The first trailer for Prime Video’s Spider-Noir gave us our first (very brief) glimpse of actor Brendan Gleeson as the series’ villainous Silvermane. The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #73 back in 1969. Originally, Silvermane was a pretty standard crime boss, a rather glaring stereotype of a Sicilian Mafia Don. Created by Stan Lee and John Romita Jr., His real name was Silvio Manfredi, and he earned the nickname Silvermane for his near-silver-white hair, which he had even as a young man. He became a persistent thorn in Spider-Man’s side over many years, rivaling even Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. But over the years, this “ordinary” crime boss has taken on a few wild forms.
Silvermane Was a Mob Boss Obsessed with Immortality
In his introductory storyline, Silvermane becomes obsessed with using his vast wealth and influence to gain immortality. An elderly man clinging to life and power, he seeks out an ancient clay tablet he believes can grant him eternal life. He eventually found it, and forced Dr. Curt Conners, better known as the Lizard, to create a serum from it that would restore his youth. The serum worked, temporarily, reducing Silvermane’s age to about that of a man in his 40s. But it ultimately wore off, leaving Silvio Manfredi looking for another way to circumvent the ravages of time.
In his youth, Manfredi was a low-level thug and racketeer in the Maggia, which is the Marvel Universe’s version of the Mafia. Stan Lee described him as having come from Corleone, Sicily. Clearly, Lee had just read Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, which was published earlier in 1969, the year Silverman debuted. Much like Vito Corleone in that novel, Manfredi worked his way up the ranks, before taking over and becoming a Mafia Don himself. His criminal activities caused him to cross swords with Spider-Man many times, and also many of Spidey’s enemies, like Norman Osborn and Wilson Fisk. For a brief time, he maneuvered his way into becoming the head of Hydra. His Hydra days were short-lived, however.
In the ’80s, Silvermane Becomes a Cyborg
Things get really comic-booky for this otherwise ordinary mob boss in the ‘80s. His experiments result in the creation of the heroic duo Cloak and Dagger. And for a while, he’s more of a villain to those two New York heroes than a Spider-Man bad guy. It was during one of his battles with the young heroes that Dagger nearly killed him. In the aftermath, he seeks a new form of immortality. He started adding robotic components to his body, and became a cyborg. He enters Spider-Man’s life again when he tries to harvest Peter Parker’s enhanced DNA to augment his remaining organic parts. Apparently, being an old mob boss alone wasn’t going to cut it in the ‘80s and ‘90s Marvel Comics. He has to get “extreme.” These days, he’s still around, only as a disembodied head.
The Many Animated Appearances of Silvermane
Silvermane has never appeared in any live-action Spider-Man film, but has appeared in many animated series versions. His first appearance was in the 1981 Spider-Man cartoon. Perhaps most famously, he made several appearances in the beloved ‘90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where actor Jeff Corey voiced him in his old man form. Other versions include The Spectacular Spider-Man, and the 2017 Spider-Man animated show.
Spider-Noir Is the Live-Action Debut of Silvermane
Actor Brendan Gleeson plays Silvermane in Spider-Noir as the series’ main villain. His inclusion makes sense, as this grittier, Depression-era take on Spidey fits perfectly with Silvermane from the comics. And it’s likely that bigger crime lord characters from Spider-Man lore, like Kingpin and Norman Osborn, were off limits to the producers. We wouldn’t be shocked if Silvermane were still searching for a mystical means toward immortality. Since the show takes place in the ‘30s, we may see a hunt for an ancient artifact, Indiana Jones style. We highly doubt we’ll see the cyborg version. It just doesn’t seem to fit the vibe of Spider-Noir. But if this show runs several seasons? Who knows what wacky bits of Spider-Man lore they’ll pull from. We’re just happy that after two decades of live-action Spider-Man adventures, this classic villain is getting his due.
Spider-Noir premieres on Prime Video on May 27.
The post The Marvel Comics History of SPIDER-NOIR Villain, Silvermane appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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