Dmitri Smerdyakov, also known as the Chameleon, is a Marvel Comics supervillain who is a member of Spider-rogues Man’s gallery. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, two Marvel icons, invented him.
The Chameleon first appeared in the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man in March 1963. He was also Spider-first Man’s supervillain foe.
The character grew in popularity and went on to appear in a number of Spider-Man films. He is Spider-14th Man’s greatest foe, according to IGN. The writer can create thrilling stories and chase sequences thanks to his ability to disguise himself as someone else. Kraven the Hunter, a fan-favorite Spider-Man villain, is the Chameleon’s half-brother. The Chameleon’s transformation from alone villain to a well-integrated character in Spider-universe Man was aided by their connection.
Heavyweight names like Venom, Green Goblin, and Otto Octavius share the stage with Spider-rogue Man’s gallery. The Chameleon, on the other hand, creates a strong impression on the audience as Spider-first Man’s supervillain foe. Despite making frequent appearances as a villain, he has been disregarded in pop culture. The appearance of the Chameleon was foreshadowed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2019, and it is about time for this legendary villain to get his due.
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The Chameleon: An Elite Spy And A Master Of Disguise
Originally known as Dmitri Nikolaievich Smerdyakov, the Chameleon was born in Soviet Russia. He was a half-brother but also a servant to Sergei Kravinoff a.k.a Kraven the Hunter. The two of them shared the same father – Red Skull. Dmitri’s mother, Sonya Smerdyakov, was a servant. With a father who hated him and a mother who considered him to be a humiliation, Dmitri went on to experience an immensely uneventful childhood.
Meanwhile, his half-brother Sergei Kravinoff came the closest to tolerating him, and yet, he abused Dmitri. This caused Dmitri to develop mixed feelings towards his half-brother. He admired Kravinoff. But he also resented him. To gain his approval and acknowledgment, he would use his impersonation skills to entertain his brother.
Due to the abuse, Dmitri faced, he had to live in Kraven’s shadow while he was growing up. This had a deep, negative impact on his psyche and he ended up developing severe depression that caused him to even be suicidal. He began to have an identity crisis as he believed that he was nobody.
He felt like he had to keep himself hidden which leads us to believe was the reason, we see him taking on the identities of other people, as the Chameleon. This becomes his coping mechanism as it allows him to deal with his weakened sense of identity by impersonating others. Interestingly, the Red Skull was the one who built the projector belt that allowed Dmitri to turn into others.
Sometime during his childhood, he was approached by the Gentleman or Gustav Fiers, a man with a terrible reputation in the criminal underground. Fiers was notoriously known for devising elaborate skills to multiply his personal wealth. He was also an active member who influenced several key historical events while acting from behind the curtains.
Fiers was impressed by Dmitri’s method of acting and his ability to disguise himself. He took him to his brother, Karl a.k.a. The Finisher, who helped Dmitri hone his abilities. He was then enrolled in the Committee for State Security or the KGB according to the abbreviation from the Russian translation for cover arts where he bettered himself.
In this school, several trainees learned to master their impersonating abilities, so that they could become sleeper agents known as Chameleons. But only Dmitri was able to acquire this mantle. After mastering his talent, he emigrated to the United States of America.
In America, he went after Spider-Man but he ended up getting arrested. When Kravinoff returned as well, the two half-brothers banded with each other to take down the wall-crawler. However, the two still had an unhealthy relationship, especially with Dmitri now trying to prove his superiority over Kravinoff.
Spider-Man: The Animated Series
In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Dmitri makes his debut as the Chameleon in the episode ‘Day of the Chameleon’. Here, he works under a terrorist group that orders him to stop a peace treaty agreement between two warring countries. However, Nick Fury from S.H.I.E.L.D. warns Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson about it. After some tedious chasings, Spider-Man succeeds at subduing him.
Later, he went on to work under Kingpin. He switched his masks for an Image Inducer i.e. a projector belt which allowed him to impersonate others. Later, Dr. Landon gave him the power to shapeshift without having to use the belt – a handy power-up considering how he was electrocuted when Spider-Man broke the belt during a fight in the animated series.
The episode ‘The Prince of Heroism’ altered his origin by a bit. Dmitri was revealed to be the brother of Electro instead of Kraven the Hunter. He is only shown speaking when in a disguise and never in his original form. It’s not because he can’t but because he just chooses not to.
Spectacular Spider-Man
In Spectacular Spider-Man, the Chameleon is one of the series’ main antagonists. It does not reveal anything about his connection with Kraven but he is presented with a Russian accent. Here, he allies himself with the Green Goblin as the series nears its end.
The Chameleon: New Origin – Straight Out Of The MCU
The Chameleon’s origin story has been revised and expanded upon, and it happens to have an unmistakable parallel with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The school he attended where he was trained to be an espionage agent, was run by Karl Fries, better known as the Finisher. It is revealed during a meeting between Chameleon himself, the Finisher, and Teresa Parker. From what we know so far, the school seems to be similar to the Red Room.
The M.C.U. movies have toyed with Black Widow’s past even before the release of her standalone movie. She trained to be an assassin alongside several other girls in a place called the Red Room. The institute Chameleon attended seems to be very similar, except that it trained men to be espionage.
This broadens the horizons of Chameleon’s storyline because now we know that several other impersonators like him might exist. Considering how these places turn the learners into a master of their crafts, spies who are as skilled as the Chameleon would only mean more trouble for Spider-Man.
Dmitri appears in the M.C.U. in Spider-Man: Far From Home. However, the M.C.U. hasn’t introduced characters like Kraven the Hunter or the Fiers. So it is likely that if and when the M.C.U. does expand on the character, there is going to be a new origin story for him.
Is Chameleon A Skrull In The MCU?
Dmitri’s role in the M.C.U. so far isn’t flashy or memorable. Played by Numan Acar, he appears as one of Nick Fury’s associates and is sent to monitor Peter Parker while he enjoys his school trip in Austria. He worked alongside Quentin Beck or Mysterio on the trip, oblivious to the Walmart-version of a so-called superhero’s fraudulent ways.
However, in the post-credit scene, it is revealed that Nick Fury and Agent Maria Hill were actually Skrulls who had shapeshifted and were impersonating the S.H.I.E.L.D. members. Talos (who we have met in Captain Marvel) is the one impersonating Nick Fury while his wife Soren steps into the shoes, clothes, hair, and skin, of Agent Hill. Talos sends a recorded message to space.
The scene shifts and we see Nick Fury, who is now in space and is commanding an army of Skrulls. From what we can observe, the Skrulls seem to be constructing the station for S.W.O.R.D., which is the intergalactic version of S.H.I.E.L.D.
This means that the Fury who Dmitri worked with is a Skrull. Without a background for Dmitri due to the obvious absence of Kraven and the Fiers in the M.C.U., there’s a possibility that we will get to Dmitri as a master of disguise because he, as a Skrull, can shapeshift. Even though the M.C.U. is yet to reveal or even hint at the powers possessed by Dmitri, it is not likely for them to switch his powers (which would kind of be blasphemous towards the comics).
Of course, he could be an impersonator with the help of technology he acquired through other sources like we’ve seen Natasha Romaoff do in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. However, the theory about him being a Skrull seems more plausible, simply because he is seen working with them.
You could say that he did not know about Fury and Hill being Skrulls but as someone who works under Fury, he wouldn’t miss the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. acting out of character. To be fair, if it was the real Fury, he would’ve probably known about Mysterio being the bad guy.
What Makes Chameleon So Dangerous?
According to the primary origin story, the Chameleon does not have supernatural powers. His abilities are a product of his trauma, natural affinity, and training. Dmitri would use makeup and costumes to turn into the ones he wanted to impersonate. His Image Inducer belt could also emit a gas that allowed him to mold his features and help him turn into another person.
He implemented the usage of a microcomputer for his belt, with help from Spencer Smythe. The computer would be programmed with the facial features of several people. It also had the feature to analyze the facial features of the people Chameleon encountered and duplicate them. With the help of holographic technology, the Chameleon could turn into others with the push of a button.
Not just that but he could also present as two different people two different onlookers. The memory material in the costume helped him resemble the outfits of others. He could also use it to do real Chameleon things like camouflaging and blending himself with the background like ninjas and creating holograms of people.
His abilities were later made innate. It was revealed that he was subjected to an experimental serum which made his flesh, the pigmentation, and the epidermis malleable enough for him to literally shapeshift. It was apparently so effective that he could even alter minor details such as changing his eye color or hair style. (Don’t let the beauty industry know about this because then they will ask all the girls to look like Diana of Themyscria and all the guys to look like Gigachad).
It is believed that his abilities are limited to the extent of his imagination. This is enhanced with the help of a Computer Belt, which triggers his power. Without the help of the belt, he would turn into his original, dead-white form. Strangely, even before his antics as espionage, his family members did not know how he looked so it might have been an innate ability all along. Even with this origin, Chameleon is shown using the memory material fabric to replicate the costumes of others.
Another effect of the serum was probably his enhanced strength and durability alongside a slowed aging. Sure, he wasn’t as strong as Kraven but it was still enhanced beyond the abilities of a regular human. He is also around the same age as Kraven and we know that Kraven has been seen remembering the events of the Soviet Revolution in 1917. This means that both Dmitri and Kraven are quite old but they obviously do not look and act the part.
No matter how you look at it, the Chameleon is an expert at what he does. It does not matter if it is an innate ability or a technology-induced ability because even without it, he is a master when it comes to creating life-like masks or altering his face with makeup. He can also do it all in less than a minute. Put him in situations that are the least resourceful for him and he will still be able to fool everyone (except that one time when he turned into Peter Parker while being chased by Peter Parker).
His abilities when it comes to mimicking the voices and speech patterns of others is second to none. His method of acting can help him steal all the Academy Awards. Too bad he did not venture into an entertainment career.
Despite being brilliant in so many facets, the Chameleon can also speak multiple languages without an accent. He is an expert when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, thanks to his training in espionage. He is also a great marksman, a pilot, and an explosive expert. You cannot be a stellar villain without a stellar CV.
Versions Of Chameleon In Various Forms Of Media
With his enormous range of abilities, connection to Kraven the Hunter, Fiers, and the Red Skull, and endeavors against everyone’s favorite wall-crawler, the Chameleon has found a spot in several forms of media.
Apart from the 90s Spider-Man animated series and Spectacular Spider-Man, he has appeared in other cartoons such as The Marvel Super Heroes, the 1980’s Spider-Man, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, and the 2017 Spider-Man series.
So far, he hasn’t appeared in any live-action film other than Spider-Man: Far From Home but we hope that he will make more appearances in the M.C.U.
When it comes to video games, the Chameleon is present in the SNES version of Spider-Man. He also appears in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as an underling of Kingpin.
He is present in the Sinister Six novel trilogy, which is written by Adam-Troy Castro.
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