When X-Men kicked off the 21st century’s craze toward superhero popularity in 2000, hardly anybody could have expected that comic books would create a multi-billion dollar movie industry. The 21st centurySpider-Manmovie franchise began with Sam Raimi’s trilogy starting in 2002, and has since produced nine films across different series, with the character appearing inAvengersandCaptain Americamovies along the way. There’s obviously a massive appeal here, consideringSpider-Man: No Way Homeis set to overtakeAvatar’s domestic record at the box office, and an uproar was created after the film was largelysnubbed at the Oscars.
One of the reasons whyNo Way Homebecame so incredibly successfulwas its villains; the film drew from the franchise’s catalog of villainous masterminds to create an epic intermingling of menace. From glorified costumed thugs to actually powerful masterminds, everyone was delighted to see which villain Spider-Man might run into while out and about. With the two-partSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Versesure to include a wide range of villains while delving intodifferent Spidey dimensions, let’s take a look atPart Twoof all the villains who have been brought to life on the big screen and dive into how villainous they really are.
One of Spider-Man’s most versatile villains isKingpin. Not only did he appear as the main antagonist inSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but he’s a prominent antagonist for Daredevil and Hawkeye too. Surprisingly, he has no superpowers — he’s just extremely durable and incredibly strong. Still, as one of the most powerful criminal figures of New York, he becomes one of the most dangerous. With enough money in his pocket to buy whatever he wants and enough manpower to do whatever he wants, too, Kingpin is the one who has the ideas and funds the portal that tears open a hole in the multiverse, not caring that it could destroy them all. Instead of using this for nefarious purposes however, he just wants his wife and son back after they died in a car crash. His own heart gets in the way of really causing chaos in New York.
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Venomappears inSpider-Man 3. The alien symbiote first attaches itself to Spider-Man, where it quickly corrupts him as he becomes more arrogant and aggressive. When he realizes what it’s doing to him, however, Peter Parker manages to pull it from himself and the symbiote lands on Eddie Brock, taking him over and turning him into Venom. His powers can be seen as similar to Spider-Man, as he also swings around the city, but in reality he is much more violent. Venom might be one of the most terrifying Spider-Man villains out there when he is a villain and not just an anti-hero, due to his extreme violence and affinity for eating people. The villain was popular enough to get his own movie and its sequel,Let There Be Carnage.
Electroappears as the main antagonist inThe Amazing Spider-Man 2, while also appearing inSpider-Man: No Way Home.Even before he received his powers he became obsessed with Spider-Man after he saved him. Once he realizes that his hero doesn’t remember him and lies to him, he uses his new-found electricity powers to destroy Times Square. Though revenge might not seem like it makes him evil, it’s the way that he executes it that puts him up higher on the list. Because he was always forgotten and not seen by everyone, he wants to take over New York’s power grid and make everyone else live in the dark. For a city as big as New York, losing their power is a big deal, and it’s a task he actually succeeds in doing, using it to force Spider-Man to fight him. As one of the few successful villains, even if only for a moment, he deserves his spot on the list.
4The Lizard
InThe Amazing Spider-Man, we meetThe Lizard, who is the main antagonist, though he does appear again inSpider-Man: No Way Home. As Spider-Man is learning about his own powers, The Lizard is slowly going insane due to his own. As an amputee, he experiments with lizard DNA to see if he can regrow his limb. At first, it seems successful, but the experiment wasn’t complete, and he turns into the large creature known as The Lizard. He intends to distribute the formula he used over all of New York, turning everyone who lives there into crazy lizard people. Since he still has the mind of a doctor, even if insane, it means his schemes are actually well-thought-out, and thus more likely to do some serious harm.
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Mysteriois the antagonist inSpider-Man: Far From Home, and for good reason. He’s a master of technology, having once worked for Stark Industries before he felt his design was stolen from him by Tony Stark. Using cloaked drones, he is able to create any kind of illusion he wishes, including his own powers. His ultimate goal is to gain power and respect as a hero, fabricating these ferocious monsters with his drones and then appearing to take them down. He holds no remorse for forcing Spider-Man into a terrifying illusion through an empty building and onto the tracks of an oncoming train, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even going so far as to try and purposefully kill a bus full of kids to avoid his secret getting out.
2Doctor Octopus
Once a great scientist,Doctor Octopusbecomes corrupted by the robotic tentacles from which his name derives. Doc Ock is such a well-known villain that there are three different iterations in the movies —Spider-Man 2,Spider-Man: No Way Home, and as a female inSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Doc Ock’s tentacles play to the doctor’s ego and suddenly, the only thought they have is to complete their experiments no matter the cost. With a brilliant mind that don’t mind robbing banks for funding or even running unethical experiments, many of them often doomsday experiments, it’s no surprise that he is one of the most evil.
1The Green Goblin
The Green Goblinis, hands down, Spider-Man’s most popular villain, largelythanks to Willem Dafoe. He has appeared in all four franchises, appearing inSpider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,andSpider-Man: No Way Home.The bloodlust-fueled villain holds a lot of power within New York, being the alter ego of the head of Oscorp. Though not all of the movies treat him in the same way, he still has a brilliant mind, tech that he uses to recklessly kill and destroy with no remorse, and is completely unpredictable. This agent of chaos cannot be topped.
