Spider-Man villains poll

PS - if you vote for Carnage or Morlun you are probably a cunt.

I voted for Venom so I'm probably an almost-cunt? Kingpin was good but shone far more as a Daredevil villain. Kraven was generally silly but his death story is classic. Green Goblin II (Harry Osborn) had a really great underappreciated run, it was kind of a Two-Face knockoff, but it worked, but Norman's had so many bad returns it kind of ruined the character by now. All the members of the Sinister Six were probably better as a group. Chameleon almost got my vote too.

Doc Ock, esp. in the Ultimate incarnation.

Mysterio, word is you're gay for Spiderman!

No Gibbon no etc.

Has there ever been a story in which the Vulture presents any kind of credible threat to Spider-Man? (I'm blanking on his first appearances). Awesome character design but he is a scrawny old dude in a vulture suit.

I voted for the Hobgoblin because the first American comic I ever read had Spiderman clinging to the front of the Hobgoblin's battle van.

I've only ever read the first Ditko Vulture and the Darwyn Cooke one - he's definitely a threat in the former, his age and experience give him, if not competence, then powerful CONFIDENCE over teenage Spidey. plus there's an awesome several-panel scene of him flying away from a robbery with briefcase in hand completely slowly and relaxed, all "la la laa, I'm in the sky so fuck everyone else"!

For me it's got to be Sandman - the anti-Spidey, with an endless list of personal problems that constantly force him to be a decent human being in the face of temptingly robbable banks. Sorry, Steve Ditko, it's the moral relativism that wins it.

Second favourite probably Ditko Doc Ock, with the Hobgoblin in third thanks to Roger Stern.

Electro. He does evil things :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCwz1dUxRAE&feature=related

Doctor Octopus wins for the elegance of the character design.

Ock's a great choice, but I went with OG Green Goblin because the earliest issues of ASM I bought were when he killed Gwen Stacy. Pretty heavy shit for this 9-year-old.

I voted for him as well, though TBH that's more because of non-Spidey appearances: Pulse (or was it Alias?) and Thunderbirds.

are several of these basically the same as each other? I mean, The Lizard and The Rhino, are they not both people who turn into bestial monsters?

They are identical apart from one of them, yes. Hint: the Rhino

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/rhino.jpg

The Lizard turns into a bestial monster but is otherwise a good guy.

The Rhino is a dude in a rhino suit who is generally written as a bit of a loser, though his role as this villainous archetype seems to have been overtaken a bit by The Armadillo.

Milligan/Fegredo's "Flowers For Algernon" riff on the Rhino: awesome.

He's a bit of joke villain isn't he, The Rhino? Basically one up from Shocker.

Animal themed superhero/villains is a perilous source of inspiration. Any minute now Spidey may face the threat of the lolcat or bucketwalrus.

xpost - In fairness though, there are a lot of people who achieve or have thrust upon them powers relating to an animal, and happen to turn up in New York and evade the notice of the FF/Avengers/Daredevil in favour of a character who has powers relating to an animal. This is because Stan Lee is an appalling hack the Tyrannosaur of Thrillpower!

Also Venom is Carnage.

Has there ever been a story in which the Vulture presents any kind of credible threat to Spider-Man?

DO NOT SEARCH the Vulture Gets Young story circa Spidey's 30th anniversary, wherein the Vulture gets some super-duper exoskeleton that turns him into a youngish dude by SUCKING PEOPLE'S ENERGY kinda like a vulture except not right?, and Spidey's clone parents save him from the Vulture's terrorizing youth by stepping in front of some potential SUCKING. Or some shit.

GOD BLESS THE 90S!

Andrew - I think Stan wasn't to blame, it was those who learned at the master's knee, viz G Conway, who really milked the animal connection.

Hydroman made the cut.

(hi I just read the poll options)

The only two spiderman comics I saw when I was small featured:

1. The Shocker - OMG he fires electric bolts from his hands = super scary.

2. Some dude who was beating up his wife.

The latter was called something like Man Mountain Marco, and was incredibly low rent.

That is meant to suggest that The Shocker is full of thrill power.

http://www.samruby.com/Villains/BigWheel/Big_Wheel.gif
THE BIG WHEEL

Again, where is Skip aka the boy who molested Spider-Man? Surely his earliest and scariest villain.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

http://images.wikia.com/marveldatabase/images/f/fd/AmazingSpider-Man073.jpg

That's a nice cover, actually.

Romita Sr. is SuperSpider-Great!

The more I look at it the more I like it. Absolutely perfect composition.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

OMG I was the only Sandman voter!

Actually this reminds me of the time I was stuck in a DEADLY STAG NIGHT OF DOOM next to a guy who insisted that the Spidey 3 film was a rip-off of the REAL SANDMAN as in the one that Neil Gaiman invented from whole cloth without any help from Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko.

I tried to tell him that the Sandman from Spidey 3 was the creation of Ditko and Lee, but he treated me like a man who tried to tell General Thunderbolt Ross that the Hulk was not a threat to the civilised world.

When I told him what I did for a living in the attempt to create some form of trump card, he said that I wasn't exactly a REAL WRITER now was I. Then his girlfriend admitted that his hobby was collecting obsolete motherboards from computers that no longer existed.

HOLY MOTHERBOXXX BATMAN!! As I didn't scream.

I was almost expecting Brute and Glob to leap out and back me up, but unfortunately the only spirit that took my side was WHISKEY that silenced his fool talk with the power of drunkenness. Thank Highfather!

I tried to tell him that the Sandman from Spidey 3 was the creation of Ditko and Lee, but he treated me like a man who tried to tell General Thunderbolt Ross that the Hulk was not a threat to the civilised world.

<3

"Has there ever been a story in which the Vulture presents any kind of credible threat to Spider-Man?"

Something I saw written once that I thought was interesting was that outside the Green Goblin, all of the early classic Spider-man villains were not that threatening and kind of goof balls in that either wanted to steal some cash or just get back at that meddlin' Spidey. Even the powerful villains like Doc Ock were not threatening and nuts in your average Bat rogue kind of way.

Later on some of these guys got more wicked (usually aimed at Daredevil) and later ones like Venom are really threatening, but the early ones are kind of all just schmoes with a gimmick, which is kind of cool.

That being said, the Green Goblin in those really old Spider-man cartoons always freaked me out. How long has Norman Osborn been back in the realm of living?

Spidey Foes vs Flash Foes!

all of the early classic Flash villains were not that threatening and kind of goof balls in that either wanted to steal some cash or just get back at that meddlin' Flash. Even the powerful villains like Rainbow Raider were not threatening and nuts in your average Bat rogue kind of way.

Later on some of these guys got more wicked (usually aimed at Batman or Green Lantern or featured in Suicide Squad) and later ones like Reverse-Flash are really threatening, but the early ones are kind of all just schmoes with a gimmick, which is kind of cool.

I can see the comparison. I haven't read much of the classic Flash as I have Spider-man.

In that list above for the old books, you really would have to add J.Jonah Jameson and the Spider Slayers into the list. That was something that came up a few times in the old comics.