Venom #33

This volume is issue #33 of Venom (Vol. 2, 2011–2013), titled "Monsters Anonymous," published in April 2013, written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Declan Shalvey, and part of the main storyline of the "Agent Venom" era. By this point, Flash Thompson has relocated to Philadelphia, operating as a military agent partnered with the Venom symbiote and striving to build a new life. The issue opens with Toxin—the fusion of Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote—battling the mutated man experimented on by the U-Foes in the previous issue; the unfortunate man does not wish to kill, yet the alien parasite inside him forces him to keep fighting, and in the struggle he unexpectedly wounds Toxin badly and escapes. Toxin tracks him by scent, planning to use him as bait to draw out Venom. The next morning, Flash video-chats with his former Secret Avengers teammate Beast, Hank McCoy, discussing his psychology of no longer using prosthetic limbs and asking him to try to save the mutated man; later he attends an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a church, telling strangers about his struggles while knowing he could be swallowed by the symbiote at any moment. At night, the mutated man loses control again at a pet shop, and Agent Venom arrives to subdue him; just as he hesitates over whether he can save him, Toxin appears and declares he will deal with Venom first. The volume ends on the cliffhanger of the confrontation between Venom and Toxin, with the real duel postponed to the next issue.