Silvermane (comics)

Silvermane is a fictional Marvel Comics character. He is a supervillain and a prominent figure in the Maggia, a fictional organized crime syndicate that is analogous to the Mafia. He first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 1 #73. He was created by Stan Lee and John Buscema.

In 1975, writer Gerry Conway and artists Don Heck and Vince Colletta created Silvermane's son Joseph Manfredi.

Fictional character biography

Silvio Manfredi, nicknamed "Silvermane" for his near-white hair, is a professional criminal originally from Corleone, Sicily who has been a long-time nemesis in the Spider-Man comics. He started his criminal career as a racketeer in an organized crime group called the Maggia, eventually becoming a criminal organizer and mastermind.

In his first appearance, he forced Curt Connors into making a mystical youth potion from an ancient clay tablet. He first crossed paths with the Lizard and Spider-Man during this scheme. Drinking the serum made Silvermane younger, but its effect unintentionally led to him becoming a child and then reached the point before the age of birth and disappearing completely.^[1] Silvermane eventually reappeared, revealing that he had mystically aged to his forties. He climbed through the ranks and became head of the crime family; he eventually formed an alliance with HYDRA, a worldwide organization determined to take over the world and became their Supreme Hydra. He was defeated by Daredevil, Nick Fury, and S.H.I.E.L.D.^[2] Silvermane reappeared in New York in an attempt to unite all of New York's gangs under his leadership and take over the criminal underworld, but his plans were complicated by the return of the Green Goblin (Bart Hamilton). The Goblin opposed him, and during a confrontation between the Goblin, Silvermane, and Spider-Man, Silvermane fell from a great height but survived.^[3]

Silvermane has hired many criminals, such as Hammerhead, and he has also been known to be a rival of the Kingpin. Silvermane once attempted to assassinate an amnesiac Kingpin.^[4] His former partner, Dominic Tyrone, assumed the identity of the Rapier and sought vengeance against Silvermane's betrayal by attempting to slay him.^[5] A flashback one-shot focused heavily on Silvermane's lifetime of corruption. The framework was the reporter Ben Urich investigating the Mafia. He found Silvermane was a legendary Mafia figure for decades; mothers would even warn their children to behave or 'One-Eye' would get them.^[6]

In his old age, his injuries resulted in undoing the effects of the rejuvenation serum. Though bedridden, he continued to run his criminal empire until Dagger nearly killed him. Silvermane attempted to prolong his life by transforming himself into a cyborg.^[7] The Kingpin gained control of his cyborg body until Dagger restored his life energy to him.^[8] His cyborg body was badly damaged by the first Jack O'Lantern during a gang war between Hammerhead and the Kingpin.^[9] Silvermane used a remote-controlled android doppelganger to battle Spider-Man. This was part of an attempt to boost the power of his remaining organic parts by harvesting parts from the superhuman body of his nemesis, Spider-Man. He attempted to drain Spider-Man's radioactive blood to mobilize a new stronger cyborg body.^[10] Silvermane confronted Deathlok and the Punisher while setting up a major drug operation outside a grammar school.^[11] He is still an active member of the Maggia.

Silvermane attempted to take part in a meetup of various criminal warlords, during a time when Wilson Fisk had fallen from power. The meeting's goal was to divide up Fisk's resources, but it did not go well. Silvermane was caught in the crossfire between Secret Empire forces and the Punisher. This was purely by coincidence as he was simply staying at the same motel as the Punisher was. Silvermane used the resources of his semi and the cyborg bodies stored within to battle his way through the attackers and leave.^[12]

It was revealed some time later that Silvermane was killed during a shootout against Owl's gang at a New York City scrap yard. He was picked up by a magnet and dropped into a garbage compactor, crushing him to death and leaving the already troubled Maggia crime syndicate without a leader. Months later, he apparently returns along with various other deceased members during the Maggia's losing battle with the forces of Mister Negative. However this is later revealed to be a ruse by Maggia member Carmine. This Silvermane is actually a robot controlled by a hired Mysterio, in order to secretly give Carmine more influence in the syndicate's decision-making. The tables are turned on Carmine when Mysterio uses the robot to murder him, seemingly as a plot to take over the Maggia syndicate.^[13]

Powers and abilities

Silvermane was once a normal human being with no superhuman abilities. He was a superb hand-to-hand combatant, an excellent marksman, and a brilliant strategist and organizer. He is typically armed with various handguns and a Thompson .50 caliber machine gun.

Later, Silverman's brain, vital organs, and head were transplanted into a cyborg body, increasing his physical abilities and giving him superhuman strength and senses that have been enhanced to superhuman levels. However, Silvermane's organic body parts are those of a frail 80 year old man, and hence quite vulnerable.

Other versions

Ultimate Silvermane

Silvermane had a brief cameo in Ultimate Spider-Man. With Wilson Fisk lying low due to legal problems, Silvermane decided to work with Hammerhead to wrestle him out of the seat of power. He told Hammerhead that all he needed was a little 'up here' (referring to his intelligence).

Hammerhead, however, wanted it all to himself. He smashes Silvermane's head, saying "I think I got enough up here already."

He was also mentioned as a leader of a mob which included Hammerhead in Ultimate X-Men. It is stated that he owes a debt to Nathanial Essex (Mister Sinister).^[14]

Also, in the Ultimate Universe, his real name is shown in the Daily Bugle as Allan Silvermane, though later in the same comic Wilson Fisk refers to him as Silvio Manfredi. Due to his status as a high-ranking crime lord, it is likely one or both of these names are aliases.

In other media

Television

• Silvermane appeared in the 1981 Spider-Man cartoon voiced by Paul Winchell. In "Wrath of the Sub-Mariner," he and Man Mountain Marko arrive in New York to call a truce with the Kingpin when his scientist Dr. Everett has developed a powerful dissolvent fluid capable of eating through anything. Prior to this, Spider-Man intercepted them but couldn't be brought in since most of his crimes are in the West Coast. He is webbed by Spider-Man in the end.

• Silvermane appears in Spider-Man: The Animated Series voiced by Jeff Corey as an old man, Townsend Coleman as an adult, Matthew McCurley as a child, and Cannon Young as a baby. Although he is an enemy of Spider-Man, he doesn't see eye-to-eye with Spidey's other foes. He is a hated rival of crime lord Wilson Fisk (Kingpin). Silvermane is also the father of Alisha, aka Alisha Silvers, a name she went by in order to spy on the research of Dr. Curt Connors. He first appeared in the Insidious Six arc, where in he has Hammerhead hired to capture Spider-Man. In the end of Battle of the Insidious Six, he was rescued by Spider-Man from the Kingpin who tried to kidnap him. Silvermane never enjoyed a normal childhood, as he grew into old age, he became obsessed with finding the secrets to youth and immortality. He heard legends of an ancient tablet which allegedly was inscribed with the formula to rejuvenate and individuals youth, The Tablet of Time. When the tablet was unearthed and brought to the United States he arranged for Tombstone to steal the tablet and kidnap Dr. Curt Connors (Lizard), who was studying its powers. Even with the intervention of Spider-Man, Silvermane was able to kidnap Connors' wife and force Connors to activate the tablet. In the comic book the formula is for a potion. Conner's prepares the potion for him, while the lives of Connors family was used as a motivator for him to successfully decipher the tablet. Spider-Man saved Connors but Silvermane took the potion anyway despite Connors warnings of it being unstable. In the animated series version of the story, Silvermane was transformed into a baby instead of being mildly rejuvenated. There, the tablet focuses the suns rays into lasers which produce a greenish glow. Silvermane is initially turned into a young man, "fights" the Lizard then transforms further into a baby. The Lizard is bombarded by the rays and mutates back to human form. Dr. Connors concludes that they might by able to use the tablet to stabilize Spider-Man's mutations, but the tablet is stolen by Hammerhead, working for Wilson Fisk (Kingpin). Fisk, dismayed that his wife left him, orders Hammerhead to get rid of the tablet. Hammerhead sells the tablet to an elderly man, presumably The Vulture, who uses the Tablet to temporarily restore youth to himself. He is unable to remain youthful for an expended period of time, transforming back and forth uncontrolably. In a later episode, "Partners", a baby Silvermane was seen to have retained his adult intellect. He and Alisha got the cyborg Alistair Smythe to kidnap The Black Cat (Felicia Hardy), blackmailing Spider-Man to apphrehend The Scorpion. Baby Silvermane believes that he can use The Scorpion, who had been created through the use of Neogenics, to combine his genetic structure with that of a scorpion to swap bodies with Spider-Man. The Scorpion meanwhile in an attempt to go straight, was living with the Vulture. The Vulture, one of the originators of the Neogenic technology believes he himself can use Silvermane's lab to make himself permanently youthful. During the neogenic transfer the Vulture intervenes, allowing Spider-Man, The Black Cat & The Scorpion to escape. Silvermane and the Vulture exchange energys in the neogenic transfer allowing the Vulture to become semi-permanently young again and reverting Silvermane into an old man.

• Silvermane appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Gangland" voiced by Miguel Ferrer. He appears as a rival mob boss to Tombstone and Doctor Octopus. In "Accomplices," it was revealed that Silvermane was arrested and jailed twelve years beforehand after Frederick Foswell exposed his criminal activities. His empire fell, and his territory was taken over by Tombstone/Big Man. Silver Sable, his daughter in this continuity, has been running the remnants of his empire in his absence. When Hammerhead instigates a fight a summit held between Silvermane, Tombstone, and Doctor Octopus by drugging Silver Sable, Silvermane uses a hidden hydraulic exoskeleton, which provides him with superstrength and energy blasts, to fight with. When Spider-Man interferes, Silvermane attempts to crush him, only for the webslinger to rip out his suit's hydraulic cables, leaving him helpless. He was taken into custody. In "Opening Night," Silvermane was seen as an inmate of the Vault who was among the prisoners released by the Green Goblin. He rounds up the Enforcers, a robot duplicate of Mysterio, and other prisoners to take down Spider-Man. He and the other inmates are knocked out by gas released by Walter Hardy.

Video games

• Silvermane 2099 is an exclusive villain in the Nintendo DS version of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions,^[15] voiced by Steven Blum. Silvermane fights Spider-Man 2099. It is explained by Madame Web that the reason he's still alive in the year 2099 is because of his status as a cyborg and plans on using his fragment of the Tablet of Order and Chaos to become immortal. Miguel takes down Silvermane by avoiding his missile and bomb attacks thus wearing him down.

References

External links

• Silvermane at Marvel.com
• Silvermane's entry at Spiderfan.org