Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Comic Book Robot of the Month: Spider-Slayer Mark II

As you may have guessed by now, I'm a pretty big fan of Steve Ditko, and I generally fall on the Ditko side of the Ditko/Romita debate when it comes to all things Spider-Man. Perhaps that's why it may be a bit confusing when I declare that the Mark II is my favourite of all the Spider-Slayers. I really dig the Ditko version, but for me the Mark II just seems a bit more menacing. If memory serves, this one was actually programmed to kill Spider-Man, rather than simply capture him. I've always loved the spider web motif on the chest plate. Professor Smythe has certainly created faster and more deadly Spider-Slayers over the past 45 years. I'm sure that some have posed a greater threat to Spidey than the Mark II, but to be quite honest - if it doesn't have J. Jonah Jameson's face in the visor, it's just not the real thing. Marla Madison obviously agreed with me when she designed the Jameson-visaged Mark V in Amazing Spider-Man #167.

1 comment:

Paul/The Confessor said...

Hi Scott! The Confessor here again...yeah, this issue is a favourite of mine too and I totally agree that Spider-Slayer mk.2 is better than mk. 1. As an aside, did you know that the mk. 2 Spider-Slayer (as seen on this cover) made a brief appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #603 just a couple of weeks ago? J.J. Jameson had it sent up from storage so that it could be used by his "Anti-Spider Squad" in order to take down Spider-Man.