Spencer Smythe

Spencer Smythe is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually as an adversary of the superhero Spider-Man. A scientist researching robotics and arachnids, he turned to crime to finance his research, and dedicated his life to capturing Spider-Man. Smythe is best known for creating the Spider-Slayers, robots designed specifically to hunt down, capture, or kill the web-slinger. He is also the father of Alistair Smythe.

The character has appeared in several Spider-Man adaptations, including animated series and video games.

Publication history[]

Spencer Smythe and the Spider-Slayers first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #25 (June 1965) and were created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.^[1]

Fictional character biography[]

Professor Spencer Smythe was an expert in robotics and arachnids who asked J. Jonah Jameson to fund his projects, having been convinced by Jameson's editorials that Spider-Man was a menace. After watching a demonstration showing that Smythe's robot could sense and track spiders, Jameson hired Smythe to capture Spider-Man. Jameson himself controlled the robot, meaning that Spider-Man was chased by a machine with Jameson's face. However, the web-slinger escaped by leaving the Spider-Man suit wrapped in the robot's tentacles.^[2]

Annoyed at his robot's inability to capture Spider-Man, Smythe began to obsess about the web-slinger, turning to crime to finance his research and constantly improving his robots which he dubbed Spider-Slayers.^[3][4] But his creations, no matter how deadly or powerful he made, were always defeated by Spider-Man utilizing a key flaw in their designs.^[5]

Eventually, Smythe's criminal career came to an end when the radioactive materials used in the robots' manufacture poisoned him, dooming him to a slow and agonizing death.^[6] Blaming Spider-Man and Jameson equally for his impending demise, Smythe handcuffed the two together with a bomb scheduled to detonate in 24 hours, determined to make the two suffer the agony of inescapable death that he saw the two as having condemned him to.^[7] Unfortunately for Smythe, his disease was too advanced for him to survive the 24 hours himself, and he died convinced that he had killed off the two responsible. Peter Parker, however, had a pretty good grasp of what made mechanical devices tick, and was able to abort the bomb by freezing its controls mere moments before it would have detonated.^[8]

After Spencer's death, his son Alistair Smythe inherited the Spider-Slayer legacy.^[9]

During the Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy storyline, a clone of the character is created by Miles Warren's company New U Technologies.^[10]

In other media[]

Television[]

• A character named Henry Smythe appeared in the 1967 Spider-Man animated series episode "Captured by J. Jonah Jameson", voiced by Henry Ramer. Similarly to Spencer, he is the creator of the Spider-Slayers, one of which he used in an attempt to capture Spider-Man for the eponymous character. However, Spider-Man is eventually able to escape from the robot's clutches after tricking it with a dummy, leaving Smythe to take the Spider-Slayer back to his house to make adjustments.

Spencer Smythe as seen in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

• Spencer Smythe appeared in 1994's Spider-Man: The Animated Series, voiced by Edward Mulhare. In the episode "The Spider Slayer", Spencer is enlisted by Norman Osborn to capture Spider-Man in exchange for building a hover-chair for his paralyzed son Alistair Smythe. Smythe creates his first Spider-Slayer, the Black Widow, to achieve this, but it instead kidnaps Flash Thompson who was wearing a Spider-Man costume at the time. When the real Spider-Man comes to the rescue, the ensuing battles leads to a fire at Oscorp. With Osborn's negative reinforcement, Spencer stays behind to ensure Spider-Man dies and Alistair gets the hover-chair, but is seemingly killed when Oscorp explodes. It is later revealed that Spencer survived and was put into cryogenic suspension by the Kingpin to ensure Alistair's loyalty after his son fell in with the crime lord. Alistair eventually discovers Spencer's cryonically preserved body, and recovers him with Spider-Man's help. Afterwards, Alistair continues working for various resourceful individuals in exchange for his father's revival.
• Spencer Smythe appears in the 2010s Spider-Man animated series, voiced by Benjamin Diskin. This version is Peter Parker's strict science teacher at Midtown High School, and Alistair Smythe's estranged father. In the two-part episode "Horizon High", he sabotages Anya Corazon's experiment and frames Harry Osborn for it, resulting in Harry's suspension from Horizon High. Later, Spencer allies himself with the Vulture to seek revenge against Max Modell and creates his first Spider-Slayer to steal Harry's work from Horizon High, but it is eventually destroyed by Spider-Man. In the episode "Ultimate Spider-Man", Spencer is hired by Raymond Warren to steal Oscorp's genetically modified spiders. To do this, he programs a Spider-Slayer to attack Norman Osborn and threaten to destroy Oscorp while he steals the spiders. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Norman had Spencer cause Harry's suspension in exchange for a position at Osborn Academy, but later reneged on their deal. While leaving Oscorp, Spencer bumps into Miles Morales and loses a specimen, which later turns Morales into the Ultimate Spider-Man. Spencer personally operates a mecha-sized Spider-Slayer to capture the Ultimate Spider-Man, but ends up fighting his son as the Ultimate Spider-Slayer. The Smythes are eventually defeated by the two Spider-Men, though only Spencer is arrested while Alistair manages to escape.

Video games[]

• Spencer Smythe appears in the PS2 and PSP versions of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. He calls Spider-Man at specific points of the game and is shown to be in alliance with A.I.M. and the Jackal. He has the former help him with his secret experiments in their underground lab, as well capture and clone J. Jonah Jameson as part of a plot to discredit him and Spider-Man. Later, the Jackal reveals that Smythe is trying to find a way to control the invading symbiotes and betrays him to pursue his own goals. Near the end of the game, Smythe sends A.I.M. foot soldiers and a brainwashed Black Cat to retrieve a sonic generator that could stop the symbiote invasion, inadvertently giving the Jackal an opportunity to steal it for himself. After A.I.M. and Black Cat are defeated, Spider-Man calls Smythe to accuse him of having the Jackal steal the sonic generator, but Smythe denies any involvement.
• Spencer Smythe appears in Marvel Heroes.
• Spencer Smythe replaces Alistair in the Nintendo 3DS version of The Amazing Spider-Man film tie-in game. Similarly to his son in other versions of the game, he utilizes multiple heavily reimagined Spider-Slayers and other robots to try to eliminate Spider-Man and Curt Connors.

References[]

External links[]

• Spencer Smythe at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe