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

Fictional character biography

Spencer Smythe is 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. Annoyed at his robot's inability to capture Spider-Man, Smythe began to obsess over Spider-Man, turning to crime to finance his research and constantly improving his robots which he dubbed Spider-Slayers. But his creations, no matter how deadly or powerful he made, were always defeated by Spider-Man utilizing a key flaw in their designs. Eventually, Smythe is fatally poisoned by the radioactive materials used in the robots' manufacturing and attempts to kill Spider-Man and Jameson with a bomb. However, Spider-Man stops the bomb by freezing its controls moments before its detonation. After Spencer's death, his son Alistair Smythe inherited the Spider-Slayer legacy. During the Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy storyline, Spencer is "reanimated" in a clone body (with his soul intact) by Ben Reilly's company New U Technologies, but is later killed again.

Skills and abilities

Spencer Smythe is quite intelligent, capable of designing advanced robots that could pursue solitary targets. These robots were physically dangerous enough to overpower Spider-Man at multiple points, but they lacked A.I. software.

In other media

Television

Video games