Appearing in "Father's Day"
Featured Characters:
- Venom (Flash Thompson) (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Harrison Thompson (Main story and flashback) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Peter Parker (Only in flashback)
- Rosie Thompson (Only in flashback)
- Jessie Thompson (Only in flashback)
- Human-Fly (Richard Deacon) (Cameo)
- Crime-Master (Bennett Brant) (Appears on screen)
- Toxin (Eddie Brock) (Appears on screen)
Locations:
Items:
- The Venom Symbiote
- The Toxin Symbiote (Appears on screen)
Synopsis for "Father's Day"
Web-swinging across New York City, Venom ponders the ideal of the perfect family in contrast to his own. He thinks about how angry his father was, how normal it came to be for him, and how he became angry at others as well.
Venom is in the middle of tracking Jack O'Lantern, who has been killing people and leaving a trail for Venom that he can see with night vision lenses. He believes Jack O'Lantern has escalated his killings because it's Father's Day and he's still upset over the death of Crime-Master, his adoptive father.
Flash remembers a time when he was young and he regretted trading football cards with a boy named David. Drunkenly, his father went down the street and snatched the cards from out of David's hands. Harrison made a scene with David's father while everyone around them watched and threw the cards in Flash's face before leaving, saying that his father wouldn't have done that for him.
As he continues to track Jack O'Lantern, Venom thinks maybe he deserved his father's anger because he was a failure, but he knows that his father didn't love anyone because he was a broken man.
Flash again recalls talking on the phone with Liz Allen and Harrison angrily went into his room and yelled at him for getting a speeding ticket. The fight escalated to the point that Harrison beat him violently while Flash's mother watched from outside his room.
Venom follows the trail to a sewer. Walking through it, he thinks about how the good days in-between the bad days made everything worse because he thought his father had changed. He makes his way to a door. When he enters through it, he sees his father's corpse, his head illuminated by a candle inside his head, Jack O'Lantern's trademark. All of a sudden, the door slams shut and Jack O'Lantern's voice can be heard pretending to be Harrison's.
After his father beat him, Flash is visited by his mother. He asked her why she let him beat him, but she blames Flash for provoking him.
Harrison's corpse slumps over, revealing a bomb, which goes off immediately after.
In another flashback, Flash returns home and tells his family that he made the winning play for his team. His father doesn't care and tells him that his cousin graduated from medical school, a much more impressive feat.
Jack O'Lantern attacks Flash from behind. Flash remembers when his father hit Jessie, and then him when he tried to stop him. Jack O'Lantern slashes Venom's stomach and tells him about the things he learned about his father from Jessie.
Venom crawls towards Harrison's corpse, and just as Jack O'Lantern is about to finish him off, Venom grabs Harrison's gun from out of its holster and shoots Jack O'Lantern multiple times, reminding him how angry and violent his father was. With Jack O'Lantern defeated, he drops his father's gun and lets him live, choosing instead not to let his father's anger poison him.
In the end, Jack is sent to the Raft and Flash tells the Secret Avengers everything. Betty throws out pictures of Flash. That night, Flash gets into bed and looks at a picture of his family before turning out the light.
Solicit Synopsis
THE SAVAGE SIX TOOK THEIR SHOT – NOW VENOM TAKES HIS! • With his darkest secrets exposed to those he loves, Flash Thompson has one name on his hit list: Jack O’Lantern!
• Series co-creator Rick Remender takes his final bow while Declan Shalvey (DARK AVENGERS) joins the book for Flash Thompson’s defining hour as a hero!!