himself back up following the Circle of Four, when he becomes a member of the Secret Avengers.
- Pet the Dog: Mephisto is impressed by Andi Benton's spunk enough that he gifts her the Monsters of Evil and helps her and Agent Venom fight off the DOA, who are confused as to why their master has turned on them.
- Promotion to Parent: The series ends with Flash thinking to himself that he never wanted to become a father out of fear that he'd just end up like his dad, but admitting that he's come to see Andi Benton as a surrogate daughter. Andi — for all her griping and snapping that Flash —
- Puppeteer Parasite:
- After being forcibly bonded to the Toxin symbiote, Eddie Brock is initially taken over by it and recruited into Crime Master's Savage Six. After both of them are nearly immolated by Agent Venom, Eddie and Toxin strike an Enemy Mine to hunt down Agent Venom together.
- The Symbiote Slayers that Agent Venom and Toxin are forced to ally against are biomechanical alien parasites that function similarly to symbiotes — bonding to hosts and turning them into predatory cyborgs.
- Reformed Bully: Flash bullied Peter Parker and several other kids in high-school — venting his anger towards his abusive father on them — and now feels guilty and ashamed over his actions. While Peter reconciles with him and affirms their friendship, another former victim isn't so forgiving. As a gym teacher, Flash sees his childhood self in a boy named Darius Fowler, and puts him in his place with a symbiote-enhanced dodgeball throw.
- Rage Breaking Point: In the wake of Spider-Island, Agent Venom — who has already had a long and rather bad day — comes across C-list supervillain the Hijacker taking advantage of the chaos to rob banks with nigh-impunity. Agent Venom steps in to stop him after he crushes a security guard with his tank, and the Hijacker accidentally runs over a mother and her young son. Flash cuts the symbiote loose, and Venom brutalizes the Hijacker, and bites his head off.Flash Thompson: The moment — it hangs — FROZEN — for a million years. Won't go away. The moment hangs there.
Venom Symbiote: Then we wake up. - Resist the Beast: With the Venom symbiote a bloodthirsty carnivorous monster from its time with Mac Gargan, Flash has to dope it up with specially-made tranquilizers to keep it from taking over him and going on a feeding frenzy. However, the symbiote suppressant serum is ineffective at best — letting the symbiote take over if Flash gives into his anger issues.
- Superpowered Evil Side: The Venom symbiote acts as one for Flash, seeking to overcome the tranquillizers it's been dosed with and go on a feeding frenzy; though a few times he cuts it loose on-purpose either out of desperation or out of sheer rage.
- To Serve Man: The Venom symbiote very much wants to go on feeding frenzies, though Agent Venom usually spits out any body parts he bites off. Toxin devours the Symbiote Slayers' original host to prove a point to Flash, and the Symbiote Slayers themselves are ravenous Eating Machines.
- Villainous Friendship: Flash speculates that the Venom symbiote and the demon stuck in him by the DOA are working together to overcome their respective impediments to taking over his body. If this was the cse, however, it's short-lived as the Venom symbiote excises the demon along with the Hell-Mark — jettisoning both into its clone from Venom Vol. 1.
