Origin
Lasher is a forced spawn of the symbiote known as Venom. He, along with five other symbiotes, were created by a sinister corporation called the Life Foundation. This corporation experimented with Venom in the hopes of developing superhuman peacekeepers to watch over their imagined fallout shelter utopia. One of the three men who were chosen as hosts for Venom’s spawn was the mercenary Ramón Hernández.
Creation
Lasher was created by David Michelinie, Ron Lim, Sam DeLarosa and Al Milgrom in 1993 and first appeared in Venom: Lethal Protector #4.
The name “Lasher” derives from the character’s action figure. In the comic books he was only known by his first name Ramón, with no superhuman alias. This name has since stuck however, as in 2012’s Carnage U.S.A. the symbiote was officially identified by the name of Lasher for the first time.
Major Story Arc
Lethal Protector
During Venom’s time as Lethal Protector of San Francisco, Lasher and his “siblings” were defeated by Venom and Spider-Man.
Separation Anxiety
It was later revealed that the symbiotes had survived due to efforts by the Life Foundation. They broke Eddie Brock out of prison and kidnapped him in a last ditch effort to communicate with their alien “others.” Unfortunately Eddie refused to aid them, due to Carnage’s example that his “children” became psychopathic killers. After Leslie was killed, it was believed that Brock was the perpetrator. This was only compounded upon when Brock was later found with Carl‘s dead body in his arm and a sonic knife in his hand. This all turned out to have been a ruse from Scream however, having snapped from her schizophrenia and her symbiote’s influence, now believing that the symbiotes and any who host them were evil. When her ruse was revealed, Ramón attempted to talk Scream down in order to prevent more bloodshed, but sadly to no avail. Ramón and the rest of his symbiote siblings were killed by her.
Hybrid
Lasher survived however, and was imprisoned/experimented upon in the Vault along with its siblings (except Carnage and Scream). The symbiotes eventually merged together, and bonded with a man known as Scott Washington to form Hybrid.
Mercury Team
In Carnage: USA, the Hybrid symbiote was revealed to have been forcibly separated behind the scenes. The Lasher symbiote, along with its siblings, were rendered catatonic as a result of the trauma of the separation. Covert Government Mercury Team, trained with them to teach them specialized tasks. Lasher was teamed up with Chief Petty Officer Marcus Simms, 10th Special Forces Group. Assigned Bio-Weapon: Symbiotically Enhanced War Dog.
They were called on as a contingency team when the Avengers failed to free the town of Doverton, Colorado from Carnage’s control.
Deadpool vs. Carnage
In Deadpool vs. Carnage, Deadpool stole the symbiotes from a government facility to help him combat Carnage. After defeating Carnage he puts the symbiotes on a dog and instructs it to take them back to the government.
King in Black
The dog that Deadpool left the symbiotes in the care of was distracted by a crying young girl named Sadie. She was having family problems, so the symbiotes bonded to her family (with Lasher bonding to Sadie) to keep them together. Piloting their bodies, they make their way to Manhattan to assist in the Knull Invasion.
Under Carnage’s orders, they hunt down Dylan Brock and Normie Osborn. Unfortunately, they were left with The Maker, who was currently inventing ways of ending the symbiote threat. Using a sonic cannon on Lasher, he freed Sadie very briefly, but Maker was just as ready to kill her as he was Lasher. While Dylan and Normie hid, The Maker was able to remove them from their hosts and stick both the hosts and the symbiotes in stasis pods.
Dylan was growing distrustful of Maker and tried shooting his and Normie’s way out. Instead of hitting Maker though, he freed the symbiotes from their stasis pods, allowing them to all bond to Maker. This hybrid chased them into the streets where Spider-Man had led a few Avengers to help. They are eventually chased off by Hawkeye’s multiple anti-symbiote arrows.
Separated, they continued to look for Dylan in New York during Knull’s invasion. They are confronted by their sibling, Scream, who is now bonded to Andi Benton. Scream and Andi were defending the various children the symbiotes were assaulting. The symbiotes combined into Hybrid again to take on Scream, but Andi’s Hell-Mark powers ripped them apart. Wounded they escape through the sewers
Extreme Carnage
Lasher was laying low with an elderly man in a hospital when Carnage reached out to him via the hive-mind. Lasher wanted nothing to do with him, so Carnage manipulated Lasher’s host with the visage of his late wife. Together, they made their way to Washington, D.C., killing anyone in their way, until his host begged to be set free. Lasher obliged over the Lincoln Memorial, dropping him to his death, and joining Carnage undercover in the Peter Krane campaign.
They targeted an anti-alien demonstration that Peter Krane was hosting. After Krane is assassinated by Carnage, Lasher attacks the crowd with his other siblings. He is fought by Flash and his team and ultimately taken into custody by Alchemax.
Carnage Reigns
While Dr. Stevens was researching how to put the symbiotes to good use, a mercenary named Corwin Jones broke in and stole Lasher and the other symbiotes using special drones.
Powers & Abilities
Lasher possesses all the powers the original Venom has, including shape-shifting, superhuman strength, the inability to be detected by Spider-Man’s “spider-sense”, and suit-generated webbing. In addition, Lasher has the capability of creating thick green mucus from his suit that crushes its victim under its weight, as well as using the tentacles from the suit to “lash” or grab its victim, which is his primary weapon.
In Other Media
Video Game
- A faction enemy type resembles Lasher in Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2. It is a green dog type enemy.
Merchandise
- Lasher was featured in ToyBiz’s Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes line.
- Lasher was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Lizard Build-a-Figure wave.