Venom (vol. 2) #9 — Nick Peron

Oct 14

Oct 14 Venom (vol. 2) #9

Capital Punishment

With the Spider-Island crisis over, Agent Venom swings across the city. He is thinking about how his father died during all of the insanity and hopes he isn’t the one to tell his mother and sister that his father is dead. His primary concern right now is getting back to the hospital where he left his girlfriend, Betty Brant. He hopes that she is safe.

Meanwhile, a security guard rushes back to the Bank of America to put his uniform back on after he was transformed into a spider-monster. As he struggles to get his clothes on he doesn’t see a massive tank approaching the bank. The tank plows through the man as it heads toward the vault. It is piloted by the Hijacker who has been taking advantage of the chaos to rob banks all over the city. Spotting this maniac on the loose, Agent Venom swings into the bank to stop him. The Hijacker races out of the bank to try and shake Venom off his tank. As he holds on for dear life, Flash contacts his handler — Kate Glover — to get intel on the Hijacker and how to stop his tank.

Unfortnately, she doesn’t have any information on how to disable the vehicle. Things take a tragic turn when the Hijacker accidentally runs down a mother and her child. Witnessing this horror, Flash loses his temper allowing the Venom symbiote to take full control. Totally transforming into Venom, Flash tries to break his way through the tank, but fails. When the Hijacker appears to finally shake him off he returns to his headquarters where he marvels over all the money he managed to steal. Unfortunately for him, Venom was hiding underneath the tank the whole time and he ambushes the Hijacker.

The Hijacker is powerless against Venom who slashes open his chest, breaks off all his fingers and then begins beating him senseless. The Hijacker begs for Venom to spare his life. Instead, Venom bites his head off and spits it out. With the Hijacker dead, Flash regains control and the symbiote resumes its benign form. Although Flash is glad the Hijacker is dead but considers it small justice for the people the villain callously killed.

When Betty Brant arrives at her apartment that evening she finds Flash waiting for her. To cover for his absence over the last day he lies and tells her that he was turned into a spider-creature like everyone else during Spider-Island. Betty was one of the lucky few who didn’t get infected because she was able to lock herself up in a supply closet. When she asks him if he called his family to tell them that his father died, he tells her that he hasn’t mustered up the courage. He also tells her that he lost the letter that his father wrote for him in the chaos. Luckily, Betty has copies of the original draft and she reads it to him.