Venom War- Venomous # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

The Black Widow has obtained a symbiotie and after some Red Room training from within Natasha's mind, they are now perfectly in synch with each other. Black Widow has recently broken into the Alchemax building where they obtained a serum they were using to kill symbiotes. What happens now?

 

The issue opens at an auction that is selling weapons. As an item is sold for thirty million dollars, Natasha is attending the event in disguise. The auctioneer calls for the next item, but for this he calls in his colleague Dr, Frekk.

Dr. Frekk explains that the biggest threat to the control over their sector of the world are symbiotes. He says lately there has been so many it feels like every other hero or villain has a symbiote, and that can't be good for business. Frekk reveals the vial of K42T, a serum that can control and neutralize a symbiote. 

 

To show them how the serum works they first need to create a symbiote. They bring a person in as Frekk plans to inject him with a symbiote sample he got from his tenure at Alchemax. Natasha's symbiote, Sliver, asks if they should leap into action, and she says not yet. The patient, unaware of where he is or what's going on, gets injected with the symbiote sample.

The man turns into a symbiote monster with huge mouth where the head would normally be. Frekk tells everyone to stay calm, as this was exactly what the K42T was made for. Once he uses it to take it down, the bidding can begin. The monster proves to be too much for Freek and the man feels it will kill them all. Natasha tells Sliver it's time, and the symbiote spiders crawl all over her, as she assumes her symbiote form.

The monster throws Frekk across the room, but Widow swings in to catch him. She webs him up against a wall. She tells him that they will clean up his mess but afterwards he will have a lot to answer for.

Black Widow shoots at the symbiote to make it go after her instead of the others at the auction. She flips over the symbiote and wraps a rope around its neck. As Widow lands, she manages to flip the monster onto the floor. Widow narrates that Sliver has improved and she couldn't have done this without its help. Widow hopes Hawkeye doesn't get jealous.

Natasha asks Sliver if he can speak with the symbiote. Sliver says the symbiote has no sentience. Dr. Frekk says he can help. Sliver says he will kill the symbiote. Natasha says they might not have much choice, so they'll see what he has to say. As Widow swings over towards him, the symbiote reaches out and grabs her with its tendrils. As the symbiote tries to envelop itself around Widow, Sliver has an idea.

Sliver turns into spiders that crawl all over the symbiote, which sets Natasha free. Natasha gets the vial from Frekk and tells Sliver to get clear. Sliver forms itself around Natasha again and she tosses the vial into the symbiote monster. The symbiote screams as it falls apart, setting its host free. Widow sees that the man is still alive, but needs medical attention.

Black Widow asks Frekk about the rest of the symbiote killer. He says he only made enough for the auction, and the sample from Alchemax was weak and not integrated to a host like Sliver. Widow wants him to show her the formula. Frekk hands her his notes. Widow says after her last adventure in Jersey (the events of Black Widow Venomous) she was done hunting down rogue scientists like him. The symbiote spiders start to much all over notes as Frekk yells that those notes were his life's work. The spiders call over Frekk, and Natasha tells Sliver to take what it needs but leave him with his guilt.

 

As Natasha swings off, she asks Sliver how much of Frekk's memory it left behind. Sliver says that Frekk will live, but not well.

Later on, at the Alchemax building at Manhattan, Sliver tells Natasha that it detects another symbiote nearby that is unfamiliar to them. Natasha recognized Agent Anti-Venom as Flash Thompson as he stands on the rooftop. Flash remembers Natasha and he says he's following up on a lead on Carnage. He says he needs help from his old friend Liz Allan who currently runs Alchemax. 

 

Natasha says says his 'old friend' has hired some shady characters and she recently found one at a black market auction selling company secrets. Flash says that Liz has been trying her best to keep Alchemax on the up and up. Flash hears a chopper overhead and says that sounds like trouble. Flash and Natasha take the elevator shaft to get to the lower levels. As they fall down the shaft, Flash says they should be careful since that's where the real nasty stuff is kept.

Within the building's lower levels, symbiotes have gone crazy and are attacking all the scientists. Widow and Agent Anti-Venom arrive to attack them. Sliver can't talk to these symbiotes either, as they lack sentience just like the one they fought at the auction. Widow webs up one of the larger symbiotes and flings him over towards Anti-Venom, who knocks him down with a clothesline.

 

Anti-Venom sees a cold storage area and figures if they can lure the symbiotes there it could slow them down. Sliver says they are susceptible to extreme temperatures, so it might work. Anti-Venom webs one of the symbiotes up into a ball and uses it as a bowling ball to knock the others down like pins. Anti-Venom pulls one of the scientists out of harm's way. With the innocents gone, Flash and Natasha work on getting the symbiotes into cold storage.

Natasha is suddenly blasted back, though she lands on her feet. Flash asks if she's OK. Natasha says she doesn't think the cold worked. The cold storage room was holding cadavers, and they just the symbiotes even more bodies to possess. 

 My Thoughts-

Pretty good start to the story, and it sounds like it will work without having to read the main story. While the main story seems to be about the symbiote characters fighting to see who will be on top, this extra story of Alchemax trying to kill symbiotes is a good tie-in. If you got Carnage running around, that does seem like something Alchemax would want to do. 

Alchemax isn't helping since they're creating feral mindless symbiotes. Honestly seeing the one at the auction where the head was just one big mouth was creepy looking and skin-crawling. It reminds me of a headless chicken and the neck part sprouted teeth and I couldn't get that image out of my mind while reading that part.

To make it worse, the feral symbiotes have now gone into a morgue and are taking over dead hosts. I see there's a separate tie-in called Zombiotes, which is set up by this issue. I am curious what to expect with Venomous issue 2. Will it continue after this, or will have a 'read Zomboites for more details' blurb?

It was cool to see Agent Anti-Venom, which is Flash Thompson's latest symbiote form. While he picked on Peter Parker back during their school days, Flash always looked up to Spider-Man. He lost his legs in a war, but when he obtained a symbiote and turns into Agent Venom, the symbiote reforms his legs. I guess somewhere over the years Flash lost the original Agent Venom symbiote and got the Anti-Venom variant. The comic also explains that Natasha and Flash worked together in the 2012 run of West Coast Avengers.

Overall a fun read and lots of action. I like seeing how well Natasha and Sliver work together. The way they talk to each other reminds me of how Brock and Venom talk in the movies. In the comics Brock and Venom pretty much read each other's minds so it's very rare for the comics to show them talking directly to each other, you just assume they do. It works better in the movies of course, since we can't see thought bubbles in live action, but I'm happy to see it here with Natasha and Sliver. We'll see what happens next as they continue to destroy any traces of this symbiote-killing serum.