Rhino (comics)
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The Rhino (Aleksei Sytsevich) is a Marvel Comics supervillain, a frequent adversary of Spider-Man and occasionally the Hulk. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Romita, Sr., he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #41 (October 1966).
As part of a Soviet super soldier program, a super-strong polymer was bonded to the Rhino’s skin. A dim-witted criminal, the Rhino mostly robs banks and works for more ambitious villains.
Character biography
The Rhino was initially Aleksei Sytsevich, a poor immigrant from Russia who was desperate to pay for the rest of his family to come to America. With little education and no real skills, the only paying jobs he could get were using his impressive strength and musculature as an enforcer for various criminal organizations. One day he was contacted by some Eastern Bloc agents, who offered him a vast sum of money for participating in an incredible experiment. Sytsevich agreed, and was subjected to intensive chemical and radioactive treatment, which bonded a super-strong polymer to his skin and greatly augmented his strength and speed. He was given the code name "Rhino," and was sent to work as a super-assassin.Rhino's first job was to capture Colonel John Jameson for his military secrets. Spider-Man defeated the Rhino, leading to the supervillain's arrest. After escaping from prison, Rhino has taken on many other jobs over the years, and although he still hates Spider-Man and would love to crush him, he is professional enough not to let personal feelings distract him from a paying job.
Physically, he is one of Spider-Man's strongest foes with his favoured attack being ramming into a target with a sustained charge. He is also not very bright, and thus not too difficult for the wall-crawler to beat.
Recently in his career he decided to seek help to improve his mind the same way his body had been improved; through science. He sought out a scientist who had an experimental treatment to increase his intelligence. To his surprise the treatment actually worked and he was able to defeat Spider-Man, who had always outsmarted him in the past. Next, he took over the majority of the criminal operations in the city and started a law suit against Spider-Man that prevented the hero coming within 500 yards of him. However, his intelligence continued to increase exponentially, to the extent that he found life boring; he even rewrote "Hamlet" because he found the writing style sloppy, and pointed out to Spider-Man that he was able to deduce Spider-Man was Peter Parker through a simple equation that could give him the identities of any costumed hero. When he began to approach omniscience he worried that such high intelligence would drive him insane so, although he briefly contemplated suicide, he elected to have the process reversed, actually making himself "a little MORE stupid than [he] was before... Just to be on the safe side." Whether this means that he no longer remembers Spider-Man's identity has yet to be seen.
It must not be forgotten that Rhino has often tangled with The Incredible Hulk as well. He was significantly outmatched by the Hulk in terms of brute-force, but the level of superhuman strength he does have, coupled with his invulnerability, has always made him a good adversary. In the 1970's, Power Records came out with book-and-record sets featuring comic book heroes and famous monsters. One was called "The Incredible Hulk at Bay," which featured The Rhino teaming up with The Abomination to fight The Hulk. An enormous explosion did the villains in, but somehow they survived and went on to wreak havok in other comics. In 1981, Marvel Comics teamed up with the 7-Eleven store chain to create a 1-time collector's edition comic. It featured the superheroes: Spider-Man, Captain America, Spider-Woman and The Incredible Hulk. They took on a team of four villains: The Enchantress, The Wizard, The Rhino and The Trapster. The Rhino was obviously placed in the team to counter the superhuman strength and brutishness of the Hulk. In issue #304 of The Incredible Hulk, called "Ghosts of the Past," The Rhino was one of The Hulk's recurring foes that appeared as his hallucinations. There were also many Marvel Superhero coloring books that pitted The Rhino against The Hulk.
Powers & Abilities
Physically, the Rhino is extremely powerful and difficult to injure or restrain. According the Marvel Comics Directory he is 6' 5" and weighs just over 700 pounds. He possess vast superhuman strength; the upward limit of what he can lift is somewhere between 85 to 90 tons. He also has superhuman speed and can run at up to 100 miles per hour for short bursts, perhaps up to several hunderd yards at most. That speed coupled with his enormous strength enables his charges to demolish just about any architectural structure that may be in his path.His resistance to injury is probably his greatest asset. He is highly impervious to any sort of attack by conventional weapons. His skin can withstand temperatures from -90 degrees to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. It would take more than 1 ton of TNT to even come close to puncturing his armor.
Originally the source of the Rhino's powers was his costume which resembles a rhinoceros, which was once permanently attached. Eventually, the abilities of the costume merged with the body of the wearer. He has been physically improved over the years by several other villains. This includes treatment with gamma rays.
Ultimate Rhino
Under unknown and classified circumstances, the man who became the Rhino stole an experimental suit of armor from the U.S. military. Using the suit’s incredible strength, the Rhino robbed a Manhattan bank, charging the vault head-first and destroying it. He then rampaged through a busy street to make his escape, destroying anything in his path, including police cars, with ease. While Spider-Man raced to the scene, Iron Man arrived, stopped the Rhino’s assault and captured him.
Sometime later, the Rhino rampaged through the Brooklyn Naval Yard, battling the police and Spider-Man, who seemed to be more of an annoyance than a threat, constantly evading the Rhino’s clumsy blows. After knocking Spider-Man clear into an office building, the Rhino was confronted by the U.S. army, who were hoping to retrieve his experimental armor. Spider-Man used the distraction to sneak up on the Rhino and rip his armor open, sabotaging its internal circuitry and knocking him out.
The Rhino was taken into military custody.
He is also seen in the Ultimate Spider-Man video game, having apparently broken free. After Spidey defeated him he was revealed to be a very small man. He speaks only in Latin, seems to be very smart, and works for Bolivar Trask, a greedy business man who funded the Venom project. In the characters page, R.H.I.N.O.'s name is shown to be Alex O'Hirn, and the web site for the game reveals that he originally designed the armour to be controlled by a computer before concluding that his own mind was more powerful than any computer and using the suit for himself.
Other media
The Rhino appears several times on , where he is voiced by Don Stark. He is an enforcer for the Kingpin, and occasional member of the Insidious Six.Rhino also appears briefly in the T-rated version of Spider-Man 2 video game where the player briefly engages in a "Boss Battle" with him. In this battle Rhino's lack of intelligence is abundantly clear, as he persistently leaves himself vulnerable to attack by rapidly spinning. He was voiced by John DiMaggio.
In the E-rated version of the game, the Rhino is the first villain Spider-Man battles in the game. In the first battle, the Rhino escapes his maximum security prison after Spider-Man takes out numerous and many crooks. After the Rhino creates shockwaves to wound Spider-Man, Spider-Man pummels him a lot. The Rhino then runs off to do more damage but is caught in a laser cage by the police. Spider-Man gets into the cage to conclude the battle against Rhino and has the Rhino accidentally strike the lasers all around them. By the time the Rhino is defeated, he caharges in to take down Spider-Man but the superhero quickly jumps over, having the Rhino break through the lasers and strike a gas station, creating a huge explosion which knocks him out cold. Doc Ock takes him away because he has use for him while Spider-Man is forced to take out the fire Rhino created (in which he does).
Later on in the game, Spider-Man and Rhino meet again in a small electric room. Spider-Man has Rhino strike six electric supporting beams. Just when Rhino is defeated, Spider-Man goes into a room filled with four tubes filled with liquid nitrogen. Rhino appears yet again and Spider-Man destroys the tubes, escapes the room in time and has Rhino freeze in the room until he permanetly can't move. Like in the T-rated version, Rhino is also voiced by DiMaggio.
Rhino is a boss Spider-Man fights in the Ultimate Spider-Man game, revealing inside the suit is a small weak man who appears to be more intelligent than threatening.
In Spider-Man 3, it is shown in the credits that Ryan Michaels will be playing Alex O'Hirn. Whether he will become the villain or if he is just a cameo is unknown.
External links
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