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With Carnage on the attack again, Iron Man turned to another Avengers veteran with some experience taking down symbiotes.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Extreme Carnage Alpha by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Manuel Garcia, Cam Smith, Marc Deering, Roberto Poggi, Guru-eFX and VC’s Travis Lanham, on sale now.
The Earth-shattering events of King in Black might be over, but their repercussions are still being felt throughout the Marvel Universe. While Eddie Brock settles into his new role as god of the symbiotes and humanity struggles with the fear and confusion they are still fraught with, Carnage has crept his way out of his watery grave and back to dry land. This hasn’t gone unnoticed, although few would have expected Tony Stark to pick up on the villain’s return so quickly — and even fewer could have anticipated him immediately turning to Flash Thompson for help.
Flash has been trying to acclimate to his new life since self-resurrecting during Knull’s invasion. While he has tried to keep a low profile, that has been easier said than done, and his most recent moment in the limelight has led Tony Stark right to him. Iron Man arrives at what might be the wrong time, as Flash has just snapped out of a terrifying vision of Carnage in the flesh, losing control of himself and nearly harming his coworker in the process. As scary as the sight might have been, Tony assures Flash that he isn’t there to fight. Instead, he has come looking for help with a problem that he only barely understands.
Tony has been keeping tabs on as many symbiotes as he can through various news feeds, and he is hoping that Flash can confirm his suspicions that Carnage has returned. While in Tony’s lab, Flash is taken back by the unsettling sight of Tony’s last suit of specialty armor, the aptly named Extrembiote. This armor was the result of Tony rewriting the DNA of one of Knull’s symbiote dragons using a version of Extremis. After his experiment proved successful, the symbiote bonded to Tony’s armor, and apparently, it has stayed there since then. Of course, now that Eddie Brock has given the symbiotes under his purview freedom that they have never known, there is only Tony and Extremis keeping the Extrembiote in check.
Flash explains that as a living being, the Extrembiote cannot be controlled the way that it has been for very long. Tony doesn’t seem to quite understand this, asking Flash if he doesn’t control his symbiote. It isn’t that hosts control their symbiotes, though, but rather that the bond that he has formed with his symbiote has left an impression of his consciousness on it, much like Cletus Kasady’s did with the Carnage symbiote. Considering that the Extrembiote has spent so little time with Tony piloting it and that even that time wasn’t spent properly bonded to the symbiote, there is no telling exactly what it is that the Iron Clad Avenger has created. Like so many other things that Tony Stark has created, this only means that the Extrembiote could easily become a threat to humanity unto itself, assuming Carnage doesn’t get to it first.
As Flash discovers while following Carnage’s scent at the request of Iron Man, the serial killer symbiote has already begun creating a Hive of his own, and he has been far more successful than anyone could have expected. With the Extrembiote having been disconnected from the rest of the primary Hive by Tony during the events of King in Black, it would be a prime addition to Carnage’s army, not to mention one of the most powerful by a wide margin. Then again, as a testament to the fact that symbiotes can have their DNA rewritten as the Extrembiote’s was, its own origin might just hold the key to undoing most of the machinations of the returned Carnage.
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