History
Lethal Protector[]
The sinister Life Foundation, an organization that was preparing for the M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) fallout of the Cold War, or in the event of world chaos, sought to provide a comfortable life for their wealthy clients after the impending holocaust. Needing a superhuman police force to protect this utopian future, the Foundation's leader Carlton Drake saw potential candidates for these future guardians in the unborn offspring of Venom and subsequently ordered him to be captured.[2]
Once the foundation successfully captured Venom, who was in San Francisco at the time, they brought him to their lab in the Mojave Desert of California. While there they forcibly extracted five "seeds" from Venom and hatched them. As it was still too young to control a host, it was merged with Ramón Hernández, a security force officer of the Life Foundation, which was comprised of cops, soldiers, and mercenaries. Together it and Hernandez along with the other four would become the Foundations guardian symbiotes.[3][4]
When Spider-Man followed his "sister", Strike Agent Four. Donna Diego, he and the other guardian symbiotes all attacked the wall crawler. But before they could kill him, Eddie, who had gotten free once they removed the Venom symbiote, appeared. In order to beat them, Eddie once again merged with Venom symbiote, and managed to defeat the guardian symbiotes alongside Spider-Man using a metabolic accelerator, which rapidly sped up the aging process of the symbiotes and eventually turned them to dust when Venom cranked up the power, seemingly killing them. Lasher's host, as well as the other hosts of the symbiotes, also appeared to die in the ensuing explosion.[5]
Separation Anxiety[]
The symbiote not only survived along with its siblings due to efforts by the Life Foundation, but their hosts had too. But he and the others began to gain influence over their host, so the hosts wanting to keep control planned to seek out Eddie Brock for help.[6]
When Ramon Hernandez and the others suddenly left the Lift Foundation facility to get Eddie Brock's help, Donna went alone to talk to Brock/Venom but failed in her two attempts. He and the rest of the former guardian symbiotes joined her shortly after in her third attempt to get Brock's help. Together they broke Brock, who had lost the Venom symbiote, out of a New Mexico facility and brought him to an abandoned factory in a small city near Chicago to make him help them.[7][8][9][10][11][12]
Unfortunately yet again Brock refused, due to his belief that all of the Venom symbiote's "children" become psychopathic killers like Carnage. Later Brock managed to escape and shortly after his sister the largely dark purple and dark pink mix symbiote along with her host Leslie Gesneria was found dead. Though at the time they believed it was Eddie Brock who killed them and wanted to make him pay.[13]
When his brother the light orange symbiote and his host Carl Mach was later killed too by a sonic blade, Donna went to kill Brock but his host Hernandez stopped her in the hopes Brock can still help them. Unbeknownst to him it was Donna, Donna who had snapped from her schizophrenia and his sister's influence back when she first reached out to Brock. But by the time he and his brother the largely blue symbiote host Trevor Cole realized this, she had picked up the sonic blade that she had stolen from the facility that held Brock and killed his brother and the host.[14]
As his host Hernandez tried to calm her down, she killed them both and she herself would be beaten by a reunited Venom and Brock. After Venom escaped the team that had been tracking the Venom symbiote and they contained them, it was revealed that they had survived though this time their hosts did not.[12][15]
The Vault[]
The symbiote and his four siblings were taken to the Vault a prison for superhuman criminals, once there they were sent to Facility #12 for scientists to study and painfully experiment on them.[16]
One day during the Symbiote invasion, Venom and Brock sent world wide a psychic shriek that seemingly wiped out the invading symbiotes. Due to this along with the pain they were already experiencing, "he" and the others broke free and merged into one creature… a "Hybrid".[17][18]
After briefly bonding with Guardsmen Six, Scott Washington, the new Symbiote escaped to find and bond with Scott once again and become the vigilante called Hybrid.[19]
Carnage U.S.A.[]
Bonded to War Dog and Officially named Lasher
After some time as the vigilante Hybrid they once again believed to be dead when Eddie Brock took it upon himself to kill all symbiotes. But again they survived and the host did not, they were presumably found by the U.S. Army and was defused into four separate creatures again and named Lasher, Riot, Phage, and Agony.[20][1]
"He" and the others though apparently due to being defusioned had become catatonic and unable to totally bond with a host, were given to each member of the Mercury Team. A Contingency B team who has been training with Lasher and the others for the soul purpose of eliminating Carnage. Lasher was partly bonded to a female military trained German Shepherd war dog and leashed, and controlled by the team leader Chief Petty Officer Marcus Simms.[1]
When Carnage began taking over the people of Doverton Colorado and the Avengers (Captain America, The Thing, Hawkeye, and Wolverine) save for Spider-Man, the team was sent in aided by Scorn. The team took on a large number of Carnage-possessed townspeople, but ran into big trouble when Carnage and the Symbiote Avengers joined the fight. But even when Spider-Man, the sheriff Eric Morrell, a few townies and the arrival of Agent Venom the fight didn't look good.[21]
But the battle seemed to turn when Scorn driving a souped up tractor caught Carnage and Agent Venom, who were fighting at the time, to Ralsby Meat Packing Plant where she had made a device that separated the symbiotes from Thompson and Kasady, freeing the Carnage possessed. But things only continued to get bad as without Kasady's control the Carnage symbiotes ran wild and took over the local zoo life. As Lasher and the others fought a losing battle Simms ordered the go ahead to torch the area and thanks to Captain America kept the blast localized.[22]
With the Carnage symbiotes destroyed, Thompson having rejoined the Venom symbiote captured and handed Kasady over to the Avengers. Lasher and "his" siblings were put back in their containers after Simms and the team left for the others to clean up.[23]
Deadpool vs. Carnage[]
Bonded to Deadpool through Hybrid
When Carnage began a seemingly random killing spree throughout Oklahoma Deadpool tried to stop him and his girlfriend Shriek. But as the body count raised it was revealed that Kasady was after Mercury Team and Lasher as well as his siblings. Kasady found the team in a underground base in an abandoned town, he killed them all but the German Shepherd, who managed to get to Lasher and save the other symbiotes. When Deadpool showed up to find the dead soldiers and empty symbiote containers, he was cut to pieces by Kasady and left like that until Lasher with his siblings attached to the war dog saved him by having the other three bond and pull Deadpool together.[24]
Instead of becoming one entity as Hybrid as they did before, the four symbiotes partly bonded with Deadpool and became a composite monster with Deadpool in full control despite the extra voice in his head. Lasher and Deadpool went after Carnage who was at Carrington Cottage Psychiatric Hospital torturing staff and patients with Shriek. As Lasher attacked Carnage, Deadpool tricked Shriek to get Carnage alone, and then managed to trick Carnage into taking out Shriek which drove Carnage into giving himself up.[25]
In the end Deadpool gave up the other symbiotes to Lasher and asked the dog to bring them back to the government in hopes they'll be able to take care of them.[26]
In the Thrall of Knull[]
Knullified Lasher
Following Knull's awakening, Lasher and the other Life Foundation symbiotes succumbed to his control. When the German Shepherd was found by a young girl named Sadie - whose family was falling apart - Lasher and its brethren separated from each other and took over Sadie's family to grant her wish that they be able to stay together, with Lasher bonding to Sadie herself. Following this, the family set out for Manhattan in order to assist in Knull's reawakening.[27][28]
They were forced to serve Carnage under the threat of death and attacked Dylan Brock, Normie Osborn, and the Maker. Lasher took on the Maker, but before it could kill him, the Maker grabbed a sonic gun and blasted the Lasher symbiote off of its host. The Maker tried to kill Sadie before the Lasher symbiote could re-bond to her, but Riot, Agony, and Phage stopped him. Sleeper appeared just in time to save Dylan and Normie from Phage,[29] but the Maker managed to put it along with the other symbiotes under containment.
However, Normie and Dylan decided to flee, afraid of what the Maker could do to them. In order to escape, Dylan tried to use firearms on him but it ended up freeing the symbiotes, except for Sleeper. The four Life Foundation symbiotes forcibly bonded to the Maker and re-merged into Hybrid, attempting to get Dylan's codex. Fortunately, The Thing, Wolverine, Captain America, and Spider-Man arrived and kept Hybrid occupied.[30] Dylan freed Sleeper and used his powers to control the symbiote, dousing him in napalm. Hawkeye shot a flaming arrow at Hybrid, seemingly killing the symbiotes.[31]
When Knull invaded Earth, the four Life Foundation symbiotes were sent to hunt down Dylan Brock and came into conflict with their estranged sister Scream, who had bonded to Andi Benton. They merged into Hybrid and - remote-piloted by Knull - attempted to assimilate the Scream symbiote, but were blown apart by hellfire conjured by Andi's Hell-Mark. With Andi assuming them deceased, the four symbiotes regrouped and escaped into the sewers.[32]
Extreme Carnage[]
After being freed from Knull's control, the Lasher symbiote was separated from the rest of its siblings for an unknown amount of time until it ended up in a nursing home, where it decided to bond to an elderly man with severe dementia. When Lasher heard Carnage's call it enveloped its host and began killing everyone it encountered, but flatly refused to join Carnage's hive; telling Carnage to leave it and its host alone. Left with no other choice, Carnage dragged the consciousness of Lasher's host into the Hive-Mind and deceived him using the visage of the old man's wife, saying that he would help him fill in the gaps in his memories if he did what Carnage told him. Despite Lasher's attempts to warn him that it was a trick, the old man - William - obeyed Carnage and set off on a cross-country trek. After several days of travel, William realized that Carnage had cheated him and decided to take his own life, but was told by Lasher that his body had already died. Upon arrival at the Lincoln Memorial, Lasher separated from William's corpse and succumbed to Carnage's corruption, joining his hive.[33]
Taking a member of the Friends of Humanity as its next host, Lasher was later seen at the stadium where Senator Peter Krane was holding a rally disparaging the President. When Carnage killed Peter Krane, Lasher - along with Phage and Agony - transformed and started attacking the crowd. With the arrival of Sleeper, Lasher expressed concern that they might lose the battle and bickered with Agony. As Agent Anti-Venom arrived along with Toxin and Silence, Lasher was shot by Anti Venom before being engaged by Toxin. Lasher demanded to know why the Toxin symbiote had refused to join Carnage's hive given that it was the original Carnage symbiote's progeny, Toxin rebuking it for following the serial killer's orders. When Carnage transformed into a symbiote-dragon and rescued Agony before flying away away, Lasher and Phage expressed despair at being abandoned. Alchemax Guardsmen subdued the remaining symbiotes, including Lasher, and they were separated from their hosts by Silence's symbiote and put in containment at Alchemax's astrobiology lab.[34]
Cult of Carnage[]
The symbiote was later stolen by Corwin Jones who merged it with other strains from Scream, Agony, Riot, Phage and Toxin symbiotes to form the Madness symbiote.[35] A strain harvested from the symbiote was bonded to a braindead human cyborg by Jones' employer, the Life Foundation, to create an obedient supersoldier.[36] The host was later killed by Spider-Man, leaving the symbiote strain to be secured by Alchemax.[37]Personality
Like its fellow siblings, Lasher was a very violent symbiote due to being still immature after it was extracted by the Life Foundation, so much so that its first host seeked help along with the others to control himself and do good with the symbiote. Due to its weakened state after being separated from its host who was killed by Scream, taking part on multiple painful experiments on the Vault and from fear of being alone, Lasher and its other siblings fused to create Hybrid and bonded to Scott Washington. After being defused and separated from Scott and its other siblings, Lasher was left at a catatonic state as the government used it to bond with the dog of Mercury Team.
Though no longer catatonic, Lasher lost its free will when it became an acolyte of the God Knull during the Second Symbiote Invasion. After being freed from Knull's control, Lasher found a home in William, an old man with severe dementia that served as its new host. Unfortunately, Lasher's freedom would not last long, as the symbiote was soon called by Carnage to join its hive. Lasher wanted nothing to do with Carnage and attempted to refused the call, and when its new host's consciousness started to be manipulated by Carnage, Lasher warned him not to listen to the psychotic symbiote, but these warnings were futile as Lasher eventually succumbed to Carnage's corruption.Attributes
Powers
Symbiote Biology: The Lasher symbiote covers its host with greenish biomass and enhances its natural abilities to a superhuman level. Possibly due to Earth's environment, it has the ability to manipulate its biomass in a variety of ways. When bonded to a host, it manifests six tentacles on its upper back, with three on each side.
- Superhuman Strength
- Superhuman Durability
- Superhuman Stamina
- Superhuman Smelling
- Regeneration
- Wallcrawling
- Spider-Sense
- Immunity to Spider-man's Spider Sense
- Organic Webbing Generation
- Camouflage
- Constituent-Matter Generation
- Constituent-Matter Manipulation (Multiple Tendrils): Unlike its fellow symbiotes, the Lasher symbiote preferred to create tentacles on his back. Its primary method of attack was to form long whip-like tendrils that acted as limbs so as to be more effective against opponents, ensnaring and lashing them. They had an apparent mucous membrane encompassing them.
- Remote Symbiosis: After tempering by the government, the Lasher symbiote was given the ability to physiologically bond too and extend itself between a pilot user and the corpse of a non-sentient entity. Namely dogs or other small bipedal animals, creating a ranged means of attack with which it's host can issue orders too through a mimetic mouthpiece generated from one of their limbs; issuing orders to either move, return, strike or maul a designated assailant.
Weaknesses
Trivia
- The Lasher symbiote wasn't officially named Lasher, until Carnage, U.S.A. #2, with the War Dog as host. It was the result of fan-naming and official toy-line naming:
- Lasher was originally the name of an action-figure but the name stuck in the symbiote mythos for the name of Ramon Hernandez's symbiote.
- The Symbiote who would become known as Lasher is unofficially along with it's four siblings, Carnage being the sixth are the 999th symbiote of the feral symbiotes from Venom's lineage.[citation needed]
See Also
- 34 appearance(s) of Lasher (Symbiote) (Earth-616)
- 12 minor appearance(s) of Lasher (Symbiote) (Earth-616)
- 4 mention(s) of Lasher (Symbiote) (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Lasher (Symbiote) (Earth-616)
- 84 image(s) of Lasher (Symbiote) (Earth-616)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Lasher (Symbiote) (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Carnage, U.S.A. #2
- ↑ Venom: Lethal Protector #3–4
- ↑ Venom: Lethal Protector #3
- ↑ Venom: Lethal Protector #5
- ↑ Venom: Lethal Protector #4–5
- ↑ Venom: Separation Anxiety #1–2
- ↑ Venom: Lethal Protector #4
- ↑ Spider-Man #52
- ↑ Web of Spider-Man #119
- ↑ Spider-Man #53
- ↑ Venom: Separation Anxiety #1
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Venom: Separation Anxiety #2
- ↑ Venom: Separation Anxiety #3
- ↑ Venom: Separation Anxiety #3–4
- ↑ Venom: Separation Anxiety #4
- ↑ Venom: The Hunted #1
- ↑ Web of Spider-Man Super Special #1
- ↑ Venom: Along Came a Spider #1
- ↑ Venom: Along Came a Spider #2
- ↑ Venom #15
- ↑ Carnage, U.S.A. #1–4
- ↑ Carnage, U.S.A. #4–5
- ↑ Carnage, U.S.A. #5
- ↑ Deadpool vs. Carnage #1–2
- ↑ Deadpool vs. Carnage #3–4
- ↑ Deadpool vs. Carnage #4
- ↑ Deadpool (Vol. 7) #14
- ↑ Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety #1
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 4) #17
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 4) #18
- ↑ Venom (Vol. 4) #19
- ↑ King in Black: Planet of the Symbiotes #1
- ↑ Extreme Carnage: Lasher #1
- ↑ Extreme Carnage Omega #1
- ↑ Cult of Carnage: Misery #1–2
- ↑ Cult of Carnage: Misery #3–4
- ↑ Cult of Carnage: Misery #5