Alistaire Smythe (Earth-TRN376)

History

Dr. Alistaire Smythe was a creator of cutting-edge robotics. His genius was as massive as his ego.

Alistaire Smythe grew up as an only child in Brooklyn, New York. The son of Spencer Smythe, a single father whose work always took precedence over family, young Alistaire grew up with no motherly influence as he adapted to a childhood of neglect. During his high school years, Alistaire was surprised to find his father making a concerted effort to atone for his faults as a parent. Only months before dying of radiation poisoning (itself a lab accident gone awry), Spencer passed along all of his knowledge of robotics and technology to Alistaire – years of research that Alistaire absorbed with full comprehension in mere weeks.

At Empire State University, Smythe was roommates and close friends with a young Curt Connors. The two geniuses shared a playful rivalry, frequently arguing over the merits of technology versus biology. But Smythe's beliefs were not as popular, and he lost several prominent grants to Connors. Their steadfast friendship started to show cracks.

As he struggled to gain funding for his work in robotics and nanotechnology, Smythe watched Connors join the prestigious Oscorp Industries, and rapidly rise through its ranks. Jealousy festered in his heart.

Smythe was devastated by the accident that turned Connors into the Lizard, but as fate would have it, it was also his greatest boon. After Connors’ inglorious dismissal from the company, Oscorp hired Smythe and funneled all of Connors’ resources to its new robotics division. Smythe became “the new face of Oscorp,” determined to change the world, and erase the stain of Connors’ biological freak show.

OsCorp Breakout

Smythe planned to completely destroy the remaining cross-species experiments, to start a new future for Oscorp. After Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy snuck into OsCorp after hours, they had discovered the remaining cross-species creatures, and a humanoid rhinoceros creature attempted to attack them, but was stopped. When Smythe went to see what had happened, he found Gwen and Peter. Taking a liking to Peter Parker's brilliance, he decided to let the trespassing slide, and gave them a tour of the cross-species labs before the creatures would be destroyed, trusting that they would keep everything they saw a secret.

However, the creatures had other plans. The first creature, described by Smythe as "pure Vermin", sensed Peter's radioactive blood and attempted to break out, but couldn't in the end. Another Scorpion mutation, however, was able to. Scorpion's breakout caused the rest of the cross-species to break free, and also infected many scientists, including Smythe, with the "cross-species virus", a virus which would transform hosts into a mindless creature.

Going Mad

When Peter, as Spider-Man, attempted to contact Gwen, Smythe answered. Spider-Man informed him that Dr. Curt Connors was developing a cure for the virus. Smythe insisted his cure, which would essentially kill the host, would be they key to saving the city, not Connor's, and challenged them to finish their cure first.

When the cure was finished, however, Smythe tested it on himself. The incomplete serum crippled Smythe, and drove him to insanity. Smythe sent a massive, snake-like S-Bot after Spider-Man, which not only destroyed a portion of the city, but drove Peter to near death. Peter woke up the next morning to Dr. Connors revealing he had completed the serum, revealing that a small sample of Peter's DNA was the solution, as Peter's blood was immune to the virus. When he tried to contact Gwen, however, she revealed that Smythe had kidnapped the scientists, but she managed to get away.

Smythe would later send his S-Bots after Peter, revealing that he had discovered he was Spider-Man, and had kidnapped Connors. When Peter came to the rescue and cured Gwen and the scientist, Connors managed to capture him, and injected him with his own cure. This not only stripped Peter of his powers, but began to slowly kill him. Peter barely escaped OsCorp.

The End of Days

New York, thanks to the cross-species outbreak, was now a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and Smythe was still sure he could cure the city with his nanobots. Connors, now as The Lizard, attempted to defeat him, but proved to be no challenge. However, a still powerless Peter Parker intervened. When Smythe sent a small S-Bot to attack him, the S-Bot's electrical attack neutralized the nanobots in Peter's system, and very shortly, his powers returned. With the aid of The Lizard, Peter defeated Smythe. Connors, however, began to lose control of his reptilian side, prompting Peter to take Smythe to a safe place. It was here that Smythe looked around and realized what he had done.

After Spider-Man had cured the city, Smythe himself was still left uncured, hiding in a lab in OsCorp. Still fighting the transformation of the virus, he stumbled into a room with an S-Bot, which detected him as a Cross-Species, and killed him.^[1]

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