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Background
Flash was the Big Man On Campus at Midtown High, and he delighted in
leading the torment of bookworm Peter Parker with the likes of Seymour
O'Reilly, Sally Avril, Jason Ionello, Tiny McKeever, Carl King and
Arnie Gunderson. Flash was a football jock with confidence to spare, and
plenty of friends with which to share his life. Chief among them was his number
one girl, Liz Allan. Eventually, Liz began to see that there was more to
Parker than met the eye, and she began to develop an interest in Peter. This
irritated Flash, and fueled his hatred of Puny Parker, the Science Geek.
Ironically, he idolized Spider-Man. He formed the Spider-Man Fan Club and ran
afoul of villains from Doctor Doom to the Living Brain.
But that was High School. When Flash and Peter found themselves at the
same college, they did some rapid growing up, and soon became
good friends. Flash, Harry Osborn, Peter and Gwen Stacy formed
a tight-knit group, although they soon made room for Mary Jane Watson.
Sadly, these Halycon days were to be short-lived for Flash, and he was
drafted into the army. Flash cut a dashing figure in his uniform, but
eventually his training was completed, and he was shipped off to the army.
Flash did return to the U.S. in the middle of his tour of duty, bringing back
some serious trouble, in the shape of an enmity he had developed with a
band of mystic monks from a secret Eastern temple. The monks mistakenly
believed Flash was responsible for their temple being shelled and their priest
being killed, and they hunted
Flash back to New York to exact their vengeance. Fortunately Spidey was there
to sort things out. The priest hadn't died, he had survived the shelling by
using some kind of mystical energy that saved him, but also put him to sleep.
Doctor Strange helped the priest out of his magic coma.
Flash eventually returned to the U.S. for good. He was a single man for
a while, until he eventually hooked up with Sha Shan, who was actually
the daughter of "The Holy One" (the leader of the temple which Flash had
previously encountered). Sha Shan had her own problems, having been forced
by her father to marry Achmed Korba (Brother Power) in order to moderate
his evil ambitions. Eventually, Spider-Man helped defeat Korba, and Sha
Shan was free to hook up with Flash, as she always wanted to.
For whatever reason, however, things didn't really work out with Sha Shan,
and she quietly vanished from the scene. Flash got a job as a part-time
PE teacher, a big step down from his days as a college football star.
Flash was at a loose end, and when Peter's friend Betty Brant started
running into problems with her own marriage to Ned Leeds, Flash and
Betty started having an affair.
Flash then managed to get into trouble with Hobgoblin (Roderick
Kingsley), when he made a rash comment on live TV - claiming that "The
Hobgoblin is a Creep and a Coward". As a result, Flash was framed as
the Hobgoblin as punishment, and spent some time on the run, until he was
finally cleared. Flash had one last encounter with the Hobgoblin, one that
would keep him on the sidelines and never realize his dream of being a pro
football star. Immediately after Jason Macendale became the Hobgoblin, he
was involved in a battle with Spider-Man, in which Spidey seemed to be on the
losing side. Catching a pumpkin bomb meant for the dazed webslinger, Flash
threw it back at Macendale. Hobgoblin had his body armor and Peter was
protected by his spider strength but Flash had nothing. He suffered a near
fatal injury from the explosion. Spider-Man performed CPR and saved his life,
but Flash's injury destroyed his sports career.
Ned was killed, Betty went kind of nuts and Flash's life was going nowhere.
Then Flash met Felicia Hardy (The Black Cat) some time after Peter and MJ
got married. Felicia reckoned that going out with Flash would serve to
make Peter jealous but she never planned on actually falling in love with him.
Instead, Felicia fell so hard that she actually proposed to him. Flash
turned her down, unable to actually believe that he could ever be part of
her high-flying lifestyle.
Flash went way downhill after that, becoming an alcoholic - just like his
father, who was publicly the friendly neighborhood cop, and privately
a violent tyrant. Flash tried to get back together with Betty Brant,
but she wasn't prepared to prop him up. Norman Osborn then stepped in,
and made Flash his personal assistant at the Daily Bugle, which he had forced
out of the hands of J. Jonah Jameson. Of course, Norman just wanted to
taunt
Spider-Man. Eventually tiring of Flash, Norman arranged for him to be
framed in a drunk-driving accident, which left Thompson in a coma.
Flash eventually regained consciousness - of a sort. While his face was
untouched, his mind and body were a wreck. Liz Osborn, who was now the
widow of Harry Osborn, arranged for a full-time nurse, and for Flash to
live in an apartment very close to Peter and many of Flash's friends.
Flash was in a wheelchair, and never spoke.
Flash somehow came out of his coma and has gone back to teaching gym at Midtown
High. He was back to his original obnoxious self and had forgotten that he and
Peter were ever friends. He doubted that Peter was really Spider-Man after Pete
revealed to the world his double identity, as part of the Superhuman
Registration Act. Trying to prove it, Flash threw a medicine ball at Parker,
expecting the clumsy guy to get knocked on his butt. Instead, Peter kicked the
ball right back at him, hitting him in the head. Flash woke up in the nurses
office and met Miss Arrow, the school nurse.
Flash flirted with her, but she didn't show a real interest in him until he was
kissed by Betty Brant. That proved to be very bad for him, as Arrow was Spider-
Man's Other, his polar opposite. She realized that Flash had a great deal of
tantric energy (unused life force) after being in the coma and she decided to
make him the host of her children: potentially thousands of spiders that she
would force down his throat until they hatched, eating him alive. Naturally, he
wasn't crazy about this idea.
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