This is why I recommend stuff like the OG Ultimate Comics and adaptations of Spidey over his OG comic counterpart, despite the great stories that version has.
I don't even think it's that they don't let him grow. It'd that they undid their status quo. For awhile the marvel universe was naturally aging but by the 90s we had settled into the "status quo" going forward in marvel. The world the sliding timeline moved around. Mj and Peter being married was very much a part of that. And then they undone it. I don't particularly care about the mj marriage personally, but this would be like de-aging Peter or the o5 xmen or the ff4 IMO
The funniest part about the usual parade of Spidey fans complaining about the editors and authors is that it still proves capitalism is his greatest foe, both in and out of the comics.
@@Seasonal-Shadow_4674 His IP gets thrown around companies for money. The drive for comic sales can also pressure writers to make vapid, poorly calculated arcs instead of polishing pre-established worlds and storylines.
@@Seasonal-Shadow_4674 The character is not allowed to grow, change, and even die. He is a property of a corporation first, a literary character second. A truly satisfying narrative arc is impossible if the character is immortal and unchanging due to a company afraid to leave money on the table.
Your comments on why Black Cat represents a threat to Peter Parker, as a temptation to leave his civilian identity behind, is a perfect encapsulation for why I think she NEEDS to be in the next MCU Spider-Man film/arc of films. With the least amount of ties to people as Peter Parker that he'll likely ever have, this is the ideal time narratively to put that temptation in front of him.
Perfect time to have someone newer on the Avengers also keep an eye on him and warn him about Felicia too: One miss Doreen Green Cat’s also a perfect distraction and counter to Hobgoblin if they wanted to go that route too.
@ABenAbides I don't think they'd mind implementing her in the same way they did with Black Widow. I think they're more hesitant to have a love interest with so much sexual tension in an MCU with such a young Peter. I know they're generally portrayed as being similar in age in the comics, but Disney is probably scared of making their audience uncomfortable with the optics.
@@Wingsaber Even Black Widow wasn't the same level of s*xual in the more recent films. I don't think they'll ever let any female ever go back to the way Black Widow was initially portrayed
Venom even being a contender is proof that adaptations have severely skewed mainstream perception of Spider-Man in a lame direction. Venom has had so many redemption arcs and media refuses to cover that, the movies succeed in showing him as an antihero but fail in showing that that was a genuine character journey Eddie and the Venom symbiote actually had to undergo.
If you're looking at the character as a whole, sure. Though I don't think it's unwarranted to include him in a conversation regarding Spidey's greatest villains when you consider he how much impact he had on, not only Spider-Man stories but, pop culture as whole during his time as a villain. He wasn't just a one and done villain either that changed course right after debuting. He was THE Spider-Man villain throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Whenever he appeared in a story you knew it was going to be an event that pushed Spider-Man to his limits. He also singlehandedly carried the whole dark rival/mirror villain trope on his back in that era and is still the only enduring example of it left over from then aside from maybe Shadow the Hedgehog. While he's got some solid stories later on you can't deny it's a mixed bag compared to his villain era which probably contributes to why it's stuck around in people's minds more prominently. Aside from Lethal Protector, Maximum Carnage, Agent Venom, or more recently King in Black, Venom's anti-hero era isn't as well handled imho.
The last Spider-Man cartoon had a season dedicated to the Maximum Venom arc and a hint of him becoming an anti-hero, but he instead gets killed off as a villain and the show got cancelled after that.
The anti hero stuff is stupid, its just so they can take a cool villain and make them a hero with all the same bad quality's people liked in them as a villain. Villian I want to kill people Anti hero I want to kill people but this time I will make sure they deserve it. A anti hero is a villain that is the main character. The Punisher is still a dardevil and spiderman villian inspire of him having his own comics
Trick question! It's the one villain he will never defeat. The editors and writers at Marvel. It ain't just one or two we can point at directly either. It's the greatest league of bad guys ever known.
Don't forget Marvel's marketing - That's why the Clone Saga was stretched to two years months from the... 6 week, I think I've read?... event the writers conceived it as. The bureaucracy of Marvel, then.
Great video! Stan Lee once said, Doctor octopus was the arch enemy to spider-man but green goblin was the arch enemy to Peter Parker, let that sink in.
Another interpretation of Venom that I personally like is that he also represents who Peter could become if he abandoned his personal life and becomes fully dedicated to Spider-Man. Yes, he'd be doing what he thinks is good all the time but that can spiral into obsession & not having anyone ground him can lead to him crossing that line. The symbiote in the comics exhausted Peter because even while sleeping, the symbiote is out using his body to be Spider-Man. The symbiote, new to humans & how they think, believes it's doing what it hosts wants & believes only Spider-Man is what Peter needs & nothing else because it doesn't understand humanity
Another interpretation I like is that it's an allegory for substance abuse and addiction. When Peter puts on the symbiote, he's faster, stronger, doesn't feel pain and most importantly his repressed inner emotions and stress is brought out albeit in an unhealthy manner. He pushes concerned friends and family away and is prone to being more abrasive, irrational and impulsive. A more psychological take on it is how the symbiote can represent the shadow self. Pete was a 15 yr old boy thrust into the world of violence, crime and suffering. His life is a very difficult one, his loved ones keep getting hurt but he just powers through it. There's no healthy outlet for all the repressed emotions and stress. The symbiote helps him with that but because he has suppressed it for a long time, it all come pouring out at once. Learning to control your shadow self and incorporating it into your real self is integral in leading a healthy life.
I mean when he provided that much evidence to support it what can you do really? Just accept the fact that Paste-Pot-Pete truly is Spider-Man's greatest adversary.
Oh, the editorial team had it out for Spidey long before One More Day Remember how Aunt May didn't die, because she was actually a paid actor, who was actually a skrull pretending to be a paid actor, who only happened because of a reality warper interacting with stuff? Also, I think Aunt May might have been secretly Blind Al at this point in time as well Like, all the unveils for Stevil's run as pretending to be Captain America was already done by Aunt May, more than once, by the time Stevil hit the stage edit: I just realised I accidentally suggested that at one point in time Blind Al pretended to be Captain America for a story line. I'm not aware of this having been suggested to have actually happened. We only have one part where Blind Al pretended to be Aunt May
I thought Jameson was gonna be the surprise reveal on who Spidey's greatest adversary is because he's been antagonizing him since the beginning of the 1st issue.
There’s an issue of Captain America when Falcon was still new wherein Sam decides to hunt down Spider-Man because he read the Daily Bugle. He ends up beating up Harry Osborn because he sees Spidey swing into their apartment. So I feel like that’s on Jonah too.
I totally agree that Jonah Jameson should be consider a Spider Man villain, or at least an antagonist. Not only he was involved in the origin of some of Spider Man rogues like Scorpion and the Spider Slayers, but, ever since his first apperance in Amazing Spider Man nº1, he plays a key role in Peter struggles as hero. The way he uses his newspaper to ruin Spider Man reputation not only cause the public distrust on Spider Man but also affects Peter on personal level. What drives Peter to be hero is the guilt he feels for what happen to his uncle. Every sacrifice he makes in his personal life to be hero causes him to let people down and makes question if being Spider Man is really the responsible thing. What's the point of being a hero if he keeps failing to be there for his friends? Jameson just makes things worse, turning the public against Spider Man and making have more self doubts. The story that shows how effective Jameson can be as threat to Spider Man is the iconic "Spider Man No More" (Amazing Spider Man 50). The moment when Peter decides to quit being Spider Man is right after he experience a bad day bc of his life as Spider Man and seen Jameson on TV, saying that "Spider Man is menace and only cares about fame!", and Peter starts to agree with Jameson, beliving that maybe he was being a hero for the wrong reasons. After all why should he continue being hero who is not respect by the public? This is what makes the ending of the story so impacfull with Peter not only realizing his mistakes and becoming Spider Man once again, but also confronting Jameson, telling in his face how he going to "fill the city with a army of Spider Man" (basically declaring that he will never give up).
Honestly I would say Spider-Man's worst enemy is his lack of ability to offer reasonable explanations. So many times he has to be pulled away from something and just comes up with a poor excuse or stammers out a terrible apology when he could explain he was caught up in some incident or another that involuntarily caused him delay. Also, since the 2010s, I'm surprised Stark or someone hasn't been able to set up untraceable bank accounts that could be used for crowd-funding purposes. Spider-Man has more than enough people who could send him money to support himself full-time as Spider-Man. Same with other superheroes with secret identities such as Dare Devil. Like there is zero reason Pete needs to be struggling at this point, and it'd be more interesting to see him take on more adult responsibilities like raising kids and managing a marriage, among other things.
The thing about Norman is that he is the antithesis of everything Peter stands for like Lex Luthor with Superman and Joker with Batman. Also even with the small appearances of Goblin, Norman still is responsible, directly or indirectly, for a lot of everything that screwed over Peter leading up to the Nick Spencer run. Norman doesn’t do a lot but he makes everything count and he’s the most thematically interesting.
@Mammothsaber-4457 it gets annoying when he gets away all the time. He also didn’t deserve a gold goblin comic and be redeemed in Zeb Wells’s run. He deserves to be tormented by Ghost Rider
The main villain of Ultimate Spider-Man is absolutely Doc Ock. He appears at the start of every season, is responsible for creating a number of other villains, forms multiple different versions of the Sinister Six, creates Ben Reilly as a sleeper agent and is the main villain at the end of the show with him knowing Peter’s identity and threatening to kill everyone he cares about unless he gives up being Spider-Man.
Commenting for algorithm. Love the bit towards the end about Peter Parker being the “Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman”. It’s why I love him so much. It seems like the whole world is out to get him sometimes, but he still strives to do what he can to help others.
Spiderman's greatest foe is the burden of responsibility. It's why so many of his villains represent power without responsibility. It's also why when his villians redeem themselves its upon realizing they too have a responsibility. Example Venom upon realizing Caranage is their fault. Or Doc Oc realizing upon inheriting Peter's powers he also inherits his responsibilities. Or even Jameson upon learning Spidermans secrect realizing that he has done harm to someone who didn't deserve it then feels its his responsibility to try and undo the damage he's done.
People complaining about the writers and editors having bad things happen to the character: I'm going to read the "bad things happen to characters" genre. If anything bad happens to the characters I'm going to lose it.
@brody5409 which is why I was frustrated with across the spider verse because for years people want peter parker to suffer all the time to be “relatable” and he needs to lose people and suffer consequences but say Miguel is wrong about canon events even tho Miguel reflects those fans
There is a huge difference between being relatable and being the universe's punching bag Modern (spider-man) writers effectively proved they just hate spider-man being happy in any way, they just do anything in their power to not let this man be happy. Just go read Usm because Tasm's current run is, well...
@@Seasonal-Shadow_4674 sure, the ways they do it to spider-man feels shallow and uncreative makes me feel like the writers just follow a binary formula of Misery=Good Even if someone is a guy who keeps getting dragged down in life i won't imagine they would enjoy this writing where it represents them in such a shallow way.
@Seasonal-Shadow_4674 The way I interpret it at least, it's not so much that Miguel is wrong about spiderman needing to suffer because Canon events, it's more the philosophy that because someone is supposed to die, you shouldn't try to save them. Spiderman is supposed to try to save everyone. It won't always work, but he has to try every time. Where Miguel is wrong is saying that there are some people spiderman shouldn't even attempt to save.
I wonder how the Writers who originally planned for Peter to Retire after the Clone Saga, living with MJ and their Daughter in New Jersey while Ben took on the mantel full time feel now. Since it seems a bunch of those concepts are being picked back up again across Spider-Man media, such as a similar turn of events happening at the end of Insomniac's Spider-Man 2.
Doc ock being there more often doesnt change that goblin hits peter way harder with his antics. Killed his one true love, stole his aunt and his newborn baby, was responsible for the clone saga, and was the first to learn peters identity. Octavius best attack on peter is taking his role as Spider-Man which he gave back to peter because of...... the green goblin. Its so obviously the goblin and this video is clearly biased towards octavius which is fine but not a fair comparison when your best point is "well he's there more often".
I once thought about telling a Spiderman story that takes place during the 2000’s, but in two perspectives. The main one is James Jonah Jameson, a struggling alcoholic trying to save his father’s news company “The Daily Bugle”. Upset by the current state of the world, James decides to get his act together and be a legitimate news reporter. The second POV would be Peter Parker, an angry teenager grieving the loss of his uncle, having recently been fired from the Connors Laboratory, he’s just put away his uncles killer as Spider-Man and is trying to understand what great responsibility means. Both of the POV’s would merge together to fit an overall narrative each episode. Basically it would’ve been a CW or HBO version of Spiderman. I don’t know, this video is awesome and it’s made me wanna revisit it and rework it.
@@agramuglia Thank you so much. I’ve had that idea fleshed out since 2 years ago. And I’ve been kinda reworking the kinks in my head. I was inspired off of stories like The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Killing Joke, and other stories like that. I loved those eras of comics! If you’re wondering how long the show would’ve run for, it would’ve been at least three seasons. Season 1 being Green Goblin for Pete and Fisk for James. (James having to get out of being under Fisk’s payroll) Season 2 would’ve focused on the relationship between Jr., Pete, and Jameson while having to deal with the Symbiote and Eddie Brock (who Jameson REALLY dislikes) And Season 3 would’ve topped it off with Spidey becoming famous in New York and having to deal with the Avengers and the Sinister Six, while Jameson has to figure out what the Bugles legacy would be. I’ll end this little thing with a fun fact: Jameson wanted to be an actor growing up and was inspired by the silent films of Charlie Chaplin, he especially loved his performance in “The Great Dictator”. So when someone makes a comment about his iconic mustache, he WILL go absolutely berserk. (It happens to Cap on Season 3)
I agree with the analysis of what the *true* eternal adversary is, but going back to the individual people that make up Spidey's rogues, I think we can group both Doc Ock and Green Goblin together as his top villains but for different reasons. As far as I'm aware, Doc Ock doesn't know who Spider-Man's identity is except in the Superior run, so his villainous acts impact Spider-Man during his hero work. Of course some of Otto's plans do impact Peter personally but it's not his main goal to hurt *Peter*. While the Green Goblins (both Norman and Harry) do and have done major damage to Peter's life personally and on purpose because they know his identity. So Doc Ock is Spider-Man's arch nemesis, while the Goblins are Peter Parker's arch nemesis.
Current Oct remembers Peter is Spider-man. They keep teasing a return of superior spider-man (or his octopus based version, I forgot the exact name he went by) and Otto doing a redemption and restoring his character development he did as the superior spider man after peter got his body back.... And so far have delivered about as much as they have all the OMD reversals thry have teased.
I think parker industries in the comics was a step in the right direction in the sense of peter having a company and career. I dont think him trying to be like tony was good but just him having a business. Peter in the spiderman 2 game starting in a garage to build it up is what i want for peter in comics to be able to do. Have a family and a business that is big but is grounded in the sense of him still giving villians a second chance by working for him and helping out the communities
I also liked the idea of hobie brown helping him out with his spidey stuff since they should be on good terms it's cool when marvel remembers hobie exists in 616 not just spider punk loo
That’s exactly what I have in my headcanon; Peter rising above his money issues and relationship troubles to help multiple communities on a global scale. While at the same time, giving the redeemable villains in his rogues gallery a second chance.
Absolutely agree with your take on the real villian. Peter really would be able to chill and have good relationship with still living people he loves. If spider-man, he would be loved and just save people from robbers and muggers.
Even though you didn’t put Vulture on this list, I would make an argument that he’s one of Spidey’s most reoccurring foes. He’s special for being the first villain that Peter had a rematch against. Heck, Vulture’s one of those villains that typically gets put out there to give Peter someone to fight for a bit. I wouldn’t say Vulture is one of Spider-Man’s greatest villains (unless we’re talking about the movies), but I do think he should be an honorable mention at least.
@@NotAFakeName1 Jackal has had a far larger impact on Peter’s life compared to Vulture. Jackal cloned Peter and Gwen, which spawned an entire dedicated part of the franchise on its own. The biggest impact Vulture had was killing one of Aunt May’s love interests, which led into my favorite Vulture story: Wings of Vengeance.
@@HubPie3 I know about the clone saga I just dont respect it very much Like jackals one of those characters where every time he appears the audience groans because he serves nothing but to remind the audience of some of spideys worst stories Also there's just no real sauce to him as a foil to Peter or a unique threat to spiderman he's just kinda a goon
Everyone says Marvel editorial is his arch enemy, but I’d argue 2010’s Sony Pictures did just as much damage to the Spidey brand. Avi Arad is this evil incarnate.
I always believed it was Kraven the Hunter as a teen. Simply because he knew Spidey identity, but would only go after him when hes spiderman. Of course through the years and writers they retcon that knowledge.
You see if you were to ask me whose my favorite Spider-man character without hesitation i would say Venom/Eddie but if your asking my favourite villain I chose green goblin ( norman/harry) . Because from narrative perceptive Venom being a main villain for spider-man really only works for a short time or else it becomes repetitive . And in adaptations where he is strictly a pure villain it just doesn't work because it either makes him a mindless monster or alien invasion ( insomniac, ultimate cartoon , or 2017 ) . Alot of casual fans and writers of adaptations have this mindset that he's Peter's reverse flash but in actuality he's his shadow the hedgehog , vegta , kevin 11 , asuka , and goro akechi his hate for spider-man is just an outlet to release his hatred on someone he sees has a similar life to him but more successful, and he uses the excuse of the spider-man making him lose his job as the spark
Nah Paul will always be like one of the big Spidey Villains with how far the editors went to justify him being a part of this story for as long as he was...only way they could make it worse technically is doing it again but having the guy this happens with a second time actually sleep with MJ, if only to top what Paul did.
Glad to see another Shocker fan! I love him because of the 90’s show like you showed in your video but also in Spider-man 2 enter electro he was a very competent first boss for the game
My first exposure to Spider Man was the 90’s cartoon. If that was all I’d ever seen, I’d say it was Kingpin. Which is kind of funny because it seems like he’s not around that much anymore.
I can tell you this without having watched the video: If Norman Osborn sees he's not considered Spider-Man's greatest villain in the video, he's going to poo in his little green and purple armor in sheer rage about it.
While I do consider THE CLONE SAGA to be a massive guilty pleasure if mine (I’m a humongous Ben Reilly & Kaine fan), I still FREAKING despise the Jackal with a passion! The Jackal is honestly my single most hated character in all of fiction because he’s both single-handedly responsible for detailing THE CLONE SAGA’s narrative and is so insufferably annoying!
"In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch villain's going to be? He's the exact opposite of the hero, and most times they're friends like you and me." Mr. Glass, Unbreakable (2000)
An interesting point about Vulture's actions effecting both himself and his family is that he clearly takes advantage of his earnings. (Reality Punch Studios, if they still go by that name, referred to him as a "class traitor".) Yes he's completely right about the rich like Stark not caring about working class guys, but once Toomes starts selling black market weapons he buys a nice big house with a big pool that only someone with a great deal of cash could afford. It can't be cheap. (We never see what Toomes' living situation was before he becomes the Vulture so we're left to make some assumptions.) So he starts to benefit from the same system that Stark did, only difference being that Toomes didn't get a warrant to sell to another country so he could go: "outta sight, outta mind" like Stark did. There was a great moral dilemma because Peter knew that Toomes had to be stopped to keep petty thugs from killing loads of people with alien tech, but by doing so he was condemning his family to potential homelessness and shame from his actions.
I think weirdly "new ways to die" proves green goblin as spideys greatest villains to me, because the second they see each other, they want to tear each other apart on sight. Goblin is also omnipresent in Peter's mind and the one to stress him out the most for long spans of times, that's a big bad. I also like Jonah as Spideys main Villan.
Little late to the party, but I had the privilege to meet Michael PapaJohn, who played as Uncle Ben's killer in the 2002 Spiderman movie. Really awesome dude. He also played college baseball at LSU. He told me he would get me a signed poster of the Spiderman movie, on the day it came out, but he ended up getting side tracked with making another movie. Still, once in a lifetime moment for me
Didn’t see the rant coming, but since my first ever Spidey comic was the first Marvel Masterwork edition, thank you public library, I completely agree that capitalism has been smacking Spidey around from the very beginning, before he even got his powers. I like to think a modern Spider-Man would have a very successful Patreon that cool New Yorkers happily fund.
@agramuglia not "super strength" enhanced by something. But he's "peak human" which in comics is basically super strength. He's punched Peter through a wall before, and has canonically lifted 1,245 pounds while working out. I'd say he has strength, he just rarely uses it cause he's such a criminal... well, Kingpin.
I would have said Jameson if we're limiting to just people, since not only does he use his power irresponsibly to wrongfully defame Spiderman and even create new villains and criminals, but because of Spuderman's sense of responsibility, Jameson is **immune** to Spuderman's power. Of all of Spiderman's rogues, Jameson is the least directly threatening, sure, but is the only villain to consistently get away with what he does.
Spider-Man's greatest villain is his codependent relationship with Aunt May. He's never allowed to grow and mature. That said, I LOVED Michael Keaton's portrayal of Vulture. It took someone with Keaton's passion and chops to make the Vulture somewhat sympathetic in his goals. It's his METHODS that make him a villain.
His greatest villain? Authors who have no respect for the character/have no idea how to write a compelling story that makes his character grow. Might sound hyperbolic, but i cant name a single worthy mainline spiderman story, after Satan gave birth to One More day. Please dont ruin new ultimate universe as well...
12:51 Shocker is Peter’s greatest mirror of they’re both just two trying to make it by and pay rent, even if the world constantly punishes them for it.
As a spider man fanboy I enjoyed this, honestly sometimes it feels like new York itself is spider mans worst enemy, like every other week someone is trying to frame spider man for something and people fall for it, or blame him for villains attacking to a point where in one comic people rooted for scorpion to beat him, seriously it feels like spider man is new York's fall guy when they can yell at no one else for the problems that go on and it makes me sad. as someone who's watched the movies, watched a few shows, played a few games, read a lot of comics from different eras, I enjoyed this and hope to see more Spidey content from u 🕷️
@@Venom_eddie123 it does though. It didn't when it first showed up in the comics. But then it happens in the 90s animated series, and then from there the comics decided to follow suit and make it affect him.
@DarksideGmss0513 yes the 90s is adaptation but the 616 still doesn't affect him so if you point out things like spider's shadow or other evil symbiote spider-man those aren't 616
@@Venom_eddie123 it's part of the Spider-Man mythos now though. Almost every story that does symbiote suit Spider-Man they have the symbiote corrupt him.
Kinda unrelated but in Spider man by Insomniac Spider man seems the most evil character. 😭Like literally every villain (besides Frisk) need help and instead of having a chat with them and trying to help he send them to jail which will help no one! I feel like Peter Parker would have tried to help them. The villains teamed up with the Octopus because he helped them! Yes, he wanted something back but even that is more than Peter has done. 😭 And the whole Mayor plotline makes 0 sense. The guy clearly cares more about his wallet than about his people! (Yeah, he does love his family but the villains don't know that). And Peter is like "It's bad that you are fighting with him using force" but force is often the only means you can use to fight corrupt politicians! I really wish Doctor won.
I'd like to make a point on the mcu spiderman. Having starks backing financially didn't ultimately help him, it actually put way more pressure and restrictions on him. Having starks rules, standards, and legacy to live up to tipped the balance of stress from financial into him needing to do way more as a hero and straining his personal life. And I think pairing spiderman and Ironman together worked well thematically. All of Tony's main villains, stane, hammer, AIM, were all people who wanted to use starks tech not just for capitalistic gains but war profiteering. All of Tony's external conflicts in his own movies were to keep his technology used for helping the world instead of being for profit. Ironman 3 caused him to spiral and skew his idea of what would help the world. Spiderman struggles under capitalism, while Ironman tries to insulate himself from it, and they work as a good pair because of that
Green Goblin is obviously Spider-Man’s arch enemy #1 but I think the reason people keep bringing this question up is because the Spider-Man comics treat his enemies differently than Batman, Superman, Avengers, etc. They always kill them off and don’t use them again for a long time. Compare it to Joker where he’s synonymous with Batman and is constantly showing up in different stories so much that he’ll show up in two different stories at the same time. The Spider-Man series will always change the original character in a very different ways to where it’s not really the same character as when they first showed up. Superman will always have a new lex luthor story, Avengers will always rely on Doom, Thanos, Ultron etc. It’s cool and sad because Spider-Man’s villains always change and mature but we end up loosing the thing we originally loved.
definitely Doc Ock or Green Goblin are Spidey's greatest physical enemies, JJJ is a great psychological enemy, spreading hate about Spidey. I do think Mysterio, Sandman, Vulture, Scorpion, Rhino, Electro, and Shocker are all worth mentioneing, haveing been consistent enough and part of the Sinister/Insideous Six.
Yes it is Peter vs capitalism. It's true. As far as an individual arch nemesis, it's Norman Osborn. He's the most like Peter. He looks the most like Peter, he uses his brain, he uses power for selfish reasons, he's the ultimate could be father figure. Peter could have been working that same job. My favorite villain though is The Vulture.
I love this. I know Steve Ditko, a Libertarian, would disagree and would somehow insist that capitalism is good and perfect, but he's wrong. This take is great. Love it. Subbed.
I was glued to my seat when the camera zoomed into a close up of Dr. Capitalism saying "it's capitalisin' time" and profiting off the horrors of modern society. Shivers down my spine.
imo, the 4 biggest contenders are Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Scorpion & Venom. Green Goblin affects Spidey on an emotional level for multiple reasons, he was also directly responsible for the death of Gwen, a fact that Goblin has probably rubbed in more than once, plus in the first raimi movie, he proves to be quite intelligent and beats Peter to a bloody pulp. the greatest weakness that Goblin has is two fold, one is norman's morality due to seeing Peter as something of a son, and the fact that the Goblin's ego dictates that he monologues about how he's going to destroy everything the Peter holds dear, that includes killing his loved ones, the minute that happens, Spiderman gets pissed, the adrenaline starts pumping and he stops pulling his punches, that means someone is going to get their end kicked hard, and unfortunately, Goblin is going to need a proctologist, assuming he survives the pummeling he gets. Doc Ock: biggest strength is the intelligence, the arms definetly allow him to contend with spider-man evenly. the biggest weakness though is, depending on if we're talking raimiverse or comicverse, his hubris is his undoing, and out of most of the villians, Peter has a very strong tie to Otto, so much so that he considers him his hero in many ways and the reason Peter got into science in the first place. also, taking out the arms is relatively easy. Scorpion: poisonous tail that can spit acid (at least in the Animated series), because of the procedure done to him, he also has arachnid DNA which makes him difficult to detect with the Spider-sense, not impossible though. biggest weakness? comprimised mental state., and definetly, 100% a sadist who prefers to play with his food. Venom: okay, this is the big one, because of how long the symbiote bonded to Peter (at least in the comics), the symbiote gained a lot of information about the host and actually managed to permanently copy Peter's powers. it is also immune to the spider-sense, making it easy for the venom host to ambush Spidey, not to mention because it knows peter's identity, it is going to share that with the host it is bonded to an use that against him. Biggest weakness? sound waves (though venom has developed something of a resistance to that), i would also argue that seperating the symbiote from the host is another weakness, but also emotionally manipulating the host into rejection, and because the symbiote took peter rejecting it not very well, it has an intense hatred that can be exploited.
Jameson is definitely the biggest antagonist of Parker's Spiderman, but Doc Ock, Green Goblin and Venom are probably the most iconic who actually fights him.
I will definitely always argue in favor of Spidey's villains. They're some of the best in my opinion. Especially Venom. I have a soft spot for that one.
Norman is literally demon sent by mephisto to torture Spider-Man. Green Goblin is his greatest adversary. At the end of superior run, who is only villian who defeated ock in Peter body? Bingo Green Goblin. He is number 1, Doc is close second. In animated series Goblin had bigest impact even though Kingpin was main villian, Gobby took Mj to limbo, in spectacular Goblin is last villian of season 2 and he overthrew Toombstone. Raimi trilogy main threat was Norman even beyond grave (Harry revenge arc was throught whole trilogy), in No Way Home Goblin is by far the main villian of movie and one who actually would win if Tobey and Andrew Spider-Men didnt show up. He is only underused in video game's but i would say insomniac will use him as main villian and last villian in trilogy. Doc Ock is for some people more interesting sure, but Goblin was alway's his Joker
Peter's greatest adversary is himself. He takes on too much alone and self sabotagues his personal life and relationships. Ironically, Superior demonstrated several effective ways Peter could have made his life better and been a more effective Spiderman. Also Ironically, Peter didn't adapt any of those tactics when he was retconned back in.
I believe Morlun was absolutely butchered. His first two appearances were his absolute best. An uncaring force of nature relentlessly pursuing Spider-Man, and like he says, it's nothing personal; it's merely business as usual for Morlun to kill Spider-Man. He's easily Spider-Man's strongest foe. Hitting harder than Thor or even The Hulk. Morlun is Spider-Man's Doomsday or Bane, when he shows up, Spidey is going to take a beating and it won't be pretty. Not to mention Morlun holds the distinction of being the first villain to actually kill Spider-Man, which I believe wouldn't happen again until Ultimate Green Goblin in the Ultimate Comics. The design too. This uber powerful, power sucking villain isn't some hulking twisted beast or monster. He's well dressed and composed, almost gentlemanly. This energy vampire is almost like the Terminator. Everything he does is purely efficient, he moves with a purpose and nothing will stop him. Morlun is patient, it doesn't matter how long he has to pursue his prey, he knows that everything will tire eventually, and then he gets his next meal. Where Morlun falls flat is what the writers did to him in his later appearances. The Inheritors is one of the stupidest concepts Marvel has ever come up with. It takes away the uniqueness of Morlun and turns him into essentially a jobber.
