OK, as I expected, this issue is really my last issue of "Venom." At the end of the day, I just can't really take the constant pity party. Sure, Flash had some dark times. Sure, he was a teenage bully. But, OMFG, he just needs to get over it. Of course, the whole point of this issue is exactly that. I'll hand it to Bunn that he, too, realized that Flash needs to get over his past. However, unfortunately, Bunn goes about getting Flash to realize that in a pretty ham-fisted way.
I'm not really quite sure where he was going with having the gay kid that Flash bullied in high school call him. Bunn never really makes it clear why A.J. would want to do so. Was he going to berate Flash, hoping that he had changed enough to let him berate him (and not hit him), but didn't because he was such a sob story? We don't know. Instead, this incident only serves to tee up the conversation that Flash has with Peter at the end of this issue, where Pete basically tells Flash what millions of bullied kids around the world know: at some point, your life gets better and you move past the bullying. Flash is clearly inspired by those words to start the same process in his life and, for Flash's sake, I hope he succeeds. But, for me? I'm not going to be there.
Bunn's failure to explain why A.J. wanted to contact Flash is representative of my problem with this series throughout its run. Characters are often simply vehicles for the high-minded concepts that the author is trying to push through the book, a way to set the stage for whatever terrible event Flash is imminently poised to suffer. I'm just not all that interested in that. Plus, I'm really not a demons guy. It's the same problem I have with "Red Hood and the Outlaws:" I expected a lot of espionage and gunfire, but got demons and spells. So, good-bye, "Venom," and good luck, Flash, since, clearly, you're going to need it.
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