The Unwanted

Agent Venom has tracked down the U-Foes to a warehouse in Philadelphia filled with fringe technology. However, in an effort to free their guinea pigs, which include his reporter friend Katy Kiernan, Flash loses control of the Venom symbiote. Venom takes out the armed guards, leaving only the U-Foes, who despite their bravado are starting to become afraid of their foe.

Flash doesn’t fully understand the symbiote but hopes that unleashing the creature, which has also been possessed by a demon, will give him the edge he needs.[1] The tide of the battle begins to turn as the symbiote begins using its tendrils to take control of the armed guards and make them fight against their employers.

By this point, Venom’s teammate Valkyrie wakes up and is shocked by the carnage that is on display. Still, she follows Venom’s orders and free Katy Kiernan from a device that both reads her mind and entrances those it is used upon. Since she has no way of knowing how to shut the device down, Valkyrie uses her sword to smash the device instead. Katy then helps Valkyrie rescue the other prisoners and evacuate them through the portal that Valkyrie used to get past the interdimensional barrier placed around the warehouse to keep them trapped inside. Meanwhile, Ironclad manages to restrain Venom, but this doesn’t prevent the symbiote’s thralls from reaching the teleporter and sending the U-Foes away, ending the battle as quickly as it began.

In the aftermath of the battle, Valkyrie and Katy are calming the survivors when suddenly Agent Venom teleports back to the scene. Back under control of the symbiote, he tells his friends that he doesn’t know where the U-Foes are, but he is certain he sent them packing. At that same moment, the four villains are trapped in a strange void.

Later, Flash is on the rooftops with Valkyrie and Katy, blaming himself for not being able to save people since it was the symbiote and the demon that share his body that managed to save the day. Valkyrie points out that Flash still played his part by being the host to the entities that eventually saved everyone. Katy also tells Flash that he is needed in Philadelphia because more of the strange technology is out on the streets. Flash understands that the responsibility falls on him and he has to take on this job alone. As it turns out, the two women he was speaking with were merely constructs created by the symbiote so Flash could convince himself that this is going to be his new home. Flash realizes that this is the fresh start he has been looking for and tells the symbiote and demon that he shares his body with that they are going to have a talk one of these days.

While back in Brooklyn, a SWAT team has come upon a house and force their way inside. There they are shocked to see a pile of corpses, the remains of Crime-Master’s gang. The killer is none other than Eddie Brock who comes down from the ceiling wrapped in his symbiote. When one of the officers calls him Venom, he tells the offices that he now calls himself Toxin before slaughtering them all as well.[2]

Recurring Characters

Agent Venom, U-Foes (Vector, Vapor, X-Ray, Ironclad), Valkyrie, Katy Kiernan, Toxin, Aragorn

Continuity Notes

1. Flash and the Venom symbiote were possessed by a demon which has become trapped inside their body. For more on this see Venom (vol. 2) #23-25.

2. Brock was bonded to the Toxin symbiote and joined up with Crime-Master’s Savage Six. He was last seen appearing to get immolated to death. See Venom (vol. 2) #17-21.

Errors

• The SWAT team that storm the house in Brooklyn at the end of this story are incorrectly drawn with badges that identify them as members of the Philadelphia’s police department. This was clearly an error.