Who Is The Spot? Meet New ‘Across the Spider-Verse‘ Villain

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is upon us, and the closer we get to the 2nd of June, the more clips for the upcoming Spider-Verse sequel are released. In the first trailer, we meet a strange villain called The Spot, who creates portals with his body. Miles Morales seemingly underestimates him initially but soon realizes that a goofy villain is far from silly. Of course, The Spot is also a character from Marvel Comics, one of the villains of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man. We will discuss who The Spot is in Marvel Comics and his potential role in the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie.

The Spot is also known as a brilliant research scientist Dr. Jonathon Ohnn in Marvel Comics. He first debuted in Marvel Comics in 1984 as Dr. Ohnn. However, when he attempts to recreate teleportation powers and accidentally ends up in a different dimension connected with Darkforce, the “innocent” doctor becomes the villain, The Spot. Despite not being the strongest villain of Spider-Man, he uses his portals in special ways to attack the Web-Slinger, whose attacks are ineffective. The villain is associated with another set of Spider-Man supervillains, Sinister Six.

The Spot is not a conventional villain in Marvel Comics, and his superpowers can be used for all the wrong reasons, hence why the esteemed doctor has connections to Wilson Fisk and Norman Osbourne. I’m curious about his true goal in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie, but first, let’s introduce this strange character.

Who is The Spot in Marvel Comics?

Before we jump into Spot’s powers, let’s introduce the character first. Jonathan Ohnn is a research scientist who earned his doctorate in M.I.T., the most prestigious science academic institution in the United States of America.

Interestingly enough, the Symbiote Spider-Man comic book from 2019 suggests that Dr. Ohnn was roommates with none other than Quentin Beck, known as the villain Mysterio. Anyway, after graduating the school, he married his wife and had a son Wyatt.

Dr. Johnathon Ohnn eventually becomes a research scientist for Wilson Fisk, who wants the doctor to recreate and emulate Cloak’s powers. However, everything changes for Ohnn when Cloak’s powers affect the doctor’s equipment in Kingpin’s headquarters. It was revealed that the unique energy from Tyrone Johnson originates from another dimension, which Ohnn uses to reproduce Cloak’s energy.

Ohnn created a solid black circular portal, which made his generator overheat, and in fear, the portal would disappear; the scientist jumped into the portal and ended up in a different dimension. Electrical shortage sends the doctor to a black and white-spotted dimension, and at first, Ohnn thinks he ended up in the Cloak’s Dark Dimension.

However, when Ohnn locates the hole he entered, he re-enters the portal and becomes the living embodiment of “Spotworld.” The scientist’s body changed drastically – his body became white with black spots, which he immediately recognized as various portals.

He tests his powers before he goes to Kingpin to reveal his discovery and realizes that he can open portals in our dimension and teleport from point A to point B while also going to other dimensions.

The Spot eventually meets Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Black Cat (Felicia Hardy), who attack Kingpin’s skyscraper but encounter a strange man in white covered in black spots. When Ohnn introduces himself as The Spot to Spider-Man, the Web-Slinger bursts into laughter, but The Spot showcases his powers that even Spider-Man doesn’t understand in the first place.

Peter Parker manages to defeat the villain by tricking him, but since that moment, The Spot becomes Spider-Man’s villain, who eventually joins various supervillain groups like The Hand, Legion of Losers, Sinister Sixteen, and M.O.D.O.K.’s 11.

Throughout his appearances in comics, Ohnn’s personal story is somewhat interesting, mostly teaming up with other villains to defeat Spider-Man. There was a comic book run called Super-Villain Team-Up from 2007 when M.O.D.O.K. created a tag team of villains.

However, when facing Mandarin, the Spot is sent to his own anti-dimension. Since he was forcefully sent to anti-dimension, the Spot couldn’t determine the portal he went through and stayed trapped in the dimension until he went insane. He did escape eventually, but his mental health was heavily affected.

When the shootout by the Russian mafia hurts his son, Wyatt, Dr. Ohnn seeks revenge against the Russian mobster Dmitri Ivankov. Spider-Man saves the mobster from The Spot, and when The Spot realizes the hero will prevent him from murdering Ivankov, Ohnn gives Spider-Man a package for his son, who is in the hospital.

It is revealed that Ohnn sent his son a copy of the Treasure Island book that he read to Wyatt every night before sleep.

The Spot is a certified Spider-Man villain, despite always being on the losing side. Still, if his powers are used accordingly and maliciously, his portals and teleportation could be disastrous. How? Let’s find out.

Spot’s powers explained

As you can imagine, The Spot’s “main power” is Teleportation. When Dr. Ohnn was exposed to the Spotted Dimension, his body became the dimension itself. This means that the spots on his body are portals that can transport things and people to other areas.

The Spotworld doesn’t have limits, which means that the Spot himself is limitless in his teleportation. Moreover, he can expand and decrease spots/portals on his body, which is useful during the fight. When Spider-Man punched him, his hand went through one of the spots and smacked him instead. Interestingly enough, the Spot is far from strong, and when he punches, most of his opponents won’t receive that much damage.

However, the same goes for his opponents, whose strike power significantly decreases when they punch him and their hand/arm goes through Spot’s portal. Of course, Ohnn can transport himself with his “spots” and is immortal – at least what the Spot thinks.

Ohnn claims to possess a form of immortality, specifically, his ability to speak after he’s decapitated – if his physical body is fatally-wounded, it will disappear and reconstruct in the Spotted Dimension.

Overall, the Spot is probably immortal since he is a living avatar of the Spotted Dimension, has insane speed because of his teleportation powers, and immense intelligence duo his scientific background. However, there is a reason The Spot wasn’t always considered a vicious villain as Green Goblin; he wasn’t necessarily the evilest man because he is a father and a scientist, then a villain.

Also, Spider-Man defeated Spot by tricking him into removing spots from his body, making his white parts vulnerable to hits. After the black spots were removed the Spot, the Web-Slinger easily overpowered the villain.

His role in the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will be a villain since his teleportation and potentially disastrous consequences to the Multiverse might be fatal for some Spider-Men, which prompts Miguel O’Hara to create Spider-Force. It will be interesting to see the villain’s role in the movie, and we cannot wait for the second of June to finally arrive.

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