| Black Widow | |||||||||||||||
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| Real Name | Black Widow | ||||||||||||||
| Powers and Abilities | Flight Oil Spray Dense Structure | ||||||||||||||
| Team Affiliations | Spider-Slayers | ||||||||||||||
| Allies | Spider Seeker | ||||||||||||||
| Family and Friends | Spencer Smythe (Designer) Alistair Smythe (Designer) Norman Osborn (Commissioner) Eddie Brock | ||||||||||||||
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- For other uses of Black Widow, see Black Widow (Disambiguation).
The Black Widow was the first in a series of robots designed to hunt down and destroy the superhero known as Spider-Man.
History[]
Commissioning[]
The Black Widow was commissioned by Norman Osborn to be built by the robotics expert Spencer Smythe. Norman wanted Spider-Man caught for his own purposes. Norman was commanded to do so by the Kingpin, who he owed a great deal of money to. Spider-Man had been interfering with Kingpin's operations and the crime lord wanted the hero out of the way. Norman used the reason that Spider-Man was thought to be a criminal to disguise his true purpose.
Although Spencer did not approve of Norman he accepted on idea that Norman would build his design for a hoverchair for his son, Alistair. Spencer's last lab had an explosion which caused his son to become paralyzed, which Spencer blamed himself for.
Norman brought Spencer and his son to Oscorp Industries to build the Spider Slayer he christened Black Widow. Using the money he got from Norman, Spencer built the Spider Seekers to test out how easy it was to locate Spider-Man. Although the superhero easily defeated the flying robots they served the purpose and proved the tracking technology successful.
The hull of the Black Widow was designed to be that only acid could penetrate it. As such, Spencer needed acid in order to create the holes for the screws. Spencer designed it so he would control it remotely. He designed it to have the robot the appearance of a black widow spider, particularly in the red hourglass symbol on the back of the lower abdomen.
Spencer invited Eddie Brock of The Daily Bugle to witness the Widow's capture of Spider-Man as he wanted the press' presence so the situation would not be taken out of context. Eddie merely wanted the major scoop.
Operations[]
The Black Widow came online shortly after the defeat of the first Spider Seekers. Spencer and his son sent out an entire army of Spider Seekers to search the entire city for Spider-Man.
A Spider Seeker spotted Spider-Man at Jameson's Penthouse where a party was being held by J. Jonah Jameson and Felicia Hardy of the Hardy Foundation. Although unable to determine so, the Spider-Man was actually Flash Thompson in disguise so he could intimidate Peter Parker, the real Spider-Man.
Upon learning where Spider-Man was Spencer sent the Black Widow to the party. The Black Widow flew to the penthouse where its presence surprised Flash into breaking character. Black Widow flew above the penthouse before Peter could turn around to see what surprised Flash.
Black Widow then crashed through the roof to enter the building. It targeted Peter's aunt, May Parker, but he quickly grabbed her and got her out of the room. The Black Widow then moved to threaten Felicia until the real Spider-Man arrived to attacked it.
However, the design of the Spider Slayer proved too much and the hero was unable to affect it. However, the great size of the robot made it cause massive damage to the penthouse. This caused part of the penthouse to fall on Spider-Man trapping him. Spencer eventually spots the unconscious hero again, unaware that this version was again Flash, and picked him up. The Black Widow then flew back to Oscorp with the hero in tow.
At Oscorp Black Widow drops Spider-Man and deactivates. On live television via J3 Eddie makes a spectacle of unmasking Spider-Man, falsely revealing Flash. There to witness the events are Norman, Alistair, and Spencer. Elsewhere, the real Spider-Man witnessed the event and headed to Oscorp to save Flash.
After the false reveal Kingpin's forces stormed into Oscorp, stopped the news feed, and held the others hostage. When Spider-Man arrived and defeated the guards one of the remaining guards demanded to know how to activate the Black Widow. Instead Spencer powered it up and sent it after the webslinger.
Since the Black Widow is stronger Spider-Man used a large structural beam to try to even the odds. Black Widow was knocked back but not defeated. At the same time Norman believed Spider-Man would win and activated a single Spider Seeker to destroy the hero. The webslinger knocked it away causing it do explode and cause a fire.
With the place in flames the others tried to get out and Spencer left the controls. However, he was stopped by Norman who reminded him that unless he defeated Spider-Man there would be no hoverchair. Because he loves his son Spencer went back to the controls and again tried to finish off Spider-Man despite his son's protests.
Black Widow grabbed the beam and knocked Spider-Man away. Out of webfluid Spider-Man climbed the wall to escape the robot. Spider-Man found Flash who was terrified that the Black Widow would again pursue him so the real wallcrawler crawled farther up.
Black Widow flew up and shot oil onto the wall which canceled Spider-Man's wallcrawling abilities causing him to fall. The hero fell right onto the back of the Black Widow. Spencer realized this and tried to shake the hero off. However, thanks to his wallcrawling abilities Spider-Man stayed on.
The Black Widow landed spotted Flash, still in the costume, and Spencer assumed Spider-Man fell off. While distracted the real Spider-Man threw several web cartridges into the Black Widow's jets. The Black Widow got its legs webbed up by Spider-Man who then pulled it backwards.
Black Widow got pushed off the side over a vat of acid. Black Widow tried to activate its jets to fly to safety but the webbing exploded and clogged the jets. Black Widow fell in where it deactivated and melted.
Legacy[]
In the ensuing destruction it appeared that Spencer Smythe was killed. This led Alistair to become depressed, which allowed him to be influenced by the Kingpin. Kingpin used Alistiar's knowledge and expertise to build technology for him.
Using his father's design, Alistair created another Black Widow. Physically it appeared exactly like this one except it had some major differences. The second robot had a grappling hook and could combine with the other Spider Slayers Tarantula and Scorpion, both designed by Alistair, to form a larger more powerful robot. This version also had some independent thinking capabilities since Alistair was able to send it and the Tarantula out to complete a mission while building the Scorpion. This version was destroyed along with Tarantula and Scorpion by a bomb thrown by Spider-Man on the George Washington Bridge.
This robot led to Alistair making a large number of robots for the Kingpin. One of which was a humanoid robot called the Mega Slayer.
The design of the robotic Spider Slayers were eventually used by Dr. Herbert Landon to make Alistair into the Ultimate Spider Slayer.
Technology[]
Black Widow was primarily controlled by Spencer Smythe, making it more of a puppet for the robotics expert rather than a self-thinking robot. The inherent flaw in this is that if Spencer were to become distracted, by something like a fire, he would leave the controls making the Black Widow unmoving and useless. This aspect was redesigned for the Black Widow II.
The Black Widow was much larger than a human being. But it was able to walk around inside a building without constantly damaging the ceiling. The actual height his variable based on its needs at the time. It remained lower to the ground while attacking Spider-Man at Oscorp while appearing taller during the attack on the party. Based on comparisons with humans seen near the robot, it was roughly eight to twelve feet tall.
It must have had a large fuel tank somewhere as the Black Widow could fly from the Chrysler Building to Jameson's penthouse and back without needing to refill its fuel. Given the flight capabilities of the Black Widow II, this robot could possibly fly long distances across the city.
The structure was designed to be resistant to damage as only acid could penetrate its outer shell. This made the robot able to crash through walls and stand up to small arms fire without difficulty. However, sufficient amounts of acid were able to completely destroy the Black Widow.
Background[]
This and the Black Widow II are the only Spider-Slayers to be named. Tarantula and Scorpion are not and the Ultimate Slayer only goes by the name Alistair.
The first, and currently only, version of the character outside the comics.
In the opening music, seen throughout the first season, it appears as though Black Widow is spraying green acid on the wall above Spider-Man, but in "The Spider Slayer" it is revealed to be black oil.
In the Comics[]
Black Widow is the Mark XV (15) model in a series. In the show it was the first of five robots and one cyborg.
Black Widow came after Alistair had become the Ultimate Slayer. It was designed by Alistair not his father.
Black Widow also had razor sharp legs, could spin webbing, and stick to surfaces.
Black Widow was first used to attack Spider-Man and Black Cat. Black Cat defeated it by cutting the web line it was hanging from causing it to fall off a building.
Black Widow was eventually destroyed when it combined with Tarantula and Scorpion, as seen in the series with the follow-up model, and Spider-Man jammed a live wire into it.
External Links[]
- Spider-Slayer at Wikipedia
- Black Widow at Wikipedia
- Black Widow (Earth-616) at Marvel Database