(MASK I #1) - MASK and the P.N.A. started an ambitious missile defense program in space using satellites that could form a laser grid. One of the satellites malfunctioned and crashed into the North Atlantic, still shooting out lasers, so Matt Trakker had to dive for it, avoid the deadly blasts and turn off control panel. He returned to MASK's Boulder Hill Gas Station hq and worked out the bugs with Alex Sector and Buddy Hawkes. Miles Mayhem, wanting to study the satellite so Contraworld could find defeat the defense system, assaulted Boulder Hill alongside Dagger and Rax. The gas station's freeze ray held Rax and Dagger at bay while Mayhem targeted MASK's launchpad bt was driven away by a spring loaded boulder. Matt took his son and T-Bob to the amusement park, where Scott bought a snake shaped balloon. An emergency signal from Duane Kennedy came in, so Matt told Scott he'd have to cut their vacation short and asked him to return to their hotel room. Kennedy told Matt that all the gold in Fort Knox had mysteriously disappeared, and asked him to investigate. Matt contacted Sato, Turner and Hayes, telling them to meet him at Fort Knox, and they discovered that VENOM had drilled into Knox using their Mole vehicle, stole the gold and put down quick-drying cement in an attempt to cover up their activities. They caught up to the Mole and recovered the gold, but the theft was meant as a distraction by VENOM while they kidnapped Matt's son Scott. The vendor Scott had bought his balloon from was actually a VENOM agent, and it was filled with sleeping gas, so he was unable to resist when Miles came for him. Matt returned to his hotel to find Scott and T-Bob missing and a picture of Anubis painted on the wall.

(MASK I #2) - Trakker and Sato flew to Egypt to meet Egyptologist Prof. Ginsburg, an expert on Anubis in hopes that the graffiti VENOM left behind would give them a clue about where Scott and T-Bob were. In their hotel they saw a news report about the P.N.A.'s laser grid defense system being implemented and nations in the free world starting a process of nuclear disarmament. Miles Mayhem, dressed as Anubis, alongside Rax, Dagger and Bruno Sheppard, who were disguised as mummies, ambushed Prof. Ginsburg in a temple dedicated to Anubis, and put him in a cell alongside T-Bob and Scott. They then robbed the Cairo Museum, but were driven away by Trakker and Sato. Duane Kennedy contacted Matt, telling him he was sending MASK's new recruit Nash Gorey to assist in finding Scott, although Matt was wary of someone inexperienced joining in on such a sensitive mission. Matt called in Hondo, Jacques LeFleur and Julio Lopez to join in on the mission. They traveled to the temple of Anubis where Ginsberg was last seen, but were ambushed by VENOM. During the firefight Gorey, who was providing cover, shot Lopez' Dragonfly jet, and apologized for the friendly fire, but it allowed Miles to run into the temple with his goons. When MASK pursued, with Gorey covering the entrance, they fell through a trap door. In the confrontation with VENOM, MASK prevailed, but Miles caused a cave-in that allowed his team to escape. MASK found Scott, T-Bob and Ginsburg's cage and freed them, but Gorey, actually a double-agent of VENOM, used his Outlaw tanker rig to seal the temple with a boulder.

(MASK I #3) - Hondo used his Blaster mask to free his team, and an angry Matt called up Duane to tell them they'd been infiltrated by Venom. Duane promised him heads would roll, but this Duane was an imposter; the real Duane had been kidnapped after being sent a balloon filled with sleeping gas just like Scott. VENOM broke Charles Bigglesby, a man convinced he was Guy Fawkes, out of Eltham Asylum, and then broke into Arnheim Explosive Works to steal dynamite, telling Charles they were revolutionaries like him, and eager to help him blow up the UK House of Parliament. MASK was called into investigate, and Scott summoned Calhoun Burns, Gloria Baker, and Dusty Hayes to join him and Bruce Sato on the mission. New Scotland Yard Inspector Carruthers was to guide them on the case, and was initially distrustful of their newfangled methods and technology. MASK easily foiled the bombing, apprehending Charles and some low level VENOM henchmen. Bigglesby told them his new friends in VENOM planned on attacking a number of British landmarks simultaneously, such as the Tower of London. New Scotland Yard responded by removing the British crown jewels from the Tower, and sending out an armed convoy to hide them in a subterranean vault in the countryside. Matt Trakker deduced that the jewels were what VENOM was after the whole time. He was correct, and Miles Mayhem, Sly Rax, Floyd Malloy and Vanessa Warfield ambushed the convoy and stole the jewels. MASK confronted them, and after a clash Matt freed the jewels, which were hanging in a crate from Miles Mayhem's Switchblade copter. Sly Rax tried to recover it with his Piranha sub, but Gloria chased him off in her Shark sub. In the end Carruthers had to admit that MASK had the right stuff. Gorey pulled to MASK's secret Boulder Hill gas station hq and pulled a gun on MASK members Alex Sector and Buddy Hawkes.

(MASK I #4) - Gorey stole MASK's missile-defense satellite and locked Alex and Buddy in a MASK holding cell. The imposter Duane called Scott Trakker reporting that VENOM had stolen a number of valuable paintings from the Louvre. Scott wanted to be at the opening of the P.N.A.'s missile-defense, but the false Duane insisted he and his team go to France. His Spectrum mask revealed that the paintings hadn't been stolen, VENOM had only installed lighting that made the paintings invisible to the naked eye. While MASK was preoccupied VENOM agents Vanessa Warfield, Floyd Malloy and Sly Rax knocked out the NASA astronauts set to put the final satellite in place for the P.N.A. defense system and replaced it with a VENOM satellite armed with a particle death-ray. Alex and Buddy set a fire in their cell, setting off the MASK computer system, which unlocked the holding cell in case of an emergency, and brought Matt up to spread. When President Reagan pushed a computer console to demonstrate the defense-system it activated VENOM's satellite, calling down a death ray that would continue firing until it hit nuclear storehouses in the Midwest. VENOM looted Las Vegas casinos as the city was being evacuated, but MASK responded, capturing them all. Alex Sector hacked into the VENOM satellite, shutting it down, and the imposter Duane Kennedy was arrested by the P.N.A.. Matt was proud of his team, but worried that the delay in implementing the space missile prevention program would lead to continued tensions in the world that could end in nuclear war.

Comments: Created by Kenner.

VENOM were characters from the MASK toy line and cartoons. This entry covers only their DC appearances.

The MASK special insert was in Action Comics I #573, Batman I #387, Batman and the Outsiders I #27, Blue Devil #16, Green Lantern II #192, Justice League of America I #242, Superman I #411, Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #327, Tales of the Teen Titans #57 and World's Finest Comics #319

All characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Please visit The Official DC Comics Site at: http://www.batman.com