Farley Stillwell

Dr. Farley Stillwell
Farley Stillwell as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #20.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #20 (1965)
Created by	Stan Lee Steve Ditko
In-story information
Alter ego	Farley Stillwell
Species	Human
Abilities	Genius-level intellect

Farley Stillwell is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a scientist best known for transforming Mac Gargan into the Scorpion.

Publication history

Stillwell first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #20 and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Fictional character biography

When J. Jonah Jameson first hired Peter Parker, he was amazed at how he managed to obtain pictures of Spider-Man. He hired private investigator Mac Gargan to look into this. When Jameson saw an article about inducing animal mutations into humans, he visited the scientist that established this experiment: Dr. Farley Stillwell. Jameson first thought Stillwell was a crackpot, but later saw him as an opportunity to take down Spider-Man. When he first went to see Dr. Stillwell in his lab, Jameson had him experiment on Gargan. Stillwell gave Gargan a high-tech scorpion-suit, and the Scorpion was born. Shortly after the experiment, Stillwell ran some tests and found that his experiment wasn't a true success. He discovered that Scorpion would lose his sanity as he got stronger. Creating an antidote, Stillwell headed to where Spider-Man was fighting the Scorpion. Upon learning the side effects of the formula from Stillwell, Scorpion didn't want to lose his powers and climbed up a building. Stillwell went up after him and lost his grip. As he fell, Dr. Stillwell threw the serum at Gargan in a vain attempt to cure him. He missed and fell to his death.^[1]

Legacy

It was later revealed that Farley Stillwell had a brother named Harlan Stillwell who used the experiment to create the Human Fly after being held at gunpoint by Richard Deacon. After Richard became the Human Fly, he shot Harlan.^[2]

The Stillwell brothers' technology would also later be used to give superpowers to the Answer,^[3] and the fourth Vulture.^[4]

The sixth volume of Amazing Spider-Man officially confirmed that Regent's minion Shannon Stillwell is the sister of Farley Stillwell and Harlan Stillwell. In addition, their mother is a scientist who goes by the name of Madame Monstrosity. She is served by the Humanimals Mr. Rooster, Mr. Cricket, Hogsworth, and Tabby. They discuss how Farley and Harlan using her pilfered work that cost them their lives when cautioning Shannon on using her mother's work. After mentioning how her works have been misused and altered which led to the creations of Lizard, Morbius, the Living Vampire, and Rhino, Madame Monstrosity tells Shannon that someone else is making use of her breakthrough in her Humanimals project as she plans to go after Spider-Boy upon seeing him on the front page of the morning newspaper.^[5]

Skills and abilities

Farley Stillwell is a brilliant biologist and cyberneticist.^[1]

Other versions

House of M

• In the House of M reality, Stillwell appears in a flashback as one of the scientists (along with Jonas Harrow and Michael Morbius) who experimented on Luke Cage.^[6]

In other media

Television

• Farley Stillwell appears in Spider-Man (1967), voiced by Tom Harvey.^[7] In the episode "Never Step on Scorpion", he is hired by J. Jonah Jameson to transform Mac Gargan into the Scorpion. In "Sting of the Scorpion", Scorpion arrives at Stillwell's lab and drinks a serum that increases his strength and size, destroying the lab in the process.
• Farley Stillwell makes a cameo appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man episode "Wolfpack", portrayed by Joseph G. Medalis.
• Farley Stillwell appears in Spider-Man (1994), voiced by Michael Rye.^[8] In "Sting of the Scorpion", J. Jonah Jameson hires him from ESU to turn Mac Gargan into the Scorpion. Gargan later demands that Stillwell restore him to his former self, but the latter reveals he is unable to, which led to him being knocked out and hospitalized. In a flashback in "Make a Wish", Stillwell was the scientist that led an experiment involving neogenic research,^[9] that led to Peter Parker becoming Spider-Man. In "The Final Nightmare", Scorpion abducts Stillwell from the hospital so he can force him to use the neogenic recombinator to change him back, but fails. After getting into a fight with Spider-Man and Vulture, Stillwell attempts to destroy the machine, but Dr. Curt Connors tries to intervene, only to turn into the Lizard and attack him.^[9][10] Though Spider-Man defeats him, Stillwell overloads the recombinator's transformer and causes it to explode before disappearing to make sure no one can use his research.

Video games

• A female version of Dr. Stillwell appears in Spider-Man 3 voiced by Nika Futterman.^[11] This version is the head of a science corporation called MechaBioCon who captured Scorpion when he came to her to have his mechanical tail removed. Stillwell used him as a subject for her experiments in military cybernetics and mind control, turning him into an obedient living weapon. She orders Scorpion to break the Rhino out of a prison transport to become her bodyguard. After Spider-Man defeats Scorpion and frees him from the mind control, the two work together to strike back at Stillwell, who has taken Dr. Jessica Andrews, Scorpion's love interest, hostage. Upon defeating Rhino with Spider-Man's help, Scorpion saves Dr. Andrews and attempts to kill Stillwell, but Spider-Man and Dr. Andrews convince him not to. As Scorpion flees, Spider-Man leaves Stillwell for the police.

References

External links

• Dr. Farley Stillwell at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe