The Rhino: The Sytsevich Family Tree

 

Maybe I’ll grow tired of doing these MC2 Family Trees one day, but right now I’m enjoying them. So, here’s another vaguely connected tie-in for Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off film Kraven the Hunter, this one taking a run at the MC2-centric family of one Alexsei Sytsevich aka The Rhino: The Sytsevich Family Tree.

 

*Before we dive right in, the usual rules: For the purposes of these family trees, I accept that MC2 characters share their published history (up to a point) with their 616/Main Marvel Universe counterparts. I make exceptions for any retcons implemented after the point the MC2 diverges from the 616 and in cases where it's explicitly or implicitly different (Aunt May really died) or when a writer later introduces a previously unheard of relative (the Pym family) who is never mentioned, seen or heard of in the MC2. With the last exception, I would add them to the family tree in later updates should they be mentioned in MC2 material at any point. Got it? Excellent! *

 

A recap, cribbing from myself: Though unnamed at the time, Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich made his debut as The Rhino in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #41 by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr in 1966. There he is seen rampaging all the way to New York on his way to capture John Jameson before being defeated by Spider-Man and placed in a state corrections hospital. Escaping shortly afterwards, Rhino attempts to complete his original mission but is again defeated after Spider-Man uses a special acid webbing created by Curt Connors (aka The Lizard) to dissolve the Rhino’s armour (Amazing Spider-Man #42-43).

 

It is also in Amazing Spider-Man #43 that we get glimpses of Rhino’s origin where we learn he was ‘a hired hood—a muscle man’ working for professional spies. He was considered so unintelligent he would not betray his employers even after they subjected him to months of experiments and treatments, culminating in gifting him enhanced strength. Finally, he was covered in a molecular adhesive protective ‘second skin’ and truly became the Rhino. However, not only had Rhino received increased strength, but also increased intelligence…at least enough to realize he did not need to follow his employers’ orders anymore and went solo.

 

It is interesting to note that the Rhino has had his suit destroyed on various occasions, the first being his above-mentioned encounter with Spider-Man, but despite this through the first few decades of his existence he inevitably found his way into a new and sometimes improved second skin thanks to various super-geniuses. All this would come to an end when Rhino grew tired of being trapped in his latest suit after it had once again become permanently bonded to him following a shuttle explosion (apparently off-panel in Incredible Hulk #159 implied in Thing #24 and confirmed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #10).This became the Rhino’s motivation going forward, driving him to find a cure for his condition as noted above in the Thing #24.

 

In Amazing Spider-Man #280, having joined Beetle’s Sinister Syndicate, Rhino debuts a new design, his ‘1^st armor hide’ additions to his suit. We also learn that after turning himself over to Project: PEGASUS, Rhino had given up because ‘they couldn’t do much’ and instead opted to return to crime to fund a series of illegal operations in hopes of removing him from his suit and making him ‘human’ once more. As an aside, this is my all-time favourite Rhino design, and its courtesy of the fantastic Ron Frenz once again. I even had the Toy Biz action figure as a kid!

 

 Much later, Rhino betrays his Sinister Syndicate team mates for a deal with the Kingpin after the doctor attempting to cure him was killed by the team. Despite the Kingpin’s promise of a cure, he instead planned to retain the Rhino as muscle. When Rhino kidnapped one of the scientists in the Kingpin’s employ, he was finally freed from his suit. Unfortunately, the Kingpin threatened the scientist’s family and Rhino reached out to Justin Hammer for a new and improved Rhino suit once more, one he could once again remove this time (Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1-4).

A mention in the sequel mini-series’ Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #1 refers to Rhino’s desire to ‘gather enough money to enable his family to escape Eastern Europe’. This segues nicely into Amazing Spider-Man Annual #28 where Rhino has managed to bring over his mother and niece Alexa to live in America. It is mentioned that Rhino could not yet afford to also bring his father, sister and brother-in-law. When Alexa’s locket (a gift from her mother) is stolen, Rhino takes it back from the thieves and steals money from them also, intending to us it for his family. However, upon learning he had stolen, his mother kicked him out of their apartment and disowned him. It’s worth pointing out that Alexa is the only named member of the family at this point, and all Official Handbooks have spelt her name ‘Alexia’ which might be an example of transliteration, anglicisation or perhaps a sly reference to Rhino’s real first name which, ironically, was revealed years after his niece’s.

 

Rhino’s real name was first revealed in 2003’s Marvel Encyclopedia Vol. 4: Spider-Man (and not the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Hulk 2004 as I initially incorrectly claimed) as Alexsei Mikhailovich Sytsevich. Previously, he used the alias Alex O’Hirn (the surname being an anagram) while posing as a baseball player in Incredible Hulk #435, a pseudonym that other adaptations have also used, including the Ultimate Spider-Man comics and the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon. The use of Rhino’s real name in this MC2 narrative illustrates how later details, characters, and story elements from the Main Marvel Universe have been incorporated into the MC2 after the point of divergence.

 

The aforementioned Hulk 2004 profile for Rhino doesn’t list his mother’s name but the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol. 9 published in 2009 gives her the name ‘Miriam’ and I can find no earlier source, but I’ve elected to include it in the Sytsevich Family Tree regardless. Let me know if you have seen it mentioned some place prior! Alexsei mentions his mother on a few occasions following Amazing Spider-Man Annual #28, such as Green Goblin #2 and Amazing Spider-Man #409 which strongly suggests the two reconciled.

 

Never seen or named, Alexsei’s father’s name has been identified as ‘Mikhail’ by Marvel Fandom wiki contributor MarvelBoy2002. He points out that Russian patronymic naming convention custom means Alexsei’s middle name ‘Mikhailovich’ would traditionally be derived from the father’s own name with the ending ‘-ovich’ essentially denoting ‘son of,’ making Mikhail Sytsevich the patriarch of the family. This doesn’t appear to be officially confirmed by Mavel anywhere, but I’m choosing to adopt it here because I feel it makes logical sense and it’s some good deductive reasoning.

 

In the pages of Amazing Spider-Man Family #3, Peter, Mary Jane and Aunt Anna bring a sick baby May Parker to a hospital emergency room. There they encounter Aleksei Sytsevich who is seeking medical attention for his aunt Yulya Sytsevich. Peter mentions hearing that Aleksei had finally managed to surgically remove his Rhino suit. Aleksei struggles with the registration process and becomes agitated until Mary Jane offers to help with the paperwork, which his aunt accepts. Aleksei recognizes Peter as the Daily Bugle photographer and invites him to get a coffee. Aleksei mentions his was once hired to threaten Peter, a direct reference to Spectacular Spider-Man #190.

 

Meanwhile, Anna and Mary Jane help fill out the forms for Yulya who tells them that Aleksei sacrificed a lot to bring his family over from Russia, which is most likely a reference to Amazing Spider-Man Annual #28 where we see he has only managed to bring over his mother and niece Alexia, with intentions of bringing the rest of his family to the United States once he has more money. Aleksei and Peter discuss the expenses of paying for medical treatment and they bond over their common lack of money, both working job to job. Aleksei mentions some of the ‘bad bosses’ he’s worked for including the Beetle, the Leader and Doctor Octopus, the last of which may be a reference to Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #17-#18 by MC2 alumni Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz.

 

Peter explains Spider-Man does what he does because of the loss of a family member and Aleksei relates to this, mentioning how his aunt Yulya lost her beloved Borya who was ‘taken away in the night and never seen again’. Aleksei explains that he joined Russian gangsters to protect his family, using the money he was paid to support them, and how this eventually led to him being turned into the Rhino and finally earning enough to migrate his family to America. Though Peter believes Spider-Man and Rhino are destined to meet again as enemies, Peter and Aleksei found common ground and part ways on good terms.

 

I have omitted a few characters from this MC2 Family Tree for reasons I’ll elaborate on separately. Here they are for the sake of completeness:

•   Aleksei retires from crime after he meets and eventually marries a waitress named Oksana making her Oksana Sytsevich (Amazing Spider-Man #617). She is killed by an unidentified new villainous Rhino, prompting Aleksei to return to his old life after avenging her (Amazing Spider-Man #625).

•       By extension, a clone of Oksana appeared during the ‘Clone Conspiracy’ storyline after first appearing in the Free Comic Book Day Captain America 2016 promotional comic before later also perishing.

•      Oksana has a niece named Tanya that Rhino looks out for and helps rescue in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #2-#3.

 

This look at the Sytsevich Family Tree, coupled with the previous Kravinoff Family Tree has provided me some new insight into the nature of Russian naming customs, given me an opportunity to read a wide smattering of comics I hadn’t before and as always, an excuse to consult the Official Handbooks of the Marvel Universe, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. As always, a special thanks to arias-98105!

 

Until I learn that Aleksei is a fan of Archimedes’ assertion about straight lines, I remain

 

frogoat

History of the Latverian Flag

 

Thanks to my delightful younglings and extended family, I have recently been indoctrinated into the cult known as Fortnite. For those who don’t know on the 16^th of August 2024, the popular video game Fortnite’s Battle Royale released its latest narrative update, Chapter 5: Season 4 called ‘Absolute Doom’, which focuses on Marvel’s premier villain and the Fantastic Four’s most fearsome foe, the self-appointed Monarch of Latveria himself, Victor Von Doom aka Doctor Doom.

 

In terms of plot, Doctor Doom has seized control of the current formation of the Battle Royale Island, known as Helios, remaking much of it to resemble his beloved home country of Latveria as his ‘Kingdom of Doom’. This includes new landmarks such as Doomstadt, Doom’s Courtyard and Castle Doom, all adorned in Latverian Flags. Which finally brings me to my extremely belaboured point, the topic for today: the History of the Latverian Flag.

 

The Kingdom of Latveria first appeared in Fantastic Four Annual #2, which also presents the first time we see what could be considered a national flag, emblem or regal symbols. We’ll see a few reoccurring motifs in later stories, such as Doom’s stylised capitalised ‘D’ and the emblem with an eagle.

 

Following this is in Fantastic Four #85-#87 we glimpse various more banners and designs with the most notable this time an eagle on a sceptre, and the return of the ‘D’ logo, the latter of which may simply be Victor’s personal mark.

 

Oddly, Incredible Hulk #143 is the first time we get a clear look at what is unmistakeably a flag for Latveria outside their embassy in New York when Doom brings the Hulk there, and it’s also very different from what has come before. Depicted as a red flag with a completely different black eagle-like design in the centre, with a nighttime exception inverting this colour scheme (presumably a simple case of artistic licence) and on the issue’s final page we see the bird as simply a lighter red, notably alongside other flags.

 

In the 1987 Marvel Graphic Novel Emperor Doom, we again see various stylised capital ‘D’ insignia adorning various items after Doctor Doom uses the Daredevil villain Purple Man’s mind control powers to become ruler of the entire planet Earth.

 

In the graphic novel Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment the eagle and sceptre design returns, helping create something of a throughline across the decades.

 

I’ve discussed the significance of both the Onslaught and Heroes Reborn events to the MC2 in the past, and here we have another situation where it might apply as Doctor Doom was among those who apparently perished saving the world from the psychic entity known as Onslaught. It's revealed that Franklin Richards used his amazing abilities to create a pocket dimension to save his parents and all the other heroes. The reborn heroes would awaken in this pocket dimension to live out new lives, unaware of their pasts. In this new world, Doctor Doom again rules Latveria and we see an assortment of flags on display in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #4, including the ‘D’ and eagle designs.

 

We get the first iteration of what has become the most iconic Latverian flag on the covers for Doom: The Emperor Returns #1 and #2. It may be argued this is not a national flag at all, but a flag symbolising the sovereign himself, Doctor Doom. This one is a bit questionable as it first appears on the Counter-Earth created by Franklin Richards at a point after the MC2 branches off or diverges from the Main Marvel Universe. Doctor Doom finds himself back on this Counter-Earth and sets about conquering it, dubbing it ‘Planet Doom’.

 

We’ll see versions of the above design continue to crop up back on the regular old Marvel Earth in Secret War #5, Penance: Relentless #4, Books of Doom #6 and Captain America (vol. 5) #23 right up until the date of this writing. A version of this flag is what appears in the video game Fortnite and sparked the idea for this post, which speaks to its popularity.

 

However, it’s worth mentioning we do get at least one more markedly different Latverian flag in the Marvel Atlas #1 from 2007. This depicts an armoured gauntlet grasping lighting bolts. This design does not appear to have caught on however as I haven’t seen it reused anywhere.

 

There may be many more examples of possible Latverian flag designs I am unaware of, but hopefully this has proven informative. With all this context in mind, I wonder what the MC2’s Latverian flag looks like? The war between Namor, the Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom left Atlantis destroyed and Latveria’s former capital city Doomstadt in ruins, and in it’s wake Doom was presumed dead for 12 years. We do not know much about its political situation, but the nation’s flag may well have changed to reflect it’s new status. Just something to think about.

 

A huge shout out to the classic Doctor Doom fan site, Doom2099.com for the much-needed obscure fictional vexillological information. I miss discovering such places online and I would encourage you all to seek them out and support them whenever possible while they remain! Major props to arias-98105 as always for the constant support.

 

Until I rescue my beloved mother’s soul from the grasp of the dreaded demon Mephisto, I remain

 

frogoat