Joseph Martello

* Human
* Cyborg

**Joseph Martello**, also known as **Hammerhead**, appears as the main antagonist of *The City That Never Sleeps* downloadable content for *Marvel's Spider-Man*. A mob boss with a skull made of reinforced steel, he is the head of the Hammerhead family, one of the "families" of the criminal organization known as the Maggia. Following the power vacuum caused by the arrests of both Kingpin and Mister Negative, Hammerhead's crew is among those taking part in the resulting gang war for power over New York's criminal underworld.

Hammerhead is voiced by Keith Silverstein.

## History

### Early history

The man who would become Hammerhead was born in Russia. At an unknown point, he was recruited into one of the five "families" of the criminal organization known as the Maggia, before being nearly killed one day following a brutal beat-down. A surgeon then found him and saved his life, implanting a steel alloy plate in his skull in the process. The incident likely left him mentally scarred, as he would go on to become a homicidal maniac afterwards, eventually becoming one of the most influential gang leaders within the Maggia.

### *Marvel's Spider-Man*

Sometime after Doctor Octopus's incarceration, Hammerhead breaks the ceasefire between the Maggia families, planning to regain the respect and fear that the Maggia used to have. He hires Black Cat to steal the five data drives needed to access the shared Maggia bank account (one of which is in his possession). However, Black Cat steals the drives for herself, including the one belonging to him, and fools him by giving him four fakes. Hammerhead's subordinates soon learn of Black Cat's trickery, driving Hammerhead into a murderous rage, ordering his men to blow up Black Cat's penthouse with her as vengeance. Despite Spider-Man's attempts to save her, Black Cat seemingly perishes in the explosion, with Hammerhead watching from a distance.

Black Cat's deception forces Hammerhead to change his plans. While the other four dons join together to defend their territory, Hammerhead's acquisition of illegally acquired Sable International technology gives him a powerful advantage. With their new weaponry, Hammerhead and his mob declare war on the other Maggia factions, resulting in a bloody gang war throughout New York City.

Hammerhead's base of operations is attacked by Maggia factions an NYPD squadron led by Captain Yuriko Watanabe and Spider-Man. NYPD found Hammerhead. Hammerhead and his thugs overwhelm Watanabe and her team, and begin executing her officers one at a time. Maggia thugs enter Hammerhead's base.

Spider-Man makes it in time to prevent Hammerhead from killing Watanabe herself, but Hammerhead escapes in the ensuing confusion. Going into hiding in the meantime, Hammerhead begins his plan to assassinate the other Maggia dons. Despite Spider-Man's best efforts, Hammerhead's men succeed in capturing the dons. Next, Hammerhead has his men create a diversion for Spider-Man and the NYPD by going after a convoy of police-acquired Sable weaponry. His real motive is to attack the Upper East precinct, which has possession of Sable International's "Project Olympus", an experimental battle armor, slaughtering many officers and civilians in the process.

Hammerhead outfits himself in the Project Olympus suit. As the final stage in his plan to seize control of the Maggia, he plans to kill the other dons in a public and televised execution at a construction site but Spider-Man rescued Dons. Hammerhead is foiled by Spider-Man, who confronts him on top of the construction site and is able to defeat him. Before the police can take him into custody, however, Captain Watanabe arrives on the scene. Driven over the edge by Hammerhead's schemes, she immobilizes Spider-Man before vengefully shooting Hammerhead in the head. However, as he is being taken away in an ambulance, one of his men sabotages the transport and revives him with a taser.

After being resurrected, Hammerhead goes into hiding and uses Project Olympus to replace most of his body with mechanical components, transforming himself into a cyborg. Furthermore he outfitted all his men with project Olympus suits and continued to steal sable technology, essentially turning his mob into an army of sci-fi warriors. This leads to the return of Silver Sable to New York to retrieve her stolen Sable equipment. After getting information from Hammerhead's top henchman Tony, Spider-Man and Silver Sable team up to face off against him at the Colexco building. However, the Project Olympus-enhanced Hammerhead nearly kills Spider-Man and kidnaps Silver Sable, intending to obtain the rest of Sable International's equipment. After Black Cat, who is revealed to be still alive, saves Spider-Man and gives him a drive to help defeat Hammerhead, he and Silver Sable use the drive to lure Hammerhead to a Sable International boat. There, Hammerhead is ultimately defeated by the two after they use a laser to break through the carbon steel in his head and Sable crashes her jet into him.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

Concept art
Hammerhead is a large man with black hair. Due to an injury he suffered in his youth, he has a carbon steel plate implanted into his skull, making his head flat on top. His face, particularly his forehead, is also heavily scarred as a result of the aforementioned incident.

After Captain Watanabe's attack on his life, most of the flesh on the left side of his forehead has been burned off, exposing the plate underneath. In retaliation, he is transformed into a Frankenstein-like cyborg which left only his human head that remains.

### Personality

Hammerhead is characterized as a ruthless and sadistic man obsessed with power. He has no qualms about igniting a gang war or stealing humanitarian aid for his own benefit, and will resort to whatever means necessary to get what he wants.

Hammerhead believes in the "good ol' days", the time where the Maggia controlled New York through fear and the police "knew their place". Hammerhead insists that his only wish is for the Maggia to be feared and respected again by New York's community, believing the other dons got "too soft" and allowed the organization's reputation to fall apart.

### Abilities

Hammerhead initially has no superhuman abilities, yet he displays above-average strength, lifting a fully-grown man into the air with one hand. Additionally, his cranial implant gives his head great durability, and allows him to kill someone with a single headbutt and survive being shot in the head by a rifle. He is also shown to be a skilled marksman and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant.

Upon his usage of Project Olympus, which turns him into a cyborg, Hammerhead is made virtually indestructible. With it, he acquires superhuman strength that makes him capable of restraining and easily overpowering Spider-Man, as well as increased durability. It also enables him to move in short bursts of superhuman speed.

## Trophy

**Prohibition**
Take down each Hammerhead Front

Hammerhead has several business operations that serve as fronts for smuggling illegal currency printers, laundering counterfeit cash, and the like. Following the mission The Bar With No Name, the player can take these down to earn Base Tokens. Each front will have several waves of Hammerhead's men to defeat, as well as different sets of bonus objectives to complete for extra Base Tokens. The overall goal is to clear the area of enemies. There are, in total, four "**Hammerhead Fronts**" around the city.

## Original appearance

For more background of Joseph Martello throughout comic book history, see **all appearances of Hammerhead** and the **original appearance of Joseph Martello** on the **Marvel Database**
Hammerhead first appeared in *Amazing Spider-Man* #113 (October 1972).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Marvel's Spider-Man* menu § "Hammerhead"
2. ↑  Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4. Marvel.com. Accessed March 26, 2019.