Scorpion (Robot)

The Scorpion was the fourth in a series of robots designed to hunt down and destroy the superhero known as Spider-Man. It was also the first to not be based off a spider.

Precursor
The first Spider Slayer, called the Black Widow, was commissioned by Norman Osborn to be built by the robotics expert Spencer Smythe. Norman was forced to destroy Spider-Man at the command of the Kingpin, who he owed a great deal of money to. The wallcrawler had been interfering with Kingpin's operations and the crimelord wanted him out of the way. Norman stated his reasoning was that Spider-Man was a criminal.

Spencer only agreed to for his son, Alistair Smythe. Alistair had been paralyzed in an explosion at their old lab and Spencer felt guilty. Norman stated that if Spider-Man was destroyed he would build a hoverchair for Alistair.

Spencer and Alistair were brought to Oscorp Industries where they built the Black Widow and an army of Spider Seekers. The Spider Seekers were to search for the superhero while the Black Widow would capture and defeat him. Spencer used the Spider Seekers to see if Spider-Man could be tracked. Although easily defeated, they served their purpose.

Spencer invited Eddie Brock of The Daily Bugle to witness the capture of Spider-Man so that the press' presence would keep the situation from being taken out of context. Eddie, meanwhile, merely wanted a major story.

The Spider Seekers spotted Spider-Man at a penthouse where a party was being held by J. Jonah Jameson and Felicia Hardy of the Hardy Foundation. The Black Widow attacked the party and captured Spider-Man.

Spider-Man was brought to Oscorp where he was unmasked on live television, revealing himself to be Empire State University football player Flash Thompson. Flash had donned a Spider-Man costume to intimidate Peter Parker, the real Spider-Man.

The real Spider-Man arrived and Spencer powered up the robot to fight the wallcrawler. Fearing the robot would not be enough, Norman activated a Spider Seeker that exploded and started a fire.

Spencer left the controls and tried to take his son out of the building. However, Norman stopped him and said that he would not build the hoverchair unless Spider-Man was defeated. Despite his son's protests Spencer went back to the controls to attack the wallcrawler.

While Black Widow was looking at Flash Spider-Man put some of his web cartridges into the Black Widow's jets clogging them. He then pushed it into a vat of acid where it was destroyed.

In the ensuing fire an explosion apparently killed Spencer, forcing Alistair into a state of depression.

Commissioning
Kingpin took advantage of the young scientist's state and got him to build a series of Spider Slayers for him. Kingpin brought Alistair to his hideout inside the Chrysler Building, where he seemed to have unlimited resources. Kingpin made a deal with Alistair, once Alistair defeated Spider-Man the lab was his but until then he worked for the crimelord. Since Alistair had no where else to go and desired revenge he accepted.

Alistair essentially used his father's same design for a second model of the Black Widow. At the same time Alistair began designing The Tarantula and Scorpion. He built into the design of all three the ability to combine into a single large robot. Scorpion was the bottom piece that both Tarantula connected to its top.

Alistair designed the Spider Slayer after a scorpion, a natural predator of spiders, much like the supervillain Scorpion. This, like the Black Widow's inspiration, fits as it's purpose is to destroy Spider-Man.

One change Alistair made from the first Spider Slayer was to make this version self-sufficient so that he did not have to constantly control it. This allow him to perform other tasks such as building the Scorpion.

Alistair programmed the three Spider Slayers to go after Spider-Man, Jameson, Thompson, Osborn, and Brock. Alistair felt each one was responsible for his father's death.

Legacy
The Scorpion's destruction would be the first major blunder for Alistair. Over time more and more failures would cause Kingpin to lose faith in his protege and eventually turn him into a cyborg.

This robot led to Alistair making a large number of robots for the Kingpin. One of which was a humanoid robot called the Mega Slayer.

The design of the robotic Spider Slayers were eventually used by Dr. Herbert Landon to make Alistair into the Ultimate Spider Slayer.

Background
Scorpion and Tarantula are not named. Only Black Widow is. This article's title is based on the unmistakable likeness between this and the comic book's version.

In the Comics
The Scorpion is the Mark XVII (17) model in a series. In the show it was the third of five robots and one cyborg.

Scorpion came after Alistair had become the Ultimate Slayer.

Scorpion was defeated by Spider-Man putting a live wire into the robot's circuitry causing internal fires.