Though we’ve gotten a glimpse of some photos and videos since Spider-Man: Brand New Day began filming in the UK last month, we still have a ton of questions about Spidey’s fourth solo venture in the MCU. One of the biggest points of speculation revolves around who Spider-Man will be facing off against in Brand New Day — with villains such as Venom, Boomerang, or Scorpion being floated as Spidey’s new baddie-to-beat. However, recent photos used for a character moodboard from Monica Avitto, the costume prop modeler for the upcoming MCU film, may have given us a major hint as to who Peter Parker’s nemesis will be this time around, and it draws on one of the oldest pieces of Spider-Man lore.
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The X account @CosmicMarvel posted photos of Avitto’s moodboard, reportedly for Brand New Day’s villain, which featured several reference photos of ancient Japanese armor and warriors. Then eagle-eyed fan @DrawsTom made a shrewd connection that many of the pieces resembled the armor belonging to Spider-Man villain Alistair Smythe, or Spider-Slayer, one of the hero’s relatively lesser-known foes in the comics. While there are several incarnations of the Spider-Slayer robots that plague Peter throughout Spider-Man’s publication history, Alistair Smythe is one of the most memorable of the bunch.
Who Is Spider-Slayer in the Comics?
Spider-Slayers first debuted in June of 1965 in The Amazing Spider-Man #25. They were a type of robot specifically engineered to track down, capture, and kill Spider-Man, designed by scientist Spencer Smythe. An avid reader of The Daily Bugle and its editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson’s editorials declaring the web-slinger a menace, Smythe asked Jameson to finance the creation of the robots in order to end the supposed threat Spidey posed to New York City. However, the Spider-Slayer robots bring about Smythe’s demise rather than Spider-Man’s, since the radioactive materials he uses to build the robots fatally poison him.
Spencer’s son, Alistair, made his comics debut 20 years later in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #19 (November 1985). He inherited his father’s genius-level intelligence as well as hatred for the hero, and also devoted his life to killing Spider-Man and avenging his father’s death. However, Alistair’s efforts to defeat Spidey left him paralyzed from the waist down and institutionalized. Undaunted, Alistair escaped and built himself a carapace that not only gave him the ability to walk again, but also endowed him with enhanced strength, blade-like weapons, and his own web-shooters, along with his Spider-Slayer robots.
Alistair and Spider-Man have gone on to clash several times over the past 30 years of comics history, which gives the Brand New Day team plenty of material to pull from if he indeed is going to be featured in the film. Furthermore, given Smythe’s connection with J. Jonah Jameson, Spider-Slayer’s presence in the upcoming film could also mean an expanded and more villainous role for The Daily Bugle magnate. As we briefly glimpsed in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home, J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) is an online pundit rather than a newspaper magnate, but a thorn in Peter’s side nonetheless.
Do you think the leaked photos point to Spider-Slayer in Brand New Day? Let us know in the comments below!
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