Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Venom (Lee Price) (Loses the Venom Symbiote)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- FBI
- Symbiote Task Force
- Venom (Eddie Brock) (Bonds to the Venom Symbiote) (Leaves)
- Special Agent Dawson
- Agent Gibbons (First appearance)
- Numerous unnamed agents
- Symbiote Task Force
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
- NYPD
Other Characters:
- Agent Wambaugh (Mentioned)
- U.S. Army Rangers (Mentioned)
- Flash Thompson (Mentioned)
- Lee Price's mother (Mentioned) (Deceased)
- Lee Price's father (Mentioned) (Deceased)
- Alpha Flight (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth (Main story and recap)
- United States of America (Main story and recap)
- New Jersey (Cameo)
- Hudson River (Cameo)
- New York (Main story and recap)
- New York City (Main story and recap)
- George Washington Bridge (Cameo)
- Manhattan (Cameo)
- Bronx
- Queens (Main story and recap)
- New York City (Main story and recap)
- United States of America (Main story and recap)
- Hell (Invoked)
Items:
- Web-Shooters
- Spider-Armor MK IV
- Sonic guns
Vehicles:
- Armed Aerial Scout 72X (FBI helicopter)
- MD AH-6 Little Bird (FBI helicopter) (Destruction)
Synopsis for 1st story
Inbound towards the Bronx, Special Agent Dawson debriefs Eddie Brock on the situation, informing him that a tactical helicopter was commuted to the Bronx and that the last footage they were able to retrieve was of a symbiote-enhanced individual. Eddie asks what the status on the helicopter is, and Agent Dawson says they don't know, but that they're evacuating civilians and a symbiote containment unit is inbound.
Piloting the FBI helicopter, Venom remarks to himself that he'd never thought he'd fly one again, prompting the symbiote to ask if he flew them before. Retracting it from his face, Lee replies that he flew when he was in the Rangers, not that he was any good at it, and that his current plan is to fly up the Hudson and ditch it in the river. He's interrupted by Spider-Man, who lands on the side of the chopper and peers inside, asking if Flash is the one inside the symbiote and if he can hitch a ride. Protracting the symbiote, Venom announces he has a new plan: killing Spider-Man. Ignoring the symbiote's protests, Venom lunges out of the helicopter, causing it to crash and explode, and grabs Spider-Man, who states that he's certain that Flash isn't the symbiote's host since the Venom he knows wouldn't hurt innocents. Watching as Venom and Spider-Man slam into the street below, Eddie remarks to himself that the it's true that his symbiote is there, calling it his darling. As Spider-Man picks himself up out of the crater in the pavement, Venom punches him from behind and sends him flying into a hotdog stand. Eddie asks permission to provide support for Spider-Man, asking if the helicopter is equipped with sonics and saying that the machine guns will have to suffice when told it isn't. Told that the containment unit is a minute out and all civilians have been evacuated, Eddie tells the chopper and agents on the ground to open fire and keep Venom pinned down before disembarking.
Approaching Spider-Man, Eddie rebukes his accusations of having something to do with Venom by saying that he's with the Bureau and has been for months. Helping Spider-Man to his feet, Eddie informs him that they have a containment unit inbound, but that whoever's inside the symbiote is a psychopath. Spider-Man agrees, saying that whoever he is, he's not Flash and that they need to act fast. Eddie agrees, telling Spider-Man he has a plan but that the web-slinger won't like it.
Shrugging off the gunfire, Venom plans to slaughter his way through the police and get to the subway so that he can escape, but is cut off when Spider-Man lands on his head. Furious, Venom snarls that he's not running away this time and will kill Spider-Man rather than be chased by him for the rest of his life. Webbing Venom's mouth shut, Spider-Man says that he didn't come to fight, but that he wants the symbiote back so that things can be the way they used to. As Venom challenges Spider-Man to come and get it, the symbiote starts to seperate from him. Outraged, Lee demands to know what the symbiote is doing, and it responds that it can't stay with him because he causes too much unnecessary death, and that Spider-Man is a hero. Lee engages the symbiote in a mental struggle and tries to force it to stay bonded to him through his willpower, but it fights back and reveals that it's learned all about the secret fears he keeps hidden behind his mask of stoicism and anger. It reveals that Lee killed his own parents, dismissing him as broken, weak, and hateful before threatening to break him further if he doesn't let it go. Venom collapses as Spider-Man tells the FBI to hold their fire and stand back, stating that hopefully something good is about to happen. As the symbiote containment unit arrives, Eddie Brock watches with a smirk.
Trapped in his childhood memories, a young Lee states that he killed his parents because he didn't want them to hurt him anymore, reaching out to the symbiote and saying that he doesn't want to be alone. As it hesitates, Lee ages to adulthood, snapping that if it leaves him then he'll hunt it down and kill it. Engulfing him in darkness, the symbiote retorts that he'll never kill anyone ever again. Seperating from Lee, the symbiote rejoices in its freedom and makes a beeline for Spider-Man, jubilant to be bonded to a heroic host again. Spider-Man laments what's about to happen, then tells the FBI to open fire with the sonic rifles. Pinned down by the sonic waves, the symbiote is left helpless, shocked, and confused as Spider-Man grabs the containment unit and imprisons it. Enraged by this betrayal, the symbiote's hatred towards Spider-Man is rekindled and it swears revenge. Lee Price watches as the symbiote is loaded into a police van as he is handcuffed and arrested by the NYPD, who mock him over how weak he is without the symbiote.
At the FBI HQ, Eddie requests permission to see the symbiote and is told by Agent Gibbons, who is standing guard over the symbiote, that the FBI is prepping it for transport to an offworld satellite-based facility, and that if he wanted to see it he should have been present at the takedown. Eddie states that Spider-Man made him find cover, and that if he'd been present when it was betrayed then it wouldn't trust him. Gibbons sneers that no-one trusts Eddie anyways, but that he didn't think Eddie cared. Eddie agrees, then abruptly grabs Gibbons in a chokehold. Later, another FBI agent comes and finds Gibbons webbed to the ceiling and the symbiote's containment tank shattered. Web-swinging over New York's night-time cityscape, the original Venom triumphantly proclaims his return.
Solicit Synopsis
Notes
- For unknown reasons, Lee Price's attack on Spider-Man following the helicopter crash sets off Spider-Man's Spider Sense, despite the Venom Symbiote being invisible to it as a result of having been bonded to him.
