Venom 1
I said of Flash Thompson in my review of Amazing Spider-Man 654.1, which may as well have been the first issue of Venom, “Why a disabled ex-corporal was chosen for this is not stated – because he’s an old pal of Spider-Man, is all I can come up with, which is a comic writer’s reason, not military intelligence’s.” I thought this might start to attempt to justify that, but in fact I now learn that Flash has had problems with alcoholism which, since they need the host to be in calm control of the Venom symbiote, pushes this even further beyond plausibility.