Fred Myers, better known as the C-list villain Boomerang, just wants a quiet life. He’s worn a lot of hats over the years. He used to lead a five-member faction of the Sinister Six, and he likes to brag that he was Spider-Man’s ultimate archnemesis (a title Spidey vehemently denies). But after his close buddy The Shocker was murdered by a serial killer, Fred decided he was done with the supervillain life.
He moved into a cozy townhouse on Staten Island, settled into doing minor petty crimes, and picked up gardening. He even started dating Carla, a community college professor and divorced mom he met at his book club. They spent their evenings watching goofy YouTube videos, making each other laugh, and keeping things low-key. Fred calls it “superb how un-super it was.”
There’s just one problem: Fred is bonded to a bright red alien symbiote named Passenger.
Passenger spent 200 years trapped in a glass jar, so he’s naturally starved for action. On the other hand, Fred just wants to sip a glass of merlot and watch cooking shows. To make it work, the two struck a compromise. On normal days, Passenger keeps quiet while Fred chats with his neighbor, Mrs. B, or tends to his garden. When giant alien soldiers or Doombots attack the city, Passenger gets to run wild and smash things. And because Passenger borrowed Spider-Man’s red color scheme, they even do kids’ birthday parties for extra cash, where Passenger loves to announce he’s off to fight his “archnemesis, Boomerang.”
Cosmic Distractions
So, how did Fred end up in the middle of a street battle against alien soldiers while a giant void god looms in space?
While helping the Sorcerer Supreme lure out an enchanted, symbiote-eating beast (with Passenger happily acting as live bait), Fred starts having second thoughts. He’s exhausted by all the cosmic nonsense. Standing among the wreckage on a New York street, Passenger asks if they can go on a real space adventure next. Fred draws the line there. Fighting things from space in NYC is one thing, but actually going into outer space? No way.
That’s when a cosmic shift ripples through the symbiote network.
Over on the symbiote homeworld of Klyntar, a cat-like symbiote named Sleeper has declared himself to be the new King in Black. Sleeper uses his powers to grant symbiotes independence from their hosts, calling every symbiote in the universe back home.
Passenger senses the call, but he tells Fred he doesn’t want to leave yet. He’s having too much fun catching up on the centuries of adventure he missed out on. But Fred realizes it’s time to be realistic. Keeping Passenger around puts them both in danger, especially since human scientists love trying to weaponize symbiotes and there aren’t many left on Earth. Fred genuinely wants Passenger to go be with his own kind on Klyntar, even if he jokes that staying behind means they’d probably get to punch the Hulk eventually.
Just as Passenger thanks Fred for being a great host (while calling him a huge weenie about space) and tries to contact the hive mind to set up his trip, everything goes silent. For some reason, Sleeper’s cosmic wave severs Passenger’s connection to the hive mind. The host-less symbiotes on Earth are suddenly gone.
The Ambush
Seeing his alien buddy panicked and stranded, Fred cancels the breakup. He promises to stick together until they figure out what happened. He tells Passenger that he’s always been a team player, and they can keep the crazy train rolling just a bit longer while he asks a few super-science contacts for advice. But first, he tells Passenger to retreat inside his stomach because Carla is coming over for date night, and he promises her a cheese board.
Back inside the townhouse, Carla complains that her creative writing students are just turning in thinly veiled anime fanfiction, while Fred lies that his “crime day” was just light casing and blueprint prep. He asks her if dating a criminal bothers her but Carla laughs it off. She points out that her ex-husband was a hedge-fund manager and the guy before that worked in AI start-ups. Fred is easily the most ethical guy she’s ever dated.
She walks into the kitchen to grab some fig jam, telling Fred to stay on the couch. But as soon as her back is turned, a shadowy figure with a glowing green eye appears behind him. “Carla’s” voice casually asks about weekend plans, suggesting a local concert featuring a Toto cover band called “Faux-to.”
Fred turns around to see a towering, blue-and-black alien symbiote with glowing green markings looming over him.
High Stakes in the Garage
Before Fred can even process what’s happening, red tendrils shoot out from his chest. Passenger lunges straight at the intruder. Fred calls out for Carla, but the blue creature reveals her name is Tantrum. The real Carla isn’t here.
Tantrum explains that because so few symbiotes remain on Earth, wild ones like Passenger are top-dollar targets for her corporate bosses while Fred is disposable. When Passenger asks how she’s operating without the hive mind, Tantrum reveals she’s a lab-grown symbiote. In other words, Sleeper’s cosmic recall didn’t affect her.
Fred laments that his perfect new girlfriend was actually an alien assassin playing a long con. Meanwhile, a silhouetted kid opens the front door and whines, “Mom! I’m tired of waiting in the car!”
The “son” steps into the room, revealing he’s actually a battle-crazed cyborg covered in heavy artillery. Passenger quips that the kid is a literal battle robot. Together, Fred and Passenger launch a sonic boomerang attack (the “Venorang”) to create some breathing room.
With the apartment getting trashed by heavy gunfire and green energy blasts, Fred and Passenger make a break for the garage. They know they need heavy noise to deal with Tantrum. Fred remembers they stored a sonic boomerang and an Overdrive-built sound-dampening shield out back.
They burst into the cluttered garage, ducking past old water jugs, Christmas decorations, and cot beds. Passenger frantically digs through a box of holiday ornaments, smashing glass baubles left and right while yelling at Fred for never using the label maker he bought.
Before they can find the right boomerang, Tantrum smashes through the wall. She pins Passenger against the debris with a razor-sharp blade limb. She mocks Fred by saying if he survives having his symbiote torn out, he should learn how to make a proper cheese board.
Just as things look hopeless, Passenger finds the sonic boomerang and lets it fly. The weapon emits a deafening sonic screech that tears through the air. The sound waves hit Tantrum at point-blank range, forcefully ripping the alien symbiote off its host. As the blue alien collapses, the host falls to the floor…revealing the very real, very terrified face of Carla.
Passenger catches the returning boomerang and moves in for answers. But Carla isn’t done. Smiling through the pain, she reveals that her employers didn’t just give her a symbiote. They gave her military tech, too. She pulls the pin on a glowing red flashbang grenade.
FABOOSH!
A blinding light consumes the garage. By the time the smoke clears, Carla and Tantrum are gone.
One Last Trip to Klyntar
Fred and Passenger sit in the smoking ruins of the townhouse, looking at the destruction. Passenger apologizes for wrecking the place, knowing how much having a normal life meant to Fred. But Fred just sighs, saying his quiet life was doomed from the start because chaos has a way of following him wherever he goes.
Passenger looks at his host and admits that after spending centuries trapped in a jar, he always envied Fred’s crazy, action-packed life. Fred deserves a chance at real peace but Passenger wants a chance to figure out his own future, too.
Fred looks around at the wreckage of his home. He realizes that as long as Passenger is on Earth, bad actors will keep hunting them. A normal life will always be out of reach. If he wants to keep his friend safe, there’s only one real option left.
Fred resolves to take Passenger home to Klyntar.
To achieve this goal, Fred will have no choice but to finally go to space. Fred takes a deep breath, wincing at the thought of leaving his cozy couch behind. But he reluctantly agrees. It’s time for a space trip.
