Venom: The Hunted #2

Feb 22

Feb 22 Venom: The Hunted #2

The Stalking

Wanted for murder, Venom is on the run from the NYPD who have been sanctioned to use military-grade helicopters in order to bring him to justice. As Venom evades capture, Detectives Clark and Steen are processing the scene of the so-called "brain-eating killer's" latest victims, a woman named Zeena Hodges. While outside, Zeena's roommate Donna pulls up in a car with her friend George. Seeing the police presence, they deduce that Zeena was the latest victim of the killer and decide to keep hunting.

Meanwhile, Venom's attempt to flee the police has attracted the attention of a young group of skateboarders who decide to follow Venom to see what's going on. As Venom tries to tell the youths to go away, as they are putting themselves in harm's way, the Detectives are alerted of Venom's presence in the area and chase after him in their unmarked police car. As the chase continues, one of the skateboarders, named Binky, ends up in the path of an oncoming truck. Venom swoops in and pulls the kid to safety, even though this allows the detectives to catch up to him. Rolling under the truck, Venom wills his symbiote to disguise him as a skateboarder, using Binky's skateboarding gear to complete the disguise. Surprisingly, Eddie's disguise works, and he tricks the officers into thinking that Venom has escaped. Impressed by "Rad Eddie's" moves, the skateboarders tell him about a skateboard competition that is happening later that day. Hearing that there is a $500 award for the winner, Eddie decides to get involved since this will solve his current money problems.

Meanwhile, Donna and George sneak onto the crime scene and begin examining the situation. As it turns out, Donna, George, and Zeena are all hosts for symbiotes. While Donna's symbiote is the offspring of Venom, George and Zeena's symbiotes were refugees from the recent symbiote invasion of Earth.[1] Unable to control their emotions, the pair come to blows as they argue over what to do about the creature that has been killing people bonded to symbiotes. That's when they realize that the creature -- an alien being called the Xenophage -- is still hiding in the apartment. The pair are soon overpowered by the Xenphage as it tries to eat them as well.

At that moment, "Rad Eddie" easily wins the competition and the $500 prize. That's when Binky arrives and demands that Eddie return his skateboarding gear. Having taken a liking to it, Eddie uses some of his winnings to buy the equipment off Binky instead. That's when Detectives Steen and Clark arrive on the scene to question "Rad Eddie" again. Brock plays it cool, as the police officers are close to exposing his disguise. Thankfully for Eddie, Detective Steen gets a call from forensics who tell her that another body has turned up at the Zeena Hodge's murder scene, prompting the pair of detectives to rush back to the crime scene. Not wanting to lose their suspect, Clark puts "Rad Eddie" under arrest and places him in the back of their squad car. When the detectives go up to the apartment, they find George's dead body in the same state of Zeena's. Whoever killed both of them at their brains. While down on the street below, Eddie Brock decides to disguise himself as a uniformed police officer in order to learn what's going on. Unfortunately for Eddie, Detective Steen has put in a call to the mayor to get permission to initiate something called Operation: Decibel. All over the city, air raid sirens, church bells, and whistles cover the entire city in noise.[2]

This causes Venom such pain he is forced to drop his disguise. In his weakened state, the symbiote struggles to fight off officers trying to subdue him. When Detective Steen and Clark arrive and try to get control of the situation, they are confronted by the Xenphoage, who also has Donna as its prisoner.

Recurring Characters

Venom, Detectives Clark and Steen, Scream, Phage

Continuity Notes

Donna was bonded to her symbiote in Venom Lethal Protector #4, while the symbiote invasion occurred during the Planet of the Symbiote's event.
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline here. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. The original towers were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and have since been replaced by the Freedom Tower.

Bad Memory

The Jury has captured the symbiotic being known as Hybrid. Their technician, Olivia Lentz has begun bombarding Hybrid with sonic waves in order to separate the human from its symbiote, even though that this process will ultimately kill both. That's when they are stopped by Max Taylor, the man responsible for the Jury. He refuses to allow them to execute Hybrid without a trial and being found guilty, especially since Olivia's research into Hybrid is incredibly vague. With no other choice, Lentz orders the technicians to shut down the sonics. With the device shut down, the members of the Jury get a good look at the face under the Hybrid symbiote. As most of the Jury used to work at the Vault, they recognize Scott Washington as one of their fellow Guardsmen when they worked at the facility. With this recent revelation, Max Taylor tells Olivia that she has more work to do to figure out how Washington became Hybrid.

Meanwhile, Justice, Powerhouse, and Turbo of the New Warriors have answered a distress call from Dwight Simms, a friend of Scott Washington. He tells them that Hybrid has gone missing and they only trace of him is a portion of his symbiote that is just barely alive. Justice recalls how the symbiote can use segments of itself to act like homing devices and theorizes that it can be used in reverse. Suddenly, the mass of symbiotic material leaps out of Dwight's hand and attaches itself to Turbo's armor. From there it is able to tell her where Hybrid has been taken. With its task completed, the mass of symbiotic material falls of Turbo's headset and crumbles to dust on the ground.

While at the offices of Equity, Inc. Olivia Lentz and Max Taylor have gone over all of the information available about Hybrid. They have come to the conclusion that Hybrid is a hero that is trying to clean up one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Since Hybrid has not been involved in any crimes, Max tells Olivia that she has nothing on him and that they have to let him go. Soon the members of the Jury open Hybrid's containment cell in order to let him go. However, the Hybrid symbiote is disorientated and angry at its jailers and attacks the Jury. Grabbing Sentry, Hybrid then uses his weapons to attack the other members of the Jury. Inside, Scott Washington tries to get the symbiote under control, but the alien creature is too frenzied to listen.

That's when the New Warriors arrive on the scene and overpower the Jury, unaware that Hybrid is actually the real threat.