One of the most universally desired
powers is that of what I think of as the Strongman. I picked this term up for
the Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes. Basically, it’s anyone that has
the combination of superhuman strength and endurance that turns a human being
into a human shaped tank. Think guys like the Hulk, Luke Cage, or the Thing. Punching
through concrete, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, always being able
to open pickle jars, it’s a very attractive powerset. I don’t think that the
powers per say are what Aleksei has a problem with, it’s the whole freakish
hugeness and constantly being beaten up by a weirdo in red-and-blue spandex that’s
a pain. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to it.
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| Somebody didn't care for their Uber Driver. |
Aleksei Sytsevich began his career
as a common thug for the Russian Mafia. He was big, dumb, and pretty much all
of the other stereotypes you think of when you hear the term Muscle. Life took
a slight turn for him when he was offered an obscene amount of money and the potential
for a lot of personal power to undergo a little science experiment by some
shady science types. Over the course of several months, he was injected with a
series of chemicals and exposed to radiation treatments. The results were a massive
increase in strength, due to the addition of a few hundred pounds of muscle. He
was also outfitted with a suit of experimental armor that was permanently bonded
to his skin, making him virtually impervious to harm, and giving him a new weapon
in the form of his namesake’s sizeable horn. The scientists believed that the Rhinoceros
motif was fitting as they’re one of evolutions most perfectly protected
creatures.
The first mission for the newly
dubbed Rhino was to kidnap astronaut John Jameson III, son of publisher J. Jonah
Jameson Jr. So many Js. Sorry, back on task. He was to kidnap Jameson to bring
back to his bosses so they might sell him to the highest bidder. Jameson had
been exposed to a hitherto unknown alien spore, making him worth a stupid amount
of money to the right people. Aleksei was given extensive, mind-bending
training to teach him accent free American English and fake papers dubbing him
Alex O’Hirn in order to sneak into the US undetected. Well, as undetected as a
seven-foot-tall armored titan can ever be. Rather than go along with their full
plan, Aleksei decided to turn on his benefactors, destroying their lab and setting
out to capture Jameson on his own. As the Rhino charged his way through New
York, he got the attention of a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, who quickly
deduced how he could beat someone as apparently impervious as Rhino. The key
factors to Rhino’s defeat were that 1. He couldn’t really change direction or easily
stop once he began to charge, and 2. He’s about as dumb as a rock. Spider-Man’s
agility allowed him to easily dodge Rhino until the big brute passed out from
exhaustion. He was kept sedated at a prison hospital for several weeks until he
eventually woke up and broke free. He tried to nab Jameson again, but was once
again thwarted by Spider-Man, whom with the help of Dr. Connors, had developed
an acid that ate through Rhino’s thick armored hide. He was sent to prison once
again.
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| Yes, there was a time where we were expected to take this man seriously. |
Aleksei was eventually freed from prison
and was immediately approached by his former benefactors. Guys, this is why you
keep tails on former super criminals, all I’m saying. They apparently didn’t
harbor any ill feelings toward Aleksei after their last encounter, and actually
offered to power him up further. Aleksei, having not learned his lesson,
agreed. He was subjected to gamma treatments, based on the work of Dr. Bruce
Banner, and a new Rhino suit that was even tougher than before. The next job?
Kidnap Banner and bring him to his bosses so they could extract the secrets of
Gamma-ray treatments from him. His benefactors were able to track down Banner
and sicced their new bruiser after him. Despite his recent powerup, Rhino was
laughably outclassed by the Hulk’s nigh unlimited strength, was knocked out and
rearrested. He was then freed and used by one of the Hulk’s enemies, the Leader,
as his muscle for a short while. He kept getting his butt kicked by the Hulk, though,
so he was eventually let go.
Over the years Aleksei Sytsevich
has become one of the “Go To” villainous Strongmen in the Marvel Universe. Provided
that you pay him well enough, he’s basically a walking tank that will hit what
you want when you want him to. Guys like Kingpin or Osborn love to use him then
they need something pancaked. In more recent years he attempted to turn over a
new leaf. After one of his stays in prison, he met a waitress named Oksana that
he somewhat hit it off with. When given the choice between becoming a new and improved
Rhino or see where things went with Oksana, he choice Oksana. They quickly
married and got an apartment in Yonkers. Their happiness was short lived, however,
as the mad scientist that offered to upgrade him had found a new idiot, I mean
volunteer to be the new Rhino. New Rhino thought the only way he could be taken
seriously was by killing Aleksei. He was initially stopped by Spider-Man, but
in true villain fashion, escaped prison and ended up killing Oksana. This drove
Aleksei into a blind rage, he redonned his suit (he’d upgraded to a removable
model some years ago) and brutally murdered New Rhino as payback.
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| Much better, this one actually looks like he's in an armored suit. |
Most recently, he’d been hired as
the muscle for New U Technologies, a company that promised Miracle cures for
the terminally ill but in actuality swapped out the sick with healthy Clones.
This was all a front by a returned Jackal, one of Spider-Man’s geneticist
enemies. He’d bought Aleksei’s, and several other villains, loyalties by
cloning their deceased loved ones as payment. So Aleksei got to be with Oksana again
for a little while. This ended when one of the Jackal’s fail-safes was
activated, a specific audio frequency that caused the clones to rapidly
decompose. Aleksei was all but catatonic by her ashes until a quarantine team tried
to move him. He went berserk and started to rampage. He was quickly stopped by
Spider-Man, who forced him to calm down, and taught one of his oldest enemies
his trick to living with grief. Namely, focus the pain of their loss into a desire
to be the person their loved one wanted them to be. Aleksei surrendered and said
he’d try. Well see if this new leaf turn is the one that sticks.
The Rhino has the standard Strongman
suite of abilities. The combination of drugs and later gamma ray treatments made
him super strong, unnaturally fast, inhuman stamina, and super durable.
Basically, he can hit and get hit like few others can. He’s also been outfitted
with his iconic Rhino suit, an artificial armor that renders him all but
impervious to damage, and gives him the imposing horn of his namesake. With a
running start, he can pierce 2 inches of plate steel with his horn. His really
only vulnerable area is his exposed face, which is much harder to hit when he’s
moving than you’d think. Originally the suit was fused to his very skin, which
was a constant hassle for Aleksei to deal with, and he later upgraded to a removable
suit.
The Rhino has been used several
times outside of the comics, being one of the physically strongest opponents
that Spider-Man regularly faces off against.
He appears in several episodes of Spider-Man:
The Animated Series. His part is pretty much down to just being the big
dumb muscle that Kingpin regularly hires. I don’t think anything about him is
ever explained, not his name, powers, or even the fact that he’s stuck in his
armor. He appeared in “The Alien Costume” parts one and three, the “Insidious
Six” two parter, and the “Six Forgotten Warriors” two parter.
He’s has a more… fleshed out appearance
in The Spectacular Spider-Man, where he’s played by Clancy Brown. You know,
Mr. Krabs from Spongebob or the head guard from The Shawshank Redemption? Yeah,
same guy. In this version he’s known by his alias Alex O’Hirn and is a petty
thug working for the “Big Man,” and was often partnered with Flint Marko (aka
the Sandman). He and Marko appear in several early episodes, where they’re
constantly being captured and humiliated by Spider-Man. In the sixth episode, “The
Invisible Hand” one episode after Marko got his Sand powers, Rhino was put into
an armored suit and given the “enhancements” that turned him into the Rhino. The
Big Man had decided to upgrade some of his thugs into costumed supervillains in
the hope that they’d keep Spider-Man too busy to deal with his more mundane
criminal activities. While he was able to smack Spider-Man around in their
initial encounter, Spider-Man was able to deduce that this version of the suit is
so skin tight that it didn’t even allow Alex to sweat except around his face. Spider-Man
was basically able to defeat him by inducing heat exhaustion. It’s from a
conversation from the addled Rhino that Peter finally learned who the Big Man
is, Alex having heard the name L. Thompson Lincoln from his own superiors. He
returns as part of the Sinister Six in “Group Therapy” and “Intervention” and
as muscle in “Accomplices” and “Opening Night.”
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| Honestly, this makes me think that Paul Giamatti is begin carried in some kind of armored babybjorn. |
A teenage version of Rhino, again
going by Alex O’Hirn, appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man. In the episode “The
Rhino” he’s introduced first in his more hulking form as a new villain that’s
attacking and stealing Oscorp chemical shipments. He’s particularly dangerous
when it’s revealed his horn can cut even Spider-Man ally Power Man’s supposedly
unbreakable skin. He’s later revealed to be an angry nerd that was being
bullied by Flash Thompson. To get back at Flash, he started taking one of Doc
Ock’s animal-based superpower formulas to turn himself into the Rhino. He’d
been hitting Oscorp shipments to prolong the transformation. He attempts to kill
Flash, but is delayed by Spider-Man and his amazing friends long enough for his
formula to run out. While being taken away by SHIELD, Flash does take a moment to
apologize to Alex for being a dick. A little late, but it’s good to see Flash
grow a little. He returned in Rhino form in “The Sinister Six” and “Return of
the Sinister Six” as the groups muscle, working for more Rhino formula. He has one
more character focused episode entitled “Rampaging Rhino,” where it’s revealed
that overuse of the Rhino formula has left him in his monster state. The imprisoned
Rhino flies into a rage when he learns that his former tormentor Flash Thompson
has gone on to be the “hero” Agent Venom and breaks free. He rampages across
New York, only being stopped by a combination of Hulk and the Iron Spider in
Hulkbuster armor, and Spider-man and Agent Venom appealing to his better
nature. Spider-Man then persuades Nick Fury to let him train as a hero at the new
SHIELD academy. He rejoins Doc Ock in “Lizards” and is a part of his crew until
the end of the series. Though he does turn over a new leaf for reals by the end
and truly joins the SHIELD academy.
He was played by Paul Giamatti of
all people in the beginning and ending of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. In the
opening sequence he’s just a stupid thug that attempted to jack a truck full of
Oscorp plutonium. He’s stopped by Spider-Man after a bit of a chase. He returns
in full Rhino gear, this time being a full mech suit with machine guns and rockets,
attacking police at the films end. He was apparently either trying to draw out
Spider-Man, or use his absence as an excuse to cause harm. Peter had been taking
sometime off to grieve after the death of Gwen Stacey. Spider-Man swings in to
save a kid in a Spider-Man mask who’d tried to face down Rhino, before charging
him and beginning to swing a manhole cover at his face before the credits rolled.
Giamatti was signed to appear in the third Amazing Spider-Man film, and
possibly a separate Sinister Six spin off, but the films were cancelled in
favor of the second Spider-Man reboot and being rolled into the MCU. Honestly,
I can’t complain. I should note that, despite “Amazing” being in the title,
Giamatti’s Rhino battle suit is one of several instances of the Ultimate Universe
popping in instead of the Amazing Spider-Man series.
And like the Lizard, Mysterio, and
Scorpion, The Rhino has appeared in almost every single Spider-Man game as a
boss character.
As I said in the beginning, as a
villain Rhino is a fairly standard Strongman type. He’s big, tough, and dumb as
a rock. But, like a lot of Spider-Man baddies, he’s visually iconic. I really
can’t think of another villain to use the slate gray armor and massive horn
combination. And while his plans aren’t ever what someone would call smart, and
he’s more often used as an enforcer for worse criminals, he’s still a staple of
Spider-Man’s rogues gallery and has been for decades. He’s simple, but that’s
kind of part of his charm. Not everyone can be the Norman Osborn/Lex Luthor
types, you need the big dumb brutes to do the legwork. Obviously, he’s a fan favorite,
given how often he’s appeared outside of the comics. I wonder if that’s just
the kind of street cred that a former Sinister Six member gets, or if he’s just
that cool to some people. It’s a shame that Giamatti didn’t get more time as
the Rhino as he probably would have had a lot of fun with the role. But hey,
there’s always next time. I look forward to seeing him buttheads with
Spider-Man again, soon.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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