Spencer Smythe

Spencer Smythe is a fictional villain in the Marvel universe. He is the father of Alistair Smythe. He first appeared in "Amazing Spider-Man" #25 (June 1965).

In comics

Professor Spencer Smythe was a robotic and arachnid expert who asked J. Jonah Jameson to fund his projects, having become 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 Spidey found himself chased by a machine with Jameson's face. However, Spider-Man escaped by leaving his Spidey suit wrapped in the robot's tentacles.

Smythe, annoyed at the inability of his robot to capture Spider-Man, began to obsess about the Web-Crawler, turning to crime to finance his research and constantly improving his robots, which he dubbed Spider-Slayers. However, no matter how deadly or powerful he made them they were always defeated by Spider-Man utilizing a key flaw in their designs; the second one, for example, was capable of tracking a unique energy signature generated by spiders, but was defeated when Spider-Man lured it back to Smythe's laboratory, cuasing it to overload from the multitude of spiders Smythe kept there for his research.

Eventually, Smythe's criminal career came to an end when the radioactive materials used in the manufacture of the robots poisoned him, dooming him to a slow and agonizing death. Blaming Jameson and Spidey equally for his impending demise, Smythe handcuffed the two of them together with a bomb scheduled to detonate in 24 hours, determined to make the two of them suffer the agony of inescapable death that he saw them as having condemned him to. Unfortunately for Smythe, his disease was too advanced for him to survive the 24 hours himself, and he expired convinced that he had killed off the two men 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.

In other media

Smythe's first cartoon appearance, albeit with the name Henry Smythe, was in the 1967 "Spider-Man" cartoon, in a segment adapting his first comic appearance.

Spencer Smythe (voiced by the late Edward Mulhare) also appeared in . In the series, he is hired by Norman Osborn to create the original Spider-Slayer, called the Black Widow, in an effort to capture Spider-Man; as part of the bargain, Osborn would build a hoverchair for his paralyzed son, Alistair. At OsCorp, the robot captures the wrong person, and Spider-Man attempts a rescue which leads to a massive fire in the plant. When Osborn refuses to build the promised hoverchair for Alistair, Spencer chooses to stay behind and finish Spider-Man off while Osborn get Alistair to safety. After the Black Widow is destroyed by Spider-Man, OsCorp explodes, and Spencer is believed dead.

Later, it is revealed that Spencer had survived, having been found by the Kingpin. Smythe was put in cryogenic suspension in order to maintain the loyalty of Alistair. Eventually, however, Alistair outlives his usefulness and is changed into a biomechanical Spider Slayer by his replacement, Dr. Herbert Landon. Smythe eventually discovers that his father is alive with Spider-Man's help and escapes with his preserved body. Afterwards he continues working for various individuals, most predominantly the Kingpin's rival Silvermane, in order to revive his father. Spenser would remain in stasis at the conclusion of the series.