"Invasion of the Spider-Slayers" is a six-part storyline printed in Marvel

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

's The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was...

title in 1992-1993, featuring Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

 against a series of Spider-Slayer

Spider-Slayer

The Spider-Slayers are a series of fictional robots in the Marvel Comics universe that were specifically designed to hunt down, capture, and/or kill Spider-Man.-Fictional character biography:...

s created mainly by Alistair Smythe

Alistair Smythe

Alistair Smythe is a comic book supervillain, owned by Marvel Comics and existing in that company's Marvel Universe. He was one of the main foes of Spider-Man...

.

Plot

In an act of revenge against Spider-Man for the death of Spencer Smythe

Spencer Smythe

Spencer Smythe is a fictional character, a comic book villain in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #25 . He is the father of Alistair Smythe.-Fictional character biography:...

, Alistair created his version of Spider-Slayers. He unleashed several slayers which included a small arachnid that worked as a tracking device, a six-tentacled amoeboid, a towering humanoid slayer with multiple personality disorder

Dissociative identity disorder

Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....

, a black widow, tarantula, and a scorpion. Alistair constructed several of the slayers with the "assistance" of inmates he liberated from a private sanitarium, goading Spider-Man into several battles that inadvertently involved others such as Scorpion

Scorpion (comics)

MacDonald "Mac" Gargan is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He originally appeared as the villain Scorpion, and then years later bonded with the Venom symbiote to become the third incarnation of Venom...

 (Gargan) and Black Cat

Black Cat (comics)

The Black Cat is a fictional character, a superheroine in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Keith Pollard, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 ....

.

Spider-Man finally decided to take the fight to Alistair where he was forced to fight the final slayer—Alistair Smythe. Smythe had encased himself in a full-body bio-organic carapace, augmenting his strength, speed, agility and restoring his ability to walk, becoming what he dubbed the Ultimate Spider-Slayer. After a rough battle, Spider-Man finally defeated him. Smythe was taken into custody and the inmates returned to the sanitarium.

Reading order

Part 1 - Amazing Spider-Man, vol. 1 #368 -- "On Razored Wings"

Part 2 - Amazing Spider-Man, vol. 1 #369 -- "Electric Doom"

Part 3 - Amazing Spider-Man, vol. 1 #370 -- "Life Stings"

Part 4 - Amazing Spider-Man, vol. 1 #371 -- "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

Part 5 - Amazing Spider-Man, vol. 1 #372 -- "Arachnophobia Too!"

Part 6 - Amazing Spider-Man, vol. 1 #373 -- "The Bedlam Perspective"

In other media

This storyline inspired LJN

LJN

LJN was an American toy company and video game publisher. It created toy lines and video games based on movies, television shows, and celebrities. It was headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and later in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.-Founding:...

's 1993 video game, Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers

The Amazing Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers

Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers is the third and final video game released by LJN for the original Game Boy based on the popular comic book hero of the same name...

for Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

's Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

 as well as the episodes "The Spider Slayer" and "Return of the Spider Slayers" of the Spider-Man

Spider-Man (1994 TV series)

Spider-Man, also known as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, is an American animated series starring the Marvel Comics superhero, Spider-Man. The show ran on Fox Kids from November 19, 1994, to January 31, 1998. The producer/story editor was John Semper, Jr. and production company was Marvel Films...

animated series and the SNES

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

 and Sega Genesis games based on the animated series featured the Spider-Slayers.

Collected editions

The storyline has been collected in a trade paperback

Trade paperback (comics)

In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...

:

• Spider-Man: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers (December 1995, ISBN 0-7851-0100-4)