Marvel Confirms Death of Major Spider-Man Character

There are some heavy revelations in this week's issue of Venom, but one of the biggest ones is the reveal that one particular Spider-Man character is truly dead.

Spoilers incoming for Venom #7, so if you haven't read the issue yet you've been warned.

Eddie Brock finds himself being interrogated by The Maker, who is (or was now that its gone) the Ultimate Universe's version of Reed Richards. Brock isn't quite sure how he got here, and after The Maker figures that out, he is happy to fill in the blanks.

Unfortunately, most of the news he has for Brock is bad, including the fact that while the symbiote is still attached to Brock, the personality and mind of it has been mostly wiped away after Brock's last encounter. As Maker points out, that means it is little more than a guard dog, as it will still protect him but the personality is not there any longer, signified by the fact that he says "I" instead of "we" now.

When Brock asks how they can possibly fix it, Maker says "the only way to regenerate the symbiote's original makeup would be to reconnect it and restore it from the central hive itself. And the only person to have ever made contact and survived that experience was Flash Thompson."

This is where Maker springs some bad news on Brock though, saying, "But I'm afraid with Flash dead, there's little else that can be done."

Brock reveals this is a complete shock, saying "wait...Flash Thompson is dead?"

For those who don't remember, Flash died in Amazing Spider-Man #800 during the battle between Spider-Man and Red Goblin, Norman Osborn's merging with the Carnage symbiote. Throughout the series, Osborne had been performing focused attacks on people close to Peter, including Aunt May, Mary Jane, Clash, Silk, and Harry. He would attack them and then hit them with infected shards, which he revealed would fill their bloodstream and kill them with a snap of his fingers.

Luckily for them, Flash discovered his plan and used his Anti-Venom powers to remove them from each person, but he had to use most of his powers to do it, leaving him vulnerable to Goblin's shock gauntlets in the final battle. Before he dies, Flash talks Peter down from giving in to the Venom symbiote, which he was using to fight Goblin, telling Peter, "People need you. They need...Peter Parker...the Amazing Spider-Man. My hero. My friend--"

Some might have thought Flash would eventually come back, but it seems that isn't happening, or at least not yet. It turns out that couldn't be worse news for Brock.