My Top 30 Spider-Man Villains Part 3 #10-1

With twenty of my top thirty Spider-Man villains behind us its time to dive headfirst into the top 10. We probably have some of the most popular Spider-Man villains represented in the top ten as they should be the real question is the order. Well that might just surprise you.Well enough of the stalling already lets just get right to it.

#10 The Hobgoblin

Real Name: Rodrick Kingsley

First Appearance: June 1980s Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 #43 as Rodrick Kingsley and Mar 1983s Amazing Spider-Man #238 as The Hobgoblin

About: Even though Norman Osborn was now "dead" the writers of Spider-Man were still longing to use The Green Goblin. They wanted Norman back but this was back during a time when a new character didn't return from the dead every month so a compromise was made and The Hobgoblin was born. The Hobgoblin had stumbled on Norman Osborn's Green Goblin gear and stole his for his own changing the colors and name. The Hobgoblin was a instant hit with fans and for a short while became Spider-Man's primary enemy. Like what was done with The Green Goblin before him there was a mystery set up around the identity of who The Hobgoblin was and just like before it played out in Amazing Spider-Man for a very long time before the big reveal of Rodrick Kingsley. Also like The Green Goblin there have been many people to take up the guise as The Hobgoblin but once again like The Green Goblin at the end of the day its only the original that truly matters.

#09 The Kingpin

Real Name: Wilson Fisk

First Appearance: July 1967s Amazing Spider-Man #50

About: Like the name should suggest The Kingpin is not only one of Spider-Man's top villains hes also one of Marvel's top villains epically when it comes to a lot of the street level heroes in Marvel such as The Punisher and of course his #1 adversary Daredevil. However The Kingpin has long been a sharp and painful thorn in the side of Spider-Man. Being The kingpin of crime Wilson Fisk has sent a lot of trouble Spider-Man's way in the form of other super villains that he sends to take out Spider-Man for him. Despite the fact that he holds the New York underworld under his thumb he is just as much a family man as he is a criminal mastermind if anyone threatens or hurts his family he makes sure to use all of his many resources to make sure that person learns their lesson one way or another. The Kingpin has also set up many other business to help New York and for charity. This was of course to keep people from making the connection that Wilson Fisk and The Kingpin are one and the same.

#08 The Scorpion

Real Name: MacDonald "Mac" Gargan

First Appearance: Dec 1964s Amazing Spider-Man #19

About: Macdonald Gargan was nothing but a lowly street thug until he was hired by J. Jonah Jameson to go under an experiment to give him super human powers. In a mad quest to defeat Spider-Man Jameson selected a scorpion as the animal that the tests would be based on given that the scorpion is a natural predator of spiders. The experiment was for the most part a success giving Gargan the proportionate strength and abilities of a scorpion but in a huge draw back the experiment also caused Gargan to go a little mad. After being defeated in his first encounter with Spider-Man The Scorpion swore vengeance on both the Wall Crawler and the man who turned him into the monster he now was, J. Jonah Jameson. Over the years this has caused a lot of intense battles where Spider-Man has to repeatedly save Jameson's life who will in the end most likely just do an editorial about how it was all Spider-Man's fault and how he and The Scorpion were probably in cahoots from the beginning. In more recent years Mac Gargan had abandoned the Scorpion persona in favor of bonding with the Venom symboite but after a few years of this the symbiote was stripped of him and he once again became The Scorpion only this time with a major upgrade.

#07 Venom

Real Name: Edward "Eddie" Brock

First Appearance: Dec 1984s Secret Wars #8 (Alien Costume) May 1988s Amazing Spider-Man #300 (As Eddie Brock)

About: Easily the most popular of all of Spider-Man's modern day villains Venom is also easily the biggest threats to the web slinger. During the Secret Wars Spider-Man's costume had been damaged so he went to get a new one but on the way accidentally released an alien symboite which had been imprisoned. Despite the initial tingling of his spider sense after the symboite touched him the warnings went away. The symboite quickly creates the famed black costume, soon Spider-Man discovers that the symboite has powers of its own, such as enhancing his own strength, creating its own webbing and changing into other clothes. Eventually Spider-Man finds that the symboite feeds off his emotions making him very angry and dangerous. No longer wanting anything to do with the symboite he rejects it causing the symboite to harbor very bitter feelings towards Spider-Man an attribute it would share with its next host Eddie Brock who blamed Spider-Man for all the troubles in his own life. After Eddie Brock and the symboite bonded they declared themselves Venom. Now together all of Spider-Man's most personal secrets was learned by Brock such has his secret identity of Peter Parker. This and other knowledge would be used to exploit Spider-Man time and again by Venom. Another advantage that Venom had over Spider-Man was his ability to override Spider-Man's spider sense so that Spider-Man would never know when Venom was about to attack him. Somewhere along the way Eddie Brock was separated from the symboite and put in prison, where he shared a cell with Cletus Cassidy. When the symboite returned to Brock they re-bonded and escaped of prison but in doing so the symboite left a piece of itself behind which boned with Cassidy to create Carnage. Venom's hate for Carnage was so strong that it caused him to put aside his differences with Spider-Man a number of times so that they could team up and defeat him. After being a threat to Spider-Man and his family for several years Eddie Brock who never desired to be a villain in the first place eventually used the symboite for good instead of evil, despite his hate for Spider-Man and the battles they were sure to have when ever they encountered one another. After a while Eddie Brock discovered that he had contracted cancer soon after which the symboite left Brock and offered itself and all of its knowledge to Mac Gargan, The Scorpion. After joining with Gargan the symboite once again regained its vicious streak and has pushed the already unstable mind of Gargan over the edge and again become a huge threat to not only Spider-Man but anyone who decided to get in his way. After the symboite was separated from Gargan it was once again put to use for good with Flash Thompson who is the current host. Gargan and Flash are all good and all but its Eddie Brock who is easily the best host of the symboite to date and after several years apart from each other I continue to count down the days until they are once again together, hey it has to happen sooner or later right?

#06 Kraven The Hunter

Real Name: Sergei Kravinoff

First Appearance: Aug 1964s Amazing Spider-Man #15

About: After hunting every dangerous animal he could think of Kraven The Hunter got bored of hunting big game and wanted a new challenge. He got that challenge when he heard of Spider-Man and knew that if he could defeat him would be known as the worlds greatest hunter. Immediately Kraven left the plains of Africa and made his way to New York City where he picked up the trail of Spider-Man, eventually they fought and after thinking he had defeated the web slinger Spider-Man pulled out a victory. This would ultimately be Kraven's downfall nearly every time he faced off against Spider-Man as he constantly underestimated his foe. Eventually Kraven starts to lose his sanity and becomes obsessed with defeating Spider-Man thinking of only that. Eventually in the classic storyline Kraven's Last Hunt he accomplishes this goal and after thinking Spider-Man to be dead he buries him alive. After this Kraven dons Spider-Man's costume in a mad attempt to prove that he is better then Spider-Man at his own game after defeating a bunch of street thugs Kraven hunts down Vermin, another Spider-Man villain, and after defeating him cages him. Eventually Spider-Man comes to and after escaping his grave finds Kraven who no longer has any interest in fighting him claiming that he has nothing to prove to him. Instead he releases Vermin who since Kraven was wearing Spider-Man's costume thinks it was actually Spider-Man himself who attacked him. Kraven then leaves Spider-Man to fight Vermin and after deciding that he has done everything that ever wanted he picks up shot gun and turns it against himself ending his life knowing that he had soundly bettered Spider-Man in every conceivable way. But of course this is comics and the dead never stay dead forever. After other family members picked up the mantle of Kraven The Hunter the true Kraven was recently brought back to life.

#05 J. Jonah Jameson

Real Name: John Johnah Jameson

First Appearance: Mar 1963s Amazing Spider-Man #1

About: While not a villain in the traditional sense I don't think that anyone can argue that J. Jonah Jameson is one of the top villains that Spider-Man has to go up against. Since Jameson is a popular public figure and considers himself a man of the people who would never do anything to hurt anyone or commit any crimes he cannot be arrested. So how is he a villain? Well how about the fact that he uses every single resource available to him to try to make New Yorkers hate Spider-Man, something that has worked quite well for several years. Whats more Jameson has was the man who paid to turn Mac Gargan into the Scorpion for no other reason then to destroy Spider-Man, he also commissioned a the first several Spider Slayer robots for the same reason. Still at the end of the day though Spider-Man takes Jameson's hate against him with stride because he knows that despite going about it the wrong way Jameson only means well. His rational is that if you were truly a hero then you wouldn't hide behind a mask and the real heroes were the normal people who put there lives on the line every day like police, firemen and astronauts like his son John. At the end of the day though Spidey always gets the last laugh on old Triple J since Jameson has Spider-Man on his payroll and doesn't know it.

#04 The Green Goblin 

Real Name: Norman Virgil Osborn

First Appearance: July 1964s Amazing Spider-Man #14

About: When it comes to Spider-Man's villains The Green Goblin takes a back seat to no one. When Norman Osborn ingested The Goblin Serum he gained superhuman strength, stamina, durability, agility, reflexes, and healing factor most importantly though he also gained his psychosis. With the addition of his goblin glider, pumpkin bombs and other trademark weapons you have one of the most iconic comic book super villains ever. The Green Goblin's worst acts make nearly every other Spider-Man villain seem tame. He was the architect behind the clone saga that caused Peter Parker to think that he was a clone of Ben Riley who was at the time believed to be the real Peter Parker. During this revelation The Goblin killed Ben Riley who was the closest Peter ever had to a real brother. After his own apparent death his legacy caused his son Harry who was the best friend of Peter Parker to go insane himself and take up the mantle as the second Green Goblin, his worst and most defining act of villainy though is of course the death of Peter's first love Gwen Stacy. Nearly every time you see The Green Goblin you know something epic is going to happen even more now then ever since he rose to power in the Marvel Universe becoming not only Spider-Man's greatest enemy but one of the biggest threats to every hero in The Marvel Universe.

#03 Electro

Real Name: Maxwell Dillon

First Appearance: Feb 1964s Amazing Spider-Man #9

About: Max Dillion was a lineman for an electric company when one day he was struck by lighting while repairing a power line, the lighting strike caused a change in Dillion's nervous system giving him electrical powers and causing him to take on the name Electro. As one of Spider-Man's villain's he can claim what no one else can. He was the first man to defeat Spider-Man. When Spider-Man first tried to touch Electro he was nearly killed due to the charged electricity within him. Another time after regaining his lost powers Electro defeated Spider-Man again and demanded he beg for his life, Spider-Man did so and Electro was more then satisfied and left Spider-Man to live. another one of his most high profile crimes came when he caused a breach in the super villain prison known as The Raft allowing almost every villain imprisoned there to escape. Although a constant threat I find that Electro is often times forgotten when talking about Spider-Man's greatest villains. Not only has he defeated Spider-Man before but he has done it more then once most villains can't even claim one victory over Spider-Man let alone multiple victories.

#02 Doctor Octupus 

Real Name: Otto Gunther Octavius

First Appearance: July 1963's Amazing Spider-Man #3

About: Doctor Octopus is easily one of the leading villains in Spider-Man's rouge gallery. Due to the dangerous experiments he often took part in he created four metal arms to conduct his experiments from a distance but after a lab accident they were bonded to his body. When compared to Spider-Man's other rouges Dr. Octopus' genius is unrivaled and ranks up there with any of the most brilliant minds in the Marvel Universe including the likes of Mr. Fantastic & Iron Man. He is also one of the best multi-taskers in the entire Marvel Universe with the mental capability to be able to use each of his metal arms to do four completely different things at once while using his own hands to yet again for another task. He also both formed and lead the original Sinister Six which pushed Spider-Man to his limits. Another time he beat Spider-Man's partner at the time The Black Cat near death putting her in critical condition after. The biggest defining moment of his villainy however was murder Gwen Stacy's father Police Captain George Stacy.

#01 Mysterio

Real Name: Quentin Beck

First Appearance: June 1964s Amazing Spider-Man #13

About: Yes! Mysterio! I LOVE Mysterio! In my opinion Mysterio has got to be not only one of Spider-Man's most under rated villains but one of the most underrated villain's in all of comicdom. The guy made special effects for movies and brought that talent into his life of crime, I'm thinking that these days that ability makes him more relevant then ever. His awesomely original powers of illusion also makes him brilliant tactician. On top of that hes got one of the best costumes that have ever been seen in comics. Its a completely green skintight outfit with a grid on it, a nifty purple cape with fantastic eye buttons keeping it in place and of course the fish bowl! I love the fishbowl! You know what else makes Mysterio super under rated and awesome? His goal of evil much like everything else with Mysterio is truly original. He doesn't want to rob a bank, or even that age old conquer the world thing, no all Mysterio uses his powers for is to drive Spider-Man mad! That's it! He doesn't even want to kill Spider-Man, just make him go insane, well not just Spider-Man he wants to drive Daredevil nuts too I guess but that's all the better! He's also succeeded in his evil plot of insanity driving on multiple occasions with Spidey as well before Spider-Man realized he was being screwed with by Mysterio but still that gives Mysterio a higher success rate against Spider-Man then nearly all of his other villains! Everything about Mysterio is stupendous! Did I mention that I LOVE Mysterio? Because I do.

So there you are my top thirty Spider-Man villains. Not every one of Spidey's villains are home runs though some of them are just plain awful and since I just did the top thirty Spider-Man villains then keep an eye out in the next few days for the top five worse Spider-Man villains. We're gonna have some real stinkers on that one. Until then though let me know what you think of my top thirty villains with a comment below.