WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Extreme Carnage: Lasher, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Extreme Carnage has seen the titular villain make a gruesome return to the Marvel Universe after the events of King in Back. In a short time, the serial killer symbiote has clawed his way from the darkest depths to become a leading United States politician, Senator Kane. Along with his meteoric rise to the top, Carnage has worked his tendrils into the minds of his fellow symbiotes by way of the Hive, and so far there are few who have opposed him.
In fact, Carnage has already claimed several symbiotes as his own, and in doing so he has turned Lasher into one of the most tragic figures in the entire Marvel Universe in Extreme Carnage: Lasher by Clay McLeod Chapman, Chris Mooneyham, Danilo S. Beyruth, Marcio Menyz, Jim Campbell, and VC's Clayton Cowles.
While Andi Benton and Flash Thompson are caught in a desperate fight for survival against the Phage symbiote within Alchemax's laboratory, a very different sort of story is playing out elsewhere. The Lasher symbiote found its way into a care facility, where it bonded with an elderly man suffering from dementia. With the sight of Senator Kane on the television comes a distinctive thrumming from somewhere deep within the symbiote Hive, Lasher succumbs to Carnage's call and slaughters everyone it comes across in the care facility. Bodies line the halls as Lasher strikes gruesome blows against unsuspecting patients and staff, although it clearly does not want to.
Like the other Life Foundation symbiotes, Lasher was first introduced in 1993's Venom: Lethal Protector #4 by David Michelinie and Ron Lim, after having been forcefully bred from Venom. From birth, Lasher's life has consisted of one tragedy after another, from the murder of its first host to having to witness the bloodshed wrought by Carnage time and time again during their various conflicts. Still, all of that pales in comparison to the way in which its most recent host is manipulated.
Almost as soon as Carnage has wormed his way into the mind of William, the elderly man, it begins preying on him through his memories. Carnage takes the form of William's wife Suze, who he had not been able to recall for years, and tempts him with the promise of returning all of his lost moments. No matter how hard Lasher tries to fight Carnage's influence, William's desires and subsequent acceptance of Carnage leaves the symbiote helpless to do anything other than watch as it cuts a bloody swathe through the innocent bystanders it passes on its way to Washington D.C.
Lasher keeps screaming in William's mind that the figure before him is not his wife, that Carnage is only lying to him, but the old man refuses to listen to anything other than Carnage's delusions. William's memories bleed together with the real world around him and the massacre continues until Lasher arrives right where Carnage wanted him, and it is there that William's long-dead corpse is left to rot while his mind continues on with its now tortured existence as a Codex within the symbiote Hive.
There is nothing hopeful about this chapter in Lasher's story, much like there is no silver lining to be found in William's. What there is, however, is a stark reminder of just how cruel and callous Carnage is at his core.
With any luck, Flash Thompson and his allies will be able to bring Carnage's campaign of terror to an end before long. If not, there is no telling how many more unwitting conscripts he will add to his army by the time of their final confrontation.