Today we will talk about, who Flash Thompson is and along with that we will look at the origin story of Agent Venom. Flash Thompson was first created by Steve Ditko and Stan lee in 1962. Since than we have seen many storyline based on this character.
Who is Flash Thompson?
Eugene ‘Flash’ Thompson was a student at Midtown High School along with Peter Parker, Harry Osborn and Mary Jane Watson. Thompson was a resident of Queens, New York. Flash’s family included his mother, Rose Thompson, little sister Jessie and his father, Harrison Thompson who was a police officer. Harrison Thompson was also abusive towards Flash, which led to his own violent tendencies and bullying.
At school, Flash Thompson was a popular jock. Thompson was the star quarterback for the football team of Midtown High and was friends with many people. Liz Allan, another fellow student at Midtown High was Flash’s girlfriend for quite some time.
However, despite his popularity, Flash was constantly bullying Peter Parker at school. This bullying would last until both of them would eventually graduate. Peter and Flash were involved in numerous physical altercations throughout this time. Even though Peter possessed superhuman strength on account of being Spider-Man, he always held himself back so as to not hurt Flash.
Ironically, in spite of Flash’s hatred of Peter Parker, he was the biggest supporter of Spider-Man. Flash even went so far as to start a Spider-Man Fan Club in his school, where he made sure to invite everyone except Peter Parker. Even when the rest of the world turned against his hero, Flash’s faith in him was unshakeable and never wavered. Flash thwarted multiple attempts made by the Daily Bugle to discredit Spider-Man.
Once he graduated from Midtown High, he started college at Empire State University where he once again shared classes with Peter Parker. This high school rivalry would’ve followed both Peter and Flash in University as well if not for Gwen Stacy, a fellow student and friend to Peter, who asked them to leave the past behind.
Life Before Becoming Agent Venom
After graduating college, Flash chose to serve in the United States Army. Thompson was stationed in South-East Asia, where he discovered a secret temple after being mortally wounded by enemy troops. Here Flash would meet Sha Shan, a priestess who nursed him back to health and with whom he would go on to develop a romantic relationship in the future. Despite his best efforts to protect the temple, it fell to an attack, for which Flash was blamed. However, with help from Spider-Man, Flash was able to get his name cleared.
When he returned from his deployment, Flash remained close friends with Peter Parker even after University and was also a close ally to Spider-Man. Thompson always made sure to help Peter in times of crisis, in any way that he could. He even offered Harry Osborn a place to live after he was cured of the illness that caused him to become the Green Goblin.
At one point, Flash went through an extremely difficult phase and was struggling with severe depression. During this time, he got into a car crash due to drunk driving. Taking advantage of his vulnerable state, Norman Osborn hired him at Oscorp and manipulated him into a plot to hurt Peter Parker. Osborn even forced Flash to consume whiskey, all too familiar with his struggle with alcoholism and tricked him into crashing his truck to harm Spider-Man. This accident caused severe damage to Flash’s brain and he was suspended in a comatose state for a very long time. When Flash was moved into Peter’s apartment, Peter began spending more time with his best friend and Flash’s condition improved drastically.
Origins Story of Agent Venom
Agent Venom’s very first appearance occurred in the comic The Amazing Spider-Man #654. Flash Thompson once again returned to the battlefield as a soldier of the United States Army in the Iraq War. During this tour, Flash lost both his legs while trying to save a friend from a deadly attack. Flash’s sacrifice earned him a Medal of Honour, however, he could not make peace with having lost both his legs. In denial and desperate because of his grief, Flash even volunteered himself to threatening experiments to get his legs back.
Upon his return to the States, Flash became a part of Project Rebirth 2.0. Under this endeavour, Flash bonded with a symbiote, acquired by the government, and became Venom. Due to this bond with the symbiote, Flash was able to replicate his legs once again.
Flash came to be known as the Agent Venom. During his stint as the Agent Venom, he went on various missions and fought a variety of villains. Agent Venom developed a long rivalry with another super-powered individual known as, Jack O’Lanter, who worked for the Crimemaster. Agent Venom once also went neck-to-neck with Spider-Man who had misunderstood him to be a bad guy.
When Manhattan was dubbed the Spider Island due to everyone developing arachnid abilities, Agent Venom had to put a stop to the Spider King from spreading this phenomenon any further. Agent Venom then went on to fight the Queen along with many other heroes, including Captain America and even, Spider-Man.
Jack O’Lantern once somehow discovered Flash’s identity and threatened Flash to take on a mission. During this time, Captain America had also attempted to put an end to Project Rebirth 2.0. Though, before anything else could happen, the symbiote was stolen from Flash by Jack O’Lantern.
Agent Venom once teamed with Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider), Red Hulk, and X-23 to face off against the ‘Antithesis’, creatures with the opposite of their own powers. Flash also became a part of the ‘Secret Avengers’ as the Agent Venom. Agent Venom faced off against a huge number of foes during his superhero career, including but not limited to Carnage, U-Foes, and Superior Venom.
At one point the Venom symbiote was taken from Flash and he discovered that it had bonded with Eddie Brock. Flash was however able to bond with a part of his symbiote once again, which turned him into Agent Anti-Venom, with an inverted colour scheme of his original identity. As Agent Anit-Venom, Flash faced off against Mania along with his long-time ally and friend, Spider-Man.
Powers and Abilities
Due to this bonding with the symbiote Flash was able to earn a great number of different powers and abilities. For instance, Flash possessed superhuman strength, superhuman speed and agility, and superhuman reflexes among others. Agent Venom could also crawl on the wall, similar to Spider-Man. He also had accelerated healing which helped him in battle. Flash was also trained very well in combat and was an excellent marksman.
Also Read: Comic Characters From Marvel and DC with Similar Powers
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