Venom Vol. 2 No. 23

This volume is issue #23 of the Venom series launched in 2011 and the first issue written solely by Cullen Bunn, who took over from previous writer Rick Remender. By this point Flash Thompson has officially become a member of the Secret Avengers, carrying out the government's black operations in the symbiote suit. The Avengers hand him a mission: track down and take in the demon hunter Daimon Hellstrom, known as the Son of Satan. The trouble begins with a disturbance involving the Nazi-linked Department of Occult Armaments (D.O.A.). Venom goes to meet journalist Katy Kiernan, who holds a lead, then infiltrates the operation, and the mission quickly erupts into a gunfight. At the scene he finds human bodies cocooned in symbiote matter—vessels prepared for demonic possession to expand the organization. Hellstrom does not side with him; instead he colludes with the D.O.A., taunts him, and severs Flash's control over the symbiote, sending Venom sliding back toward the horned, winged monster. This volume is the first part of the "Monsters of Evil" arc and the beginning of the series' stylistic shift during the "Marvel NOW!" era.