CADAVEROUS
Real Name: Ivan Renz
Identity/Class: Alternate
reality (Earth-29320) human cyborg
Occupation: Scientist
Group Membership: None
formerly Stark Industries
Affiliations: Cadaverous'
Children (Avengers (Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Captain
America/Steve Rogers, Hulk/Bruce Banner, Thor Odinson), Mary Jane Watson
Parker, others)
formerly Minka Tross
Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark),
Spider-Man (Ben Parker), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Marker (Faye Ito),
Minka Tross, Mary Jane Watson-Parker
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: A derelict ship in New York
Harbor (Earth-29320)
First Appearance: Spider-Man III#1 (November, 2019)
Powers/Abilities: Renz was a brilliant scientist
who used a combination of cybernetics and mutagenic serum to transform
the dead into monstrous cyborg creatures he referred to as his Children.
He kept himself alive past his natural lifespan via cybernetics.
His enormous cyborg body was
superhumanly strong and durable, and possessed sharp metal claws.
Height: 15'
(approximate)
Weight: 5 tons (approximate)
Eyes: Solid black
Hair: None, formerly black
History: (Spider-Man III#3
(fb) / Spider-Man III#4 (fb)) - In the early days of Stark Industries,
Ivan Renz and Minka Tross were the firm's top scientists; working under
Howard Stark, they mentored his young son, Tony. Renz and Tross were
lovers; their primary project was a radiobiological treatment known as
the Key; it was meant to heal the sick and dying. However, when they
tested the Key on human subjects, the survivors came back "wrong" and
killed Tross. After Minka's death, Howard Stark canceled the Key
program. The grieving Renz devoted himself to perfecting the Key so he
could revive Tross; to extend his own life, he enhanced himself with
cyborg implants, eventually becoming the deranged Cadaverous. Based on a
derelict ship, he continually tested the Key on the dead; however, he
could only return them to life as mindless cyborgs he referred to as his
"children."
(Spider-Man III#4 (fb)) - S.H.I.E.L.D. confiscated the Key project from Stark, and it was further
developed by scientists Richard and Mary Parker. When they learned
S.H.I.E.L.D. intended to weaponize it, the Parkers destroyed it, save
for one test animal, a spider.
(Spider-Man III#4 (fb)) - Years
later, that spider bit the Parkers' son, Peter,
transforming him into the superheroic Spider-Man.
(Spider-Man III#4 (fb)) - Several
years into Spider-Man's superheroic career, Cadaverous theorized that
Spider-Man's powers might be derived from the Key, and he sought out
Spider-Man.
(Spider-Man III#1) - Cadaverous and his children attacked civilians on the Brooklyn Bridge, hoping to draw out Spider-Man. He beat the wall-crawler badly, destroying his right arm. When Spider-Man's wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, tried to save him, Cadaverous impaled her with his claws and threw her body off the bridge, killing her. Spider-Man took her body and fled.
(Spider-Man III#1 / Spider-Man III#4 (fb) ) - Cadaverous
tested a sample of Spider-Man's blood left at the scene of the battle,
and he found the Key present in it. He needed more, but Spider-Man
subsequently retired, and twelve years passed.
(Spider-Man III#5 (fb) ) - Cadaverous continued to create
more children with the bodies of the dead, including Mary Jane's.
(Spider-Man III#1) - Twelve years later, Cadaverous
continued to conduct experiments, but he still failed to find "the key."
(Spider-Man III#2) - Cadaverous' experiments continued to fail, but his mood brightened when he saw on TV that Spider-Man (actually Benny Parker, the teenage son of Peter and Mary Jane, wearing his father's costume) had reappeared. He sent his children to attack Oscorp to draw him out, but Spider-Man evaded and defeated them.
(Spider-Man III#3) - Cadaverous and his children tracked Spider-Man back to the Parker home in Forest Hills; they attacked, and Cadaverous impaled Peter on his claws. Cadaverous thanked the traumatized Benny before escaping with Peter. He took Peter back to his lair and placed him in a chamber to regenerate while Cadaverous extracted the refined Key from his blood; he then used the Key to revive Tross. As Benny Parker and his friend Faye Ito tried to locate Cadaverous with the help of Tony Stark and Riri Williams, Cadaverous revived the Avengers to attack them.
(Spider-Man III#4) -
Seemingly fully healed, Tross emerged from stasis; Cadaverous explained
all that he had done for her, but she had already begun to mutate,
thanks to the arachnid component of Peter's blood. What's more, Peter
had lost so much blood that there was no longer enough in him to isolate
the Key. As the resurrected Avengers were defeated, Tross, now fully
mutated into a spider-like creature, claimed that she no longer needed
Cadaverous, and she took Peter to lure the new Spider-Man into battle;
she succeeded, capturing the younger Parker.
(Spider-Man III#5) - Tross brought Benny back to
Cadaverous' ship, where he began extracting a cure for Tross from the
teenager's blood. Benny, however, began to theorize that it could also
heal the grievously wounded Peter, prompting Mary Jane (who had been
converted into one of the faceless, anonymous Children) to attack
Cadaverous and free her son. As Cadaverous recovered and caught up to
them, they were spirited off the ship by Iron Man. Cadaverous later
caught up to them on the George Washington Bridge, but he found that
Peter had already injected the cure into Mary Jane. Enraged at his
failure, Tross impaled Cadaverous on her own claws. Grievously wounded,
both physically and emotionally, Cadaverous directed his Children to
attack Tross with explosives; the resulting explosion apparently killed
both of them.
Comments: Created by J.J. Abrams, Henry Abrams, Sara Pichelli, and Elisabetta D'Amico.
Earth-29320 is not a possible future of
Earth-616; it's a blend of 616 elements, like Iron Man and Ironheart,
with some Earth-1610 elements tossed in, like the backstories of Richard
and Mary Parker.
Lotta people getting impaled on claws
in this mini. Mary Jane, Peter, Cadaverous...
Despite being a cyborg, Cadaverous still had to eat; we saw him eating sausage links in issue #1.
It's never entirely clear if Tross and
Renz ever had an actual relationship, or if it was one-sided on Renz's
part; Tross clearly doesn't have any feelings for him after her
resurrection, but as noted, the Key tended to bring people back "wrong,"
a la Pet Sematary.
This series was severely delayed, both by regular comic book lateness and the COVID-19 pandemic, and took over a year to release its five issues.
I thought
it was cooler the J.J. Abrams wrote this story with his son, Henry.
--Snood
This profile was completed 07/28/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event to represent the Spider-Man III story and characters.
Profile by Minor Irritant.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Cadaverous, cyborg Spider-Man foe, has no known connections to:
Cadaverous' Children had superhuman strength and durability, and had
sharp metallic claws. They were almost totally subservient to
Cadaverous, although at least one managed to overcome her programming
and defy him.
(Spider-Man III#3 (fb) / Spider-Man III#4 (fb)) - After
the death of his partner Minka Tross, scientist Ivan Renz devoted
himself to perfecting the Key, a radiobiological treatment that had the
potential to revive the dead, so he could resurrect Tross. Becoming the
deranged cyborg Cadaverous, he set up his base on a derelict ship, and
continued to test the Key on the dead; however, he could only return
them to life as mindless cyborgs he called his "children."
(Spider-Man III#1) - Cadaverous and his Children attacked civilians on the Brooklyn Bridge, hoping to draw out Spider-Man, whose blood be believed could perfect the Key. He beat the wall-crawler badly, destroying his right arm. When Spider-Man's wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, tried to save him, Cadaverous impaled her with his claws and threw her body off the bridge, killing her..
(Spider-Man III#5 (fb)) - Over the next twelve years,
Cadaverous continued to create more Children with the bodies of the
dead, including Mary Jane's.
(Spider-Man III#2) - Cadaverous sent his Children to
attack Oscorp to draw out the seemingly-returned Spider-Man (actually
the original's teenage son). However, he defeated them and fled.
(Spider-Man III#3) - Cadaverous and his Children tracked Spider-Man back to the Parker home in Forest Hills; they attacked, and Cadaverous impaled Peter on his claws. He took Peter back to his lair and placed him in a chamber to regenerate while Cadaverous extracted the refined Key from his blood; he then used the Key to revive Tross. As Benny Parker and his friend Faye Ito tried to locate Cadaverous with the help of Tony Stark and Riri Williams, Cadaverous revived the Avengers as members of his Children to attack them.
(Spider-Man III#4) - As the resurrected Avengers were defeated, Cadaverous revived Tross, and had the Children attend to her. Soon, she mutated into a spider-like creature, and took Peter to lure the new Spider-Man into battle with the Children; she succeeded, and captured the younger Parker.
(Spider-Man III#5) - Tross brought Benny back to
Cadaverous' ship, where he began extracting a cure for Tross from the
teenager's blood. Mary Jane rescued him from the rest of the Children;
Iron Man brought the two of them to the bridge, where Peter took the
perfected Key that was intended for him and used it to restore Mary Jane
before dying.
Meanwhile, Tross and Cadaverous turned on each other; he rallied the Children to attack her while he pelted her with grenades; the resulting explosion killed the two of them and many of the Children, although some presumably survived on Cadaverous' chip.
--Spider-Man III#1 (Spider-Man III#1-5
Appearances:
Spider-Man III#1-5 (November, 2019-February, 2021) - J.J. Abrams and
Henry Abrams (writer), Sara Pichelli (art), Elisabetta D'Amico (inking
assistant), Nick Lowe (editor)
First Posted: 09/17/2026
Last updated: 07/28/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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should check out the real thing!
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