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.
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[edit] 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.
The 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.
Recently, as portrayed in the story Flowers for Rhino, 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 and, with no intellectual competition, he began to find 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.
[edit] Powers & Abilities
As a result of being bombarded by gamma radiation, the Rhino possesses tremendous physical strength being able to lift 80 tons. He also has heightened levels of speed, stamina, and a high degree of resistance to physical injury. The Rhino's costume renders him highly resistant to conventional injury, withstanding high caliber bullets, temperature extremes, and great impacts without injury.
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.
[edit] 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. He was voiced by Bob Glouberman.
[edit] Other media
The Rhino appears several times on Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where he is voiced by Don Stark. He is an enforcer for the Kingpin, and occasional member of the Sinister Six.
[edit] Video game appearances
- The Rhino's first appearance in a video game was as a boss in The Amazing Spider-Man for the Game Boy.
- The Rhino makes an appearance in Spider-Man X-Men: Arcade's Revenge for the Super Nintendo. He and Carnage team up to defeat Spider-Man at the end of the second level. The Rhino runs across the bottom of the arena, and must be defeated by Spider-Man swinging into him with his webline.
- In the Playstation, Sega Dreamcast, and Nintendo 64 Spider-Man game, the Rhino surprises both Spider-Man and The Black Cat, and manages to incapacitate her. In battle, Spider-Man uses his brain and manages to trick the stupid villain into running into the machinery around them, which weaken and electrocute him. Once the Rhino is defeated, he is seen being taken to jail by Dr. Otto Octavius (who pretends he's reformed).
- 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 Spider-Man 2, 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 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 charges 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 (which he does). Later on in the game, Spider-Man and Rhino meet again in a small electric room in OsCorp. 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 permanently can't move. Like in the T-rated version, Rhino is also voiced by DiMaggio.
- Rhino is a boss Spider-Man fights in the 2005 Ultimate Spider-Man game. Upon his defeat, it is revealed that he is, in fact, a tiny man who had stolen an experimental power suit.
- Rhino will also appear as a boss in the upcoming video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
- Rhino makes a small appearance on The Incredible Hulk rollercoaster at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Florida. Before boarding the coaster itself there is a video playing on a loop throughout the line. At one point in the video The Hulk and Rhino charge at each other with the Hulk being victorious.
