The main question people have had about a Venom movie since it was announced is whether one of Spider-Man's deadliest foes can carry a movie by himself, especially as the hero. The film will see Tom Hardy step in the shoes of Venom's most famous human host, Eddie Brock, but over the past several years, Marvel set about making Venom a hero with the help of another Spidey antagonist turned good guy: Flash Thompson.

It all began with some slight adjustments to Flash's backstory. Like Tony Stark, a chunk of Flash's history used to revolve around the Vietnam War. He was drafted during the Stan Lee/John Romita Sr. era of The Amazing Spider-Man, well after he and Peter had begun to move past their high school days. Changed drastically by his time in the Army, Flash came home a war hero, but dove headfirst into alcoholism, like his abusive father before him.

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Fast forward to 2007 and the ever-controversial "One More Day" storyline. following the magical dissolution of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's marriage (and entire relationship), Flash's service was updated so that he'd served in the Iraq War, the character inspired by a combination of post-9/11 patriotism and Spider-Man's example. His platoon was ambushed and, though wounded, he saved his unit and commanding officer. Unfortunately, his legs were so damaged they had to be amputated below the knee. Having earned the Medal of Honor, a recovering Flash moved back to NYC.

Meanwhile, the Venom symbiote, having been bonded with Mac "Scorpion" Gargan as part of Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers, was forcibly separated from his then-current host when that team was taken into custody. Held by the U.S. Government, the symbiote was the center of a new incarnation of Project: Rebirth (named after the super-soldier program that created Captain America), with scientists learning a person could be bonded to it for 48 hours before it'd take control.

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Needing a test subject, the military approached Flash and, wanting to continue serving his country, he agreed. Surviving the process and armed with tranquilizers to stabilize his control over it, Flash and the symbiote allied as "Agent Venom," working covert operations on behalf of US interests. This led into a new volume of Venom, initially written by Rick Remender and pencilled by Tony Moore, Lan Medina and Tom Fowler, among many others, where Agent Venom never had it easy.

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For starters, two villains -- new versions of Jack O'Lantern and the Crime Master -- quickly figured out Agent Venom's true identity. Having a bone to pick with Flash after he foiled their plans to distribute weapons made from vibranium, the duo blackmailed him into letting their evil skate by in exchange for leaving his loved ones alone.

Agent Venom also got roped into the Spider-Island crisis, all while wrestling with the memory of his father, then dying of cirrhosis and was too ill to be evacuated from Manhattan. The Spider-Island tie-in issues, incidentally, are the best kind of event tie-in issues; they put Flash and his abilities in the event while still advancing his character and his individual story.

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After this, with Cap coming to shut down Project: Rebirth, Flash hijacked the symbiote and Venom went AWOL to kill the Crime Master, Jack and their cronies...a plan complicated when Jack tagged along. . The "Circle of Four" arc saw Venom in Las Vegas and team up with X-23, Red Hulk (who Cap had sent to bring Flash in) and Ghost Riders Alejandra Jones and Johnny Blaze to stop Mephisto's son, Blackheart, from bringing Hell to Earth with Vegas as the fulcrum.

A bonkers ride that's metal as all get out, "Circle of Four" closed with the heroes each being branded with a Hell-Mark, designating them as Mephisto's potential heirs. "The Savage Six," Remender's final arc, co-written with Cullen Bunn, is a barnburner, seeing Agent Venom finally take out Jack O'Lantern and the Crime Master, who Betty shot to death after he turned out to be her long-thought-dead brother Bennett, brought back by unknown forces.

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Cullen Bunn then took over as writer, working with artists Thony Silas, Kim Jacinto, Declan Shalvey and others. His run gave Flash a new status quo, moving him to Philadelphia and giving him a job as a high school gym teacher while using the Venom suit to do good in the city and as part of the Secret Avengers. By this point, the symbiote's murderous nature had subsided, due to Flash's influence.

A newly evil Damien Hellstrom sent a demon to try and possess Flash but instead, it was absorbed by Venom due to the Hell-Mark, but its presence influenced the suit to terrorize Philly.  This caused problems when Jack O'Lantern returned, kidnapped Andi, one of Flash's students, and murdered her father in front of her. Extending the symbiote over her to protect her from poison gas, Venom was mystified when part of the suit bonded with Andi, instantly granting her powers. Enraged, Andi went nuclear, with Venom barely stopping her. While promising to help Andi master her powers and train her as a super hero codenamed Mania, Flash wound up leaving at Captain America's request to serve as the Avengers' liaison to the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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Flash and the Guardians were subdued by an again-unstable symbiote, which took them to its homeworld of Klyntar. Once there, the heroes learned that the Klyntar are naturally benevolent and bond with heroes to serve as Agents of the Cosmos. But they can be corrupted by unbalanced minds, which Venom's first host had.

After being purified, the symbiote was healed and unlocked more of its potential with Flash. The two also embarked on solo space adventures in the fun, funny Venom: Space Knight by writer Robbie Thompson and artists Ariel Olivetti, Geraldo Sandoval, and others. There, it was revealed Venom could manifest separately from Flash and function on its own. The two got caught up in the events of Civil War II and reunited with an enraged Mania, who, it turned out, had inherited the Hell-Mark from Venom but had absorbed it herself in her anger at Flash for abandoning her. He managed to purge it from her (with Venom cleansing Mania's symbiote), and promised he'd stick around in Philly for her.

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But it all went south when an encounter with an FBI agent involved a weapon that drove Venom crazy. Split from Flash and confused, it wound up with aspiring criminal Lee Price, who used it to help him ascend in the underworld at the start of a new volume of Venom written by Mike Costa and drawn by Sandoval. Managing to leave Price, the suit found itself entwined again with Eddie Brock.

This all culminated in the recent "Venom, Inc." arc, with Flash mentoring Mania as a crimefighter, only to have her captured by Price and forcibly separated from her symbiote. Meanwhile, Brock turned to Alchemax to help him control the now-unstable Venom. Flash tracked him down, only for Spider-Man to douse them both in Anti-Venom Serum in the hope of finally killing the suit. Instead, Flash became Agent Anti-Venom, while the original symbiote was entrusted to Brock.

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The events leading up to Amazing Spider-Man #800 saw Flash use his powers to heal anyone targeted by Red Goblin, finally discovering Peter's secret identity in the process and ultimately sacrificing himself and gifting Peter Venom so he had an advantage over Red Goblin in his final battle. His funeral was a hero's farewell and it all wouldn't have happened without him and Venom bringing out the best in each other.