In Donny Cates and Iban Coello’s Venom # 33, a fan-favorite Spider-Man hero rises from the grave to help fight the symbiote god Knull.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Poison # 33 by VC’s Donny Cates, Iban Coello, Jesus Aburtov and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
At the beginning of the King in black Event, Eddie Brock died, leaving the world’s heroes hopeless in the fight against Knull. But Eddie isn’t gone, well, not all of him, at least. In Poison # 32, we learn that Eddie’s codex, a symbiote fragment that contains his entire identity, was now part of the hive mind. Basically, through this symbiote, a part of Eddie was kept alive in a place that could essentially be described as some kind of pocket dimension, a purgatory for Knull’s symbiotes.
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Inside the hive, Eddie found two old friends, who were also kept alive thanks to his codices: Rex Strickland, also known as Tyrannosaurus, and Flash Thompson, the fan-favorite Agent Venom / Anti-Venom. Now in Poison # 33, the three of them fight Knull from within and, miraculously, Flash is able to get out, storming the real world again to join the rest of the heroes. That means Flash Thompson is, in one way or another, officially back in the main Marvel Universe.
Flash Thompson started out in the Marvel Universe as Peter Parker’s bully. However, after joining the army and suffering a terrible injury, Flash joined Operation Rebirth 2.0 and joined the Venom symbiote, becoming a new super soldier known as Agent Venom. Once Eddie Brock regained his symbiote, Flash would turn into something else thanks to Alchemax’s Anti-Venom serum: Agent Anti-Venom.
The Flash continued to operate as a superhero, but tragically died in 2018. Amazing Spider-Man # 800 by Dan Slott, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Jim Cheung, Stuart Immonen, and Humberto Ramos, helping Spider-Man take on the Red Goblin. For three years, the character has been dead, but eventually returned in Poison # 32. However, it is important to note that this is not the complete Thompson Flash: it is a symbiote codex that contains his memory and identity. While it may not be the real deal, this is still essentially the best option.
All this time, the Flash codex was stuck in the mind of the hive, but now, in Poison # 33, he can abduct one of Knull’s symbiotes, allowing him to return to the real world. Flash assumes the form of an anti-symbiote dragon, and is sure to prove himself a powerful ally as the heroes attempt to defeat Knull and free Earth from his grasp.
This means that the codex containing the Flash’s identity now flies freely in the Marvel Universe. It may just be a symbiote, but it has traveled the world again and, better yet, it could stay there once. King in black comes to an end. Similarly, in 2018 Poison story “Rex”, Eddie Brock met Rex, a veteran who recruited him on a mission to help free his fellow Sym-Soldiers. Yet even though Rex looked human, he had long since been killed. But thanks to his codex, his symbiote kept him alive, taking on his appearance.
Something similar could happen to Flash Thompson. Flash may be technically dead, but a part of him lives in his codex. Now that he’s linked with a symbiote, he could take on his appearance and could rejoin the wider Marvel Universe. It might have been easy to get lost in everything that just happened, but it seems like King in black just gave Flash Thompson a realistic path back from the dead.
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Reference-www.cbr.com
