Nova 15, Thunderbolts 23

Nova 15
Duggan (w) and Baldeon and Pallot (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova rushes Cosmo to medical help and manages to get him there just in time and even ends up aiding the doctors in taking the poison out. Before Cosmo has fully recovered, Nova goes to try to slow up Skaarn's next plan, which involves using the continuum cortex transfer on Knowhere. It's essentially a teleporter and he wants to use it, with the assistance of a few other criminals, to break into a secure vault. He scouts ahead leaving the other criminals to wait and use the teleporter to enter as backup. Nova manages to catch up with the three other criminals and defeat them pretty handily, whipping out a couple more new skills, eventually throwing them into the teleporter without allowing them a chance to program it to where they wanted to go. It reverts back to the last destination used, sending them to Beta Ray Bill in Jotunheim. While they wait for Bill to return and for Skaarn's plan to become more evident while Cosmo heals, Sam uses the teleporter to return to school before he can get in any trouble for missing. He completes the day then heads back into space to finish the job. He and Bill meet up again and track Skaarn only to find that he's broken into the vault on his own and that the vault housed big time weapons, not money like Sam thought.

This is sort of a weird issue to critique because, like last issue, Sam spent most of the time this issue fighting obstacles we didn't know were going to be there and the outcome of the fights didn't actually seem to weigh on the completion of whatever mission they may have hurt or aided. To simplify, we had no idea about this vault heist plot until this issue, nor about the criminals Skaarn would need to complete the heist. However, when Nova defeats the criminals, it doesn't seem to stall Skaarn's plan even a little bit. It's hard to say that this was a worthwhile little pit stop since it seems almost entirely unrelated to any plan while posing as something related to the main plan. So it's a weird issue to critique because it's not necessarily a bad issue, per se; it's still rather entertaining, we get a nice little fight scene and we learn a little bit more about Sam (plus some decent Beta Ray Bill), it's just not an issue that feels like it belongs in this story and it seems like little more than a filler story because of that.

Thunderbolts 23
Soule (w) and Jacinto (a) and Silva (c)

It's Deadpool's turn to call a mission but Flash asks Deadpool to cede his mission time over to him, saying that he's going to be leaving the team and wants the team to complete his mission before he's gone. Deadpool is hesitant but when he hears that Flash wants the team to take down the symbiote, he's onboard. Flash says it's getting to hard to control the symbiote with the team considering how much killing they have to do and he wants to see them take it down. He lets the symbiote take control and it beats all of them (save for Deadpool) individually before they decide they need to work as a team to take down Venom. They manage to come together just well enough to separate the symbiote from Flash and contain it. Red Hulk asks Flash if he wants them to contain or destroy the symbiote but Flash declines, saying that it always finds a way to survive and he knows he can control it so he'll continue to wear it. As Flash departs with the symbiote bonded to him once more, Ross tells him that he understands the Flash wants and needs the symbiote but that the mission was good for him in proving that someone is capable of taking down the symbiote if it ever gets out of hand.

There's a lot of really good stuff in this issue. As ever, there are several laugh out loud moments, particularly as Deadpool, who claims he has contingency plans to take down any of his teammates at a moment's notice, showcases his anti-Venom plan that involves drawing on his costume to make it look like Spider-Man and setting it up as bait under a plane ready to drop on any incoming assailants. On top of the funny moments, there's a real core to this issue. Obviously there's something to the Flash-Venom relationship that's always somewhat interesting in the idea that Flash understands the power and danger of the symbiote but knows he can control it and, more telling, knows he wants/needs it. Even beyond that, though, Venom yells some things while it's in control that, as Flash later reveals, aren't lies but are somewhat damaging to the ego of the group, including the idea that Flash also kind of has a crush on Elektra and wouldn't mind if Punisher died, that Flash thinks Ghost Rider is an abomination, and that Flash thinks Red Hulk is the worst of the entire group. It's still a nice issue and one that ends a little bittersweet as Flash admits to Ross that the symbiote doesn't lie about things but that he believes people are capable of changing. Sad to see Venom leave the team but I don't think the roster is a lot weaker for it, especially considering the recent addition of Ghost Rider.