Top 10 Most Deadly Spider Man Villains
10.
The Vulture (Jimmy Natale)
Jimmy Natale is a one-time mob enforcer that was mutated into a criminal-eating vigilante
known as the Vulture.
Unlike Adrian Toomes, probably the most famous of the Vultures, Natale doesn’t need a suit
to fly since he has mutated wings, a beak, and can spit acid.
And, apparently, he has a taste for evil-doers with no remorse for killing.
While he certainly isn’t in the villain biz for wealth or power, he qualifies as a
villain unlike say, the Punisher, because he isn’t killing criminals and mobsters
out of some higher moral standard.
Jimmy Natale was introduced as the new Vulture in The Amazing Spider-Man #593, June 2009.
9.
The Hobgoblin (Roderick Kingsley)
Kingsley becomes the Hobgoblin to further his own gains in the corporate world, strictly
for financial power.
However, one of Kingsley’s first acts, before actually becoming the Hobgoblin, is killing
the man who tells him where the Green Goblin’s lair is.
After becoming a costumed villain, he manipulates a small-time thug to fight Spider-Man, and
then kills the thug after his defeat by the web-slinger, to prevent the thug from giving
away the Hobgoblin’s true identity.
In the end, there was little more than the two killings to prevent his identity from
getting out – not even a true homicidal maniac.
Roderick Kingsley was first seen as the Hobgoblin in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man
#43, June 1980.
8.
The Lizard (Dr. Curt Connors)
While the Lizard may want to transform all of New York City into carbon-copies of His
Lizardness, Dr. Curt Connors was never that intentionally homicidal.
However, in one incident, the Lizard was circumstantially forced to kill Calypso, who tried to use voodoo
to control the monstrous Lizard, and she definitely got her comeuppance.
On the other hand (pun intended), the Lizard at one point sheds his humanity by eating
his son – talk about father/son issues!
Curt Connors was first introduced as the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man #6, Nov. 1963.
7.
The Spider Slayer (Alistair Smythe)
While Spencer Smythe was initially hired by J. Jonah Jameson to kill Spider-Man, his use
of radiation in creating the Spider Slayer robots causes his own death.
So when son Alistair takes on the project, he’s not only after Spidey, but Jameson
as well.
And it is that thirst for vengeance, and his application of an exo-skeleton transforming
him into the Spider Slayer, which turns him homicidal.
In a bid to kill and hurt Jameson, he kills Jameson’s wife, Marla.
Alistair Smythe first appeared The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #19, Nov. 1985.
6.
Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius)
While one of Spider-Man’s most famous villains, Doc Ock has never been one of the more homicidal.
He always fancied himself a man of science, similar to both Parker and Norman Osborn in
the IQ department.
That said, he was responsible for a number of his clones’ deaths in the Clone Saga
and, in a battle with Spider-Man, he accidentally kills Gwen Stacy’s father, Captain George
Stacy.
Not necessarily the most homicidal, but not without blood on his hands, Doc Ock has had
one major desire throughout his villainous career: he wants to be the one to kill Spider-Man.
The good doctor first appeared in July 1963 in Amazing Spider-Man #3.
5.
Carrion (Malcolm McBride/Dr. William Allen)
Carrion started out as a zombie-like clone of The Jackal with a deadly virus.
With a death-inducing touch, he has gone on a killing spree a number of times, most notably
in Maximum Carnage where he has been inducted into the Carnage family.
The interesting thing about Carrion is not that he’s literally death incarnate (which
is why he’s as high on the list as he is), but that he’s not a homicidal maniac – for
the most part.
McBride was a graduate student and Allen was a SHIELD doctor.
Like Jimmy Natale, neither was really in the villain business for power or wealth; they
just wanted revenge on Parker/Spider-Man.
Malcolm McBride, as Carrion, first appeared in April 1989’s Spectacular Spider-Man #149,
while Dr. William Allen’s first appearance as Carrion was in April 1997’s Spider-Man:
Dead Man’s Hand #1.
4.
Venom (Mac Gargan/Eddie Brock) & Carnage (Cletus Kasady)
Most people know of the time that Spidey went from the good old red and blue to black and
white, after a war in space.
Following the realization that this new suit was actually a parasitic symbiote, Parker
“gave up” the suit, which bonded with the first Venom, Eddie Brock.
There were a few times that Brock and the Venom Symbiote were deadly.
But it was when the criminal formerly known as the Scorpion, Mac Gargan, bonds with the
Venom symbiote, that Venom becomes truly fatal.
So what happens you mix Venom’s child with a serial killer?
Answer: one seriously demented and powerful creature that has a taste for destruction
and flesh in spades!
Alongside Carrion, Carnage is likely the most fatal of the web-slinger’s foes, especially
in the Maximum Carnage storyline, which was likely one of the most lethal criminal sprees
in the Marvelverse.
Eddie Brock first appeared as Venom in April 1988’s Amazing Spider-Man #299, while Mac
took over the symbiote reins in March 2005’s Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #10.
As for Cletus Kasady, he made his first appearance as Carnage in Feb. 1991’s Amazing Spider-Man
#344.
3.
Morlun
Now we are getting into the villains who are truly impacting Spider-Man.
Morlun is, technically, the only villain to ever truly have “killed” Spider-Man/Peter
Parker in the main continuity.
Spider-Man realized that Morlun is an Ancient, a vampire-like being who feasts on totemic
power sources to stay alive, and that his food sources need to be pure animal totems.
But Spidey realizes that he is not actually a pure totem of the Spider, since the spider
that bit him was radioactive, so he doses himself with radiation to have a chance against
Morlun in a fight.
The web-head seemingly kills him, only to have Morlun come back to taunt him again on
Parker’s deathbed, which in itself is inexplicable by science.
When Spidey sees that Morlun is about to kill Mary-Jane, he leaps out of the hospital bed,
sprouting new stingers and fangs, that he uses to kill Morlun.
At this point, Peter apparently dies, only to have a newer and stronger Peter emerge
out of the dead husk.
Morlun would be higher in the list, but the last two are doozies for sure.
Morlun announced his presence in Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #30, June 2001.
2.
Green Goblin (Norman Osborn)
OK, so the Green Goblin is, by far, Spider-Man’s main arch-nemesis.
Hands down, this insane billionaire has it out for Spider-Man, and will stop at nothing
to make him pay with his life.
While Goblin fought with his glider, bombs, and ferocity, Osborn has fought Spider-Man
with cunning, guile and deceit throughout their torturous rivalry.
And the Green Goblin has had some of the longest lasting effects on Spider-Man – killing
his first love, Gwen Stacy, and in the Ultimate Universe, actually killing Peter Parker!
While Morlun “killed” Parker, he lived on in a newer, better form yet, in the Ultimate
Universe, that is not the case; a new teenager, Miles Morales, takes over the web-slinger’s
mantle.
And killing your first love might spurn anyone to have a hate/hate relationship with a villain.
In Earth-616, Norman Osborn first appeared as Green Goblin in July 1964’s Amazing Spider-Man
#14.
In the Ultimate Universe, he was the first villain to go after Spider-Man in October
2000’s Ultimate Spider-Man #1.
Yet, there is one more person…
1.
The Burglar (Dennis Carradine)
Arguably, the Green Goblin should be Numero Uno.
However, what it really comes down to in this list – rather than sheer numbers of killings
– is that Dennis Carradine killed Peter’s uncle, Ben.
It has never been determined if Carradine was anything more than a burglar, and it was
implied that the death of Ben Parker was an accident (in Amazing Fantasy #15, 1962).
Though he is a thief and not a murderer, Carradine’s fatal act of violence pushes Spider-Man to
never let another crime remain unanswered if he has any choice at all.
Because of this effect on Peter Parker, Dennis Carradine, a one-time-only fatal villain,
tops the list.