Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Andi Benton (Apparent death)
- Agent Anti-Venom (Flash Thompson)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Carnage's Hive
- Phage Symbiote (Controlled by Carnage; unbonded from Mitch, bonds to Buck Cashman) (Joins)
- Carnage (Cletus Kasady)
- Alchemax
- Friends of Humanity
- Phage (Buck Cashman) (Bonds to the Phage symbiote) (Joins)
Other Characters:
- Phage (Mitch) (Unbonded from the Phage Symbiote)
- Life Foundation (Referenced)
- Phage (Carl Mach) (Referenced)
- Mercury Team (Referenced)
- Phage (Lt. Rico Axelson) (Referenced)
- Cult of Knull (Referenced)
- Phage (Billy) (Referenced)
- Friends of Humanity
- Senator Peter Krane (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- Silence Symbiote (First appearance) (Unnamed)
- Bren Waters (Mentioned)
- Alchemax
- Doctor Leonida (First appearance)
- Liz Allan (Mentioned)
- Sarah (Andi's aunt) (Mentioned) (Deceased)
- Andi's mother (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- United States of America
- New York
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Staten Island
- Waters Residence
- New York City
- New York
- United States of America
- Symbiote Hive-Mind
- Hell (Invoked)
Items:
Synopsis for 1st story
Some time following Knull's defeat, the Phage symbiote - desiring a simple, uncomplicated existence - bonded to a dog named Mitch, and was content to spend its days helping the dog's owner Buck Cashman hunt deer. One evening, Buck turned on the television intending to watch a sporting event only to find the channel broadcasting an interview with the new leader of the Friends of Humanity, Senator Peter Krane. As Buck disparagingly complains, Phage senses something calling to him - a repetitive thrumming sound growing louder in volume. Taking over Mitch, Phage lunges at Buck and knocks him to the ground, ripping into his throat and chest. Mitch then vomits the Phage symbiote onto Buck's dying body, Phage rising with his head, torso, and shoulders body the red-and-black of Carnage. In the present, Phage and Carnage converse within the Hive-Mind, Phage lamenting the loss of its simple life and inability to resist Carnage's summons, and Carnage telling his younger sibling that it made the right call in joining his Hive and that nothing could be simpler than the two of them doing what they're good at - devouring and causing chaos.
In Manhattan, Andi Benton furiously blasts the squad of Alchemax's Guardsmen with hellfire, shouting at them to stay away from the dying Scream symbiote. Ordering her to stand down, one of the Guardsmen, Waters, tells her she can come in peacefully or be arrested by force for the crime of harboring a symbiote, and that all non-human entities are property of Alchemax. Snapping that she's human, Andi sneers at the Guardsman to look past his salary, and he retorts that he's just trying to make the world a safer place for his son. As Andi mockingly asks if the Guardsman's son knows he's a corporate stooge, a pair of Guardsmen grab her from behind and knock her unconscious.
In Alchemax's astrobiology lab, Dr. Steven apologizes for the Guardsmens' rough treatment of her, saying that he invented the vacuum-field technology they used to incapacitate her - a nonlethal alternative to the neural spikes his colleague advocated. As Dr. Steven says he's familiar with people in her situation, Andi rebukes him - the Hell-Mark blazing on her chest, her eyes glowing red, and a pair of demons perched on her shoulders. Asking her to calm down, Dr. Steven answers her furious demand to know where Scream is by saying that her symbiote is mostly dead but that he is trying to revitalize samples taken from trace remnants on her person and in her blood. Dispelling the demons, Andi immediately calms down as Dr. Steven says he's well aware of what hosting symbiotes can do a person.
Walking down the street the next day, Flash Thompson uses his symbiote to trip a would-be thief. Picking up a dropped smartphone, Flash sees it's playing a new interview with Senator Krane and is enraged to learn that Andi Benton - his one-time protégé and daughter-figure - has been captured by Alchemax.
Outside Alchemax, Buck Cashman - now the head of Senator Krane's security detail, arrives with Mitch in tow, stating that the Senator has taken a personal interest in Andi's case and wants to place her treatment under Cashman's oversight. An Alchemax security guard sneers at Cashman and is rebuked by Guardsman Waters, who says that Krane's doing right by humanity as far as he's concerned. The security guard protests that he tries to leave his political opinions at home and doesn't work for Krane, but Guardsman Waters reminds him that Alchemax contracted the Guardsmen to serve as part of Krane's security detail in case of another symbiote attack. Striding past them, Cashman makes his way to where Andi is being held, killing a scientist and sending employees fleeing. As Andi wonders how she and the Scream symbiote found themselves in this predicament, Cashman sneers that she knows exactly how. As Andi snaps that she doesn't even know him, Cashman kills a guard by shoving red-and-black tendrils down his throat. Realizing he's one of Carnage's symbiotes sent to assassinate her, Andi activates her Hell-Mark and snaps that she won't make it easy for him. Cashman transforms into the Carnage-Infested Phage, setting off an alarm as he mockingly asks how it felt to immolate the Scream symbiote before roaring that he's come to avenge his sister. As Andi notes that Phage sporting Carnage's colors means that he's under Kasady's control, Phage sneers that Carnage aims to save the symbiotes and that he's going to make Andi suffer for stopping Scream from answering his call - declaring his intent to slowly eat her alive.
Elsewhere in the building, Dr. Steven argues with Dr. Leonida, the head of the Guardsman program, who has taken umbrage with Dr. Steven appropriating Andi and the Scream symbiote's remains. Dr. Steven irritibly reminds Dr. Leonida that he is Alchemax's resident symbiote expert. As Dr. Leonida callously refers to Andi as a specimen, the Xeno-Alert alarm blares and Dr. Leonida storms off to rally the Guardsmen, curtly telling Dr. Steven that their discussion is far from over. Turning to look at the seemingly-resuscitated Scream symbiote, Dr. Steven declares his intent to continue to advocate for the so-called specimens Alchemax is happy to experiment on. Agent Anti-Venom - sporting fanged jaws, horns, and draconic wings - abruptly smashes through the roof, demanding to know where Andi is. Shocked to see Flash Thompson back from the dead, Dr. Steven wonders how that's possible. Returning to his more humanoid form, Agent Anti-Venom brushes his questions aside and again asks where Andi is, saying he knows Dr. Steven is a good man but that Alchemax is completely amoral. As the alarm blares, Dr. Steven tells Flash to follow the screams.
In the prison wing, the Carnage-ized Phage and Andi furiously battle, Phage roaring that Carnage offered Scream a chance to become something greater and reunite with her estranged family, and that his call cannot be ignored. Andi retorts that she wasn't about to let Scream become a puppet for a nihilistic sociopath, blasting Phage in the face with a jet of hellfire and exposing part of Cashman's face. Phage sneers that Andi's hellfire isn't going to work on him like it did on Scream, scoffing that deep down Scream probably wanted Andi to put it out of its misery. As Phage declares she has no weapons left to wield against Carnage, Andi hits him in the face with a hellfire-infused punch and retorts that she still has a few. As Andi snaps that she's not going to let one of Carnage's lapdogs take her down after everything he made her suffer through, Phage engulfs her head in tendrils and quips that even lapdogs bite. Revealing that he knows her life's story - a saga of being forgotten and abandoned by those she cares about, Phage mockingly asks why her death should be any different. Agent Anti-Venom - having flown from Dr. Steven's lab - bursts through the door saying that Andi isn't alone - just as Phage throws Andi across the room and through a wall. As Agent Anti-Venom calls out to her in horror, Phage tells him and his shade of a symbiote to stand down or join Andi in death. As Agent Anti-Venom snaps that he's not going to let Carnage hurt him or Andi any more, Phage slashes him across the chest and lunges past him, impaling Andi through the chest on an arm-blade and saying that the time has come for Carnage's Hive to feast.
Solicit Synopsis
FLASH THOMPSON IS BACK!
After the shocking revelations of EXTREME CARNAGE: SCREAM, Carnage set it's sights on the PHAGE symbiote. Carnage isn't the only familiar face on board though! After a rendezvous with his student, Andi Benton, FLASH THOMPSON is back and ready for a fight!Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- There is a continuity error regarding the timeline of Carnage's plot. Extreme Carnage: Scream #1 had him state that Scream was to be the first of his original symbiote's siblings to join his new hive, with the events being framed as being concurrent with the ending of Extreme Carnage Alpha #1, but this issue shows Krane's interview and Carnage taking over Phage occuring weeks before he attempted to take over Scream.