Venom (vol. 2) #21
Best Laid Plans…
At an abandoned shipyard in Staten Island, Crime-Master has just revealed to Betty Brant that he is her brother, Bennett Brant and promises that he will explain everything.[1] While outside, Agent Venom has used his symbiote to disguise himself as one of the guards and ambush them before going inside.
Inside, Betty can’t understand how Bennett survived getting shot. He is convinced that she saw him nothing more than a loser with a gambling addiction, but assures her that he has become something more. He explains that after he was shot he woke up in a secret morgue run by a mysterious organization that created the Crime-Master identity and chose individuals to be the Crime-Master of a given generation.[2] He was selected to be the new Crime-Master and he gloats over how much he has been able to accomplish in the time since his “death” and grew beyond the man he used to be. He tells her that he yearned to tell her that he was still alive and decided to finally reveal the truth once he convinced himself that Flash Thompson was trying to replace him in her life. That’s when one of the guards comes in and tells Bennett that Venom has arrived, prompting Crime-Master and Jack to prepare for the final battle.
Outside, Agent Venom is locked in battle with another member of the Savage Six, Megatak. Venom finds him outmatched by his foe’s computer generated powers. That’s when Toxin arrives and — claiming Venom for himself — rips off Digitak’s head causing the rest of his body to dissipate. Toxin then begins savagely attacking Agent Venom.[3] However, Flash tricks Toxin with a decoy and some smoke bombs before tossing thermite grenades at the symbiote. Since Eddie Brock didn’t ask to become Toxin, Flash yanks him out of Toxin’s symbiotic mass in an effort to safe his life. However, Toxin yanks Eddie back into him. As his body gets immolated, Brock curses Flash for allowing him to die.[4] Accepting the blame, but thinking there is nothing he can help with, Venom presses forward to find Betty.
Back in Crime-Master’s office, Betty tries to convince her brother not to hurt Flash. However, Bennett intends to eliminate Venom to strip away the last of her attachment to Thompson so he can make Betty the Crime-Mistress. They lead Betty into a room fill with massive chemical vats. There Venom tries to ambush his foes, but Jack O’Lantern flies up to him on his rocket-powered broomstick. The two clash, but ultimately, Jack gets knocked into a vat of chemicals. When Flash turns his attention to Crime-Master, Betty pleads with him not to hurt her brother. However, Venom refuses to let him live for what he has done. When he tries to attack Crime-Master, however, he discovers that his foe is armed with a gun that can fire both sonic waves and fire, the symbiote’s two weaknesses.
With Agent Venom at his mercy, Crime-Master is about to kill Flash when he is shot from behind by Betty. Bennett’s final words are about the special things he had planned for them before he falls into the vat of chemicals below them. Betty tells Flash that, as far as she was concerned, her brother had been dead for years.
In the aftermath of the battle, Flash is relieved that everyone he cares about is safe. Betty tells Flash not to blame himself because Bennett probably got to him through his obsession with her. However, she thinks Flash’s reasons for everything were selfish and in light of everything she has just learned she tells him that she never wants to see him again.
Later, Flash goes to the Avengers Lighthouse Station for a meeting with the Secret Avengers. They are not happy that he has been out of contact with them for so long. Flash admits that he had been lying and screwing things up from the beginning and decides to come clean with his teammates.
Recurring Characters
Agent Venom, Betty Brant, Savage Six (Crime-Master, Jack O’Lantern, Megatak, Toxin), Secret Avengers (Hawkeye, Black Widow, Valkyrie, Beast, Captain Britain)
Continuity Notes
Namely how he survived getting shot by Black Gaxton back in Amazing Spider-Man #11.
There have been two Crime-Masters before Bennett took on the mantle:
The first one was Nick Lewis who attempted to take control of the New York rackets from Amazing Spider-Man #26 until he was gunned down by the police in issue #27 of that series.
His successor was his son, Nick Lewis, Jr. who was active in Marvel Team-Up #39-40 and died in a clash with the second Big Man.
Bennett’s claims of there being a Crime-Master every generation, and the identity of his benefactors are (as I write this in October 2020) unverified.
A fourth crime master is later seen in Superior Spider-Man #22 who purchased the “franchise” from the Hobgoblin.
Toxin refers to the Venom symbiote as it’s “grandfather.” That’s not entirely accurate. The facts:
The Venom symbiote begat the Carnage symbiote in Amazing Spider-Man #345 and it bonded to Cletus Kasady. From there, Venom and Carnage referred to each other as “father” and “son”.
However, the original Carnage symbiote was consumed by Venom in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #10. Later, Kasady obtained an identical symbiote from the Negative Zone in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #14.
It was this symbiote that spawned the Toxin symbiote in Venom vs. Carnage #1. I’ve written at length about this at length here.
Although Eddie Brock and the Toxin symbiote appear to die here they are revealed to be alive in Venom (vol. 2) #30.
