Eugene "Flash" Thompson's life has been a series of bad beats, but it all started when his dad violently abused him as a kid. That event marked him so thoroughly that he still carries that emotional weight with him as an adult into his time as Agent Venom. Those feelings proved to be his weakness when minor Spider-Man villain Jack O' Lantern decided to exploit them in a brutal attack that cemented him as Agent Venom's nemesis.
Venom #22 by Rick Remender, Declan Shalvey, and Lee Louridge is a somber reflection on Flash Thompson’s abusive childhood and his choice to overcome it. After learning Agent Venom’s secret identity, Jack O’ Lantern went on a campaign to ruin everything in his life. Jack killed Flash’s brother-in-law and almost killed his sister. The stress also ruined his relationship with Betty Brant, who killed Crime-Master, Jack's adopted father. In a sick twist, Jack planned his final move for Father’s Day. As he followed a trail Jack left him, Flash remembered all the times his father abused him and how it turned him into a bully. When he got a speeding ticket, his father beat him to a pulp while his mother watched in fear. The trail led Agent Venom into the sewers and to a marked door. When he opened the door, he was greeted by his father’s corpse, which Jack had turned into his signature jack o’ lantern.
Jack O’ Lantern used Flash’s father to taunt Venom, saying that he had come back to beat him one last time. Flash flashed back to the moment his mother told him that the abuse was his own fault, not his father's. Enraged, Agent Venom failed to notice the bomb hidden behind his father’s corpse. When it detonated, it destroyed the room they were in and let Jack get the drop on him. The attack brought back a memory of Flash failing to save his sister from his father’s rage. The injured Venom crawled towards his father’s corpse, hoping to reach the service revolver still strapped on his belt. He shot Jack with the revolver and managed to throw him to the ground. Venom viciously beat Jack, reminding him of how his father used to beat him. Holding the gun over the defeated villain’s head, Flash almost let the symbiote take over because he was so enraged. Instead, he decided to be better than his father and arrest Jack.
The first time Flash appeared as Agent Venom was in Amazing Spider-Man #654 by Dan Slott, Fred Van Lente, Stefano Caselli and Ronan Cliquet. Flash volunteered for Project Rebirth 2.0 and bonded with the symbiote. Using its biomass, the symbiote replaced Flash’s legs, which he had lost during the Iraq War. Flash’s time as Agent Venom was marred by controversy because he constantly struggled to retain control of the symbiote. Even though he lost control a couple of times, he managed to become a member of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. While in space, he learned to fully control the symbiote and became an Agent of the Cosmos. When he returned to Earth, the FBI stole the symbiote from him and it re-bonded with Eddie Brock. Eventually, he bonded with an Anti-Venom symbiote and became Agent Anti-Venom.
After coming back from the dead, Flash set himself the mission of tracking down all the rogue symbiotes that were set loose during "King in Black." But he will eventually get back to being a regular superhero, leaving space for Jack O' Lantern to come back as his nemesis. Given that they share a history of being abused by their fathers, their rivalry cuts deep for both of them and is sure to produce even more dramatic emotional developments for Flash.