After this quick scene, the creature is never mentioned again. So one of two things must have happened:

Option one: Peter Parker stomped this thing to death in his civilian clothes. Unless Peter decided that he didn't want to ruin his jeans with radioactive rodent blood, a normal-looking teenager slaughtered this genetic abomination with his bare hands. I don't know if there's anything in history that could take away the magic of Spider-Man more than the sentence "And then Peter Parker crushed the spine of this victim of biological tampering." Then again, the famous Spider-Man theme does include the lyrics Spider-Man, Spider-Man. Does whatever a spider can. Save the day? He'll do that. And mercy kill your mutant rat.

Option two: While the hideous blend of CGI and a tired character designer is trying to lizard-ize Manhattan, there is a gigantic lizard-mouse running around. The former will become the norm. Every week, some new animal-themed megalomaniac will menace the financial district. But how does Spider-Man deal with the latter? Grab a mouse from the pet store and wait for it to come sniffing? Follow the trail of people who have been attacked by a huge lizard-mouse? That's way more horrifying than anything any other Spider-Man villain could accomplish. Doctor Octopus will rob your bank. Green Goblin might yell from the top of your bridge. But in this case, you're going to have to explain to Spider-Man what gnawed off your hands and what direction it went in.

But mutants aren't supposed to still be around, so all people can think is that a serial killer is murdering people with a very specific gimmick. Or if they remember that at one point there was a pretty famous mutant called Wolverine, maybe they think someone must be dressing up as him and slaughtering folks at random. I'm no expert in mutant PR, but "They influence people to go on murder sprees" is not the message you want to be sending to your potential audiences.

It pretty much pulls the plug on any chance that those mutant kids Logan was trying to save ever get to start their own X team on the right foot. The minute they step out in their matching spandex outfits, people won't even give them the benefit of a quick "Maybe mutants are nice. Maybe they're a nice metaphor." They'll think about the last known impact of mutants, which was pushing some poor cosplayer over the edge.

And then, all of a sudden in Superman III, a screaming lady has robot parts welded into her face. Yes, this is a movie wherein Superman fights a machine. This is a movie in which Superman gets comically drunk and ends up wrasslin' another Superman. This is a movie that features Richard Pryor doing a supporting comedy role which can only be described as a cry for help. This is not, however, a movie where the last seconds of an unsuspecting scientist's life are spent with her screaming in agony as metal is burned into her skin. But there it is. To give yourself a reference point for this kind of bizarre tonal shift, tell your spouse that you love them and then take a shit in one of their shoes.

You'd expect Superman, and more specifically Christopher Reeve's Superman, to approach this newly created robot lady with some kind of forgiving "Maybe we can save her" attitude. Nope. Robot lady attacks Superman, and Superman kind of halfheartedly blocks her laser until she falls into a crevice. So the next time you watch Superman III, pay very close attention to the movie, and then even more attention to the short film near the end where a machine turns a helpless person into a robot that Superman is more than okay with murdering.

For those who don't know, Samuel Sterns is the name of the guy who eventually becomes the Leader, a Hulk villain with a massive cranium, because only a forehead the size of a desk could fit all of his intelligence. The lead-in was right there in the movie. Sterns was a scientist who was a little too willing to get himself involved with a monosyllabic green man the size of a Hulk Hogan and a half. He flew too close to that particular sun, and ended up grinning as we assume a high volume of smarts entered his noggin. But the Marvel movies, which are far too concerned with villains that only have the motivation of "It should have been mine!", dropped him. You don't just drop Tim Blake Nelson like that. You ease him away gently, and probably with a parting kiss on the cheek.

Universal Pictures

Sterns was set up to be in an Incredible Hulk 2, or at least an episode of Agents Of SHIELD which your one friend who watches Agents Of SHIELD keeps telling you to check out. Instead he was relegated to The Avengers tie-in comics, where he shows up to spout some standard supervillain babble and is immediately shot by Black Widow and captured by SHIELD. That's the climax of his whole life.

Before they're restrained, most freaks, be it Frankenstein's creation or the Creature from the Black Lagoon, get to perform some kind of monster mash around town. Even the Hulk got to Hulk out before the military descended on him. But not Sterns. He emerges from the rubble of his old life, meets Black Widow, and that is all he will ever do. It's the superhero equivalent of me waking up, taking a shower, and then burning my face on the toaster.

Marvel Comics

SHIELD takes Sterns and does experiments on him. The last time we see him, he's floating in a big tank and called "PROJECT MR. BLUE," referring to the pseudonym he used in his correspondence with Bruce Banner. Imagine you had a shitty instant messenger name, and then you were in a terrible accident. Then, before you even had the chance to do anything with your new powers, a secretive organization kidnapped you and did invasive procedures on you for years. And you never even got to have your own monster nickname. You just had to stare at "PROJECT FALLOUTBOYFAN93" all day. That's the life of Samuel Sterns, the world's most depressing movie monster.

The next time we see Alicia, she's wearing this Eyes Without A Face-esque mask and being led around as an example of the Joker's work. It's the Joker's version of that guy at the party that carries around a guitar, hoping that someone, anyone will ask him about it. When he reveals Alicia's "new" face to Vicki Vale (who Joker is also hitting on. Read the room, dude), she's got a huge scar and whitened skin.

Warner Bros.

Long before Harley Quinn ever leapt into pop culture, the Joker was going full Sander Cohen and attempting to make his own clown-faced henchwoman. Only, instead of getting this whimsical, lovable gun moll, we got pitiful Alicia, whom the Joker seems to be trying to recreate in his own image. We later learn that Alicia throws herself out of a window, and the Joker responds to this with, "Well, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." That's certainly one way to put it. Another way is "Oh my god. I know that you're poisoning all of the shampoo in Gotham and starring in goofy commercials, but that torture art project thing was soooo much worse."

That's way heavier than anything in The Dark Knight or Batman v Superman. So no, superhero films aren't getting darker. They're just desperate to catch up with how messed up Burton's Batman is.

Daniel has a Twitter, where he mostly talks about Pokemon. Sorry about that.

Even the most devoted superhero fans can get a little tired of--j/k if you like looking for interesting easter eggs and comic books check out Alan Moore's Top Ten, Judgment Day, and his underrated classic Superman tribute Supreme.

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