Nathan "Rad" Spencer

Nathan "Rad" Spencer
Bionic Commando character
Nathan Spencer's most recent redesign, taken from promotional art for Bionic Commando
First game	Bionic Commando (arcade) (1987)
Created by	Tokuro Fujiwara
Voiced by (English)	Mike Patton (Bionic Commando 2009)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Takaya Kuroda (Marvel vs. Capcom 3)
Fictional profile
Weapon	Bionic arm, various projectile weaponry
Occupation	Bionic operative for Federation forces (formerly)

Nathan "Rad" Spencer is a fictional character created by Capcom and the protagonist of the Bionic Commando series. Nathan Spencer is a prototype bionics-enhanced soldier who is mainly noted by video game reviewers due to his "Bionic Arm" (one of the earliest grappling hooks in video games) and (for most of his early video games) his inability to jump. Outside the Bionic Commando series, the character appeared in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Nathan's design changed since his introduction, receiving both praise and criticism.

Nathan Spencer's visual design has evolved several times over the course of the Bionic Commando but has always kept his trademark Bionic Arm, which he uses both as a weapon and a grappling hook. In his first iteration, Bionic Commando, the main character had wild blue hair, a green vest, and silver pants with blue boots. While he was an anonymous protagonist in the Japanese version, some localized Arcade flyers called him Super Joe, although he would later be a supporting character in the Bionic Commando series.

The player character would return Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version of Bionic Commando, where he was first given his full name. Although this iteration portrayed Spencer as having red spiky hair, sunglasses and green military fatigues, the packaging artwork for the North American version shows a different portrayal in which his dark red hair is much lighter and combed to the side, and a futuristic red and blue suit replaces his military uniform. The European version had an even further sci-fi inspired outfit, with a plain green suit with massive yellow boots and gloves, and short blonde hair. Though the artwork depicted a much different character, the sprites used for Spencer in-game remained the same.

In the Game Boy version of Bionic Commando, the spelling of Spencer's first name was changed from "Ladd" to "Rad". Spencer's design in the Game Boy version uses futuristic cues and combine them with the prior design from the NES. The result was that of an armored Rad Spencer with a red undersuit and dark red hair. Each of these iterations depicted Spencer as a playful, cynical character. Throughout all of these early iterations, Spencer is depicted as having a detachable grappling device, and not a full bionic limb which would be seen in later games.