10 Most Evil Versions Of Spider-Man
The most chilling, totally-not-friendly neighbourhood iterations of ol' Web-head.
Transcript
00:00 When one looks across the pantheon of characters served up by Marvel Comics over the decades,
00:04 it's fair to say that nobody has proven as forever popular as Spider-Man. He's heroic,
00:10 he's funny – sometimes – and he always knows how to kick justice right in the face.
00:15 Except, that is, when he's being downright evil. And that's what we're here to talk
00:18 about today. I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are the 10 Most Evil Versions of
00:23 Spider-Man.
00:24 10. The Last Stand
00:26 Happy Birthday This 2003 run saw a three-part "Happy Birthday"
00:30 story that found Peter Parker trapped deep in a timeline as the result of a scheme from
00:34 the villainous Dormammu. There, Parker was able to see both a younger version of himself
00:39 and an older version. For the younger version, this is the Peter who is minutes away from
00:43 being bitten by the radioactive spider that would change his life. Should the present-day
00:47 Parker hop in and stop this bite from happening, in turn giving him a chance to save Uncle
00:52 Ben? But upon glancing at the future Peter, our hero sees a grizzled figure who is about
00:56 to go down in a blaze of glory as gun-toting cops circle in on him, should the present-day
01:01 web-head intervene here. But the truth is, this future Peter Parker has spent years as
01:05 a brutal vigilante who's killed his targets. This bloody path began, as later shown in
01:10 Grim Hunt, when Spider-Man murdered Kraven in revenge for the deaths of Kane and the
01:15 Matty Franklin version of Spider-Woman. From there, Peter embarked on a downward spiral
01:19 that pulled inspiration from the Punisher's playbook. In fact, so extreme were his methods,
01:24 Spidey was even kicked out of the Avengers. After years on the run from the law, he lured
01:28 the police to Aunt May's grave with the intentions of having the cops kill him, which
01:32 is where our Spider-Man finds him.
01:35 9. Pestilence – Enema of the State
01:38 It was only a fleeting appearance in a single story, but the Earth-5701 version of Peter
01:43 Parker earns himself a spot on this list for just how much of a thoroughly creepy bastard
01:47 he was during his outing in 2005's Cable and Deadpool #15. Ten years on from its release,
01:52 Marvel Comics opted to pay certain tributes to 1995's Age of Apocalypse story. As part
01:57 of this, Cable and Deadpool #15's Enema of the State had the Merc with a Mouth accidentally
02:03 travelling to an alternate world that was, as Wade put it himself, "an age of apocalypse".
02:08 Upon landing on Earth-5701, Pooley D is immediately greeted by Apocalypse's infamous Four Horsemen,
02:15 with Angel leading the charge under the guise of Death, it's soon revealed that this group's
02:19 iteration of Pestilence is a sinister, four-armed, four-legged Spider-Man.
02:23 What marks this version of old webhead out as a particularly disturbing one is how he
02:27 makes comments about wanting to suck the marrow from the bones of Deadpool, and how he wants
02:32 to see Wade crippled, starting with his jaw. It's unfortunate that readers only got to
02:36 spend a handful of panels with this intriguing and nefarious spin on Spider-Man, for Deadpool
02:41 was soon transported to yet another alternate Earth as part of an overall story that saw
02:45 him trying to locate Cable.
02:47 8. Ben Reilly's Latest Descent Into Villainy – Beyond
02:51 Ben Reilly is someone who long-time Marvel fans have often clamoured to see more of.
02:55 One of the few positives to come out of the plentiful clone saga, Ben is a Peter Parker
02:59 doppelganger who's a massive fan favourite character for his time as the heroic Scarlet
03:04 Spider. Even more grin-inducing for those Reilly fans, he was fully back under the Spider-Man
03:09 moniker in 2021 as he took over from Peter Parker. Given the Spider-Man name by the Beyond
03:14 Corporation that owns Parker Industries and the Spider license, Ben initially butts heads
03:19 with Peter before his old pal gives him his blessing. Throughout all of this, Beyond tinkered
03:24 with Ben's mind, and stripped back his memories until he became a hollow shell of his former
03:28 self. Reilly eventually dons his own green and purple take on the traditional Spider-Man
03:32 costume and gives himself the villainous name of Chasm.
03:36 While Chasm is a new creation who hasn't done as many awful acts as some of the other
03:40 versions of Spider-Man on this list, he deserves a spot here for the sheer potential that he
03:45 has to cause chaos. After all, one has to remember that Ben Reilly is a carbon copy
03:49 of Peter Parker, complete with all of Peter's skills, smarts, and pig-headed will to win.
03:55 Plus, now, has additional abilities due to polymer mutations. And that's pretty scary.
04:00 7. Sinister Spider-Man – Dark Avengers
04:03 Sir Mac Gargan is one of Spider-Man's oldest rivals, with Gargan initially debuting in
04:08 1964's The Amazing Spider-Man #19 before becoming the villainous Scorpion in the following
04:13 issue. In addition to a lengthy career as the Scorpion, Mac at one time also became
04:18 Venom, which nicely led into him then taking on the mantle of Spider-Man.
04:22 So how can somebody with decades worth of evil intentions behind them be worthy of the
04:26 Spider-Man moniker? Well, that's because this was all part of a master plan from Norman
04:30 Osborn.
04:32 After Osborn created his own underhanded Thunderbolts team, Mac was present when the group evolved
04:37 into the Dark Avengers. Again, a villainous faction headed up by Norman Osborn, here we
04:41 have the Venom symbiote tweaked so that it was less erratic and looked more like Spider-Man
04:46 during the time that Peter first wore the black suit. As such, Osborn renamed Gargan
04:50 as Dark Spider-Man, aka Sinister Spider-Man.
04:54 And this Dark Spider-Man wasted no time in topping the heinous acts of his time as Scorpion
04:58 and Venom, with Mac now intent on eating those who stood in his way as he became consumed
05:03 by the addictive aggression of this altered symbiote. Gargan would drop the Spider-Man
05:07 name and finally be banished of the Venom symbiote period by 2010's Big Time Tale,
05:13 although he would still revert back to his Scorpion persona.
05:16 6. Spider Carnage – Spider-Man The Animated Series
05:20 Diving into Fox's stunning Spider-Man The Animated Series of the 1990s, this iconic
05:25 show offered up one of the most deranged versions of Peter Parker seen in any medium. While
05:31 this series brilliantly showcased classic rogues such as Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin,
05:35 Kingpin, Hobgoblin, and, of course, Venom and Carnage, it also offered up a skewed Spider-Carnage
05:40 rogue towards the end of the show's final season. As is ever the case when talking about
05:45 Spider-Man and the 1990s, clones were the hot topic of the day. In the series' two-part
05:50 Spider Wars offering, so powerful was Spider-Carnage that it required a whole slew of Spider-Men
05:55 to attempt to bring him down. Featuring Spideys from various dimensions all brought together
06:00 by the Beyonder, this story's big bad is a Peter who not only lost Uncle Ben, but lost
06:05 Aunt May too. Emotionally broken and unhinged as a result, the vulnerable, erratic Parker
06:10 proves to be the perfect host for the Carnage symbiote.
06:14 With a plan concocted around the premise of "I've lost what's closest to me, so you
06:17 will lose what's closest to you", Spider-Carnage unleashed a scheme to generate an interdimensional
06:22 hull that would destroy all of reality. It would be revealed that Spider-Carnage was
06:26 actually a Miles Warren-created clone, something which further pushed this Peter over the edge,
06:31 and it took a pep talk from an otherworldly Uncle Ben to finally convince the villain
06:35 to cease his plan, with the rogue then sacrificing himself for the greater good.
06:39 5. Spider-Norman (Spider-Geddon)
06:43 While the numerous different Earths and realities have seen plentiful Peter Parkers and various
06:47 other characters take on the role of their respective world's Spider-Man, the kicker
06:51 of Earth-44145 is that the Spider-Man of this realm is none other than Norman Osborn. If
06:58 there's one guarantee in comics, it's that Norman always has a self-serving scheme
07:02 up his sleeve, and of course, that was clearly the case in the huge Spider-Geddon event.
07:07 There, the spiders of multiple realities were all brought together to stop the villainous
07:11 inheritors and their plan to dominate the multiverse.
07:13 Osborn's plan is that Earth-616, as in, our Earth, is an acceptable loss in the grand
07:19 scheme of things. To show a further glimpse at Spider-Norman's sinister side, the short
07:24 time we spend with him in his own world shows that he's mutated himself into an eight-limbed
07:28 being, has murdered Peter Parker, and has been partaking in schemes so crazed that his
07:32 own son Harry sacrificed his own life in an attempt to stop him.
07:36 4. Doppelganger (Infinity War)
07:39 Debuting during 1992's Infinity War, Doppelganger is a version of Spider-Man who is a mindless,
07:45 ferocious, eight-limbed savage with heinous intentions. The Doppelganger is a demonic
07:49 double of Spider-Man. This was all part of a plan from Warlock, under his magus moniker,
07:54 to unleash sinister, evolved versions of certain heroes onto the very heroes from whom they
07:58 were copied. But Infinity War was only the tip of the iceberg for Doppelganger, though,
08:02 and he'd eventually be the only double to make it out of that arc in one piece.
08:07 After being saved by Demon Goblin, old Doppy here resurfaced in 1993 as part of Maximum
08:12 Carnage. There, this twisted take on Spider-Man became the obedient, murderous pet of Carnage
08:17 and Shriek. Making Doppelganger particularly intimidating, this creature has abilities
08:22 that not even Spider-Man has, such as being able to cling to buildings without the need
08:25 for webbing, having webbing that is as sharp as glass, and being nearly six times stronger
08:30 than Peter Parker.
08:32 3. Patton Parnell (Edge of the Spider-Verse)
08:35 The best way to summarise Patton Parnell is to imagine your regular Peter Parker, then
08:39 completely flip all of his personality traits and characteristics. Appearance-wise, Patton
08:44 looks very much like a young Peter. Following in Parker's footsteps, Patton eventually
08:48 winds up being bitten by a radioactive spider. But the problem is that Patton Parnell is
08:53 an utterly unhinged and disturbed individual.
08:56 Introduced in Edge of the Spider-Verse, and calling Earth-51412 home, Parnell eerily enjoys
09:01 torturing animals, obsessively stalks his neighbour Sarah Jane, and develops a taste
09:06 for human flesh. Once bitten by a gnarly red spider, the youngster fully embraced his dark
09:11 side and used his newfound abilities for nefarious means. Said "embracing" meant transforming
09:16 into a chilling spider-human creature with eight red eyes, four arms, and four legs,
09:20 and who webbed up and then ate people.
09:22 The only way that Patton's toothy rampage was brought to an end was, thankfully, when
09:26 vampiric spider-sort Morlan turned up and drained the crazed teenager of his life force.
09:31 2. The Spider - Exiles
09:34 Exiles was a book that launched in 2001, with the titular team serving as a group of
09:39 reality-jumping heroes. By the time of Exiles #12, readers were introduced to an iteration
09:44 of Peter Parker, who went by the simple moniker of 'The Spider'. Unlike the standard 616
09:49 version of Spider-Man, not to mention most other takes on the wall-crawler, this Earth-15
09:53 Peter is a menacing, eerie figure who relishes in chaos and carnage. Speaking of carnage,
09:59 this Peter's natural want for bloodshed and brutality is only further amped up due
10:03 to the fact that he's bonded with the infamous carnage symbiote. The basic MO of The Spider
10:08 was merely that he wanted to kill as many people as possible and decimate as many realities
10:12 as possible. That mission was eventually brought to a stop thanks to a fatal heat blast from
10:16 fellow rogue Firestar, who Spider had turned on earlier, that resulted in the death of
10:21 both.
10:22 1. The Flesh Eater - Marvel Zombies
10:25 Officially existing in the realm of Earth-2149, Peter Parker was doing the regular Peter Parker
10:30 things before a virus ravaged the planet. From what's known about this Peter, pre-pandemic,
10:35 he lived with his Aunt May, Uncle Ben was dead, Mary Jane was his one true, and Parker
10:39 was swinging around the streets of Queens, New York. Then, an infected Colonel America
10:43 bit Spidey and threw old web-head's world upside down. Despite doing his best to resist
10:48 the urges to feast on human flesh, Spider-Man eventually gives in and takes a bite out of
10:52 Mary Jane.
10:53 MJ was merely a starter here, though, for Peter would then start to eat Aunt May. And
10:57 the term "start" is used here, as the now zombified Mary Jane shuffles into the
11:02 scene and wants to try some of that tasty May meat for herself. So Spider-Man properly
11:07 kills MJ so that he can keep Aunt May's bones and flesh for himself.
11:12 As the Marvel Zombies books expanded over the years, we've seen the undead Spidey
11:15 lose limbs, witnessed him devour the Aunt May and Mary Janes of other worlds, and even
11:20 literally tear off his own skin. Great.
11:23 And there we go, my friends. Those were the 10 most evil versions of Spider-Man. I hope
11:26 you enjoyed that and let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section
11:29 below. As always, I've been Jules, you've been awesome, never forget that. I'll speak
11:34 to you soon. Bye.