Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Venom (Flash Thompson) (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Numerous unnamed aliens
- Blait'r (Mentioned)
- Cora's children (First appearance)
- Symbiotes (Mentioned)
- Were-Fish (First appearance)
- Cora's wife (First appearance)
Locations:
- Unnamed planet
- Earth (Only in flashback)
- United States of America (Only in flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- Queens (Only in flashback)
- Forest Hills (Only in flashback)
- Midtown High School (Only in flashback)
- Forest Hills (Only in flashback)
- Queens (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- United States of America (Only in flashback)
- Hell (Mentioned)
- Outer Rim
- Vvex (First appearance)
Items:
- Venom Symbiote
- YT-19 (Mentioned)
- "The Scream" (sonic pistol)
Vehicles:
- Venom's spaceship (Only appearance; destruction)
- Kio's spaceship (First appearance)
- Agents of the Cosmos' spaceship (First appearance) (Cameo)
Synopsis for 1st story
Running down a corridor, Venom fires over his shoulder with a laser pistol, while thinking that his situation could have gone better but that broken plays were always his favorite and that all he has to do is run. Thinking to himself that he's like a kid on a playground, Venom leaps out a window as an alien with a set of tentacles for an arm grabs him, and he instinctually retaliates by slicing its tentacle off with an arm-blade. The alien, an arms dealer named Gholar, plummets out the window after him, but Venom maneuvers so that he lands on top of him. Gholar's thugs arrive and open fire, so Venom web-swings away while dodging lasers, thinking to himself that he is an Agent of the Cosmos despite having no idea what that entails, and that he got a message from a ringing voice in his head to travel to that planet to track down a chemical weapon. Venom had found out that Gholar had sold the weapon, YT-19, to a smuggler whose name is on the drive he "borrowed," but his ship is blown up before he can use it to learn the buyer's identity.
Leaping through the window of a nearby building, Venom asks an owl-like alien woman if he can borrow her computer, discovering the buyer was a space pirate named Kio, whose ship is due to depart in five minutes. Dodging Gholar's thugs, Venom latches onto the side of Kio's ship as it takes off into space, using the Venom symbiote's tendrils to open the airlock from the outside. Once inside, Venom outlines a plan: find the YT-19, lots of punching, and then steal Kio's ship to replace the one that was blown up. Spotting a bulky robotic silhouette, Venom notes he might have to amend his to-do list so that punching is at the top, and tells the robot to slowly turn around. Forming an arm-blade, Venom asks if he can help the robot and is surprised when it asks to be terminated. The robot explains that it's been in Kio's service for centuries and has become suicidal, but its programming does not permit it to self-destruct. Seeing the robot is not a threat, Venom asks for its name, and the robot introduces itself as 803. Venom asks 803 to show him where the YT-19 is being held, and 803 asks to be destroyed in return, though Venom refuses to confirm that he'll go through with it.
803 opens a storage compartment in the cargo bay and reveals a female alien and her four children, telling Venom that the YT-19 is derived from their blood. Flash thinks to himself that while the Venom symbiote may have been purged of its rage, he wasn't. Inwardly seething with fury, Flash can feel the symbiote feeding off his anger and forces himself to calm down for fear of corrupting it, approaching the aliens. The mother alien tells Venom to stay back, but he assures them he's an Agent of the Cosmos and there to help them escape. Noting the mother alien's relief, he starts to ask if she knows what an Agent of the Cosmos is, but she interrupts to warn him that 803 is working for the pirates. Venom replies that 803 is harmless and only wants to be destroyed. The robot verifies Venom's statement and asks the aliens to terminate him before being cut off by Venom, who tells him to get the mother alien a weapon and stand guard over them until he gets back. 803 asks if Venom will destroy him if he complies, and Venom jokingly replies that he'll do so only if 803 is good.
On the ship's bridge, Kio tells his pilot to steer the ship into the Broken Sea. The pilot protests, saying the were-fish will tear the ship apart, but Kio retorts they can use the corpse of the intruder to distract them. As the pilot expresses confusion at Kio's statement, Venom attacks and knocks out one of the crew-members. Kio calmly asks what a Symbiote wants with a simple pirate like himself, and Venom states that he's taking Kio's cargo. Kio amends his statement, noting that Venom is not just a simple Symbiote but an Agent of the Cosmos, and Venom asks him if he knows what an Agent of the Cosmos is. Standing up, Kio pulls out a sonic pistol and says that the Agents of the Cosmos are nothing and weak. The sonic wave peels the Venom symbiote away from Flash's face, causing it to screech in pain, and Kio mockingly observes that Flash is an Earthling and that that makes him even weaker. Separated from the symbiote, Flash tries to figure out a way out of his situation as Kio states he's going to sell the symbiote and feed Flash to the were-fish. Kio boasts that he calls his sonic weapon "The Scream", and Flash makes a reference to the Alien film's tagline before slamming his fist onto a red button and hoping the symbiote will know what to do. The ship's cargo bay doors open, jettisoning the ship's occupants and contents into space. Rebonding to the symbiote, Flash latches onto the ship with webbing, then spots the alien family and Kio being attacked by were-fish. Venom saves the family and leaves Kio to be devoured, making his way back to the ship and retrieving 803.
Returning the aliens to their homeworld and family, Flash learns that no-one has attempted to harvest their blood in millions of cycles and that a darkness is spreading across the galaxy, but that the mother is relieved that the Agents of the Cosmos are still watching over them. When Flash asks what the Agents of the Cosmos are, the mother responds that they are heroes, which Flash notes is an answer he can work with. Flash returns to his ship to find 803, who says that Flash should have left it in space. Flash tells 803 that it is free, which the robot says does not compute. Flash tells 803 that it can come along with him if it wants, but that he's in charge and it'll have to help out, meaning no destruction for the time being. 803 states that it is fluent in three million languages and 217 forms of torture, but before it can go into more detail Flash tells it to be quiet, noting that things worked out fine for a series of broken plays, and that maybe being an Agent of the Cosmos won't be so bad after all.
Solicit Synopsis
IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM…WITH EXCITEMENT!
Flash Thompson is a lot of things. Soldier. Veteran. Doubleamputee. Host to a powerful alien symbiote. Now, apart from the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, Flash has also been tasked with being an intergalactic ambassador of Earth and an Agent of the Cosmos. What does that mean? It means Flash Thompson will be what he’s always wanted to be: A BIG. DAMN. HERO. It’s high adventure in deep space as Venom swashbuckles his way across the universe!