Chapter Summaries

After the Hilton Hotel battle, A.R.G.U.S. took control of the scene while S.H.I.E.L.D. detained Ivy for questioning. Jude used his connections to secure Ivy’s release, but after the agencies withdrew, the fragments of Venom began reassembling.

• A.R.G.U.S. sealed off the damaged Hilton Hotel, collected Eddie Brock’s remains, and barred Phil Coulson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. team from entering.
• Nick Fury ordered Coulson to let A.R.G.U.S. keep the hotel but bring Ivy in, and Coulson took her to S.H.I.E.L.D. for questioning.
• Ivy called Jude to explain that S.H.I.E.L.D. had detained her, and Jude contacted Bruce Wayne for help.
• Jude met Coulson and collected Ivy after Wayne Group and Stark Group pressured S.H.I.E.L.D. to release her.
• After A.R.G.U.S. withdrew from the hotel, the symbiote fragments Ivy had cut off crawled out of the cracks and pieced themselves back together.

Ivy and Jude attended Roger Potts's funeral in bright red clothes, where Jude provoked Tony Stark and made him suspect Jude was behind the attacks on him. Tony's investigation had already connected Jude to the intruder who breached Jarvis, and Jude's smile deepened his suspicions.

• Ivy and Jude arrived at Roger Potts's funeral in red, and Ivy told Pepper Potts that Spider-Man had saved her during the Hilton Hotel attack.
• Tony Stark remarked that Harvey Jones's death could let Ivy take over the Daily Bugle, and Jude teased Tony about his feelings for Pepper Potts.
• Pepper pulled Tony away from Jude and asked him to avoid a confrontation until the funeral was over.
• Tony recalled investigating six people he had recently met and finding Jude's sudden transformation and past actions suspicious.
• Tony remembered Jarvis's analysis linking Jude's build to the intruder in the internet café footage, and Jude's smile made him see Jude as the intruder again.

After Harvey Jones’s funeral, Jude joined Ivy at the Daily Bugle and helped her take over as acting president. When Peter Parker came to see Ivy, she fired him from the newspaper, and Jude offered him a job as a researcher at Heissem Technology Company.

• Tony’s hidden cameras and Jarvis raised the probability that Jude was the hooded hacker to 98%, but Tony still struggled to believe it.
• After the funeral, Jude took Ivy to the Daily Bugle, where Alfred’s advice persuaded her to serve as acting president.
• Jude told Ivy about Venom and his research center, and described his plan to fund research with money from virtual bank accounts.
• Peter Parker arrived at Ivy’s office and panicked when Ivy told him he was fired from the Daily Bugle.
• Jude asked Peter to choose between science and reporting, then hired him as a researcher at Heissem Technology Company.

Jude hired Peter Parker as a researcher at the newly acquired Pampas Institute, persuading him with a higher salary and the freedom to act as Spider-Man. After completing the purchase, Jude named the institute Heissem Technology Company and declared his ambitions for it.

• Jude offered Peter a researcher job with a monthly salary of ten thousand dollars and a year-end bonus, and Peter accepted.
• Jude explained to Ivy that he had recruited Peter for his potential and because he could serve as a test subject for new gadgets.
• Jude went to the Pampas Institute, where he and Pandeni completed the purchase after tens of billions of dollars arrived in Jude's account.
• Jude announced that the institute would be called Heissem Technology Company and said its name would shake the scientific world.
• Pandeni confirmed that Jude's requested supplies had been ordered and were expected to arrive within half a month.

Jude fired the institute’s researchers and hired Peter Parker, assigning him to study a sample of Venom as part of his plans for Operation Phoenix. He then began planning extensive modifications to Tony Stark’s Mark V armor so he could defeat Stark in a fight.

• Jude fired the institute’s researchers, and Professor Condi resigned after arguing with him about his research.
• Peter Parker arrived to begin work at the institute and worried that Jude would fire him if he failed to produce results.
• Jude assigned Peter to analyze Venom’s biological structure and consider its potential uses for cloning and biological weapons.
• Jude took Tony Stark’s Mark V armor to the mechanical laboratory and planned upgrades to its power source, weapons, targeting, and propulsion systems.

Jude and Peter Parker analyzed the dead symbiote and found that its balanced biology and rapidly degraded DNA suggested biological manipulation, leading Jude to suspect Venom was still alive. At an A.R.G.U.S. facility, Amanda Waller learned the sample seemed worthless and ordered Professor Thawne brought in.

• Jude examined the symbiote sample and discovered it contained traits from every known type of lifeform in a balanced state.
• Jude explained to Peter Parker that symbiotes could adapt to any host, then considered cloning one from the sample’s DNA.
• The DNA extractor showed that the sample’s DNA had completely degraded, despite the symbiote’s recent death.
• Jude suspected Venom was manipulating the sample’s biology and might still be alive.
• Amanda Waller learned the sample had no research value and ordered her staff to bring Professor Thawne.

Tony Stark tracked Jude Herbert to the Pampas Institute and confronted him over the stolen Mark 5 blueprints. Jude admitted he had hacked Jarvis and stolen them, leaving Tony stunned.

• Tony decided to confront Jude after Jarvis found him at the Pampas Institute.
• Jude asked Peter about his relationship with Deadpool and explained his gruesome plans for the mercenary.
• Tony arrived at the institute in the Power Armor, and Jude told Peter he had stolen 10 billion USD and the armor blueprints from him.
• Tony asked Jude whether he had hacked Jarvis and stolen the Mark 5 blueprints, and Jude confessed.
• Jarvis confirmed Jude was telling the truth, leaving Tony startled.

Jude admitted stealing Tony’s Mark 5 blueprints and ten billion dollars, then fought Tony in his modified body and defeated his Power Armor. The chapter ended with Jude revealing that he had planted a backdoor in Jarvis and ejecting Tony from the disabled suit.

• Jude confessed to Tony that he had hacked the system and stolen the Mark 5 blueprints and ten billion dollars.
• Tony punched Jude, but Jude’s dark-purple metal threads protected him and revealed his mechanical body modifications.
• Tony charged Jude in the Power Armor, and the two fought through the laboratory as Jude used Green Waltz, invisibility, and a Cannon Beam to attack.
• Tony fired missiles at Jude, but Jude froze the armor’s leg thrusters and brought Tony crashing to the floor.
• Jude’s hidden backdoor disrupted Jarvis, shut down the armor, and ejected Tony from the suit.

Jude Herbert defeated Tony Stark by hacking and remotely controlling his armor, then challenged him to an armor fight in twenty days. As Jude and Peter prepared for the contest, a symbiote bonded with a sewer worker and created Venom, who vowed revenge.

• Tony admitted that Jude had beaten him with superior technology, and Jude challenged him to build a new armor and fight again in twenty days.
• Tony restarted Jarvis and left, while Jude explained to Peter how he had used Green Waltz as a decoy to control Tony’s armor remotely.
• Jude told Peter to haul incoming equipment to the sixth floor and promised him a larger year-end bonus.
• A sewer worker cursed his coworkers and kicked a mother rat into the water before black slime fell onto his face.
• The symbiote offered the worker power, transformed him into Venom, and he roared, “Revenge!”

After a week of repairs, Jude returned to work while Ivy met Pepper Potts to gather information about Tony Stark. Meanwhile, Biden reappeared as Venom and slaughtered his coworkers, prompting Amanda Waller to order A.R.G.U.S. to hunt him down.

• Jude finished repairing his building and resumed work, while Ivy went to dinner with Pepper Potts to learn about Tony Stark.
• At a strip club, Miles Cleaning Company workers discussed Biden’s disappearance and tried to put the incident behind them.
• Biden confronted his coworkers, transformed into Venom, and killed them.
• Amanda Waller ordered A.R.G.U.S. to investigate Biden, monitor New York, and prepare a special operations team to capture him.

Jude learned that Venom had resurfaced and set out with Ivy and Little Spider to find him, but A.R.G.U.S. agents reached Mills Biden’s home first. Venom slaughtered the agents until four men arrived and one of them severed his tongue with a boomerang.

• Ivy told Jude that Venom had killed five people at a strip club and identified the missing man he had taken over as Mills Biden.
• Jude decided to find Venom before the symbiote could attack them, and Ivy insisted on joining him.
• A.R.G.U.S. agents surrounded Mills Biden’s home after Amanda Waller authorized the operation and promised his family had been moved to safety.
• Venom tore free of an electric net, killed the agent leader, and massacred the agents who tried to capture him.
• An unknown group of four men approached, and one caught a returning boomerang after using it to sever Venom’s tongue.

Jude, Ivy, and Little Spider intervened when the Rogues attacked Venom, recognizing them as members of Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad. They subdued the Rogues, and Jude left King Shark beaten and warning him not to resist.

• Venom fought the Rogues, who used ice, fire, explosives, and King Shark to overwhelm him.
• Jude identified Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark, while Ivy recognized the A.R.G.U.S. agents and linked the Rogues to Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad.
• Little Spider asked whether they should help Venom, and Jude ordered the group to act quickly.
• Ivy trapped Captain Cold and Heat Wave in vines, while Little Spider webbed Captain Boomerang to the ground.
• Jude used metal wires to drag King Shark down and repeatedly slam him into the ground until he stopped resisting.
• Jude threatened King Shark with Green Waltz and told him he would make a better mascot than a fighter.

Jude used a sonic bomb to separate Venom from Mills Biden and captured the symbiote in a glass container. He let the Suicide Squad’s Rogues go with a warning for Amanda Waller.

• Jude identified Captain Cold as Snart and warned the captured Rogues that Amanda Waller would not rescue them if their mission failed.
• Venom tried to flee, but Jude demanded half of the symbiote and threatened to take it by force when Venom refused.
• Jude detonated an Overclocked Sonic Shock Bomb, forcing the symbiote to peel away from Mills Biden.
• Little Spider pulled the symbiote free from Biden, and Jude directed the weakened creature into a glass container.
• Jude chose to release the Rogues and told them to deliver a message to Amanda Waller.

Amanda Waller reprimanded the Suicide Squad for failing to retrieve the black substance, then recruited Eobard Thawne to help A.R.G.U.S. pursue its goals. Thawne remained dependent on the partnership because his speed was weakened and he could not return to his own world.

• Amanda Waller learned the identities of Ivy Pepper and Bond Heissem and ordered the Suicide Squad to investigate S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New Mexico research center.
• Amanda Waller summoned Professor Eobard Thawne and pressed him about the delayed experiment to replicate the Flash's powers.
• Eobard Thawne challenged Amanda Waller's broken promises and threatened to find another partner, but she persuaded him that A.R.G.U.S. was his best option.
• Eobard Thawne recalled being hurled into an unfamiliar world after a frightening, nonsensical vision in the Speed Force.
• Eobard Thawne remembered that his speed had become unreliable and that repeated attempts to return to his world had failed.

Eobard Thawne agreed to work with Amanda Waller and A.R.G.U.S. in exchange for equipment and funding. At Heissem Technology Company, Jude learned that the symbiote could serve as the basis for Operation Phoenix, which he began by preparing to clone himself.

• Eobard Thawne accepted Amanda Waller’s offer to work with A.R.G.U.S. and was asked to recover the revived symbiote.
• Jude and Peter Parker examined the captured symbiote, which tried to bond with Peter before Jude restrained it and made it surrender a sample.
• Jude assembled an embryo incubator and a high-oxygen culture chamber, then began creating his first cloned embryonic cell.
• Peter Parker gave Jude the symbiote analysis, and Jude discovered that a special DNA strand neutralized other species’ DNA and could prevent rejection.

Jude successfully cloned embryo cells and implanted some into symbiote tentacles, while Little Spider assembled incubators and culture dishes. A yellow-suited speedster raided the laboratory and escaped, and Jude identified him as Reverse-Flash.

• Jude praised Little Spider and paid him to assemble embryo incubators and culture dishes.
• Jude created over a hundred embryo cells and implanted ten of them into symbiote tentacles to develop clones with symbiote powers.
• Little Spider assembled more than fifty equipment sets, while Jude secretly drew his blood twice for research.
• Jude and Little Spider moved forty-eight sets to the basement before Little Spider's Spider-Sense warned of an intruder.
• A yellow-suited speedster burst into the laboratory, searched for the symbiote, wrecked the room, and escaped.
• Jude used his measuring device to identify the intruder as Reverse-Flash.

Jude identified the attacker as Reverse-Flash and began planning ways to counter speedsters while preparing for A.R.G.U.S.'s retaliation. After returning to the hotel, he reunited with Ivy, and they spent the morning together.

• Jude recognized the yellow figure as Reverse-Flash, and Little Spider confirmed the attacker had moved too quickly for his Spider-Sense to react.
• Jude told Ivy that the laboratory had been attacked and the symbiote stolen, and they agreed to keep the footage private while holding onto a backup.
• Jude calculated Reverse-Flash's speed and considered countermeasures such as marbles, ice, glue, and gravity fields.
• Jude worried that Reverse-Flash could use molecular vibration to attack his heart, then returned to the hotel early the next morning.
• Ivy entered Jude's room, and the two kissed and spent the morning together.

Jude spent a quiet week raising a batch of Clones and preparing for his upcoming duel with Iron Man. With only five days left, he revealed that he had already built the armor’s components, including its core energy device, which he called a Dyson Sphere.

• Jude finished preparing 111 Clones, including human Clones and versions fused with symbiote, Little Spider, and Ivy genes.
• Jude used a Memory Radiation Device to extract his memories for the Clones, then sealed the underground laboratory.
• Little Spider warned Jude that only five days remained before his duel with Iron Man, but Jude insisted there was ample time.
• Jude showed Little Spider the armor blueprint and told him to begin assembling it.
• Jude revealed that he had already built the armor’s propulsion system, targeting components, and other parts.
• Jude identified a palm-sized sphere as the armor’s core energy device and called it a Dyson Sphere.

Jude explained the miniature Dyson Sphere to Peter and recruited him to assemble it. He then lured Deadpool to Heissem Technology Company with a ten-million-dollar offer, and Deadpool arrived and gained entry.

• Jude explained how the miniature Dyson Sphere absorbed solar energy and told Peter to assemble its parts from the blueprints.
• Jude called Sally, learned Deadpool had returned and was spending his commission, and offered him ten million dollars to come to Heissem Technology Company that day.
• Deadpool took a taxi to the research institute, tipped the driver, and boasted that he was about to become a multimillionaire.
• A security guard tried to stop Deadpool, but a drone verified his identity and permitted him to enter.

Jude hired Deadpool for a week of research at his institute in exchange for ten million dollars, with extra pay for each additional day. After Deadpool accepted and Jude blasted him through a wall for his shameless pleading, they left the office, and Deadpool revealed that his cousin was the mercenary Deathstroke.

• Deadpool met Jude at the office and joked that they were fictional characters in a story.
• Jude offered Deadpool ten million dollars to stay at his research institute for a week and let them study his regenerative abilities.
• Deadpool accepted the deal, and Jude promised to pay another million dollars for every extra day.
• Deadpool clung to Jude's leg and offered to sell himself and his cousin, so Jude blasted him through the office wall.
• Jude told Deadpool to follow him, and Deadpool said his cousin had introduced him to mercenary work and was known as Deathstroke.