Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Star-Lord (Peter Quill)
- Gamora (Main story and flashback)
- Drax the Destroyer (Arthur Douglas) (Loses the Venom Symbiote)
- Groot
- Rocket Raccoon
- Venom (Flash Thompson) (Main story and flashback) (Bonds to the Venom Symbiote)
- Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) (As a hologram)
Supporting Characters:
- Symbiotes (Main story and flashback) (Origin revealed)
- Symbiote Imperium (Only in flashback)
Other Characters:
- Brunnhilde (Dream)
- Carnage (Cletus Kasady) (Only in flashback)
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Only in flashback)
- Betty Brant (Only in flashback)
- Katherine Glover (Only in flashback)
- Savage Six (Only in flashback)
- Crime-Master (Bennett Brant) (Only in flashback)
- Death Adder (Roland Burroughs) (Only in flashback)
- Jack O'Lantern (Only in flashback)
- Human Fly (Richard Deacon) (Only in flashback)
- Megatak (Gregory Nettles) (Only in flashback)
- Toxin (Eddie Brock) (Only in flashback)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Uncharted region of space
- Symbiote Hive-Mind (First appearance)
- Milky Way (Only in flashback)
- Solar System (Only in flashback)
- Earth (Only in flashback)
- United States of America (Only in flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- United States of America (Only in flashback)
- Earth (Only in flashback)
- Solar System (Only in flashback)
Items:
- Venom Symbiote
- Carnage Symbiote (Only in flashback)
- Toxin Symbiote (Only in flashback)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for 1st story
Awakening from a nightmare in which Brunnhilde was being held captive by the Venom symbiote, Flash Thompson sees the Guardians' ship trashed and the Guardians badly injured and unconscious. Arriving at the cockpit, Flash finds the Venom symbiote in control of Drax's body and piloting the ship. As the ship enters an alien jungle where the flora and fauna are bonded to symbiotes and is snared by tendrils from a plant, the Venom symbiote announces they have arrived at its destination, tells Flash that it has come to begrudgingly admire him during their time together, and leaves. Drax regains consciousness and attacks Flash, but the other the Guardians intervene. Rocket interrupts Peter's attempt to stop Drax from breaking Flash's neck and the Guardians observe they have arrived at an uncharted planet completely infested with symbiotes. Gamora wonders if this is a planet the symbiotes have overtaken, noting their reputation as conquerors, but Peter and Rocket note this planet seems to be solely populated by hostless symbiotes in the form of ray and fish-like beings. Drax attempts to free the ship and leave, but Gamora notes that the symbiotes are not attacking or trying to devour them.
Flash decides to present himself to the symbiotes, despite Drax's objections. As they argue a symbiote forces the airlock open and grabs Flash, carrying him out of the ship. The symbiote uses Flash as a mouthpiece to announce that they want to communicate to the Guardians by temporarily bonding to them. Groot accepts and bonds to one of the symbiotes, and noting that he seems to be alright the other Guardians accept.
A voice informs them that there are many stories about the symbiotes, some true and some falsities concocted by renegade members of the species, and that while they have many names they prefer to be called the Klyntar. The Klyntar hive-mind explains that in their natural state, the symbiotes are benevolent and seek to maintain peace across the galaxy by bonding to worthy hosts in order to create the ultimate noble warriors. However, in order for the symbiosis' full potential to be reached, the host must have a perfect blend of moral and physical ideals, something very few members of very few species possess. If this balance is not present than symbiotes can become corrupted with bloodlust and turn into vicious monsters. The corrupted symbiotes are disconnected from the hive-mind, but continued to spread across the universe, conquering, consuming, and spreading lies to tarnish the reputation of the pure symbiotes. Stating that even a broken symbiosis can yield true heroism, the hive-mind explains that it has been aware of Venom's activities on Earth but was unable to reach out to it until Flash joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. However, when the symbiotes of Klyntar attempted to reconnect the Venom symbiote to the hive-mind, they found that its corruption was too great and caused it to lash out in confusion and anger.
Having guided the Venom symbiote back to the symbiote home world, the hive-mind purges it of the bloodlust and malice it had accumulated over the years of being bonded to the likes of Eddie Brock and Mac Gargan, restoring it to a purified state. The symbiote hive-mind states that Flash has proven himself worthy of being the newly cleansed Venom symbiote's host, and that as a member of the hive-mind he will have access to new information and abilities, dubbing him an official Agent of the Cosmos and warrior of the galaxy, protector of his home world against those who would do it harm. With the symbiotes having used their bonding to purge any diseases from the Guardians, they leave their planet feeling peaceful and relaxed.
Later, in the Guardians' ship, Captain Marvel calls them and shows them the announcement that Peter Quill has been elected president of the Spartax, much to Star-Lord's shock.
Solicit Synopsis
• Venom finally takes a trip home! Can't wait to meet its folks. Or... the thing it spawned from... or whatever…
• But with the symbiote becoming more and more uncontrollable, this may be seriously bad news for the Guardians.
• I mean... come on guys! Can't they have ONE nice vacation? Always with the monsters and aliens and lasers and stuff...Trivia
- One of the symbiotes shown through flashback resembles Venom 2099.
- One of the visions of the evil symbiotes that the symbiote hive-mind shows Flash is an updated version of one of the panels from Venom Super Special #1, depicting the Venom symbiote's imprisonment.
- The idea of a symbiote hive-mind first appeared in the Spider-Man: Unlimited animated series, where it was referred to as the Synoptic.