Guardians of the Galaxy #23 Recap

The final issue of the ‘Planet of the Symbiotes’ story-arc from the Guardians of the Galaxy continues Brian Michael Bendis’ look into the origin of the Venom symbiote. The last thing we saw was Drax the Destroyer hosting the Venom symbiote as the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy watch on in horror. So what happens next? Well, hopefully we actually visit the Symbiote’s planet. Let’s find out with a recap!

Flash Thompson is seen sparring in a boxing ring with Valkyrie. She gets the better of Flash before helping him up. However before an intimate moment can occur Valkyrie is strangled by Venom and hoisted into the air. A shocked Flash then wakes up in the Guardians’ spaceship revealing it was just a dream or an conscious hallucination.

Flash crawls out of his bed and discovers the bodies of the Guardians of the Galaxy littering the corridors of the spaceship after quite clearly getting beaten down by Venom-Drax. Flash tends to Rocket and finds out that he’s still alive before spotting Venom-Drax steering the ship. The symbiote turns towards Flash and then states that ‘we’re here’ before stating ‘we’re home’.

There’s a large page detailing an alien planet full of dark plant-like objects. Flash tries to get through to Drax but suddenly the spaceship is enveloped by a large surface-based symbiote trapping the spaceship in place. The Venom symbiote tells Flash that it admires him before abandoning Drax and leaving the spaceship.

Immediately Drax jumps on Flash and begins to kill him before a revived Peter Quill orders Drax to stop. Drax and Gamora want to kill or abandon Flash but Peter Quill gives a speech about Flash being a part of the Guardians of the Galaxy which means that they’re not going to blame Flash for what the symbiote did.

They discover where they are be looking out the window, seeing a whole host of symbiotes circling the ship. Drax panics and immediately tries to pilot the ship to leave, stating that they don’t belong there. Flash begs Drax to stop because this is a really important moment in his life but Drax refuses stating that they’ve surrounded the ship. Gamora and Rocket counter by suggesting that aliens seem to be coming in peace.

Flash wants to go out and meet the symbiotes but Drax is once again against it. However the rest of the Guardians tell Flash Thompson that he should go for it with Gamora convincing Drax that even if they wanted to leave they wouldn’t be allowed to by the surrounding symbiotes who have their ship captive, so engaging peacefully is the way to proceed.

Flash gives himself up to the symbiotes and they use him to communicate with the rest of the Guardians. He tells them that the symbiotes want to communicate with all of the Guardians but they can only do it if they agree to let the symbiotes bond with them. They’re apprehensive at first but Flash reassures them and eventually every member of the team gives themselves up to the symbiotes.

They explain that they are called Klyntar and are actually a misunderstood race with noble and good intentions. They explain that they are seeking the perfect host to create the ultimate noble warrior and that the wrong host creates monstrous things that get worse the longer they’re away from their home world.

They then explain that they had been aware of Venom and Eugene’s Symbiosis for quite some time and that it was them reaching out to Venom that caused the erratic behaviour with Flash losing control. As they drew closer they were able to guide Venom to its home planet in order to repair Venom and reconnect it with Flash making him better than ever with new powers and access to new information and giving him an interesting new look.

The symbiotes let the Guardians go after purging their bodies of all poisons and cancers. The Guardians leave the home planet of the Klyntar feeling great after the cleansing with Flash Thompson getting to work repairing the damage Venom caused. Ms. Marvel appears and lets Peter Quill know that he’s been elected president of the Spartax empire, much to his surprise.

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