DR. HARLAN STILLWELL

Real Name: Harlan Stillwell

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Research scientist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: J. Jonah Jameson

Enemies: Fly (Rick Deacon)

Known Relatives: Jeremy Stillwell (father), Melody Stillwell (Madame Monstrosity, mother), Dr. Farley Stillwell (brother, deceased), Dr. Shannon Stillwell (sister)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: A lab near New York City's waterfront, New York City, New York, USA

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man I Annual#10 (1976)

Powers/Abilities: Harlan Stillwell was a skilled biologist, although his genetic research was stolen from his mother.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'7")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 140 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

History:(Amazing Spider-Man VI#31/6 (fb)) - Scientist Harlan Stillwell was the son of Madame Monstrosity, a geneticist who secretly perfected the method of splicing humans with animals to create "humanimal" hybrids. Harlan attempted to replicate his mother's achievements against her will.

(Amazing Spider-Man I Annual#10) - Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson approached Stillwell to create a new superhuman to battle Spider-Man, just as Stillwell's brother Farley had created the Scorpion. Jameson dismissed the Scorpion's turn to crime as an accident and insisted that Harlan's new creation would be a superhero. Unable to turn down Jameson's money, Stillwell agreed, as it would dovetail with his ongoing housefly research. He soon had his test subject as well when wounded hood Rick Deacon broke into Stillwell's lab, having overheard Jameson and Stillwell's conversation. Before long, Stillwell strapped Deacon into his machines, using them to infuse the criminal with housefly DNA. Deacon became the powerful Human Fly but his desire to gain revenge on Spider-Man, who he'd encountered earlier that night, overwhelmed him. He forced Stillwell to call Jameson at the Bugle and summon him to Stillwell's lab, where the Fly intended to use him as bait for Spider-Man.

(Amazing Spider-Man I Annual#10 (fb) ) - With Stillwell's usefulness at an end, Deacon shot him in the heart, killing him.

(Amazing Spider-Man I Annual#10) - Jameson rushed down to Stillwell's lab, where he found the scientist's corpse.

(Amazing Spider-Man VI#31/6 - BTS) - Upon discovering the existence of a humanimal created by her technology without her knowledge, Madame Monstrosity phoned her daughter Shannon to ask whether Shannon was stealing her technology as her brothers did and reminded Shannon of the fate both Farley and Harlan had suffered.

Comments: Created by Len Wein, Bill Mantlo, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia and Mike Esposito.

    When Spider-Man battles the Fly later on in ASM I Annual#10, Spider-Man knows that he murdered Stillwell, even though at that point Spider-Man had, to the best of the readers' knowledge, never even heard of Stillwell, had any idea that he created the Fly, or knew that he was dead. A caption offers a No-Prize to anyone who could explain how Spider-Man knew - and to the best of my knowledge, nobody collected.

    The full names of Harlan's parents are revealed in Spider-Boy (the Marvel series not the Amalgam series) #6, an issue Harlan himself neither appeared nor was mentioned in.

Profile by Minor Irritant. Updates by HBK123

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Harlan Stillwell has no known connections to:

• Emil Stiller - TV executive, killed by Agent X--Agent X I#12
• or any other scientists who shoulda known better than to work for J. Jonah Jameson

images: (without ads)
Amazing Spider-Man I Annual#10, p17, pan4 (main image)
Amazing Spider-Man I Annual#10, p16, pan1 (headshot)

Appearances:
Amazing Spider-Man I Annual#10 (1976) - Len Wein (plot, editor), Bill Mantlo (writer), Gil Kane (pencils), Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito (inks)
Amazing Spider-Man VI#31 (October, 2023) - "The Mother of Invention" story - Dan Slott (writer), Paco Medina (pencils, inks), Nick Lowe (editor)

First Posted: 04/24/2019
Last updated: 04/20/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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