Venom: Tooth and Claw #3

Feb 22

Feb 22 Venom: Tooth and Claw #3

To Do and Die!

Wolverine, Venom, and Emmett -- the office boy of Landau, Luckman, and Lake -- have entered the dimension that is home of Chimera. They have not only come to stop Chimera but her ally Dirt Nap and save their prisoners. They soon come upon Dirt Nap, who is in the form of a boy he absorbed sometime earlier on Earth and has been strung upside down by Chimera.[1] Dirt Nap pleads to Wolverine to cut him down, however, the mutant refuses to do so unless Dirt Nap agrees to release the child. As they discuss terms, Chimera watches from the shadows with a group of Plasma Wraiths. She orders them to hold back until she is certain that Wolverine and Venom have completely fallen into her trap. In the crook of her arm, Chimera holds the condensed Phage ship which holds Jerry and Rocky -- two skateboarders who are friends with Eddie Brock -- a prisoner. Although they are trapped, thanks to Chimera's powers, they are prepared to act if she somehow loosens their hold.

By this point, Venom is growing impatient and insists that they just kill Dirt Nap and be done with it. However, Wolverine doesn't want to kill their foe until the boy trapped inside him is freed. This causes the pair to come to blows, and Chimera tells her minions to wait until she can determine that this is not a ruse. Convinced that Wolverine and Venom are legitimately fighting, she orders the Plasma Wraiths to attack. However, it really was a trick, the fight allowing Emmett to sneak up behind Chimera and the Wraiths and ambush them with photon grenades. This makes Chimera drop the Phage ship, allowing Emmett to recover it. Unfortunately, this does nothing to phase Chimera who then uses her powers to make a number of hooked chains restrain and eviscerate Wolverine. Meanwhile, Venom and Emmett deal with the Plasma Wraiths. That's when Wolverine breaks free from his chains and lunges at Chimera. At that moment, Venom remembers that they still have Dirt Nap to deal with. When he threatens to kill Dirt Nap, the villain takes on the form of Donna Diego -- a fellow symbiote -- and reminds Venom that she is trapped inside his body as well. However, in taking her form, Donna is able to reassert some control over herself and begins fighting Dirt Nap's control.

Still, Venom lunges in and begins attacking Dirt Nap, even if it means killing both Donna and the boy trapped inside. Seeing this, Wolverine tries to tell the symbiote to stop, leaving him open for attack from Chimera. At that very moment, the Plasma Wraiths have reformed themselves and await Chimera's commands. That's when Emmett gets the drop on Venom, threatening to shoot the symbiote in the head if he doesn't stop. This turns out to be a hollow threat to Venom who easily swats the heavily armed office boy aside. Wolverine is unable to stop Venom because he is too busy fighting off the Plasma Wraiths once more. Still, he pleads to Venom to not kill Dirt Nap until they free the boy trapped inside. Unfortunately, Venom continues to fight, and ultimately Dirt Nap is forced to purge Donna from his system as he cannot absorb symbiotes for very long. While Emmett helps Wolverine with the last of the Plasma Wraiths, Chimera manages to getaway. Dirt Nap also tries to flee, but he is rounded up by Donna. Furious that Venom continues to disobey his orders, Logan is about to attack him again. However, Venom explains that he only fought Dirt Nap in order to force him to free Donna. With Donna's tendril's wrapped around his throat, Dirt Nap is forced to expunge every being he has absorbed. This includes the young boy --Algernon --, an NSA agent named Darryl Banks, and a rat. This forces Dirt Nap to resume his natural form.

While everyone is comparing notes, Chimera returns and tosses a bunch of Lipton Importers to turn this dimension into a massive black hole. As everyone scrambles to avoid getting sucked into the black hole, both Chimera and Dirt Nap get sucked in. Meanwhile, Jerry and Rocky manage to engage the Phage ship and rescue the others. However, in their escape, the heroes find themselves somewhere in deep space. A solution to get home quickly presents itself when Darryl Banks points out that this ship could pilot itself to symbiote targets entered into the computer. As such, when they pull up the file on Carnage, the ship makes a faster-than-life jump back to Earth. Despite their victory, Wolverine and Venom are still at odds with each other and are about to come to blows when the others convince the two to stop playing off each other's massive egos.