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Dr. Otto Octavius isn’t the only genius employed at Oscorp in The Amazing Spider-Man—Alistair Smythe, inventor of the Spider Slayers, is part of their workforce, too, we discovered at E3 this afternoon.
Speculation about Smythe being included in The Amazing Spider-Man began when it was discovered that one of the collectible digital comics in the game is The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #19, which marked Smythe’s first appearance in the comics back in 1985. As it turns out, not only is Smythe part of The Amazing Spider-Man’s plot, he also has a very interesting role.
Before we get into that, here’s a quick recap of some of the other weird stuff that came out of Oscorp. As you already know, Dr. Curt Connors, who was also once employed at Oscorp like Octavius, turned himself into the lizard. Keen continue Connors’ research, Octavius created the Scorpion by injecting human DNA into a venomous scorpion, alongside with bits of black goo (likely the Venom symbiote) that Oscorp retrieved from one of their fallen satellites.
Oscorp also created the Rhino, who’s another of the animalistic bad guys in the game. It sounds like Octavius created him, too, but in this case he had help from—wait for it—a bio-chemist named Dr. Michael Morbius. Octavius blackmails Morbius into helping him, threatening him with the prospect of ending his career. Considering that the Vermin and the Iguana are also in The Amazing Spider-Man, this game is all about cross-species hybrid characters.
So, where does Smythe come in? We were told that Smythe is an up and coming scientist at Oscorp who builds the robots (see above trailer) that hunt cross-species hybrids like Spider-Man and the Rhino. Smythe designs the drones—and later Spider Slayers—as a means of preventing the chaos that hybrids like the Lizard caused.
It sure sounds like Oscorp is at the centre of a lot of trouble…
