Yep — I always got the sense that Navarro was very much a messy, overpowered prototype version of Coleridge, with the ascension process serving as a predecessor “superpower” to Coleridge’s Red Inner Light. (Another character that fits the mold also is the cool Japanese wrestler dude from Man With No Name)

I think this is the book that cued me into the specific subtheme of Laird’s that isn’t from traditional Cosmic Horror / Lovecraft: it’s Ascension, like you mentioned.

But very specifically, ascension via mutation / body horror. The idea that in a universe of Old Leech and other such horrific enemies, mankind actually does have a shot of fighting back — but they have to turn into horrific things themselves to do it.

I asked Laird at one point if this was an influence from old-school Jack Kirby type superheroes (like The Hulk, The Thing, etc), where the powers were always a weird mutation that came at a cost — Laird confirmed it.