Venom (vol. 2) #22
Father’s Day
In the aftermath of his final battle with the Crime-Master, Agent Venom finds himself reflecting on the meaning of family. Thinking about his own he thinks how the “ideal family” was marketed to Americans for a decades and how his family was actually quite dysfunctional.[1] He recalls how he was abused by his father and how he channeled that rage to bully kids like Peter Parker at school. He also thinks how it didn’t take long for the son to act like the father when his own drinking problems affected the relationship he had with Betty Brant.[2]
This entire time, Flash has been tracking down Jack O’Lantern, who escaped the final battle with the Savage Six and has been committing a string of grisly murders. Arriving at the most recent scene, Flash uses his night vision goggles to see that Jack left him a trail to follow. As Flash follows this trail he thinks how the murders have all been leading up to Father’s Day, an intentional choice by a villain who knows his secret identity.[3]
This gets Flash thinking about his childhood. He remembers a day when he told his father how he was trading football cards with a friend and changed his mind about the trade, but his friend wouldn’t give him his cards back. Harrison Thompson decided to get involved because nobody screws his family. The drunk went outside and confronted Flash’s friend, a kid named David, and angrily took the cards from the boy. David then ran home to his father to tell him what happened. Harrison followed and challenged David’s father to fight him. When David’s father decided against it, Harrison then threw the football cards in Flash’s face and told him to be grateful because Harrison’s father would never have done such a thing for him when he was a kid.
Reflecting back on this, Flash recalls how he always defended his father’s behavior and how he thought maybe he deserved how he was treated. It’s taken a good part of Flash’s adult life to realize that there was nothing wrong with him, that his father was a sociopath who manipulated people’s emotions to get what he wants.
His mind drifts to back to another memory, this time from high school. Flash was on the phone bragging to Liz Allen about his football skills when his father came barging into his room furious that Flash got a speeding ticket and didn’t tell him about it. Flash tried to justify it but the elder Thompson was furious over the cost. Flash tried to get his father to back off and was punched in the face for raising his voice. Harrison then beat up his son as his wife, Rosie, watched from the bedroom door.
By this time, Flash has followed Jack O’Lantern’s trail into the sewers where he finds an access door marked with an x. Inside, Flash is horrified to see his father’s corpse — dressed in a police officer’s uniform — his hollowed out head glowing with the light of a candle. Jack, mocking Flash’s father, welcomes his “son” and slams the door behind him.
This causes the rest of Flash’s high school memory to come to the surface of his mind. He remembers crying in bed after his father beat him. His mother came in to check on him and she asked her why she allowed Harrison to beat him. Rosie tried to justify Harrison’s behavior, but when Flash tries to get her to see reason, Rosie shuts down the discussion telling him not to badmouth the man she married. She tells Flash that his father had a rough upbringing and walked out before he could see her tears.
Flash loses his temper and smashes the table set up in the room with his father’s corpse. This causes the cadaver to slump forward, revealing a time bomb seconds before it goes off. Another memory comes up in Flash’s mind. This time, Flash returned home to tell everyone he won the big game. Harrison acted disinterested, telling his son that his cousin graduated from med school and praised the boy for being a genius.
Pulling himself from the rubble, Venom is ambushed by Jack O’Lantern who mocks Flash about seeing his father again. This causes another memory to come up, this one is of the time when Harrison was beating of Flash’s sister Jesse for having a messy room. Flash pulled his father away and fought back against him. Giving in to his anger as he did back then, Flash recovers from the surprise attack and begins pummeling Jack. He admits that he has poison running through his veins but decides to not give into his anger this time, to choose a different path. Instead of beating Jack to death, Venom beats him into submission and takes him into custody.
After Jack has been locked up in the Raft, Flash decides to pay a visit to his teammates in the Secret Avengers to come clean with them. At that same time, Betty Brant is at home throwing out all of her photos of Flash. While at the Thompson family home, Rosie Thompson looks out of the window trying to process everything that has happened to her recently.
Later that night, Flash returns home and goes to bed thinking of a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson….
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Recurring Characters
Agent Venom, Jack O’Lantern, Betty Brant, Rosie Thompson, Human Fly, Secret Avengers (Hawkeye, Black Widow, Giant-Man, Valkyrie, Beast, Captain Britain), (in flashback) Harrison Thompson, Jesse Thompson
Continuity Notes
Flash recollects his father’s funeral here. Harrison Thompson was a life long alcoholic who died from cirrhosis of the liver in Venom (vol. 2) #7.
Flash also struggled with alcoholism starting in Spider-Man: Redemption #1. Betty and Flash dated on and off for years starting in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #90. Betty dealt with Flash’s alcoholism from Spectacular Spider-Man #246-250.
Flash recounts how Crime-Master kidnapped Jack O’Lantern when he was a kid and brainwashed him into thinking he was his son. For more on this see Venom (vol. 2) #11.
