"But I have a responsibility to protect the world from what I've created and to protect him from what I know Osborn is capable of. People will say I'm a monster... for what I've done. And maybe they're right. I always thought that I'd have more... time. I'm sorry."
„
~ Richard Parker
Richard Laurence Parker is one of the two overarching protagonists (alongside Ben Parker) of Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man duology.
He is Peter Parker's father and was a scientist at Oscorp, who programmed Oscorp's genetically modified spiders with his own DNA, but had to destroy his research and escape with his wife to prevent it from falling into Norman Osborn's hands.
Richard Parker met and married Mary Parker, whom they later had a son named Peter.
Oscorp Scientist[]
Richard would take a D train at every 7 morning to work and came home every 6 night. He was a brilliant scientist who worked together with his father Spencer Smythe and colleague, Dr. Curtis Connors, a fellow scientist with a missing right arm. Together, they worked hard to pursue the development of Cross-Species Genetics, a radical scientific study that was scoffed off by most of the scientific community, who deemed it impossible and mocked Parker Smythe and Connors as mad scientists. But the biggest breakthrough in their research happened when Spencer successfully created the Araneus Oscorpeus, a breed of genetically modified spiders, opening up new possibilities for their research and receiving enthusiastic funding from Oscorp.
It was revealed that during Richard Parker's employment under Oscorp, the immoral leaders of Oscorp planned on weaponizing his research for foreign countries. Parker discovered this and relocated his research materials and equipment into an abandoned subway station, where he would hide from Oscorp and operate in secret. But on the night when their house was ransacked and they were forced to abandon their son to his brother's care, Richard and his wife Mary attempted to leave the country.
Plane Crash and "Death"[]
One night at home, during a game of hide and seek, Richard's son, Peter found his office ransacked. He called for his father; who ran in and started acting nervous. He and his wife, Mary took Peter to Richard's brother's house and left him there. This was the last time Richard and Mary ever saw their son. As Mary and Richard left on a business plane, he recorded a file testimony and remotely uploaded it to his lab in the subway station, hoping that proof of his story continued to exist.
On their way out of the country, an assassin was sent after Richard by Norman, during the confrontation, both Richard and his wife, Mary are wounded by the assassin, and the pilot was killed as well. However, Richard somehow survived the plane crash and went missing to protect his son, faking his death.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2[]
After years of disappearance, Richard secretly attends Gwen Stacy's funeral in 2014 following Spider-Man's battle with the Green Goblin. He only reveals himself to his son, finally reuniting with him. It's unknown if he disappeared again after this.
