We recently talked about Alistair Smythe’s transformation into the Ultimate Slayer in our recent episode! If you want to see a little of what we were talking about, you can check out his origins below:
First off, if you want to hear about his very first appearance in 1985, we covered that way back in episode 3 of the show.
And as far as Alistair’s return goes, we skipped over part of it that last season when we discussed the show’s ‘Mega-slayer’ aka the comics’ Mark XIV slayer.
He next came back in The Amazing Spider-Man #291 in 1987, in a two-parter written by David Michelinie and with art by John Romita.
In this issue he’s seen in his wheelchair for the first time after their last bout, now introducing Spider-Slayer Mark VIII.
He’s looking for revenge not just because of his father’s death (read more about Spencer Smythe here), but because Spidey electrocuted his last spider slayer, accidentally rendering him unable to walk…
There’s a nice little nod to his (ridiculous) first appearance…
He returns again in 1992 as part of the six-part Invasion of the Spider Slayers arc in ASM #368-373, again written by David Michelinie, but now with art by Mark Bagley.
That’s when you get a whole new slew of spider-slayers, including this xenomorph lookalike, the Mark X, as well as a number of others.
Throughout this arc, Smythe is using some patients he’d kidnapped from the same psychiatric facility he has escaped from to pilot the slayers under duress. He also has a cool new tech-wheelchair that the Animated Series adapted soon after.
Then after bringing out a few more slayers, he reveals himself to be… The Ultimate Slayer.
Eventually he takes on Spider-Man face-to-face, at which point he reveals his body upgrades makes him able to walk again – and has his own set of powers.
Including super strength, a webbing substitute of some sort, and spikes all over the place.
In the many Scarlet Spider comics in 1995, Tom Defalco brought Smythe back as part of the very confusing Master Programmer (sure, let’s never reveal who that guy was) arc in stories Cyber War and Virtual Mortality.
In this arc, he has new (terrible looking, if you ask me) robots he calls Cyber-Slayers, which are generated and controlled via a VR headset or whatever. The 90s mine.
He’s still got a hard-on for killing Spider-Man, who should probably be more mad about being partially paralysed by the wallcrawler than the death of his father, which he was not at all involved with.
This is his ‘master-visor’… like real virtual reality, he doesn’t realise how dumb he looks outside of his game.
In our podcast we also spoke about the time in The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #21 (2000), where Smythe’s hostage-taking bots are taken out by Spidey, leaving JJ to beat him with a baseball bat…
He returns with all-new metallic armour in the Amazing Spider-Man #648 (2010), during Dan Slott’s run, calling himself ‘The Spider Slayer’ now.
He later kills Marla Jameson, leaving JJ in a much worse place mentally – but gives him a heartfelt goodbye and a lesson to learn.
The following year, in the Spider-Island event (Amazing Spider-Man #670 to be precise), JJ turns into a spider monster and tries to kill an imprisoned Alistair…
…and even takes a bite out of him.
In The Superior Spider-Man #12 (2013), when Peter’s body is controlled by Otto Octavius, Smythe breaks out of prison. Giving Spider-Ock the option of saving hostages or letting him go, Otto chooses “none of the above”.
And he goes in for the kill (this series is great btw).
Them’s the breaks. But that’s not quite the end of it – as Smythe’s mind is transferred into his bots, which in turn pilot his dead corpse…
Pretty rough, huh? But Spider-Ock takes him down again, foiling his attempt to possess Peter’s body the same way he did.
He does briefly pop up in The Clone Conspiracy, but that’s a story for another time.
That’s all for this week, folks! Make sure you check out our Patreon for more bonus episodes!
That '90s Spider-Man Show 