Andrew Garner (Earth-616)

**Andrew Garner, Ph.D.,** (*Lash*) was a neurologist and a forensic psychologist who specialized in working with the gifted individuals from the Index. During his career with S.H.I.E.L.D., he met and married Agent Melinda May, though they were eventually divorced. Garner later returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. to do a profile on Daisy Johnson, who had recently developed superpowers from undergoing Terrigenesis. Garner's own latent Inhuman genes were activated when he accidentally broke the Terrigen Crystal hidden in a ledger originally belonging to Jiaying, and he was transformed into the monstrous ***Lash***.

Garner eventually learned how to control his transformations and managed to hide his true nature from everyone around him. During the Inhuman Outbreak, Garner established a cover as helping S.H.I.E.L.D. evaluating newly-emerged Inhumans while tracking and killing Inhumans as Lash. However, when his secret was discovered, Garner was briefly captured by Hydra before then escaping and going on the run. Eventually, Lash took over Garner completely and he surrendered to S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to say goodbye to May. In a last attempt to kill Hive, Lash saved Johnson from his control, but while he ensured Johnson was safe, Lash was killed by Hellfire, dying as a hero.

## Personality

Andrew Garner was a kind, gentle, and caring individual as a normal human, having treated his ex-wife Melinda May with such pleasure. As a therapist, he seemed encouraging and one to give out suggestions fnor his patients. As a human, he meant no harm to anyone and saw potential in new Inhumans, such as Joey Gutierrez.

After his Inhuman transformation, however, Garner's instincts took over his subtle persona and he became a ruthless Inhuman killer to the ones who he deemed deserved punishment, such as Dwight Frye. As Lash, he was feared but some were brave enough to go head-to-head with the beast.

After wounding Hive shortly after arriving on board a Quinjet, it was revealed that despite his ruthlessness and instincts, a part of Garner still existed within Lash. He resisted his instincts and put his primary mission aside in order to release Daisy Johnson from the dark Inhuman's control and get her to the safety of the Quinjet, a heroic act that resulted in his death.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

**Superhuman strength:** As Lash, Garner had superhuman strength, being able to accomplish feats of strength a human being would find difficult. He managed to easily throw Werner von Strucker across a room with little effort.

**Superhuman durability:** As Lash, Garner was able to withstand various forms of attack, such as Daisy Johnson's vibratory blasts, or Lincoln Campbell's energy currents, without suffering serious wounds. He could easily withstand multiple gunshots; bullets penetrated his skin, but they did not seem to slow him down. However, this was not sufficient to survive Hellfire's fire-imbued chain. This may also have applied to his human form, albeit to a lesser extent, judging by the fact he survived Melinda May shooting him multiple times long enough to transform into Lash.

**Regenerative healing factor:** Lash was able to recover from wounds in a matter of seconds to minutes, such as the ones from when he was shot multiple times in the chest by the ATCU in Culver University and the bullets shot by Melinda May while in his human form that only triggered an immediate transformation.

**Energy blasts:** Lash was able to generate a form of super-heated blue energy that was hot enough to incinerate durable materials like metal. This was displayed significantly during his battle with Daisy Johnson, Lincoln Campbell, and Alphonso Mackenzie, in which he utilized his energy to incinerate holes in the hospital walls to provide an escape route. The energy could also be channeled into concussive blasts with enough explosive power to blast a hole in a person's chest; this was his primary method of executing his victims.

* ***Internal bodily cleansing:*** Less lethally, this energy was also capable of freeing an Inhuman infected by Hive by drawing the dark Inhuman's parasites out of the victim and destroying them, though Lash was only able to free Daisy Johnson before his death. Lash himself could not be infected by HIve, as the dark Inhuman's parasites simply disintegrated the second they touched Lash's energy, rendering them useless. Through this parasite removal, Lash gave Inhumans an immunity to Hive's infection, as shown when Hive was unable to use his parasites to reinfect a newly cured Daisy Johnson.

**Transformation (formerly):** A unique trait amongst Inhumans with physical transformation, Garner was able to transition between his human form and his Lash persona at will or when in mortal danger. Though the transitioning from his human form to his Inhuman form was evidently painful, he did not have complete control over it. This ability was the result of an unusually slow transition; once the transition was complete, Garner lost this ability, permanently remaining as Lash.

### Abilities

**Psychology:** Garner had a Ph.D. in psychology and used his skills to analyze agents and have them confront issues about themselves that they attempted to ignore.

**Combat:** As Lash, Garner had great combat abilities, being able to take out several Alpha Primitives with ease. However, he often used his superhuman strength to his advantage instead of using actual skill.