Origin

Eli Hartman was taken from his family and made into a test subject for Madame Monstrosity. While there he became friends with fellow test subject Bailey Briggs, and after Briggs was transformed into a spider monster, Eli was there to help him feel better by tell him jokes.

Briggs tried to cheer up Eli with a joke of his own, "What do you get if you cross a Elephant and a Rhino?, Hellifino!". The joke made Eli laugh but Madame Monstrosity didn't find it funny but it gave her an idea for her next experiment.

Madame Monstrosity then transformed Eli into Hellifino, part Eli, part elephant, and part rhino, and sent him out into the world to do her bidding. Because of this he was not there to be saved by Spider-Man when he rescued Briggs and some of the other experiments.