Flash Thompson

• 1. Introduction

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  Eugene "Flash" Thompson first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15, published in August 1962 by Marvel Comics. Writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko introduced him in the very issue that launched Spider-Man. Flash starts out as the star of his high school football team, loud and confident, and he makes a daily sport of humiliating a quiet classmate named Peter Parker. Yet the same boy founds the first Spider-Man Fan Club and talks about the masked hero as his idol. Peter, who is secretly Spider-Man, takes a private and slightly guilty pleasure in that irony. It is a joke that could have stayed a joke. Instead, Marvel kept returning to Flash across more than half a century. What happens to a boy who learns cruelty at home? What would a bully do for the hero he worships, once he finally has the chance? And how far can one supporting character travel from a school hallway before the comic book runs out of places to send him?

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• 2. A Mask Named Flash

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  The nickname was "Puny Parker," and Flash used it on Peter every day at school. The cruelty had a source. Flash was physically abused by his alcoholic father, Harrison Thompson, and the comics trace his violent streak back to that house. The fan club carried its own comic touch. Flash insulted J. Jonah Jameson to his face over the Daily Bugle's anti-Spider-Man editorials. When Spider-Man was seen committing robberies, Flash was one of the few who defended him. Then Mysterio was exposed as the one who framed the hero, and Flash boasted that he had been right all along. Peter had said he would not "trust Spider-Man any further than I can throw him," so the vindication stung and amused him in equal measure.

  A boxing match in the school gym changed the balance early on. Flash expected an easy win. He could not land a single punch on Peter, whose speed and reflexes were beyond ordinary, and one tap from Peter knocked him out of the ring. After that, Flash mostly bullied with words. As the two competed for the affection of Liz Allan, he would confront Peter only with his friends behind him. Peter began answering threats with good-natured jokes, which left Flash annoyed and baffled. This quiet reversal of their positions was typical of the Lee and Ditko stories.

  By the end of Ditko's time on the series, Flash worked mostly as comic relief, more a local buffoon than a menace. When John Romita, Sr. took over as artist after The Amazing Spider-Man #39, the character changed again. Flash became more sympathetic, and his clean-cut look was emphasized to give him an "All-American" persona.

  In July 1997, The Spectacular Spider-Man #-1 looked back at Flash's childhood in a story titled "That Thompson Boy." Writer J. M. DeMatteis explained his aim: "Despite our human tendency to want to fit people into convenient pigeonholes, no one is any one thing all the time. The main point of 'That Thompson Boy' was to show that there were other sides to Flash, to look behind the curtain and see the vulnerability, and depth, that was there. 'Flash' is a mask. Eugene is a complex, wounded human being. I think the character's history, even going back to Stan Lee's stories, is a constant battle between the two, a seeking to find balance." That balance would be tested far from any school gym.

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• 3. Friends and Enemies

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  In The Amazing Spider-Man #138, from November 1974, Peter Parker found every door closed to him except one. Flash let him room at his place after all of Peter's other friends and acquaintances turned him away. That issue is the major turning point, though the relationship had been softening for years. At Empire State University, Flash came to respect Peter's intelligence. He was also surprised by how popular Peter was with women, in particular Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson. Their friend Harry Osborn, a wealthy classmate, helped defuse the old tension between the former rivals. Flash eventually served as best man when Peter married Mary Jane.

  Norman Osborn, Harry's father, saw a different use for Flash. After a bout of severe depression, Flash went drunk-driving and was badly injured in a car crash. Soon afterward, Norman offered him a job at Oscorp as his personal aide, chiefly to annoy Peter. Flash knew none of that. He became loyal to Norman for giving him a second chance. During this period Flash even met the hero Prodigy, without realizing it was Spider-Man in disguise.

  Norman's plan was to push Spider-Man toward murderous violence by attacking the people close to him. He kidnapped Flash, pretending to pick him up from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Norman force-fed him whiskey and made him crash a truck into Midtown High School, where Peter worked. Flash survived thanks to his excellent physical condition, but the brain damage left him in a coma. Liz Allan, widowed and raising her son Normie alone, became his caretaker and hired a full-time nurse. May Parker suggested moving Flash into Peter's apartment building, so he could be among friends. Peter blamed himself and spent his free time with Flash, and his constant companionship slowly improved Flash's condition.

  Flash woke during the story arc "The Other" and took a job as the physical education teacher at Midtown High, where Peter taught science. Severe memory gaps sent him back to his teenage self. He treated Peter like a nerd again and flirted with Miss Arrow, unaware that she was a villain sent to attack Peter. When Peter revealed he was Spider-Man, Flash dismissed it as a trick. Only after watching Peter fight Daniel Berkhart and Francis Klum did his memories return. The demon Mephisto later wiped the world's memory of Peter's identity, Flash's included. Soon after, Flash left his teaching post for a very different kind of service.

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• 4. Soldier

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  The Amazing Spider-Man #47, from April 1967, sent Flash to the Vietnam War. He had not been conscripted. Unlike many students of the time, he volunteered of his own free will. He returned to the comic only on leave until issue #105 in February 1972 brought him back as a regular. Marvel's floating timeline later turned the conflict into an unspecified overseas war. Flash came home a decorated hero, yet the tour had turned a reckless, immature youth into a tormented man. His medals gave him no comfort, and he turned to alcohol for years.

  One memory haunted him in particular. His unit bombed an ancient temple whose acolytes had sheltered him when he was wounded, and he tried and failed to stop them. Back in America, he stopped antagonizing Peter, who in turn began to respect his new maturity. Then mysterious assassins began following Flash. They were former acolytes who believed he had betrayed them. Spider-Man held them off long enough for Flash to tell his side. Their leader, Sha Shan, forgave him and dated him for a while, but left when she learned he was cheating.

  When the Hobgoblin attacked Sha Shan, Flash insulted the villain on television. The Hobgoblin took revenge by abducting Flash and framing him as the Hobgoblin's true identity. Spider-Man was horrified to think his old friend was a villain. Flash was legally cleared once the real identity came out.

  After the events of "One More Day," Flash rejoined the Army to fight in the Iraq War, driven by patriotic zeal and by the selfless example of Spider-Man. From his hospital camp bed, he kept a greeting card from Peter and an iPod that Peter had loaded with "Christmas in Fallujah." His platoon was ambushed, and Flash took several bullets in both legs. He kept going to save his superior officer, reasoning that Spider-Man often made such sacrifices for others. The damage forced doctors to amputate both legs below the knees, and Flash was recommended for the Medal of Honor.

  Back in New York, he shocked Peter with the news and told him that Spider-Man had been his inspiration in Iraq. Harry rented a condo for him. At a disabled athletes sporting event at the local YMCA, Flash came in first. He joined Mayor Jameson's office of veteran's affairs, where the Chameleon, disguised as Peter, mocked him as "puny Flash." He went through the stages of grief in reverse order and even tried dangerous experimental procedures to regain his legs. With the support of friends, family and a new rehabilitation trainer, Sha Shan, he seemed to find peace. Then came an offer to walk again.

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• 5. Agent Venom

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  In a January 2011 interview with Newsarama, Flash was revealed "by accident" as the new host of Venom. Marvel confirmed he would star in his own comic, with a military-style version of the character. He had seemed settled about his legs, yet he jumped at the dangerous deal of bonding to the Venom symbiote. The alien would grow replacement legs from its own biological mass. His debut as Agent Venom came in The Amazing Spider-Man #654 in February 2011, and a second volume of Venom began in May 2011 with Flash as the title character.

  The price was control. Flash could not stay bonded for more than 48 hours at a time, or the symbiote might take over completely. The warning proved true. On his second mission, the suit drove him berserk and he brutally killed a group of enemy operatives. During a brawl with Jack O'Lantern, it put a grenade in the villain's mouth. In the Savage Land, Kraven the Hunter stalked him, mistaking him for Spider-Man. Beyond the suit's legs, Flash relied on his military training and former boxing career. He was an experienced hand-to-hand fighter and a trained marksman.

  In the 2011 "Spider-Island" storyline, Flash captured the Spider-King, who turned out to be Steve Rogers under the Queen's influence. Later he was sent to kill Anti-Venom, then ordered to deliver him to Reed Richards instead. The symbiote wanted revenge on Anti-Venom for once rejecting it, so Flash fought his own costume. Venom won the fight and delivered Anti-Venom to Richards. Flash then served in the Secret Avengers from issue #23 in April 2012 to the final issue, #37, in March 2013. He also appeared in the 2012 Thunderbolts series by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon, under Thunderbolt Ross.

  In Philadelphia, Flash took on a teenage neighbor, Andrea "Andi" Benton, as his protege. Bonded to a duplicate of the symbiote, she became the antiheroine Mania. Back in New York, the Superior Spider-Man, with Otto Octavius's mind in Spider-Man's body, gave Flash prosthetic legs and then stole the symbiote. With Iron Man's help and some unexpected aid from Spider-Man's conscience, Flash got it back. Asked to check his mind-link for signs of trouble, he said he heard "two different radio stations playing in the same frequency." When the real Peter returned and learned his friend was Venom, he was angry at the Avengers. They answered that secret identities protected both sides.

  The Avengers then placed Venom on the Guardians of the Galaxy as their envoy, which led to the solo series Venom: Space Knight, written by Robbie Thompson and drawn by Ariel Olivetti. It was canceled after 13 issues. In space, a signal began tapping the symbiote's mind and it killed people who refused to help. Star-Lord subdued it, and Flash fell into a coma. The symbiote flew to its planet of origin and learned about the Klyntar. Flash and the symbiote had become the savior its kind wanted, and he became Earth's intergalactic ambassador and an Agent of the Cosmos.

  During the 2016 "Civil War II" storyline, Flash returned to Earth and clashed with Spider-Man. Andi, as Mania, grew ruthless enough to kill everyone she met. Flash pulled the Mania symbiote from her and absorbed it into his own, but a demonic sigil called the Hell-Mark corrupted her. He stayed on Earth to care for her. Later, an FBI agent in a high-tech suit used a weapon that sent the symbiote into a frenzy. It fled into the city and found a new host in Lee Price.

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• 6. Death and Return

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  Norman Osborn came back in the Go Down Swinging storyline with the Carnage symbiote bonded to him, a combination that made him the Red Goblin. Flash by then called himself Agent Anti-Venom. After he, Mania, Spider-Man, Black Cat and Venom defeated Price, he had handed the Venom symbiote to Eddie Brock. Now Flash used his Anti-Venom powers to heal the friends and family of Peter's who the Carnage symbiote had infected. In the process, he discovered Spider-Man's secret identity.

  Norman critically wounded Flash, who could no longer heal because he had spent his power on the others. Peter offered to use the Venom symbiote to save him. Flash refused. He worried that it would die with him, and he knew Peter needed an edge over Norman's new powers. He died in Peter's arms, and Peter and his friends honored him at his funeral.

  That was not the end of his story. The Maker obtained a piece of the symbiote from Flash's time as Agent Venom, and it held a copy of his consciousness. The Maker called the sample a codex. During Venom's escape from Project Oversight, a brain-dead symbiote absorbed the sample. With Eddie Brock's permission, the copy took control and became Agent Venom. Flash's consciousness burned out shortly afterward.

  The symbiote god Knull invaded Earth in the King in Black story, and it turned out Flash still existed within the symbiote hive-mind. He joined Rex Strickland's army of former symbiote hosts and recovered a replica of his Anti-Venom symbiote. When Eddie Brock died and joined the army, Flash was there to greet him. As Eddie's son Dylan and Thor freed hosts from their symbiotes, a red gash opened, formed from the dissolved symbiotes. Flash followed Eddie and Rex through it into the core of the hive-mind, a kind of purgatory for codices.

  The three saw that freed symbiotes were being imprisoned. They planned to bond with them the way Flash once had with Venom. Eddie protested, but Flash volunteered to free the captives and "download" himself into one. He called this his mission from the beginning and told Eddie that Eddie was a hero too. The plan worked, and Flash was reborn as a symbiote dragon that resembled his Anti-Venom symbiote. He flew to the cemetery where his body lay buried and burst from the grave in a recreation of his human form.

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• 7. Alternate Flashes

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  In the Ultimate Marvel line, he is Fredrick "Fred" Thompson, a high school jock friendly with Kenny "Kong" McFarlane. This Flash does not idolize Spider-Man, and he is generally portrayed unsympathetically. When he challenges Peter to a fight, Peter blocks a punch and breaks Flash's hand. After Gwen Stacy's death, it emerges that Flash had a crush on her and had only wanted Peter's help to ask her out. Later, the Wild Pack mistook him for Spider-Man and kidnapped him. He escaped, a TV movie was made about his ordeal, and he gained new popularity at school.

  The What If? series let writers push him in stranger directions. In one story, a radioactive spider bites Flash instead of Peter. He fights crime as Captain Spider, but the Vulture knocks him out of the sky and, with no web-shooters to save him, he falls to his death. In another, Flash keeps his bully's temper, uses his powers to become a super-criminal called The Spider, and Peter must build a mechanical exoskeleton to stop him. In a third tale, J. Jonah Jameson adopts Peter, and Flash takes a Scorpion suit that drives him berserk.

  Heroes Reborn gives a darker path. A pushed Peter out of the way of the radioactive spider, Flash later ran for the U.S. House of Representatives and lost to Kyle Richmond. His obsession with Gwen Stacy unhinged him. He killed Miles Warren and took his place as the Jackal. Gwen eventually defeated him and had him committed to Ravencroft.

  Other versions are lighter or briefer. In the Amalgam Comics universe, Flash is a member of the New York Special Crimes Unit and distrusts Spider-Boy. In House of M, he is a commentator on the program Sapien Deathmatch. In MC2, he is a basketball coach and the ex-husband of Felicia Hardy. In Spider-Man: Life Story, he is killed in action during the Vietnam War. In the Venomverse crossover, a Poison Hulk kills him. In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider Island, he leads the resistance as Agent Venom and dies stopping the Spider Queen. Most striking is the What If? story in which Flash becomes Spider-Man himself, lives in a trailer park, accidentally kills Peter in a rage, and turns himself in.

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• 8. On Screen

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  James Cameron's aborted script treatment for a Spider-Man film renamed the character Nathan McCreery. When Sam Raimi's trilogy arrived, Joe Manganiello played Flash as Mary Jane Watson's boyfriend, as well as Peter's rival and bully. The tie-in novelization says he plays quarterback, comes from a rich family and is borderline abusive toward Mary Jane. He later attends Harry Osborn's funeral in Spider-Man 3. Chris Zylka played him in The Amazing Spider-Man as a basketball captain who is friends with Gwen Stacy. After Ben Parker's death, this Flash sympathizes with Peter and stops bullying him. A deleted scene, "Flash Forward," showed him wanting to attend military school. Plans existed for him to become Agent Venom in spin-off films before the franchise was cancelled, and Zylka was eager for them.

  Tony Revolori plays Flash in the Marvel Cinematic Universe trilogy. Because Revolori is not white, as the character has traditionally been portrayed, a small online contingent sent him hate mail and death threats. The general public received his performance well. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, this Flash is a smug, rich kid at the Midtown School of Science and Technology who verbally bullies Peter and works as a DJ on the side. In Far From Home, he is a minor social media star whose followers he calls the "Flash Mob," and hints suggest a difficult home life. By No Way Home he has dyed his hair blonde, backs Peter after the outing of his identity and is accepted into MIT. In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, he appears silently as Captain Spider.

  Television has used him in many forms. Frank Welker voiced him in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. Patrick Labyorteaux voiced him in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where he dated Felicia Hardy and then Debra Whitman. Devon Sawa voiced a more violent version in The New Animated Series episode "Flash Memory," in which Dr. Zellner's serum makes him smarter. In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Joshua LeBar voiced a childhood friend of Peter's who earned his nickname by streaking as a child. Matt Lanter and Logan Miller voiced him in Ultimate Spider-Man, where he becomes Agent Venom. Benjamin Diskin voiced him in the 2017 Spider-Man series, and he has a silent cameo in X-Men '97.

  Games have focused on his Venom side. He is playable as Agent Venom in Marvel Avengers Alliance, Marvel: Contest of Champions, Marvel Puzzle Quest, Marvel: Future Fight and Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, among others. Crispin Freeman voices him in Marvel Heroes. In Spider-Man Unlimited, Captain Spider, Agent Venom and Agent Anti-Venom are separate playable characters. Matt Caplan originated the role on stage in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

  Rankings reflect his shift from bully to hero. In 2012, IGN placed his Venom persona 27th in a list of the top 50 Avengers. In 2016, ComicBook.com ranked him first among Venom hosts. In 2021, Screen Rant counted him among the most powerful hosts of the symbiote. In 2022, CBR.com ranked him 10th among the most wholesome Spider-Man characters.

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