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A minor villain from the live-action Spider-Man films once briefly became Marvel’s criminal Kingpin, and he chose to give it up of his own accord.
The Rhino is one of Spider-Man’s most physically imposing villains — but has never necessarily been the most intelligent. Even his big-screen debut in Amazing Spider-Man 2 as played by Paul Giamatti took him to almost cartoonish levels of thick-headed resolve. While he’s been portrayed in both a comical and tragic light, it’s not often that the character’s potential for anything besides dumb violence really becomes the focus of his appearances.
But in the two-part story “Flowers for Rhino” from Spider-Man’s Tangled Web #5 & #6 by Peter Milligan, Duncan Fegredo, Steve Buccellato, Richard Starkings, and Jimmy Betancourt, the character got the chance to enhance his intellect in a story based on “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes — proving the silliest live-action Spider-Man villain actually has the potential to become a better criminal Kingpin than Wilson Fisk ever was.
In “Flowers for Rhino,” the Rhino is hired to protect the daughter of a wealthy figure in the criminal underworld. Rhino falls in love with the intelligent young woman upon first meeting her, but becomes increasingly depressed as he realizes he can’t be with someone like her — both due to his general lack of intellect, as well as the extra-thick hide he gained when he became the Rhino. Confronting the scientist who gave him the skin in the first place, Rhino discovers they’ve established a new process to increase the intellect of others. Rhino goes through the procedure and quickly begins to develop more and more intellect as the story continues. Within days of the operation, he’s reunited — and genuinely impressed — Stella Pavlov, while also earning a solid victory over Spider-Man.
In almost no time at all, Rhino is revealed to have advanced enough to become a genuine criminal kingpin. Unlike Wilson Fisk, however, he’s been able to fully utilize loopholes within the legal system to fight off the interventions of superheroes. A large chunk of crime in New York becomes completely governed by Rhino, with excess earnings going to underprivileged peoples across the world. He’s in a happy relationship with Stella, and even deduces an algorithm that reveals the identities of every costumed superhero in New York City — including Spider-Man. But the procedure ends up having a negative effect on Rhino, as his intellect keeps growing, causing him to lose any empathy or connection to humanity. Ultimately, a despondent Rhino has the surgery reversed and happily returns to his original dumber state.
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It’s still worth noting however how effective of a Kingpin the Rhino proved to be. On top of arguably being more physically dangerous than (the also pretty threatening and powerful) Wilson Fisk, Rhino found a way to legally keep the heroes out of his affairs in a way Fisk hasn’t managed as mayor. He even set himself up to enact his own version of “Born Again” against Spider-Man and didn’t even need someone else to inform him of the hero’s identity to do it. His mind now matching his strength, Rhino was able to break a number of villains out of prison and convince them to work for his interests, and it’s implied by his relatively uneventful time as New York’s top crime boss that no one is willing to really confront him over this power grab.
It would have been interesting to see Wilson Fisk facing off with someone who’s his genuine match in terms of raw strength and smarts — and to see if Fisk’s ruthlessness could have countered Rhino’s increasing intellect. If Rhino didn’t reverse the procedure, he could have gone on to become one of Marvel’s single most influential and powerful criminals. While he still may be a threat just as the Rhino, “Flowers for Rhino” proved how genuinely dangerous the typically short-sighted villain could actually end up being.
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