Venom (2011) # 13.1

"Circle of Four, Part 2"

On Sale Date: February 2012; Cover Date: April 2012

Writer: Rob Williams; Artist: Lee Garbett; Letterer: VC's Clayton Clowes; Colorist: Rob Schwager; Editor: Sebastian Girner; Senior Editor: Stephen Wacker; Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso; Cover Artist: Stefano Caselli

At the city limits of Las Vegas, the mystical amulet placed on the city's welcome sign has placed a barrier around the city, preventing the police from entering and Hell from escaping.  Dr. Strange and Daimon Hellstrom arrive to investigate, and Strange recognizes the amulet as one he gave to Hawkeye to use against the Ghost Rider.

Inside the city limits, Johnny Blaze continues to power Hell's Centrifuge, keeping open the portal to Hell.  Unsure of how long he can keep it up, he hopes that Alejandra hurries up and saves the day.  In Blackheart's tower, the Ghost Rider has been joined by Venom, X-23, and Red Hulk to stop Blackheart.  They're immediately confronted by their Antitheses: Ichor, The Evangelist, X-666, and Encephalon.  Blackheart sends his consort, Gari Oyle, to fly out to the city's border and find out what's stopping Hell from spreading across the world.  Blackheart then orders the Antitheses to attack the heroes, sending all of them crashing out of the tower to the ground below.  Ghost Rider leaves to stop Gari Oyle, followed by her Antithesis Ichor, leaving the other three heroes to fight.  X-23 leaves to kill Blackheart alone, leaving Venom and Red Hulk to be defeated by the Evangelist and Encephalon.

Ghost Rider is outracing Gari Oyle to the amulet, but Blackheart speaks to her telepathically, offering to free the souls she damned in Nicaragua if she joins him.  Ichor attacks, claiming to be "pure retribution" without her human frailties, that his vengeance is holy instead of selfish revenge.  Before Ichor can kill her, Alejandra summons her motorcycle, and when it reaches her she jumps on it and crashes into Ichor, transforming him back into a human.  She speeds off toward the amulet, with Blackheart still whispering in her head about his offer to join him.  At the city's border, Dr. Strange and Hellstrom sense that Hell is coming toward them, and they may not be able to stop it from spreading.

Venom (2011) # 13

"Circle of Four, Part 1"

Cover Date: April 2012; On Sale Date: February 2012

Writer: Rick Remender; Artist: Tony Moore; Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna; Colorist: Val Staples; Editor: Jeanine Schaeffer; Senior Editor: Stephen Wacker & Mark Paniccia; Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso; Cover Artist: Stefano Caselli

Flash Thompson is currently hiding in a Las Vegas motel after he went AWOL from the army with the Venom symbiote.  He is unaware that the army has sent General Thunderbolt Ross, the Red Hulk, to find and bring both him and the symbiote back.  Elsewhere, at the Devil's Den casino, the owner Mr. Degli is dealing with a gambler unable to pay back his debts.  Degli offers to eliminate the debt and all it will cost is the man's soul, which he eagerly agrees to.

Meanwhile in Vegas, Johnny Blaze attempts to give guidance to the current Ghost Rider, Alejandra, who claims that there's nothing the former host can teach her.  Red Hulk approaches the city, jumping through the desert while thinking about how much he hates deserters.  Finally, X-23 has gone undercover as a waitress at the Devil's Den to find Degli, who she claims stole a vial of her blood for experimentation.  At an empty construction site, Degli and his aide Ms. Oyle prepare to enact their master plan.  Having built a spinning pentagram machine, they introduce their ingredients: 100 human souls signed over willingly, the remains of the Toxin symbiote, and the blood of a mortal who's been to Hell and back.  Now they only have to wait for the final ingredient to come to them, which Degli says "the Devil couldn't keep her away".  At a diner, Blaze and Alejandra are having dinner when she suddenly transforms into the Ghost Rider and says that Zarathos hears the call of hundreds of crying souls.  Blaze tries to talk her into thinking before acting, but Alejandra ignores him and rides into Las Vegas.  Before leaving to follow her, Blaze places a phone call to Daimon Hellstrom for help.

A drunk Flash Thompson is attacked by the Red Hulk at the motel, and a brief fight begins when Venom attempts to run.  X-23, meanwhile, has broken into Degli's office, where she finds clones of herself created from her stolen blood.  Before she can destroy them, the clones break free and reveal that they have also been given alien symbiotes of their own.  Ghost Rider arrives at the construction site and sees the spinning pentagram, which she decides to stop by jumping into it and riding in the opposite direction.  Unfortunately, that was Degli's plan all along, and the Ghost Rider opens up a portal to Hell that spreads all across Las Vegas.  Before leaving, Degli tells the Rider that if she stops the centrifuge then all of Earth will be sucked into Hell.  Venom and Hulk are forced to stop fighting when they see the city overrun with demons, and reluctantly they team up to save the helpless citizens.  When Blaze arrives at the city limits, he places a mystical amulet that blocks magic on the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign.  The amulet halts the spread of Hell from going past the city's border, and Blaze enters the city to find Alejandra.

Degli and Oyle arrive back at the casino and reveal themselves as Blackheart and his gargoyle companion.  Blackheart contacts his father, Mephisto, and attempts to gloat that he has brought Hell to Earth and will soon depose Mephisto as Hell's ruler.  Mephisto mocks and disregards him, which angers Blackheart even more.  Blaze finds Ghost Rider at the centrifuge and rides his own motorcycle into the machine to power it, telling Alejandra to go stop the person causing this while he keeps the portal open.  The top of Blackheart's casino is where all of the heroes converge; X-23, Venom, Red Hulk, and finally Ghost Rider all confront Blackheart, but only the Hulk shows caution as he's read the Avengers file on the demon.   Using his black mirror cauldron, Blackheart calls forth the dark antitheses of each hero: X-666, Ichor, the Evangelist, and Encephalon.