Venom #14
Twist Part One
Nick Fury has his agents working on tracking the target. They report that they are having a hard time finding it when it suddenly appears.
In New York City, the man in black appears before Patricia Robertson, who is the current host for the clone of the Venom symbiote. He tells her that there has been a change of plan, pointing out two individuals standing on a nearby rooftop he tells her that they are being followed. These are two more clones of Vic and Frankie who are relaying the symbiote’s movement back to their master, the mystery man known only as Bob. He tells them to keep on following Robertson and call in if there are any changes. He then checks on two other clones of Frankie and Vic, who are working on the final touches on a massive space ship in the shape of an ark.
Meanwhile, a team of SHIELD agents have ducked into a local pub for a few drinks. One of the recent transfers, a gangly agent in glasses named Whittaker, isn’t sure that Nick Fury would like that they are drinking on the job. However, his superior explains that while they are drinking, Whittaker won’t because he’ll be paying for the drinks. That’s when they notice an attractive woman in a cowboy hat playing pool. When one of the other patrons messes up her shot by grabbing her ass, the bespectacled SHIELD agent decides to defend her honor. However, this woman is far from harmless. Learning who grabbed her ass, she throws the cue ball in his face and then starts beating up his friends with the pool cue. When Agent Whittaker arrives, he offers to buy her a drink. The woman tells him that she is already drunk and suggests that they go to his room instead.
A short time later, when the SHIELD team is called in, it appears that Agent Whittaker is among them, however, this is actually the woman he met in the bar in disguise. The real Agent Whittaker’s mangled corpse is lying on the side of his bed on top of a pile of the clothes the woman was wearing in the bar. Once they are aboard a transport, Nick Fury reminds them that they are the beta team and that they are only to there as back up for alpha team. He says that if anything comes up they are supposed to handle it without any surprises. After this, Fury begins briefing the alpha team on their target, the criminal known as Venom. He reminds them that Venom’s powers come from an alien symbiote. He details how their Poly-Acrylic Gel bullets work and how they are supposed to secure and contain the target. If they fail, however, they have a pod of nuclear-capable submarines that will nuke them if they fail to secure Venom, or if he manages to break free. With his briefing over, the SHIELD unit flies into the heart of Manhattan.
Moments later, Eddie Brock wakes up sensing danger and changes into Venom. That’s when SHIELD agents come crashing in under the cover of tear gas. When Venom tries to ambush them they quickly incapacitate their target with the gel bullets. As the agents are extracting Venom, Vic and Frankie are watching from a nearby rooftop. They are joined by Bob who is disguised as the man in black, as his spider-nanites revert him back to his original form, Bob tells the women to wait for a few more moments as he has tricked Patricia Robertson into attacking Venom. A few moments later, Patricia has incapacitated the SHIELD agents and control of the chopper. Dropping her Agent Whittaker disguise, Patricia begins opening fire on Nick Fury and the other agents on the rooftop. Fury fights back as Spider-Man arrives on the scene. The wall-crawler then uses his webbing to make the helicopter crash into the side of the building, making it explode.
Searching the rubble, Spider-Man finds who he thinks is Venom, but it is actually Patricia Robertson in her Venom form. Spider-Man realizes that he’s in real trouble when the real Venom appears behind him.[1]
Recurring Characters
Patricia Robertson, Venom, Spider-Man, SHIELD (Nick Fury), Bob, Vic, Frankie
Continuity Notes
Interestingly, Venom calls Spider-Man by his last name here. Eddie Brock has known Spider-Man’s secret identity since first bonding with the alien symbiote as we learned in Amazing Spider-Man #299-300. However, following Spider-Man: The Venom Agenda #1, Brock suffered a head injury making him forget Peter Parker’s secret identity. On the one hand, this could be simply dismissed as an error. However, I’d like to think that the writer did this intentionally so readers could tell the difference between Eddie Brock and Patricia Robertson when both are in their Venom forms.
