Spider-Island Part Two

This story continues from Amazing Spider-Man #669….

Manhattan is under quarantine after the citizens have started to get spider-powers. A father watches the news about latest developments he becomes concerned when Mister Fantastic of the Future Foundation tells residents have begun mutating into spider-like creatures. He also hears about how someone is administering a cure at Our Lady of Saints Chruch. Checking on his daughter, Sam, the man is shocked to see that she has started to mutate. He rushes her down to Our Lady of Saints where Anti-Venom has been using his symbiote to cure people. Seeing the state of the little girl, Anti-Venom sees her right away and the people gather celebrate when he succeeds in restoring the little girl back to her human form.

While in Central Park, a clone of Miles Warren walks through the chaotic scene in order to get to the hideout of his master the Jackal, and his associate the Queen.[1] The Warren clone tells the Queen about Anti-Venom and how he is curing people. The Queen decides that this won’t do and orders someone to do something about it. Disguised as the Spider-King, Agent Venom offers to go and deal with it. Once out of the Queen’s hideout, Agent Venom drops his disguise and reports back to his handles, Kate Glove, Aaron MacKenzie, and General Brad Dodge. MacKenzie is interested in hearing more about this alleged cure.[2] Araron then relays this information to Mister Fantastic. Richards agrees that if Eddie Brock is able to cure people they need to secure him right away. MacKenzie assures Reed that they have someone on the case.

Meanwhile, Betty Brant is at the hospital with Flash’s father, Harrison Thompson, who is dying of cirrhosis of the liver. She calls Flash to tell him that his father is fading fast and he needs to get there quick. Flash, whose activities as Agent Venom are secret to even Betty, tells her that he’s trying to get there as soon as he can. She knows that they have had a bad history, but she knows that Flash will regret it if he doesn’t make peace with his father before he dies.[3] Hanging up the phone as he approaches the church, Flash sarcastically itemizes all the things he could thank his father for, from the years of alcoholism to the beatings he received as a child.

Inside, Anti-Venom continues to heal those infected with the spider-plague, even though it is making him weaker with each cure given. Disguising himself among those who have flocked to worship Eddie Brock. He works his way through the crowd intending to shoot Brock with a tranquilizer in order to bring him to Horizon Labs. However, the Venom symbiote becomes deeply upset over Brock abandoning it. Before he can act, Flash is spotted by Anti-Venom and attacks him. Their fight takes them outside where Anti-Venom tries to convince Flash that the Venom symbiote is nothing more than a cancer and a demon that he intends to cure.

When Anti-Venom tries to use his curative touch to destroy the Venom symbiote, Flash and the symbiote fight back. Thompson tries to ignore everything Brock is saying, convincing himself that he isn’t addicted to the symbiote, that he’s the good guy. Ultimately, the Venom symbiote leaves and tries to bond with Eddie again. It succeeds at first, but Flash — worried it will destroy the curative anti-bodies in Brock’s body — convinces it to come back because he needs it. The process of leaving Brock and bonding with Flash again knocks out Anti-Venom. Venom then leaves Anti-Venom webbed up outside of Horizon Labs. When Mister Fantastic comes out to free him, Anti-Venom tells them that the man who brought him here is not a hero since he attacked him instead of asking for help, then tried to kill him.

By this time, Flash has finally arrived at the hospital to see his father. Clinging to life, Harrison reminds his son about a time when Flash was a boy and they used to listen to jazz music in the family den. He talks about how much he loved his son in those moments and how badly he let Eugene down as a father. He apologizes to his son for all of the bad things he did over the year and Flash admits to his father that he tried his best. Flash admits that the bad times were bad, but regardless of this his father still did his best and he loves him. As he tells his father that he wouldn’t trade him for anyone else in the world, Harrison Thompson dies. Realizing that his father is gone, Flash begins to cry with Betty at his side to comfort him.

Spider-Island continues in Amazing Spider-Man #670….

Recurring Characters

Agent Venom, Anti-Venom, the Jackal, the Queen, Kate Glover, Aaron MacKenzie, Brad Dodge, Betty Brant, Harrison Thompson, Mister Fantastic, Max Modell, Grady Scraps, Sajani Jaffrey, Bella Fishbach, Uat Jackson, Tiberius Stone

Continuity Notes

1. It’s later revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #673 that the Jackal seen here is a clone as well acting on the real Jackal’s behalf, who is overseeing this scheme from afar.

2. Flash mentions how Eddie Brock grew anti-body in response to his infection by the Venom symbiote. There is some complicated history here. The facts:

   • The Venom symbiote was first worn by Spider-Man in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 and brought to Earth in Amazing Spider-Man #252.

   • After discovering it was alive and trying to permanently bond with him, Peter Parker abandoned the symbiote in Amazing Spider-Man #258.

   • As explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300 the symbiote eventually bonded with Brock to get revenge against Spider-Man. He wore it for years until he auctioned off the symbiote in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #7.

   • At the time, Eddie Brock thought he was dying of cancer, as explained in Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) #6. However, this was a manipulation by the symbiote to make him more dependant upon it, as revealed in Venom (vol. 4) #11.

   • Without the symbiote, Brock continued to get sick and later started volunteering his time at the FEAST Center where he was in contact with Martin Li, aka Mister Negative. Li’s healing touch triggered the creation of the Anti-Venom symbiote, created out of anti-bodies in Brock’s body. See Amazing Spider-Man #568-573.

3. Flash’s father has a long history of alcoholism and abusing his family. This was first explored in Spectacular Spider-Man #-1.