Extreme Carnage has been a great one-shot event with an excellent horror meets politics start. With three issues under its belt, with one focusing on Scream and another on Phage, Clay McLeod Chapman and Chris Mooneyham return to the event with Lasher taking central focus and artist Danilo S. Beyruth joining in on the fun too. It’s the midway point of the event, but is it good?
Extreme Carnage: Lasher is the most disturbing chapter in the event so far. As you can see in the preview, it opens with Phage putting a very big hole into Scream. Without her Symbiote to protect her, Andi is in big trouble, which sets in motion much of what occurs in this issue. They can’t let Andi die like that, right?
While this review is spoiler-free, it’s safe to say Lasher may steal the show as the creepiest Symbiote you’ve ever seen. You can get a taste as to how in the preview page that shows the Symbiote pulling an old man’s body from a hospital bed and its long legs protruding out like a giant spider. The poor old man is taken for a ride that immediately gives Lasher a new and unique feel. He’s not a vicious killing machine like Phage, but something far more upsetting.
The real meat of this story focuses on Flash Thompson’s attempt to save Andi’s life. Extreme Carnage: Scream gave the impression there were big plans for the character and this issue proves that big time. Do not miss this, Scream fans — she’s got quite a lot of development going here.
Someone get a band-aid!
Credit: Marvel
This issue all does two specific things very well. The first is the continued theme of Carnage seemingly capable of entering the mind of characters in a stark dark place. The art captures the utter nightmarish nature of this well along with good colorwork by Marcio Menyz and Jim Campbell. There’s some cool blending of colors in the Symbiotes in the issue that adds a unique touch. There’s a good amount of defining traits between all the Symbiotes too, further separating them as unique looking beyond their original color schemes.
The second thing done well is how this issue feels like it’s taking a turn in the larger story. The political element still seems far away, but this issue does some work to give the upcoming climactic battle some added intrigue. Up until this issue it felt a bit one-sided since Carnage seems overly powerful, but this issue does a lot to change that.
Extreme Carnage: Lasher is another good issue in a one-shot event well worth checking out. It features all our favorite Symbiotes in a more horror-centric way and isn’t pulling any punches. This issue clearly aims to mix things up and develop the Symbiote world and it frankly feels like this side of the Marvel universe needed it. Extreme Carnage continues to be a great injection of horror and action into the colorful world of Symbiotes.
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