A Marvel Favorite Just Became A Symbiote Space Dragon

A Marvel fan-favorite character just got a major upgrade: he went from dead, to taking on the power of a symbiote Space Dragon! (Spoilers) The character in question is none other than Agent Anti-Venom, aka Flash Thompson. Thompson made a re-appearance in the current Venom comic book series, which is one of the main tie-ins for Marvel's current "King In Black" event. Eddie Brock reconnected with Flash inside of the strange realm of the symbiote hive, which is controlled by the God of the symbiotes, Knull. When Flash goes to make the ultimate sacrifice to save Eddie, he instead gets a Medieval-style rebirth as a Symbiote Dragon!

Warning: Venom #33 SPOILERS Follow!

Flash Thompson's mind was preserved as a codex inside the Hive-Mind of the symbiote homeworld and made its way back to Earth along with the symbiote horde of Knull's invasion, joining Rex Strickland's team of revolutionaries within the Hive-Mind. When Eddie Brock dies, his mind is also trapped in the realm of the Hive-Mind, but Strickland, Flash, and the other revolutionary codices recruit Eddie into their ranks.

In Venom #33, Eddie makes the discovery that the strange Hive-Mind realm he, Flash, and Rex are trapped in is a sort of purgatory holding cell. When Dylan Brock finally begins annihilating Knull's symbiotes in the real world, Knull's breakdown in control allows Eddie to break through the wall of 'purgatory' to make a key discovery: the "God Hive," which connects every symbiote in the universe.

Within the God Hive, Eddie spots symbiotes that have been severed from Kull's control being held, prisoner. Based on his past experience with Flash, Eddie theorizes that bonding their lingering codices to these freed Symbiotes will give these "dead men" a path back to the physical world, where their free symbiotes can take Knull out. The catch is that as soon as they destroy the cages holding the freed symbiotes, Knull will sense and kill whoever blows the cages - someone must make the kamikaze attack, and Agent Anti-Venom ends up taking on the mission.

Flash releases the free symbiotes, and thankfully they get to him before Knull can. The result is Flash's codex being "downloaded" into one of Knull's symbiote dragons that got severed from the Hive, become an Agent Anti-Venom Dragon that joins the Marvel Heroes in the fight against Knull.

While seeing Flash (sort of?) return to the Marvel Universe as a space dragon is awesome fan-service, it's also a clear foreshadow for the kind of evolution that Eddie Brock/Venom is about to go through.

Venom #33 is now on sale from Marvel Comics.