Game Plan
When he impersonated Spider-Man to teach Parker to respect the hero, Flash was mistaken for the real thing and imprisoned by Doctor Doom, until the true Spider-Man rescued him. Later, when a humiliating encounter with Green Goblin who had the whole city calling Spider-Man a coward, Thompson donned a Spider-Man costume again and tackled some cheap crooks to restore Spidey’s reputation, but all he got for his trouble was a beating. Shortly thereafter, when another Spider-Man impersonator tried to tarnish the hero’s name with a string of petty crimes, Flash unmasked the culprit as his own friend Jason Ionello, who wrongly blamed Spider-Man for the recent death of their mutual friend Sally Avril, AKA Bluebird, during Spider-Man’s battle with Nathan Garrett, AKA Black Knight. Flash also repeatedly denounced the many anti-Spider-Man tirades by Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, and one angry confrontation between Thompson and Jameson caused the unwitting pair to foil a plot against Spider-Man by Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio.
Gradually impressed by Peter’s maturity and sick of Flash’s bullying, Liz dumped Flash and began showing strong romantic interest in Peter, which only made Thompson hate Parker even more. When Flash and Peter graduated from Midtown High, both were awarded full scholarships to Empire State University (ESU) for athletic and academic achievement, respectively. By this time, relations between the two had begun to thaw ever so slightly, and they soon became part of a close-knit social circle that included fellow students Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn (son of Norman) and Mary Jane Watson. By the time Flash left college to join the army, he and Peter parted as friends.
Stationed in Southeast Asia, Flash stumbled across a hidden temple whose residents—notably the beautiful Sha Shan—nursed a wounded Flash back to health; however, after American forces mistakenly shelled the temple despite Flash’s efforts to protect it, Flash left the army to return to America, where temple survivors who mistakenly blamed him for the tragedy made attempts on his life. With Spider-Man's aid, Flash survived long enough to convince the temple survivors of his innocence and was briefly reunited with Sha Shan.
Later, Sha Shan returned to America as Sister Sun, the reluctant bride of cult leader Achmed Korba, AKA Brother Power, himself a pawn of the evil Man-Beast; but Sha Shan ultimately turned on Korba, and the Man-Beast was thwarted through the combined efforts of Spider-Man, Buford Hollis, AKA Razorback, and Flash. Korba having died in the battle, Sha Shan became Flash’s lover and lived with him for some time. Later, when Flash’s old friend Betty Brant was struggling to cope with her failing marriage to reporter Ned Leeds, who had secretly been brainwashed into serving as a pawn and occasional stand-in for the criminal Roderick Kingsley, AKA Hobgoblin, Betty sought comfort in Flash's arms, and soon the two began a secret affair. Sha Shan realized this and walked out on Flash after a violent argument. The unstable Ned suspected the truth as well, and Flash unwittingly provoked matters further when he insulted the Hobgoblin on television. Kingsley responded by framing Flash as the supposed Hobgoblin, sending Flash to prison, where the vigilante Scourge would have killed him if not for Spider-Man's intervention.
Escaping jail, Flash sought refuge with Betty but was attacked by the Hobgoblin (Leeds), who fled after Betty saw him unmasked as Ned. Shortly thereafter, word of Ned’s double identity leaked out, and assassins hired by Hobgoblin's mercenary rival Jason Macendale murdered Leeds; Macendale then used Ned’s gear to become the new Hobgoblin. Aiding Spider-Man in battle with the new Hobgoblin, Flash suffered an arm injury that ended any hope of restarting his old sports career, but he was cleared of all charges related to the Hobgoblin case and set free. Ned’s death sent Betty into a nervous breakdown, and she fell under the influence of the sinister Students of Love cult. Flash, Spider-Man, and Reverend Tolliver joined forces to liberate Betty and deprogram her. Having lost all her worldly possessions to the cult (which was destroyed in a fire), Betty lived with Thompson until the demonic Inferno invasion of New York, when demons posing as Spider-Man and the late Ned attacked Flash’s home; the demons were defeated, but Thompson’s home was destroyed in the process.
Shortly thereafter, Betty and Flash decided they were better off as friends rather than lovers and parted amicably. By now, Peter Parker had married Mary Jane Watson, and Harry Osborn had married Flash’s old flame Liz Allan, and odd-man-out Flash was determined to find a new love of his own. For a while, he dated the glamorous adventurer Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat. Formerly Spider-Man’s lover and partner, Felicia dated Flash mostly to irritate Peter at first, but found herself genuinely falling for Thompson over time; however, Flash ultimately broke up with her, feeling he could never fit into her exotic lifestyle.
Directionless, lonely and increasingly bitter, Flash developed a drinking problem like his father before him, leading to a car crash that got Flash arrested again and cost him his job as a school gym teacher. By this time, Flash had begun blaming much of his troubles on his family in general and his father in particular, but a violent confrontation with his father finally forced Flash to realize that he had become the same sort of self-deluded wreck his father was, and that only he could take responsibility for fixing his life. Flash sobered up and started trying to turn his life around, though without much success in terms of either romance or career. His luck seemed to change when Norman Osborn offered him a good job with his company, Oscorp, but Osborn had actually done this as part of an elaborate plot against his enemy Peter Parker. Osborn hoped to turn Flash against Spider-Man, but Thompson remained loyal to his boyhood idol despite Osborn’s influence.
Later, when Osborn stepped up his attacks on Parker, he staged a car crash that sent an Oscorp truck smashing into Midtown High with Thompson at the wheel, and made it look as if Flash had been driving drunk. Rendered comatose by the accident, Flash eventually revived but was broken in mind and body, wheelchair-bound, and trapped in a stupor. He was regularly visited by old friends such as Peter, Betty, and Liz Allan, whose wealth provided Flash's housing and medical care. Comatose again for a time, Flash eventually recovered, though slight brain damage had left him partially amnesiac regarding much of his adult life. Becoming Midtown High's new athletics coach, Flash fell back into his old adversarial relationship with Peter Parker, now a teacher there, since Thompson no longer remembered their friendship. Flash also developed a romantic interest in school nurse Miss Arrow, unaware she was secretly the supernatural spider-predator Ero.
When Spider-Man's real identity became public knowledge, Flash initially disbelieved the news, then resented it, but finally accepting it he became one of Peter's most supportive friends in his newly public double life. He aided Spidey against foes such as Francis Klum, AKA Mysterio, and Adrian Toomes, AKA Vulture, denounced Deb Whitman's tell-all book about her former relationship with Peter, and even allowed Peter to hide out in his apartment during a period when Spider-Man was declared an outlaw. Flash also started dating Betty Brant again, prompting a series of attacks on Betty by a jealous Ero. When Ero tried to make Flash the host body for her eggs (a process that would have killed him), Spider-Man and Betty came to his rescue and Ero was destroyed.
Knowledge of Spider-Man's dual identity was eventually wiped from most of the public's minds, including Flash's, but he and Peter have remained friends regardless. As an army reservist called back into service in Iraq, Flash was participating in a cordon-and-search mission in Mosul when insurgents ambushed his squad. During the battle, Flash freed himself and his squad from an overturned Stryker ICV transport, killed or fought off seven insurgents single-handedly to save fellow soldier Santos, then carried the wounded Santos to safety; by the time Flash finally sought medical attention for his own wounds, blood loss, and tissue damage forced the doctors to amputate both his legs at the knee.
Sent home with the Medal of Honor, Thompson has done his best to adjust to his new situation with the aid of supportive friends such as Peter, Betty, and Harry Osborn, becoming an avid wheelchair athlete and a special advisor to New York City's new mayor, Flash's old nemesis J. Jonah Jameson; however, when the criminal Chameleon posing as Peter Parker mocked Flash's disability, a shaken Thompson started drinking again.
He was soon enlisted into Project: Rebirth 2.0 and bonded with Mac Gargan’s Venom symbiote, which had been acquired by the United States government following the siege of Asgard and capture of Gargan. The bond gave Flash symbiote-formed legs and the resulting powers from the symbiote were akin to Spider-Man’s. As Agent Venom, he’s sent on a mission to recover weapons specialist Dr. Ekmecic, whose specialty was Antarctic Vibranium, he came up against the new Jack O’Lantern who was carrying out the same mission but on Bennett Brant, AKA Crime-Master’s orders. They both failed and ended up becoming bitter rivals.
Flash continued to try and deter Crime Master’s plans, but in doing so his identity was revealed to Sergei Kravinoff, AKA Kraven the Hunter, who had attacked him though a swarm of bats took him by surprise, but the bats also inadvertently separated the symbiote from Flash allowing Crime-Master to discover his secret identity. The symbiote returned to him and said it would not abandon him again. Bonded again, the pair intercepted Crime-Master’s shipment of Antarctic Vibranium but when Crime-Master alerted him that he had captured his girlfriend Betty Brant, Flash delivered it to him in return for Betty. But Spider-Man simultaneously tried to save Betty and thinking Venom a foe, fought with him. Losing Betty, they soon ceased their fight and saved Betty from a fiery end. Flash returned to Project: Rebirth and does not reveal that Crime-Master discovered his identity for feat they’d take away his symbiote and new role as Venom. At this time, he also learned that his father had a liver disease and little time left.
When Dr. Miles Warren, AKA the Jackal, captured Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and transformed him into the Spider Totem known as Spider-King, the Jackal used him to spread a virus across Manhattan to give everyone spider-abilities. Flash as Venom defeated Spider-King, capturing him and taking him to Project: Rebirth’s headquarters. He then learned that Eddie Brock, now Anti-Venom, could cure everyone and helped facilitate a cure at Horizon Labs. Flash later visited his father just before he passed. He then tried to slay the person responsible for the Spider virus, Adriana Soria, AKA the Queen, and used Rogers’ shield against her which prompted her to turn into a massive spider. Other heroes joined him in the battle and it was Kaine who ultimately defeated her while Spider-Man helped deliver the cure to everyone in the city using Dr. Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus’ Octobots.
Venom then faced off with Howard Mitchell, AKA the Hijacker, who had been robbing banks and murdering innocents. Once he caught up with him, Venom, filled with rage, killed the criminal.
While attending his father’s funeral, Jack O’Lantern interrupted and delivered Flash to Crime-Master who used him and his love for Betty to do his dirty work for him. Meanwhile, Captain America halted Project: Rebirth, shutting it down and demanding the symbiote from Flash. Flash avoided the hero to finish his mission with Jack O’Lantern at his side. The latter told him to enter The Devil’s Den, a casino, where the symbiote would take over after that, to which it did. Venom found a secret lab in the casino and inside was the Toxin symbiote. Venom attempted to kill it but Jack O’Lantern captured it and fled.
Afraid to put Betty in continual danger, he broke up with her and hit the bottle. He was then in Las Vegas when he was attacked by Red Hulk who had been sent by Captain America to claim the symbiote and bring Flash in for a court-martial. They fought and then Mephisto’s “son” Blackheart opened a portal bringing Hell to Earth, but Johnny Blaze, AKA Ghost Rider, prevented it from spreading beyond the city. With Blackheart still a threat, Venom and Red Hulk teamed up with Laura Kinney, AKA X-23 (later Wolverine), and Alejandra Jones, AKA Ghost Rider, and together tried to stop the supernatural being. During the fight, they faced their doppelgängers, or Antitheses, who were created with a mystical mirror and perished against them, landing them in Hell. They soon received an offer from Mephisto they could not refuse, to return home to Earth and repay the favor someday. They all agreed and faced Blackheart. But Flash’s symbiote was greedy and tried to take the Spirit of Vengeance but was stopped by Blackheart. Both Venom and Ghost Rider gave their powers to Red Hulk which helped him finally take down Blackheart. Then the Secret Avengers led by Captain America arrived to bring Flash in, but his deeds gave Cap pause and he invited him to join the team. Secret Avengers member and the Devil’s now fallen son Daimon Hellstrom, AKA Hellstorm, saw that Flash and his company had each been marked by Mephisto, a problem to be dealt with another day.
While working with the Secret Avengers, Flash was based out of the Lighthouse Station, and faced some skepticism from some of the team, including Hawkeye. Flash eventually earned his trust, and he started a secret romantic relationship with his Secret Avengers teammate, Brunnhilde, AKA Valkyrie.
Flash then had it out for Crime-Master who was building his villainous team known as the Savage Six. In making an attempt on his life, he failed, and his actions led to Eddie Brock becoming the new Toxin and controlled by Crime-Master. Crime-Master also threatened Flash’s nearest and dearest, so he immediately sought out Betty as Venom only to find her with Jack O’Lantern. He defended her from him as well as Savage Six members Toxin and Megatak. To gain Betty’s trust, he revealed his identity to her, which was more than she could bear. But the Savage Six attacked them at Betty’s parent’s house. Flash fought them back, which led to Roland Burroughs, AKA Death Adder’s death and Toxin’s defeat. Crime-Master then revealed his identity to Betty and Flash, and in realizing this villain was her brother Bennett, she fired a fatal shot and he perished. Venom then fought and defeated Jack O’Lantern and delivered him to the Raft, putting an end to the Savage Six.
Then, while investigating the Department of Occult Armaments (D.O.A) for the Secret Avengers, an old Hydra division focused on the supernatural that seemed to be active. He got connected with Reporter Katy Kiernan and with her help, finally landed some leads. One of which led him to Hellstorm, former hero-turned villain as he fought Flash for control of the Venom symbiote. Flash fought fiercely but couldn’t hold up to Hellstorm’s magic and the power of Mephisto’s mark. He lost control of the symbiote, putting it under the forces of a demon. Flash and Kiernan learn that Hellstorm is the only one who capable of exorcising the demon inside him. Venom ambushed Hellstorm but not in time as Hellstorm unleashed his Monsters of Evil, demons of course. Flash fought them but then realized that with Venom could control them and sicced them on Hellstorm. After he delivered Hellstorm to the Raft, he spoke to him, inquiring why he could control the demons. Hellstorm told him a tall tale that the Hell-Lords were competing to become the true Devil and Mephisto had been preparing for his ascension by marking his potential heirs to serve their interests. Hellstorm then asked if Agent Venom would rather see him on the throne or someone else.
Shortly thereafter, Flash was assigned to catch Cletus Kasady, AKA Carnage, who had broken out of prison. Kasady ended up in Houston Texas where he dispatched the resident vigilante, Ben Reilly, AKA Scarlet Spider, on his way to an interdimensional portal to the Microverse, the Prometheus Pit. Kasady kidnapped Katy Kiernan. Venom teamed up with Scarlet Spider and they followed Kasady into the portal but ended up in different places of the Microverse. Venom found the Enigma Force, who with the Redeemer, led the resistance to the Marquis Radu’s forces—Radu was a diabolical leader of the Microverse’s most evil factions who lured Kasady to him to bolster his forces. But Venom and Carnage were both captured by Radu’s forces who used body banks to create an unstable symbiote army that escaped to Venom’s universe. Venom worked with Carnage, the Scarlet Spider, and a weapon gifted by Enigma Force to stop the army and did so successfully, leaving Kasady in a catatonic state, and his symbiote in full control, but soon sedated and captured.
Flash then faced the U-Foes and moved back to Philadelphia, taking a job as a gym teacher. But his enemies followed him there, and in a battle against Jack O’Lantern, one of Flash’s students, Andi, ended up in Jack’s path. Flash sent part of the symbiote to protect her but it bonded to her permanently, creating Mania. Both Venom and Mania are being hunted by Brock Rumlow, AKA Crossbones, and the D.O.A. who are not only hunting anyone down with the Devil’s mark but skinning them as well. Though, the mark passed to Andi with the symbiote, leading them to make a deal with the devil.
Flash then joined General Thaddeus Ross, AKA Red Hulk’s Thunderbolt’s team. Though their methods were more violent than say the Secret Avengers which negatively influenced Flash’s symbiote into committing more violent acts, like eating people. Flash became worried that even the Thunderbolts couldn’t shut his symbiote down, but they succeeded in doing so when they worked together. Afterword, he left the team.
After Crime-Master’s henchmen were spotted in New York City, Flash as Venom returned to investigate. While there, he battled Spider-Man though it was actually Doctor Octopus, who had taken over Peter’s mind and body. He escaped the faux wall-crawler not realizing who he really was, then as Flash contacted his best friend “Peter” for a place to crash. He offered him prosthetic legs so that he could steal the symbiote while Flash was on the operating table. But he couldn’t contain the symbiote and it merged with him, making “Peter” the Superior Venom. Without the symbiote, Flash needed assistance to go up against Superior Venom, and used the Iron Man Armor to take him down with the Avengers help who put Spider-Man on probation for his recent violent behavior. Flash finally convinced the symbiote to come back to him, and restored, was Venom once again. Leaving the Avengers to take care of Spider-Man on Captain America’s recommendation, he received honorary membership for his good deeds and left for Philadelphia.
The Avengers then asked Flash to join the Guardians of the Galaxy to represent them on the team. While with them, he befriends Drax the Destroyer, gets abducted by Skrulls and separated from the symbiote which he soon regained but then left the team to go in hiding. While at a bar, he overheard a Kree speaking of Earth and saw an opportunity to return home. Though he found out that he was lying, and Venom killed him for it, clear that Flash was losing control of the symbiote while in space.
The Guardians found him and while Venom fought back, they ultimately contained him but the symbiote escaped, attaching itself to Groot, Rocket Raccoon, AKA Rocket, and finally Drax. The symbiote then remanded the ship and headed for the Planet of Symbiotes where it joined them. Flash and the Guardians agreed to bond with the symbiotes to better communicate with them. They agreed and learned their origin, that they were called The Klyntar, and goal in bonding with other beings, specifically noble warriors, was to help those who couldn’t help themselves and make a greater society. The host body must be a perfect blend of moral and physical ideal otherwise the result is often monstrous, and they have damaged symbiotes as well. But they found a noble warrior in Flash and connecting with him on their planet, they gave him a new symbiote, one uncorrupted, and made him an Agent of the Cosmos, a soldier who can protect his home planet.
As an Agent of the Cosmos, he traveled with the Guardians to planets that needed help, and attracted an enemy in the process, a space-pirate Gramosian warlord named Mercurio whom the symbiote bonded with for a temporary time. Once returned to Flash, this bond corrupted all the good he had been doing which caused him to rage and rampage across the planets he had helped. Flash finally captured the symbiote and took it back to its planet of origin and there discovered that the symbiote’s former split in the creation of Mania was part of the problem as was Mephisto’s mark. Flash then sought out an elixir to purify the symbiote and head back to Earth where they would help save Mania.
When he returned to Earth, he found himself embroiled in the second Superhuman Civil War and joining Captain Marvel against Iron Man. Flash went up against Miles Morales, AKA Spider-Man, in the process. He also came to blows with Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, until he understands that the Venom symbiote is no longer a threat. They then team up to help Mania. With the elixir in hand, and though he battled Mania along with Peter, Flash delivered the elixir, which seemed to temporarily help her.
Kick Off as Agent Anti-Venom
Flash then picked up where he left off as Agent Venom and fought crime with Mania at his side. While fighting crime, he encountered an anti-symbiote armor which separated him from his symbiote, so he began a quest to recover it. Mania had her symbiote taken from her as well. He tracked his symbiote to Eddie Brock, the original host of the Venom symbiote. Unable to decide who to bond with, the symbiote attached itself to both as Spider-Man arrived. He doused them with Anti-Venom Serum in hopes of killing the symbiote, but the serum-drenched portion bonded with Flash, making him into Agent Anti-Venom, inverting his previous colors of his suit from black and white to white and black. Flash removed the symbiote from Brock entirely but couldn’t bond with it while in the Anti-Venom suit. He left the symbiote with Bobbi Morse Barton, AKA Mockingbird, a trusted ally, to keep it safe at her apartment.
Agent Anti-Venom and Spider-Man tracked Mania to Felicia Hardy’s gang who had all been infected by the symbiote Maniac, who defeated the pair. Mania, that is Andi without her symbiote, then saved them by employing her Hell-Mark. They then teamed up to free Spider-Man from Maniac’s control with Black Cat and Eddie Brock’s help. Brock had remerged with the symbiote from Morse’s apartment.
Maniac had taken over all five crime families across the world, and with the Anti-Venom technology, and Flash’s symbiote, the group of heroes liberated all those under Maniac’s thumb. Using the immunity developed by those freed from Maniac upon Black Cat’s suggestion, they defeated Maniac and Flash, noticing Brock’s heroism, allowed him to keep his symbiote.
When an interdimensional species, the Poisons, set out to consume Klyntar symbiotes and their hosts, they attacked Earth by forcibly bonding Super Heroes to symbiotes only to eat them. Some became loyal to the hive but a small contingent including Venom (Eddie Brock) and Captain America, boarded two transports and mounted an attack on the Poison vessel which orbited Earth. Though Poison-possessed Thanos tore through Cap’s ship and grounded it. Venom meanwhile made for the ship as Flash as Agent Anti-Venom stayed on Earth and saved Kei Kawade, AKA Kid Kaiju, from one of his own monster creations as it had become corrupted by the Poisons. Upon the death of the Poison Queen thanks to an alliance with the X-Men, Flash helped Cap recover.
When Green Goblin merged with Carnage, he became the Red Goblin, a merciless monster who discovered Spider-Man’s secret identity and left him unable to walk after a brutal battle. Agent Anti-Venom came in with a healing touch, but it left him hospitalized. Meanwhile, Spidey’s friends Miles Morales, Human Torch, Cindy Moon, AKA Silk, and Clayton Cole, AKA Clash, tried to help against the Red Goblin, but nearly perished in the process. Recovered, Agent Anti-Venom used his healing touch on them, and in overhearing Spider-Man’s secret identity while he chatted with Silk. It also turned out that Flash’s healing touch seemed to be the only thing that could hurt the Red Goblin, but it wasn’t enough and the Red Goblin mortally wounded Flash in their next encounter. Peter had previously bonded with the Venom symbiote to beat the Red Goblin but became enraged seeing Agent Anti-Venom wounded, and on a rampage planned to kill Red Goblin. Flash stepped in, encouraging Spider-Man to not let his rage infect the Venom suit, which he had turned to the side of good. When Peter came to his senses, he knew he had to get Flash help, but Flash refused, claiming there was no time. Before he died of his injuries and, he called Peter his hero and friend. A funeral was held for Flash where he received honors from the military.
Though this end wasn’t Flash’s end. His consciousness lived on as a codex in the Symbiote Hive-Mind, and as if a ghost, he could roam around but without a corporeal form, he could do little else. He then met Eddie Brock’s spirit who had perished against Knull, the God of the Symbiotes. Flash was able to escape by downloading his codex into one of the symbiotes in the Hive-Mind and transformed into a dragon. He flew to the cemetery where he was buried and merged with his dead body to be fully resurrected.
After Knull’s invasion, the world reeled from the army of symbiotes, and Flash got a taste of it. While getting coffee, a group of Alchemax Guardsmen attacked him, but it was actually the barista they were after. Transforming into Agent Anti-Venom, he protected the barista, who claimed to have a terminal illness before their symbiote bonded with them and would die without it. The barista and Flash fled and in leaving, someone captured Flash’s exposed face. Later, while working for a local shelter, he started hearing and seeing Carnage, like it was pulling at him, which led him to nearly kill one of his co-workers, Hank who was a fellow veteran. Iron Man then contacted him to keep an eye on Senator Peter Krane who was stoking anti-alien sentiment as the new face of the Friends of Humanity and has strong ties to Alchemax. Iron Man wanted Flash to find the big symbiote threats before they hit the news and encouraged him to follow the pull he felt about Carnage. Though while Flash attends a Friends of Humanity event where Krane was speaking, he begins to hear Carnage in his head. The people around him recognize him as Agent Anti-Venom and one of Krane’s bodyguards fires a shot at him. He fled and contacted Iron Man with the belief that Krane wasn’t in danger at all, he was Carnage. He enlisted Hank to help him who had missed the intensity of serving overseas and encouraged him to get a job in Krane’s security detail. Whether Krane is Carnage is yet to be seen.
