Background
Following Aunt May's disappearance, Peter Parker learned from Mac Gargan
that his aunt
had been kidnapped by Norman Osborn as part of an elaborate plan. Gargan
revealed that the plan was to to break Osborn out of Riker's Island
Penitentiary or Aunt May dies.
After returning to his apartment that evening Gargan had a surprise guest in
Venom's symbiote, and it made Gargan aware that it wanted him as its new host.
(It had briefly bonded to Angelo Fortunato, but he "just doesn't have
enough
venom!")
Gargan and the symbiote bonded to become the latest incarnation of Venom and
later showed up to help the Green Goblin ambush Spider-man and Black Cat as
part
of the new Sinister Twelve after they helped break Osborn out of Riker's in
the
hope he would lead them to Aunt May.
Soon the Fantastic Four and members of New Avengers showed and helped even the
odds following a tip off Mary Jane had detailed to S.H.E.I.L.D. As the
Goblin
disappeared to make good on his promise of murdering Mary Jane, Spider-man
raced
homeward hoping to get there first. Venom took up the task of stopping his
return home. Due to Gargan's inexperience with the symbiote, Spider-man soon
got
Venom on the back foot before dropping a condemned building on him, decisively
ending the fight. Weakened from the fight, Gargan was soon apprehended by the
authorities and found himself occupying Norman's old cell in Riker's.
After finding his way out of incarceration, Venom was transported into space
via
a star ship after being drawn to a huge alien artifact in central park. He was
joined
by eight others who had fallen prey to the same trap, including Dr Henry Pym,
Gravity and Alyosha Kravinoff. The ship was on a set course for a
restored Battleworld. Their
captor,
an all powerful alien entity who claimed to be The Beyonder would later detail
that they were the latest in a long line of combatants in an ongoing experiment
he had conducted for many years. Gathering together a collection of humans to
have them battle to the death with the promise that the survivor would have any
desire realized.
On Battleworld Venom had become estranged from his shipmates and from this
point
sat in ambush waiting to strike at his combatants when they least expected.
Later reunited with his shipmates, the group were witness to the arrival of
Uatu
the Watcher. Mistaking Uatu for the Beyonder, Venom began to attack the others
before Pym blasted him, and the rest of the gang with a shrinking cannon. After
this the would-be Beyonder arrived. Since Dr Pym had apparently slain his
shipmates, the alien entity asked him what he desired.
Realizing Dr Pym had tricked him by shrinking his comrades down to palm size he
was reluctant to cooperate w/ Pym's requests, but with the pressure of Uatu
present he agreed. The planet then began to self destruct. Gravity took care of
holding Battleworld together so the team could escape to the ship, but later
died from exertion. Back on Earth Gargan would show up at Gravity's funeral to
pay his respects.
During the conflict that arose amidst the introduction of the Superhuman
Registration Act, Gargan was offered a shot at legitimacy. A new Thunderbolts
team was assembled by S.H.E.I.L.D. as a secret weapon to aid in combating
the resistance. Once again, Gargan was being led by Norman Osborn. The new
Thunderbolts were a vastly more ruthless assembly than
previous iterations of the group as they now comprised solely of super
villains.
In creating such a team it was S.H.E.I.L.D.'s belief that it would also serve
as
a rehabilitation program for them. In the wake of Captain America's
surrender
'The Initiative' was launched- at least one Super team in every US state.
Rehabilitation. Right. He was obviously making great progress with that when he
tore an arm off of the Steel Spider while taking him into custody, and when he
ate the skeleton of Fritz von Meyer. He particularly went ape on Eddie
Brock
when the Thunderbolts were sent to NYC to bring in Spider-Man. Looking for
Spider-Man, he instead was drawn to Brock. Being near his former symbiote
caused
a mutation in Brock, changing him into Anti-Venom.
The Venom symbiote was very nearly killed by Anti-Venom, when he was saved by
the rest of the Thunderbolts. Brock escaped. Gargan was in severe pain after
the
fight, but was able to heal when Osborn supplied him with a new Scorpion suit
to
use while the symbiote healed. Gargan met Anti-Venom again at OsCorp, when
Brock
and Spider-Man decided to confront them by surprise. Scorpion managed to infect
Anti-Venom with a poison that ended Brock's mutation and was about to kill him.
Gargan was stopped by the symbiote, who still "loved" Brock. Still, Gargan
hates
Brock with a passion and they will no doubt meet again.
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