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Spider-Man has just recreated one of his classic team-ups in the fight against the world-threatening Venom symbiote in Spider’s Shadow.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow #5, available now from Marvel.
The landscape of one Marvel Universe has had a dark shadow cast over it in Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow, thanks to the most twisted version of the Venom symbiote yet. When Peter embraced the living darkness, he gave his symbiote suit a sense of purpose that it has never really had before. Driving Peter to become a cold-blooded killer was a good start, but with Reed Richards as its latest host, there is still so much more that the symbiote can do. Thankfully, Spider-Man isn’t going to watch his world be ripped apart without a fight, and with the Human Torch at his side, they just reminded everyone why they really are one of Marvel’s most effective crime-fighting duos.
Peter Parker, Johnny Storm and Mary Jane Watson have all made their way beyond the barrier of living darkness and inside the Baxter Building, where the Venom symbiote hasn’t just taken control of Reed Richards and used his incredible intellect to create its own army. Knowing they don’t stand a chance face-to-face, Johnny and M.J. lead the Venomized Mister Fantastic away from its stronghold to buy Peter enough time to find a solution in Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow #5 by Chip Zdarsky, Pasqual Ferry, Matt Hollingsworth and VC’s Joe Sabino. Among the myriad of tech strewn across the lab, Peter discovers a simple device that gives him a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, he doesn’t just need Johnny’s help to pull it off, he has to offer himself back to the symbiote willingly.
On the roof of the Baxter Building, Peter tells the symbiote that he will take it back as its host if it promises to let the other heroes and Mary Jane go without further harm. The symbiote has only grown more and more obsessed with making its bond with Peter permanent, at least as far as this timeline goes. As Peter describes the symbiote to itself, the symbiote is nothing but a twisted sort of love at its core. No matter how grotesque their relationship might be, Peter isn’t wrong in his assessment, which is exactly why it is so easy to get the symbiote to walk right into his trap.
In the years since the interstellar accident that gave the Fantastic Four their amazing powers, Reed Richards has worked tirelessly to find a cure for Ben Grimm’s stone-faced facade, even giving him an image inducer that allowed the Thing to appear human. Now, Spider-Man has used that same piece of technology to effectively trade places with the Human Torch, leaving the symbiote completely exposed to Johnny’s flames when he decides to go supernova.
Of all the classic team-up moments between Spider-Man and the Human Torch over the years, this one stands out as one of the most shocking yet. With just a little bit of forethought, these two heroes turned an otherwise innocuous device into the means to take their world back from the ever-expanding reach of the Venom symbiote.
The Baxter Building itself is certainly worse for the wear, but that is a far cry from the relief that comes with being free from the living darkness as our heroes know it. But with Spider-Man and the Human Torch working together in the new Fantastic Four on this world, there might not be anything they can’t handle.
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