Writer J. M. DeMatteis commented, "Despite our human tendency to want to fit people into convenient pigeonholes, no one is any one thing all the time.

I think the character's history, even going back to Stan [Lee]'s stories, is a constant battle between the two, a seeking to find balance.

He was eventually spun off into his own solo series, Venom: Space Knight, written by Robbie Thompson and drawn by Ariel Olivetti.

Initially expecting an easy victory, Flash was astonished to discover that he simply could not lay a hand on Peter (due to his opponent's enhanced speed and reflexes), and a single tap from Parker's fist knocked him clear out of the ring.

Following Romita's take in place, Flash was made into a more sympathetic character and his clean-cut image was similarly emphasized to give him an "All-American" persona.

[10] While the two still traded the occasional insult, Flash had grown to respect Peter's intelligence and was surprised by his popularity with women, particularly Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson.

While in university, Flash joined the United States Army and serves in the Vietnam War (although this was later retconned to unspecified overseas conflict due to Marvel's floating timeline).

Later, as part of a plan of driving Spider-Man to murderous violence by attacking his family and friends, Osborn kidnapped Flash (under the pretense of picking him up from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting), force-feeds him whiskey and has him crash a truck into Midtown High School, where Peter works.

May Parker had come up with the idea to have Flash moved into Peter's apartment building so he could be among friends in the hopes it would aid in his recovery.

Peter, blaming himself for what happened to Flash, was eager to help and started spending his free time with him, lending emotional support and companionship.

Although Flash remained in a largely unresponsive state after coming out of the coma, Peter's constant companionship led to his condition slowly improving over time.

instructor to rejoin the Army and fight in the Iraq War out of patriotic zeal, inspired by the selfless life of his lifelong idol Spider-Man.

[17] Flash is seen going through the so-called "stages of grief" backwards, even so far as to use dangerous experimental procedures to regain his legs, but seems to come to terms with his condition, thanks to the support of his friends, family, and his new rehabilitation trainer Sha Shan.

[32] While trying to capture a serial killer infected with some of the alien technology the U-Foes were trying to sell, so Beast could try to cure the man, he is attacked by Toxin.

[33] While in Philadelphia, he adopts a protege in his teenage neighbor Andrea "Andi" Benton, who upon bonding to a duplicate of the symbiote becomes the antiheroine Mania.

Flash became extremely worried and, since he was left behind when the other Guardians were captured, he began to try to find a way back to Earth which the Symbiote encouraged.

The agent used a special weapon that agitated the Symbiote and sent it into a crazed state, which led to it fleeing into the city, where it eventually encountered Price, then reunites with Eddie Brock.

[48] Flash uses his Anti-Venom to heal any of Peter's friends and family that were infected by the Carnage symbiote, and discovers Spider-Man's secret identity in the process.

[52] Informed by Eddie of what had happened when Cletus Kasady's corpse had bonded to a symbiote-dragon, Flash flew to the cemetery where his body had been buried and reanimated himself, bursting from his grave in a recreation of his human form.

[63] During the 2005 House of M storyline, Flash is a commentator for the program Sapien Deathmatch in which sentient beings fight violent battles for the entertainment of the mutant ruling class.

Flash recently started dating Liz Allan again; this ended after she dumped him at homecoming for declaring his love to Mary Jane in front of the whole school.

Inspired by the sacrifice of Spider-Man, he leads the resistance (consisting of Werewolf by Night, Jessica Drew, and Vision) into stopping the Queen.

[73] The Ultimate Marvel incarnation of the character is Fredrick "Fred" Thompson,[74] a high school jock who bullies Peter Parker and is friends with fellow student Kenny "Kong" McFarlane.

a darker twist to the "Captain Spider" story is depicted, with Flash still possessing his aggressive, selfish bully attitude from his early appearances.

A pep talk from Aunt May and Uncle Ben inspires Peter to do something, beginning with him inadvertently saving Otto Octavius from the accident that transformed him into Doctor Octopus in canon.

With Octavius's aid, Peter uses his scientific genius to create a robotic exo-skeleton similar to Doc Ock's familiar tentacles, along with other methods that allow him to counter Flash's powers and incapacitate him.

Because Jameson remains convinced that Spider-Man is to blame for the shuttle accident, he hires Spencer Smythe to create the Spider-Slayers, only for Peter to sabotage them in secret.

At the demonstration, Flash notices that Smythe has also created the Scorpion suit and takes it for himself, hoping to protect Spidey and possibly become a hero in his own right.

Flash eventually drops out of school to act full-time as Spider-Man, living in a trailer park with no apparent official income.

Forced to face the fact that he is actually a brutal criminal rather than his perceived role as a hero after seeing the error of his ways, Flash takes action to confront Doctor Octopus and acquire the medicine for May, but subsequently turns himself in for Peter's death.