I can live with having scars. But I can't live with being them. Does that make sense? 

—Alea Bell

Appearing in 1st story

Featured Characters:

• Venom (Alea Bell) (First appearance) (Bonds to the Venom Symbiote)

Supporting Characters:

• Venom Symbiote (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
• Dr. Theo Bell (First appearance)

Antagonists:

• Alchemax
  • Dr. Russell (First appearance; dies)
• Bether (First appearance)
• Public Eye (Death of several)

Other Characters:

• Knull (First appearance; behind the scenes in main story and appears in flashback)
• Alea's mother (First appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
• Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
• Venom (Eddie Brock) (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
• Revel (First appearance)
• Sym-Soldier Program (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
  • Tyrannosaurus (Rex Strickland) (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
  • Unnamed others (First appearance) (Only in flashback)

Races and Species:

• Symbiotes (Main story and flashback)
• Humans (Main story and flashback)
• Robots
• Alien Gods (Behind the scenes in main story and appear in flashback)
• Mutants (Mentioned)

Locations:

• 2099 A.D. (Main story and flashback)
  • Milky Way (Main story and flashback)
    • Sol System (Main story and flashback)
      • Earth (Main story and flashback)
        • United States of America (Main story and flashback)
          • New York (Main story and flashback)
            • Nueva York (Main story and flashback)
              • Alchemax Building
              • Manhattan (Only in flashback)
                • East Village (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
                  • Alphabet City (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
                    • Our Lady of Saints Church (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
        • Vietnam (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
        • Earth Orbit (Cameo)
  • Symbiote Throneworld (First appearance) (Only in flashback)

Items:

• Skullfire (Mentioned)
• All-Black the Necrosword (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
• Tyrannosaurus Symbiote (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
• Irises (Behind the scenes)

Vehicles:

• Maglev (Only in flashback)

Events

• Vietnam War (First appearance) (Only in flashback)

Synopsis for 1st story

In an Alchemax laboratory in the year 2099, the Venom symbiote screams for help as it is sliced into tiny pieces by a machine, to be used as Alchemax's new all-cure.

Some time later, Alea Bell - a young woman with a badly-burned left arm, lies on a hospital bed next to her father, Theo. Alea asks her father if he thinks the treatment will work, Theo replying that it's just a trial and that she shouldn't get her hopes up. Alea insists on being optimistic, her father saying they have Alchemax to thank for giving them this opportunity and wonders why they'd give a nobody like him such a miraculous opportunity. As Alea teases her father for being so hard on himself, Alchemax scientist, Dr. Russell, enters and agrees with her, saying that as an employee Theo is like family. As Dr. Russell says they're ready to begin the transfusion process, Theo hugs his daughter goodbye and excuses himself, not having the clearance to stay in the room.

Alea questions Dr. Russell calling his new panacea "Venom," which he says is just a codename that is being workshopped. Selecting a green vial with a sliver of living abyss inside, he connects it to an IV and warns Alea that she may have visions. As the symbiote enters her body, Alea sees the symbiote's memories of the dark god Knull, its time bonded to Peter Parker and Eddie Brock, as well as her own memories of the Maglev crash where she lost her mother and her arm was burned. As the memories swirl into a jagged spiral, Dr. Russell tells her she has nothing to worry about and that it will be over soon. Waking up, Alea sees Theo sitting at her bedside crying tears of happiness, and looks down to see her arm fully restored. Alea embraces her father, who says this is finally a chance for them to heal and move on.

At high school, Alea meets up with her friend, Revel, who is amazed to see her arm healed. Showing Revel a cybernetic bracelet, Alea tells him that Alchemax is monitoring her vitals to make sure nothing goes wrong. A pink-haired punk woman named Bether approaches with her cronies, sneering that someone forgot to take out the trash. Alea tells Bether to pick on someone her own IQ before insulting her intelligence, Bether lashing out at her. As they scuffle, Bether grabs Alea's arm and mockingly asks if the bracelet means she's a mutant or a lab experiment. A tendril emerges from Alea's hand and slices through the monitoring bracelet, Bether sneering that it's cheap garbage just like Alea.

Running into the school's music storage, Alea laments that her father's going to kill her when he finds out she broke the bracelet. A sinister voice speaks in her head, and Alea looks around and asks who's speaking. Glancing down at her left arm, she sees it's covered in living darkness and tipped with razor-sharp claws, staring at it in horror and revulsion as the sinister voice whispers in her head. Grabbing a covering from a drum set, she wraps her arm to avoid notice as she leaves the school.

Returning home, she tries to scrub the darkness off before attempting to cut it off out of desperation. A second hand emerges from her arm, catches the knife, and crushes into shards of metal as the sinister voice says they need to talk. Sitting on her bed, Alea addresses her arm and tells it to talk. The voice tells her it's not an arm, but a piece of a symbiote that Alchemax chopped up. As Alea asks if that's what the treatment was, the symbiote replies that it's a trap for them both, showing them memories of Sym-Soldiers and warning her that Alchemax wants to turn it into a weapon. Recalling the pain of her arm being scarred, Alea empathizes with the symbiote. As she asks how they're going to get the rest of it, the symbiote tells her that either she goes to Alchemax or Alchemax comes to her, telling her that they'll know something's wrong due to the monitor they placed on her having been destroyed. Alea agrees to help make it whole in exchange for her life going back to normal.

That evening, Alea breaks into the Alchemax Building, but is immediately confronted by a pair of Public Eye officers. As Alea tries to come up with a lame excuse, the symbiote transforms her arm into a maw and snarls that there's no time or need for talk. As the guards open fire it forms a shield, then spears them with bladed tendrils. Alea is horrified, but the symbiote bluntly states that it protected her and that it was either her or them. Alea protests that they only attacked her because they thought she was a monster and that she doesn't want to prove them right. Ripping a vent off the wall and pulling Alea inside, the symbiote condescendingly replies that monsters are the ones who survive.

As they enter the lab, Alea asks what they should do next and the symbiote tells her to listen, asking if she can hear the cries of its other fragments. Alea says that she can, reaching for one of the vials. The symbiote stops her, saying that she'll get hurt by the containment unit's defense system, and Alea searches the room for a deactivation switch. The symbiote asks if they should simply smash everything, but Alea says that could just lock the room down. Finding a control panel, she shuts the containment grid down, but is promptly shot by Dr. Russell.

Brandishing a plasma pistol, Dr. Russell dismisses Alea as a mere child and moves to reactivate the containment grid, but the slivers of symbiote break free and bond to Alea. Covering Alea and towering over Dr. Russell, the Venom symbiote remarks that it feels much better and would like a word with him. As Dr. Russell moves to shoot her, Venom slices off his arm and snarls that he won't hurt the symbiote or Alea ever again. Cringing, Dr. Russell stammers that the symbiote can't kill him or Alea will die, but the symbiote retorts that it's healing her and for that she owes it dinner. Licking Dr. Russell's face, Venom offers him an alternative to being eaten - deleting all of Alchemax's files on the symbiote and Alea. Dr. Russell hurriedly complies, Venom remarking that now it no longer has any use for him. As Dr. Russell protests that the symbiote promised to spare him, Venom says it's going to show him what it feels like to be torn into tiny pieces before devouring him.

Returning home and being careful not to wake her father, Alea tells the symbiote it can't just eat people, the symbiote quipping that Dr. Russell was delicious. Grossed out, Alea admits she understands the symbiote's desire for revenge given how Dr. Russell had hurt it, saying that he was a monster. The Venom symbiote replies that it is a bigger monster, Alea snapping that she told it she doesn't want to be a monster. Manifesting a head, Venom states that it can still feel the scars of her pain and anger; Alea retorting that she can live with having those scars, but doesn't want to be them. The symbiote wryly remarks that once again it's found a host who wants to be a hero, Alea eagerly asking if that's possible. The symbiote acquiesces, remarking that they can protect each other, and maybe other people, but that doesn't mean they can't have fun while doing so.

In a restroom at the high school, Bether washes her hands before hearing a sinister voice mockingly say that she just thinks she's scary. Turning to confront the speaker, Bether finds Venom towering over her and flees in terror as Venom snarls that she's scarier. As Venom smugly says Bether will hopefully think twice before messing with Alea again, she doubles over and clutches her head, the symbiote trying to suppress an ancient darkness that overwhelms it. Its eyespots transformed into a jagged red spiral, the symbiote speaks in an alien language and says that "God is here!" before a class bell rings and jolts it back to its senses. As the horrified symbiote protests that "he" was supposed to be dead, the equally shocked Alea asks the symbiote what that was and who it's talking about. Covering her, the symbiote tells her that the god of its species is not only alive, but on Earth.

Solicit Synopsis

Notes

See Also

• 12 image(s) from Venom 2099 Vol 1 1
• 1 reprint(s) of Venom 2099 Vol 1 1

Links and References

References