Venom (vol. 2) #32
Toxic Lifestyle
Hitchhiking to Philadelphia, Eddie Brock dreams about when Crime-Master forcibly bonded him to the Toxin symbiote.[1] He is woken up by the trucker he is riding with that they are pulling in to Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Flash Thompson has gotten ready to face the day.[2] Since moving to Philadelphia he is still trying to figure out his life and decides to call Katy Keirnan for advice, but gets her voice mail. He considers calling his mother or Valkyrie, but decides against it. He decides that he’s just going to have to learn to make new friends.[3] He then thinks about how weird it would be giving an unfiltered run down of his life to someone. When he grabs a need containing the sedatives that he uses to keep the Venom symbiote under control and thinks about how Aaron MacKenzie first injected him with the drug way back in his days with Project Rebirth. He figures explaining that would be too weird for people to understand and he puts the needle in his backpack in case he needs it. As he leaves his apartment he decides to put off injecting himself with another dose because he’s convinced that he is still under control. However, he tries to ignore the police tape that is still hanging on his neighbor’s door.
Later, Flash arrives at West Philadelphia High School where he has taken up a job as assistant gym coach. When Coach Yates introduces Flash to his class, one of them makes a joke about Flash’s disability. This prompts Yates to tell his students that Flash is to be treated with respect. Left to teach the class, Flash recognizes some of the kids from outside of the school. One of the boys running laps is someone he saved from a gang as Agent Venom, while he sees a young girl who lives in his building.[4] He learns the girl in the building is named Andi and expresses his distaste for gym class and the school’s resident all-star, a jock named Darius Fowler.[5]
That evening, Flash goes out on patrol as Agent Venom, to try and found more of the experimental weapons that have gone missing in the city. At that moment, a strange hunchbacked man returns to his apartment with bags full of canned goods. He takes off his tench coat which reveals strange glass cylinders protruding from his back with strange tentacled creatures that are subsisting on him. He tries eating the canned food, but normal food doesn’t sate his hunger so he decides to feed on the people he has taken prisoner. However, before this ghoul can feed on one of his prisoners, Agent Venom arrives to save them. However, this man is far from normal as, when Venom tries to shoot him, he twists out of the way, revealing that he has cybernetic limbs that can stretch out of the way.
As the ghoulish man attacks him his mind drifts back to how he was captured by Vector of the U-Foes and had the cylinders on his back implanted against his will so the villain could find out what they do. Flash manages to throw this cybernetic horror off of him, but the ghoul manages to flee while Venom regains his footing. After freeing the ghoul’s would be victims before resuming his hunt for the strange cybernetic man.
Not far away, the ghoul searches for someone to eat and comes upon what appears to be a homeless man. However, this is actually Eddie Brock who can smell the stink of Venom on the cyborg and transforms into Toxin.
Recurring Characters
Agent Venom, Toxin, Andi Benton, (in flashback) Aaron MacKenzie, Vector
Continuity Notes
Brock was bonded to the Toxin symbiote in Venom (vol. 2) #17.
Flash refers to himself as a recovering alcoholic here. Flash has had a history with substance abuse dating back to Spider-Man: Redemption #1.
Flash mentions his recent battle with the U-Foes. See Venom (vol. 2) #28-30.
Flash met both of these teens in Venom (vol. 2) #31.
Andi asks Flash if he’s 40. Not quite. Assuming Flash is the same age as Peter Parker, according to Civil War #2, Flash was about fifteen years old or so when he first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, this would make Flash about 28 years old here.