Spot (comics)

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The Spot (Dr. Johnathon Ohnn) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as an enemy of Spider-Man and Daredevil. The Spot gained the ability to open interdimensional portals and smaller-scale portals, which he uses to travel long distances instantly and commit crimes.

The character appears in a silent cameo in the animated film

Publication history

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2012)

Dr. Johnathon Ohnn first appeared unnamed in

In an interview with Back Issue!, Milgrom discussed the character's creation,

"As I recall, the Kingpin wanted to find out how Cloak's power, that would transport himself and Dagger away whenever he chose, worked. I thought that it would be a cool idea if there were another character that could do that in another way like access that interdimensional-ity. Then I came up with the idea for the Spot. Then I imagined a visual for him. Herb Trimpe drew the issue, but I designed the visual on the character because I drew the cover first."

"One of the things I visualized was the Warner Bros. cartoons with Bugs Bunny. Elmer Fudd would be hunting him, and Bugs would go down the rabbit hole. Bugs would then move the hole like it was an extradimensional thing. That was kind of one of the inspirations for the character."

"I have a sick sense of humor, so I came up with the name Johnathan Ohnn. My thinking was that he would be Johnny Ohnn the Spot"

"Years after I created the Spot, I saw a rerun of an old Warner Bros. cartoon with a mad scientist who had the same schtick that he could produce black holes," "He could put them anywhere and jump through them. I don't remember seeing the cartoon when I created the character, but after watching it years later, I said, 'Oh, my God, that's the Spot.' I may have inadvertently ripped off an old Warner Bros. cartoon. I might have seen it as a kid and had it in the back of my head somewhere."^[2]

Fictional character biography

As a former MIT scientist^[3] working for the Kingpin, Dr. Johnathon Ohnn was assigned to reproduce the radiation levels of the superhero Cloak and artificially mimic his powers. Working late one night, he succeeded in creating a solid black circular portal. In doing so, however, the drain on the city's power became so great, a blackout washed over the city, causing the portal to shimmer and destabilize. Fearful of losing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Ohnn stepped into it. The shock of the transition caused him to pass out.^[4] He awoke floating weightlessly in a dimension which he initially assumed was Cloak's dark dimension. He soon realized that the power shortage caused the portal to send him to a different dimension, a place of half darkness and half light. A seemingly infinite number of portals surrounded him in this place. Making swimming motions, he found the original portal that brought him there and slipped back through it.^[5][6] When Ohnn emerged back in his lab, his body had undergone a radical transformation. The portals from the other dimension had adhered to his skin, covering him with black spots acting as portals. When Spider-Man and Black Cat arrived to confront Kingpin, he appeared before them and announced himself as the Spot. Spider-Man collapsed on the roof, laughing at the name. The Spot ended up winning that first confrontation and warned the heroes to leave the Kingpin alone. He later lost a second battle against Spider-Man, because he was tricked into throwing too many of his spots as weapons and not keeping enough to defend himself with.^[7]

Spot later formed a short-lived team with

The Spot can control and manipulate the warps to almost any degree he wishes. He can expand or shrink them to any size, or he can join together multiple spots to form one larger warp. The spots are unaffected by gravity and can be placed against a surface or left suspended in mid-air. He can also designate which spots will lead to the spot dimension from those that will instantly lead to another location in this dimension. He can create new spots, or close them entirely by retreating into his dimension and pulling the warp in behind him (making a quiet "poit" sound). By concentrating, he used to be able to revert to his human appearance. When doing this, the spots merged to form one large black void in his chest, though this was easily covered with a shirt.

The number of space warps the Spot can throw is limited however, since he primarily draws on the ones on his own body. Spider-Man defeated Spot when his body was mostly white.

His preferred method of attack is to surround his opponent with numerous spots, allowing him to punch or kick them from unexpected angles across great distances. This proved very effective against Spider-Man as his spider-sense was unable to detect incoming attacks from another dimension, effectively negating this ability (and although the Spot's lack of super-strength meant that his punches did not actually do much damage even when they did connect, the cumulative effect could prove dangerous in an extended fight). The same phenomenon was true when Spot flung Spider-Man through a warp and he reappeared in this dimension too close to a wall to dodge. However, on Daredevil, who also has superhuman senses, this trick does not work, as his Radar Sense could easily detect the teleportation energy in the Spot's body, making it simple for him to tell where the Spot was going to attack from.^[19] The Spot can also move the spots on his body to protect himself from physical attack by positioning one in the path of a punch or kick, causing the attack to pass harmlessly through a warp.

Due to Spot's connection to "Spotworld", he appears to possess a form of immortality, being capable of speech even after having been decapitated; and if his physical body is fatally-wounded it will disintegrate and reconstitute itself in the Spotted Dimension.

Alternative versions

Marvel Zombies: Dead Days

In the comic Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, Dr. Johnathon Ohnn (shown in his Spot form) appears in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier with the other heroes who survived the Zombie plague.

Ultimate Marvel

The

-like pattern, but is instead penciled as a white figure and covered in black ink blots when the page is inked.

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows

In Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (an alternate reality first shown in the Secret Wars storyline where Peter and Mary Jane's marriage never ended), the Spot is one of the few beings with natural powers left free after the powerful Regent attempted to capture all powered beings to absorb their abilities for himself as part of a plan to challenge God Emperor Doom. Although Spot escaped, he apparently left parts of himself behind with the result that his body has obvious 'gaps' where his holes once were, and each time he uses one it takes away more of what remains of his body. Despite this, he 'sacrifices' one hole to save Spider-Man's family when they are attacked by the Sinister Six, and hides another in the Sandman so that the resistance can attack Regent directly.^[31]

In other media

Television

• Dr. Johnathon Ohnn / The Spot appears in a self-titled episode of Spider-Man (1994), voiced by Oliver Muirhead.^[32] This version is initially a Stark Industries scientist until he is fired after Venom and Carnage steal his technology. Afterwards, Ohnn is hired by the Kingpin and given a lab and an assistant named Sylvia Lopez (voiced by Wanda De Jesus),^[33] with whom he enters a relationship. After several weeks, Ohnn and Lopez finish their work, but he accidentally falls into a portal, whereupon numerous more attach to him, giving him the ability to create them at will. Adopting the alias of the "Spot", he uses his newfound powers for personal gain; robbing banks and jewelry stores while lying to the Kingpin about his work. Ohnn later learns that the Kingpin is a crime lord after discovering Lopez works for him and tries to take over his criminal empire, but the Kingpin takes Lopez hostage to force Ohnn to continue working for him. Ohnn is sent to capture Spider-Man, who defeats the latter after using his "spider-sense" to deduce his pattern. Ohnn then explains to the web-slinger what happened and the two join forces to defeat the Kingpin, only to discover that one of Ohnn's portals was left open too long and it will eventually grow large enough to engulf the Earth. Ohnn, Spider-Man, and the Kingpin attempt to close it from the outside, but fail to, leading to Ohnn sacrificing himself to close it from the inside, though not before Lopez confesses her love for him and allows herself to be taken with him. Following the incident, Ohnn's portal technology is used to create the Time-Dilation Accelerator, which would later be used by villains like the Hobgoblin and Green Goblin.
  • An alternate universe variant of Ohnn appears in a flashback in the episode "I Really, Really Hate Clones". This version completed his work on interdimensional portal technology for the Kingpin without becoming the Spot, though he accidentally brought the
    Spider-Carnage, who combined a bomb with Ohnn's Time-Dilation Accelerator in an attempt to destroy the multiverse. However, Madame Web and the Beyonder
    assemble a team of Spider-Men from across the multiverse to stop him.
• The Spot appears in Spider-Man (2017), voiced by Crispin Freeman.^[32][34][35]

Film

Dr. Johnathon Ohnn / The Spot appears in

• An unnamed Alchemax scientist who Miles Morales threw a bagel at while escaping from a facility, retroactively identified as Ohnn, makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).^[37]
• Formally introduced as the primary antagonist in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), this version is a former Alchemax scientist who was involved in the testing of the Kingpin's "super-collider" and played an indirect role in Morales becoming their world's new Spider-Man. When Morales destroyed the collider during the events of Into the Spider-Verse, Ohnn was caught in the subsequent explosion and mutated after absorbing inter-dimensional energy. Due to this, he was fired, abandoned by his loved ones, and turned to a life of crime to seek revenge on Morales, deeming him his archenemy. Offended that Morales sees him as another "Villain of the Week", Ohnn constructs a smaller version of the collider to absorb its energy and strengthen himself after learning he can access other dimensions. He then travels the multiverse to absorb energy from other Alchemax colliders, encountering members of Spider-Man 2099's "Spider-Society" in the process. After becoming fully empowered, Ohnn returns to his and Morales' native Earth-1610, intent on destroying it to complete his revenge.^[38]
• Ohnn will return in
  Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.^[39]

The Spot appears as a playable character in Marvel: Future Fight.^[40]

References