Donald Menken (Earth-120703)

Donald Menken
Name	Donald Menken
Affiliation and Relationships
Group Affiliation	Oscorp Industries
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-120703
Place of Birth	United States
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Citizenship	American
Base of Operations	Oscorp Tower, Manhattan, New York City
Creators and Appearances
Creators	James Vanderbilt, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner
First	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (April 16, 2014)
First	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (April 16, 2014)

Wall Street's nervous enough with that kid Harry taking over, we've got to get him out.

—Donald Menken[source]

History

Donald Menken was a high-ranking board member and spokesman of Oscorp. Shortly after the attack on Oscorp Tower by The Lizard, Menken held a meeting where he highlighted upcoming innovations from Oscorp including construction on a prototype hydroelectric power plant, a military flight harness, and advancements in the robotics division. A couple of months later, in order to quiet growing Wall Street rumors of plans gone awry, Menken allowed Daily Bugle reporter, Joy Mercado inside of Oscorp Tower to report on the technological innovations Oscorp had been developing. However, they legally requested she not go into detail on what she saw, just that innovations were happening. She did question Menken on whether or not Oscorp had been employing the services of world-renowned nuclear researcher, Otto Octavius, to which Menken could not confirm nor deny. While Harry Osborn was "studying abroad" in Europe, rumors of his father's declining health began circulating, causing the press to ask questions to Menken, about if Harry was fit to replace his father should he pass away. Menken lied to the press, claiming that he thought Harry would be fit to run the company and that he was a bright young man. When Oscorp became the center of an investigation from the NYPD and District Attorney's office following the attack by the Lizard, it was reported that Oscorp began to force several of their top scientist to resign, including their Director of Robotics Spencer Smythe. Menken gave no comment on the matter, but Oscorp publicly congratulated Spencer's son, Alistair Smythe, on being promoted to his father's former role.

Some time later, Menken welcomed Harry Osborn back to New York. Upon the death of Harry's father, Norman Osborn, and Harry's succession to CEO of Oscorp, Menken and the other board members were humiliated by the younger Osborn in his first board meeting. Menken later spied on Harry's reunion with childhood friend Peter Parker and discussed removing Harry from Oscorp and covering up the accident involving Max Dillon with Oscorp's head of security.

He was involved in the experimentation of Max by Dr. Ashley Kafka at the Ravencroft Institute, and used this as a means to frame Harry and have him removed from Oscorp. Harry later returned with Max, having freed him, and was coerced into taking Harry to the off-the-books "Special Projects Division", where after being forced to inject Harry with Richard Parker's spider venom he witnessed the start of Osborn's resulting transformation before fleeing the building.

Notes

• Colm Feore portrayed Donald Menken in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
  • Feore previously portrayed Laufey in Thor.

Trivia

• A deleted scene from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 depicts Harry Osborn killing Donald Menken shortly after he is injected with the spider venom. As this scene did not make the final cut of the film, it can be assumed that Donald Menken is still alive in the continuity of the Amazing Spider-Man films.

See Also

• 1 appearance(s) of Donald Menken (Earth-120703)
• 1 minor appearance(s) of Donald Menken (Earth-120703)
• 1 image(s) of Donald Menken (Earth-120703)
• 1 quotation(s) by or about Donald Menken (Earth-120703)