Flashpoint

Agent Venom has been deployed on his first mission. He is dropped off on the roof of Future Plaza, the third tallest building in the nation of Madripoor. Breaking into the building, Flash webs up the cameras and then orders the symbiote to take on the form of a tuxedo. He reports back to his handlers — Kate Glover, Aaron MacKenzie, and General Brad Dodge — to tell them that he has made it inside. Kate tells Flash to stop making sports metaphors and reminds him to stay focused, reminding him that when he is in the field he is referred to as Agent Venom and that his cover for the party he is infiltrating is Gene Heisman.

He meets with Kate inside the party, who reminds Flash that she is there to monitor the symbiote and that at the first sign that he is losing control of the alien she has orders to activate a kill switch to fry them both. She brings “Gene Heisman” to the party which is part of a summit for the biggest names that run the global economy. She singles out one woman, Bianca Demonico, who is believed to be a member of the terrorist organization known as ULTIMATUM. Agent Venom’s mission is to trail her in the hopes that she leads them to Flag-Smasher, the leader of ULTIMATUM. As they mingle with the crowd, Flash draws the attention of Demonico who asks him to dance. As they take to the dance floor, Thompson uses his symbiote to secretly inject a tiny tracking device on Bianca so he can track her later.

Flash makes it back to the lab before the 48 hour time limit is up. As they prepare to remove the symbiote, Flash is unnerved that General Dodge’s dog, Samson, is growing at him again. Aaron MacKenzie activates the sonic device that separates the symbiote from Flash’s body and confirms that it is 100% removed. Once the symbiote is contained again, Samson becomes friendly toward Flash again. Flash is then sent home, and reminded that he only has 19 missions left as Agent Venom before he is retired out. Flash returns to his apartment in Brookyln where he anxiously waits for word about his next mission. That’s when his girlfriend Betty Brant returns home upset because she just heard the news that Marla Madison, J. Jonah Jameson’s wife, had just died.[1]

Forgetting he doesn’t have his legs without the symbiote, Flash tries to get out of his wheelchair to comfort her and falls onto the floor.[2] As Betty rushes to his aid, he apologizes, telling her that sometimes he still forgets that he doesn’t have any legs and tells her that if there is anything he can do to name it. Betty tells Flash that he should take to Peter Parker, who has been taking Marla’s death pretty hard for some reason and maybe he can find out what’s wrong. When Flash arrives outside of Peter’s new apartment in Tribeca the doorman tells him that Peter had taken a lady friend over to the Coffee Bean.

Flash assumes that the doorman means Peter’s new girlfriend, Carlie Cooper, however he discovers that Peter is actually out with his ex, Mary Jane Watson.[3] Unable to hear what Peter and Mary Jane (MJ is trying to convince Peter that Marla’s death wasn’t Spider-Man’s fault) he wonders why Peter is going to his ex instead of his current girlfriend for comfort. As Flash is trying to make sense of this scene his phone rings. Wheeling somewhere secure, Thompson answers the call from General Dodge. He is informed that of the people at the summet, an oil magnate named Yusef Kassim was kidnapped by ULTIMATUM who took him to Uzbekistan and they need Agent Venom to extract Kassim.

Agent Venom is quickly flown to Uzbekistan in a brand new F-119 Sky Spider and is air dropped. Before he leaves, Captain Glover reminds him that after extracting Kassim they are to meet up at the mobile symbiote extraction unit to ten miles away to have the alien removed from his body. Once on the ground outside ULTIMATUM’s hideout, Agent Venom uses his multi-gun to snipe a number of the guards with tranquilizer darts. As Agent Venom works his way inside, Flag-Smasher and Bianca continue to torture Yusef Kassim in the hopes he will give up the codes to his bank accounts, an effort by ULTIMATUM to bankrupt the middle easterner’s oligarchy and cripple the global economy. That’s when an ULTIMATUM operative comes rushing in to warn Flag-Smasher that someone knocked the guards.

As Flash-Smasher seals the room, Agent Venom drops his disguise and thanks Bianca for the dance before knocking out the guards and freeing Yusef. As they try to flee, Flag-Smasher tosses a grenade at Venom. The blast disorientates Flash and thinking they blew off his legs he becomes angry. This allows the symbiote to take full control and it resumes its standard configuration and slaughters the soldiers. When Flag-Smasher threatens to blow up the whole building with a detonator, Venom bites his arm off and spits it out. All of this horror is witnessed by Yusef Kassim who is terrified by the creature that has bee nsent to save him.

Flash is back to normal by the time he gets Yussif to the extraction point. There he is told communications went out for a while and they were unable to monitor him in the field. When Kate asks if he “Venomed out”, Flash glances at Yussif who denies seeing anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, the mobile extraction unit is not working and they need to rush Flash back to Washington to do the separation. As usualy, Samson growls at Flash until the symbiote is removed, this time they contain 99% of the creature. Flash tells them that he is in it for the long haul when they tell him he only has 18 missions left. After he leaves, Aaron is a little disturbed that when Flash was talking he couldn’t take his eyes off the symbiote.

When Thompson returns to his apartment he finds Betty there and she is upset with him for missing Marla Madison’s funeral and not talking to Peter Parker. Flash apologizes, saying he was away on a job for Veteran Affairs and promises he’ll do more to be a better boyfriend to her and a better friend to everyone else. As he hugs Betty, Flash thinks about how Peter has been keeping secrets and makes a point to talk to him before he ruins everything for himself, oblivious to the irony that he’s doing the exact same thing.

Recurring Characters

Agent Venom, ULTIMATUM (Flag-Smasher), Brad Dodge, Kate Glover, Aaron MacKenzie, Samson, Betty Brant, Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson

Continuity Notes

1. Marla was murdered by the Spider-Slayer last issue. That was also when Flash was first bonded to the Venom symbiote as well, just in case you were wondering.

2. Did you forget that Flash lost his legs in the military? Well that happened in Amazing Spider-Man #574.

3. Peter and Mary Jane have been broken up since Amazing Spider-Man #545. Peter just recently started dating Carlie Cooper in Amazing Spider-Man #647. The reason Peter is confiding in MJ instead of Carlie is because Mary Jane is one of the only non-superheroes that still know Peter is Spider-Man post-Amazing Spider-Man #545.

Coming Up in Amazing Spider-Man

Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, addresses the reader and tells them about how complicated his life is about to get. He talks about how his “friendly neighborhood” is expanding to include both Avengers Mansion and the Baxter Building.[1] However, it also includes gang-land territories,[2] and even outer-space even though that doesn’t seem right to him.[3] He next shows the reader a scene where Mary Jane is clinging to a wall asking Peter what he has done and admits that things are going to get a little weird.[4] When he shows everyone a scene of Norah Winters kissing the Hobgoblin, he admits that things are actually going to get freaky.[5] On top of all of this, Peter will finally learn the identity of the mysterious sixth scientist that has been working in secret at Horizon Labs.[6] Spider-Man now finds himself fighting with the Sinister Six alongside the Black Cat and Agent Venom and thinks about how a year that started off so great turned into something so sinister. As he says this, Doctor Octopus looms over the planet Earth.[7]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Future Foundation (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing), Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye), New Avengers (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Wolverine, Spider-Woman, Power Woman), Shang Chi, Mister Negative, Anti-Venom, the Hood, Madame Masque, Mary Jane Watson, Norah Winters, Hobgoblin, Morbius the Living Vampire (unidentified), Black Cat, Agent Venom, Sinister Six (Doctor Octopus, Chameleon, Electro, Mysterio, Rhino, Sandman)

Continuity Notes

1. At the time of this story, Spider-Man is part of three different teams: The Avengers, the New Avengers, and is about to join the Future Foundation. Spider-Man has been a long-standing member of the New Avengers since its formation in New Avengers #1, he was recruited into the original Avengers team when it was reformed in Avengers (vol. 4) #1, he will later join the Future Foundation in Amazing Spider-Man #658/FF #1.

2. This scene depicts Mister Negative presiding over the seemingly dead body of Anti-Venom. This is alluding to the events of Amazing Spider-Man #663-664.

3. This outer space scene features Spider-Man alongside the Hood and Madame Masque, this is from the Infinity Quest story arc that runs from Avengers (vol. 4) #7-12

4. Mary Jane gaining spider-powers is alluding to the upcoming Spider-Island story arc which will run from Amazing Spider-Man #666-673.

5. This is a bit of a red herring. Norah Winters does end up kissing the Hobgoblin but in his civilian identity of Phil Urich as we’ll see in Spider-Island: Deadly Foes #1. She won’t actually learn that he is the Hobgoblin until his identity is exposed in Superior Spider-Man #16.

6. It turns out to be Morbius the Living Vampire as we’ll see in Amazing Spider-Man #671. However, Peter won’t learn this until Amazing Spider-Man #679.1. The depiction of his discovery here is another red herring. In the actual story where Peter learns the truth he is snooping around in Horizon Lab’s ventilation system as Spider-Man.

7. This is alluding to the Ends of the Earth story arc which will take place in Amazing Spider-Man #682-687. Although this scene features Agent Venom and the Black Cat fighting along Spider-Man, this is another misdirection for readers, in the actually story he teams-up with the Black Widow and Silver Sable.