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.[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]
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
A character inspired by Spencer Smythe named Henry Smythe appears in the Spider-Man (1967) episode "Captured by J. Jonah Jameson", voiced by Henry Ramer. Similarly to Spencer, he is the creator of the Spider-Slayers.
Spencer Smythe appears in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, voiced by
Edward Mulhare. He is enlisted by
Norman Osborn to capture Spider-Man in exchange for building a hover-chair for his paralyzed son
Alistair Smythe. Spencer 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 battle 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. Later in the series, it is revealed that Spencer survived and was put into
cryogenic suspension by the
Kingpin to ensure Alistair's loyalty after the latter fell in with the crime lord. Alistair eventually discovers Spencer and recovers him with Spider-Man's help. Afterwards, Alistair works for various resourceful individuals in exchange for his father's revival.
Spencer Smythe appears in Spider-Man (2017), voiced by
Benjamin Diskin.[12] This version is
Peter Parker's strict science teacher at
Midtown High School and Alistair Smythe's estranged father. Spencer is hired by Norman Osborn to sabotage
Anya Corazon's experiment and frame
Harry Osborn for the deed, resulting in Harry's suspension from Horizon High. Smythe next allies himself with the
Vulture to seek revenge against
Max Modell and creates a personal Spider-Slayer to steal Harry's work from Horizon High before it is destroyed by Spider-Man. While bitter that Osborn reneged on his deal, Spencer is hired by
Raymond Warren to steal Oscorp's genetically modified spiders. His Spider-Slayer threatens Oscorp as a distraction while he leaves with the spiders, but bumps into
Miles Morales and loses a specimen. Spencer personally operates a mecha-sized Spider-Slayer to capture the Ultimate Spider-Man, but ends up fighting Alistair in a similar mech. The Smythes are eventually defeated by the two Spider-Men, though only Spencer is arrested while his son escapes.
Video games
Spencer Smythe appears in the
PS2 and
PSP versions of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. This version is aligned with
A.I.M. and the
Jackal, with the former helping him in his secret experiments and the latter eventually betraying him upon learning Smythe intends to find a way to control the invading
symbiotes.
Spencer Smythe replaces Alistair in the
Nintendo 3DS version of The Amazing Spider-Man. Similarly to his son in other versions of the game, he utilizes multiple Spider-Slayers and robots in failed attempts to kill Spider-Man and
Curt Connors.
References
^DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 338.
ISBN978-1-4654-7890-0.