Venom #18 — Nick Peron

Jun 6

Jun 6 Venom #18

Twist Part Five

At the Baxter Building, Patricia Robertson has been contained by the Fantastic Four in order to both contain the clone of the Venom symbiote bonded to her body and lure the real Venom to their headquarters to stop him as well. Surprisingly, when Venom crashes into their headquarters, the Fantastic Four flee. When Spider-Man tries to interfere, he discovers that his entrance into the building has been blocked by one of the Invisible Woman’s invisible force fields. They tell Spider-Man that they need to keep out of the way.

Moments later, Mister Fantastic and the Human Torch depart from the Baxter Building. Watching from the street is the mastermind behind all of this, the enigmatic man known only as Bob, and his two cloned assistants Frankie and Vic. When the two clones ask if they should take advantage of the situation, Bob suggests that they follow the Fantastic Four instead and set a trap for him.

Back on the roof, the Invisible Woman tries to explain to Spider-Man that they have the situation under control. However, Spider-Man insists that he needs to explain something to Reed. When the Thing tries to get rough, Spider-Man tosses him off the building, prompting the Invisible Woman to go after him. With Sue’s force-field down, the web-slinger leaps down to find Venom. Brock ambushes the web-slinger and then goes looking for Patricia Robertson.[1] However, when he opens the containment unit he discovers that it is empty.

Elsewhere, Patricia is released from her holding cell at one of the Fantastic Four’s various facilities. It appears that she has been freed by the man in black, who tells her that those who have contained her were intending on keeping her a prisoner indefinitely for experimentation and that she must now go back to the Baxter Building and deal with Venom, telling her that she’ll know what to do when she gets there. After Patricia leaves on one of the Fantastic Four’s sky-cycles, Bob drops his disguise and muses to Vic and Frankie how easy it is to manipulate Patricia. He then sends Frankie and Vic to watch the battle while he keeps Mister Fantastic and the Human Torch contained. He instructs them to wait for Patricia to battle Venom and then turn off the control collar again so that Patricia and Eddie’s symbiotes can merge.

Back at the Baxter Building, Venom is ambushed by the real man in black who intends to destroy him. However, Spider-Man snatches away his weaponized cell phone because he won’t let anyone get killed. The man in black is undaunted, saying nothing can stop him from completing his mission and then points out that the cell phone wasn’t the weapon but merely a conduit that channeled the power that resides in him. Watching this from above are the Thing and the Invisible Woman who cannot stand by and let Spider-Man get killed. Quick thinking, Sue puts an invisible force field around the man in black just as he is discharging his energy powers, incinerating himself in the process. Venom finds it amusing that he was saved by the Fantastic Four, however, he is quickly ambushed by Patricia in her symbiote form. As she attacks, Bob has the control collar deactivated and suddenly, the symbiote clone leaves Patricia and merges with the real one. Eddie Brock gloats that he has become so much more and then abruptly flees the scene.[2] When Vic and Frankie ask Bob what they should do next, he tells them that all they have to do now is wait.[3]

Recurring Characters

Patricia Robertson, Spider-Man, Venom, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), the man in black, Bob, Frankie, Vic

Continuity Notes

Venom refers to Spider-Man as Parker here. Although Eddie Brock learned Peter Parker’s double identity when he first bonded to the symbiote (as explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300) he lost this knowledge after a blow to the head in Spider-Man: The Venom Agenda #1. His utterance of Parker’s last name here could be considered an error. I think it was done intentionally so readers could tell the difference between Venom and Patricia Robertson.
Although the Venom symbiote appears to absorb the clone of itself, they remain separate entities and it will eventually return when it bonds to Andi Benton in Venom (vol. 2) #38. However, it is not identified as the clone of Venom until Absolute Carnage: Scream #1.
Bob’s plan, as a plot device, was dropped immediately after this story. One could simply write this off as an abandoned plot, but I’d say that maybe a writer hasn’t decided to do anything with it yet, keeping in mind it took them 20 years to start reintroducing some plot elements from this series.