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 (January 1965), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist 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 and hired Mac Gargan to investigate. 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. As such, he had Stillwell experiment on Gargan and give him a high-tech scorpion suit. However, Stillwell learns that the process will eventually drive Gargan insane and unsuccessfully attempts to cure him, during which he falls 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 Richard Deacon held him at gunpoint. After Richard became the Human Fly, he shot Harlan after he served his purpose. ^[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 confirms that Regent's minion Shannon Stillwell is the sister of Farley and Harlan Stillwell. In addition, their mother is Melodia Stillwell, who is also known as Madame Monstrosity and similarly specializes in combining animal and human DNA to create her Humanimals. ^[5] Farley's father Jeremy Stillwell was turned into an owl Humanimal upon being fused with an owl where an attempt to restore Jeremy to normal resulted in Jeremy's mind being in the owl's body and vice versa. ^[6]

Skills and abilities

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

Other versions

An alternate universe variant of Farley Stillwell from Earth-58163 appears in House of M: Avengers #1 as one of the scientists who gave Luke Cage his powers. ^[7]

In other media

Television

• Farley Stillwell appears in Spider-Man (1967), voiced by Tom Harvey. ^[8] In the episode "Never Step on a Scorpion", he is hired by J. Jonah Jameson to transform Mac Gargan into the Scorpion. In "Sting of the Scorpion", Scorpion destroys Stillwell's lab after stealing a serum that increases his strength and size.
• 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. ^[9] 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, ^[10] 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 Curt Connors tries to intervene, only to turn into the Lizard and attack him. ^{[10] [11]} 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. ^[12] 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

1. The Amazing Spider-Man #20. Marvel Comics.
2. The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #10. Marvel Comics.
3. Danny Fingeroth ( w ),Scott McDaniel ( p ),Brad Vancata ( i ),Dave Sampson ( col ),Diana Albers ( let ),Rob Tokar ( ed )."Deadly Reunion"The Lethal Foes of Spider-Man,vol. 1,no. 1(September 1993).United States:Marvel Comics.
4. Mark Waid and Tom Peyer ( w ),Paul Azaceta and Javier Rodriguez ( p ),Paul Azaceta and Javier Rodriguez ( i ),Andres Mossa ( col ),Joe Caramagna ( let ),Tom Brennan, Tom Brevoort, and Stephen Wacker ( ed ). The Amazing Spider-Man,vol. 1,no. 624(10 March 2010).United States:Marvel Comics.
5. Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 #31. Marvel Comics.
6. Spider-Boy Vol. 2 #6. Marvel Comics.
7. House of M: Avengers #1. Marvel Comics.
8. Tom Harvey Archived 2012-03-11 at the Wayback Machine , voicechasers.com, retrieved 23 Jan 2010
9. "Dr. Farley Stillwell Voice - Spider-Man (1994) (TV Show)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved August 22, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
10. Ian Hague, Comics and the Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels, Routledge, 2014, ch. 2: "Sight, or, the Ideal Perspective and the Physicality of Seeing".
11. The fictional item also appeared in Spider-Man Adventures #1 (December 1994).
12. "Dr. Stillwell Voice - Spider-Man 3: The Video Game (Video Game)". Behind The Voice Actors. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.

External links

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