I know that I am biased, but Spider-Man does have the best villains. Sure, Batman has his rogues’ gallery, but Spider-Man’s villains often have a personal vendetta against our friendly neighborhood fave, which makes ranking his villains particularly difficult because how do you pick the best of them?
Peter Parker often ends up fighting his former friends, teachers, or people who just really don’t like that he’s a kid trying his best as a superhero. Occasionally, he fights one of his girlfriends, and that’s a lot for little Peter Parker! So why not go through his 10 best villains and see who is the best among them?
10. Electro
Max Dillon is one of the founding members of the Sinister Six and is one of those villains that has a power that really doesn’t make sense to go up against Spider-Man, but when he does, it provides some of the best moments in comic book history. Electro was born when Dillon was working on a power line and a lightning strike caused a mutagenic reaction that turned him into his own version of an electrical capacitor.
In The Amazing Spider-Man movies, Electro (played by Jamie Foxx) uses his ability, and connection to Spider-Man through Oscorp, to really hurt Peter as deeply as possible.
9. Mysterio
Oh, we love a performer. Mysterio (also known as Quentin Beck) uses his past as a special effects artist and illusionist to his advantage to constantly keep Spider-Man (and sometimes Daredevil) on his toes. Using illusions to trick his opponent, he can commit crimes through his acting background. Mysterio is also a founding member of the Sinister Six.
Jake Gyllenhaal played Quentin Beck in Spider-Man: Far From Home and appears in footage in No Way Home, framing Peter Parker for his murder. That version of Beck worked for Stark Industries and attacks Peter as a way of getting back at Tony Stark and his legacy.
8. Hobgoblin
Another of Peter’s friends-turned-foes is Hobgoblin. It depends on which Hobgoblin we’re facing, but the most heartbreaking of them is Ned Leeds, Peter’s friend and coworker from the Daily Bugle. Most Hobgoblins are brainwashed by the Winkler Device, and the Hobgoblin uses tools and weapons that are similar to that of the Green Goblin’s.
What is particularly sad about Hobgoblin in terms of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is that his best friend is Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon). As of this moment, in those films, Ned is still just a regular kid who loved his best friend until he was forced to forget him in No Way Home. But that doesn’t mean we won’t see the Hobgoblin come to life.
7. Vulture
We’re back with the Sinister Six with Vulture! In the Tom Holland movies, Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) is the father of Peter’s crush Liz (Laura Harrier). In the comics, Toomes uses his engineering background to create his Vulture persona to aid in his crimes, thus becoming one of Spider-Man’s foes.
Much like many of Spider-Man’s villains, he also is a villain to Daredevil. Call it the New York City curse. During his time with the Sinister Six, he became one of the biggest villains Spidey had to take on and cemented himself as one of his greatest villains ever.
6. Kraven the Hunter
Now, I love Kraven. Another member of the Sinister Six, Kraven the Hunter is … well, a hunter—a big game hunter. The biggest game of them all became Spider-Man, and the two are not friendly when they face off with one another. I mean, he calls Peter “the most dangerous game,” so I really was destined to love him because every Kraven story is giving off Richard Connell vibes (the author of the short story The Most Dangerous Game).
A man who knows how great he is, Kraven is one of the best villains that Peter has had to go up against because he doesn’t stop. It makes me excited to eventually see Kraven the Hunter in live action.
5. Kingpin
All I want in this world is to see Kingpin and Spider-Man go head to head in live action because as much as he is a Daredevil villain, he is also very much one of Peter’s! Kingpin/Wilson Fisk rules New York and has convinced the Big Apple that he is someone to be trusted, but through his powerful punch and his ability to take charge of New York as a city.
We’ve seen his power in both the 2003 Daredevil movie as well as the Netflix series Daredevil, but he’s also seen in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as Spider-Man’s big bad! He’s terrifying, large, and someone who packs a mean punch!
4. Venom
Sure we have the infamous Spider-Man 3 take on Venom, and then we have the Tom Hardy Venom movies that make Eddie Brock and Venom’s love story come to life, but Venom is actually one of Peter Parker’s greater villains. A symbiote who came from space (along with some other symbiotes like Carnage), Venom slowly takes over Peter Parker’s suit and sensibilities before Peter realizes what is happening.
Because Venom can take over someone’s body, he ends up being one of the more terrifying villains when done correctly. Or he can be the head-hungry fun guy that Eddie Brock should just be in love with, and that’s okay, too!
3. Doc Ock
Otto Octavius was a former mentor of Peter Parker but when he flew too close to the sun with his invention, Doc Ock was born. In the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, he is someone who still has that heart hidden deep inside, but other Doc Ock iterations, like Olivia Octavius, bring that villainous side out in a way that doesn’t necessarily give us warm and fuzzy feelings.
Doc Ock, like many others before him, is a villain who knows Peter, so it makes it even harder to see them at odds with each other, but as the leader of the Sinister Six, he really lets that villainous side out.
2. Black Cat
Not all of Peter’s girlfriends can be wonderful little love interests for him. Some are cat burglars named Felicia Hardy. Black Cat is, in a lot of ways, Spider-Man’s Cat Woman, but I love her so much. More of an anti-hero than a villain, she still does have her villainous ways, hence her place on the list. But Felicia is extra sinister because she does have a relationship with Peter.
We’ve seen her in live action … sort of. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Felicity Jones played Hardy, who worked for Oscorp, but we haven’t seen our iconic Black Cat yet.
1. Green Goblin
Is there any villain list for Spider-Man if Green Goblin isn’t number one? Norman Osborn was the man that Peter looked up to, but when his experiment goes awry, Norman becomes the greatest foe that Peter would ever know. Most iconically played by Willem Dafoe, the character is a mix between Norman and the Goblin, and you never know who you’re going to get.
He is easily the worst of Peter’s villains—or best, in villain terms. With his pumpkin bombs and his iconic glider, there is just so much about the Goblin that makes him the best.
(featured image: Sony Pictures)
