Spider-Man Villains Who Have Reformed

Highlights

Marvel's Spider-Man villains are not always purely evil & have reformed to varying degrees throughout their history.
Characters like Black Cat, Punisher, Lizard, Sandman, Venom, & Green Goblin have all experienced redemption arcs.
The complexities of morality, heroism, and villainy make these characters unique & add depth to their stories in the Marvel Universe.

The world of Spider-Man is filled with the best rogues' gallery in all of Marvel Comics. Spider-Man's New York basis has given his villains a lot of chances to cross over into other major Marvel Comics, helping make many of them household names in addition to himself. But in about eighty years of storytelling, it’s unsurprising to learn that these villains aren’t always so black-and-white.

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Throughout Marvel Comics history, there are times when many villains have fought alongside heroes, or actually reformed and become somewhat heroic themselves in some way. Spider-Man's villains aren’t often irredeemably evil, and these villains have proven that by turning to the light in various ways, on multiple occasions.

6 Black Cat

An Anti-Hero Thieve Who Sees Heroism & Villainy As Shades

Black Cat with Spider-Man in a comic book panel

Reformed First In Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1 #226
Reformed Again In Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1 #370

The Black Cat is a fan-favorite character, who has trod the line back and forth between hero and villain a lot since she was first introduced in 1979. When first introduced, Felicia Hardy was shown as a simple cat burglar attempting to break her father, also a thief, out of prison and fighting Spider-Man in the process. However, after Spidey saves her, Felicia returns after seemingly dying with a new obsession for the wall-crawler.

Felicia then struck up a relationship with Spider-Man, which he was initially hesitant about. She proved to be trustworthy, and he even revealed his identity to her, but they later broke up. Felicia went back to crime and dated Flash Thompson to make Spider-Man jealous, but ended up working with him again anyway. The two have dated, tried to kill each other, and even just been simple friends. Black Cat is a character who never truly seems trustworthy, but has even worked for heroic teams like Heroes for Hire more recently, as she branches out and becomes well-known across all of Marvel Comics, especially with her appearance in the recent Spider-Man games.

5 The Punisher

Complex Morality Issues Make Him A Dangerous Killer For Criminals

Reformed First In Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1 #129
Reformed Again In Punisher Vol.4 #1

Frank Castle is another hugely complicated character. Though he has become a major Marvel character and anti-hero in his own right, he began as a side character in the Spider-Man series when he debuted in 1974. After fighting Spider-Man in his debut, Castle discovered he was being manipulated and began working with the hero at different times. But as often as he found himself working with heroes like Spider-Man, he also found himself at odds with them, many times against Daredevil, who never wanted Frank to kill criminals.

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The complexities of the ways that the Punisher goes about his vigilante work have always made other heroes in the Marvel Comics Universe uncomfortable. It has been a struggle to keep him around any team for long, and Frank has gone off the deep end multiple times. He’s even gone insane and lost all control on different occasions, always eventually returning to his average “morally gray” state, but never truly feeling either villainous or fully reformed from his previous misdeeds, making him the perfect character for the next big Marvel game.

4 The Lizard

A Genius Doctor Plagued With A Feral Side

Reformed First In Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1 #6
Reformed Again In Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1 #45

The history of The Lizard, usually known as Doctor Curt Connors, borders on the more insane parts of comic book history. A scientist who wanted to develop a serum to regrow lost limbs, Connors mixed reptile DNA with his own and accidentally became the monstrous Lizard, unable to control his actions and completely savage. Spider-Man helps cure him and turns him back into a human, resulting in Curt apologizing and agreeing to help Spider-Man, which he does on various occasions.

However, it frequently occurred that some sort of reaction or further experiment would once again transform him into the Lizard. Thus, almost every time for years that he appeared in Marvel Comics, he would start and end as a friendly doctor, but in between, he would be transformed and go on a rampage of evil destruction. Either Connors can be called a constantly reforming villain, or simply the victim of one of the many Jekyll & Hyde situations found in comic books. He is another villain who got a fascinating turn in the recent Marvel's Spider-Man 2 game.

3 Sandman

A Sympathetic Villain Who Tries To Do Good In A Bad World

Reformed First In Marvel Team-Up Vol.1 #138
Reformed Again In Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1 #281

Sandman has always been a sympathetic character, shown best of all by the performances of Thomas Haden-Church in multiple Spider-Man movies and his recent gaming appearance in Spider-Man 2. In the comics, he was a criminal for an extended period when he was first introduced, but after a strange experience where he was merged with a fellow villain, Hydro-Man, and became “Mud Thing”, he decided to call it quits on his criminal career.

After toying with the idea for some time, he eventually came to help Spider-Man in a fight, and from that moment onward, Sandman went back and forth for many years, doing a lot of heroic deeds and even joining the Avengers on a probationary status after proving himself enough times. Despite eventually returning to a life of crime for an extended period, Sandman is looked at by many Marvel fans as not being “all that bad” in general.

2 Venom

Complexity Of Emotion & Power From Alien Symbiotes

Reformed First In Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1 #252
Reformed Again In Venom: Lethal Protector Vol.1 #1

The Venom symbiote specifically is a very strange entity, first found during the Secret Wars event on the Beyonder’s planet of Battleworld. The symbiote bonded with Spider-Man and, even when he was unconscious, actually became better than it was on its own, taking on aspects of the man it bonded with and even incapacitating villains instead of killing them, a heroic turn that could be seen in his spin-off game if it comes to fruition.

A split image with screwball, chameleon, and Shocker

Underrated Spider-Man Villains

The following Spider-Man villains don't get much spotlight despite having many great characteristics and traits.

However, they grew resentful of Peter after he refused to keep wearing the suit and bonded with Eddie Brock, becoming villainous for an extended period. But Venom, like several Spidey villains over the years, became popular enough to warrant its own series and became a heroic character after finally deciding Spider-Man was good and it could be too. Since then, Venom has wavered back and forth throughout the years but has remained too popular to be entirely villainous for long.

1 Green Goblin

Not Even The Worst Are Beyond Saving

Reformed First In Secret Invasion #8
Reformed Again In Gold Goblin #1

Norman Osborn has long been one of the biggest threats in the Marvel Universe for various reasons. His madness as the Green Goblin, his bad intentions as a leading businessman, and his frightful leadership of other organizations have left the Marvel Universe in terror on many occasions. He went from Spider-Man’s most well-known adversary to a member of the Thunderbolts team of supervillains sent on missions of help.

During this time, he was on the battlefield alongside the Avengers and shot the leader of the invading Skrulls, helping end a major threat and being designated leader of SHIELD in the aftermath. Norman abused this power in the end, forming a team of Dark Avengers and bringing about another serious problem for the Avengers. In current Marvel Comics, he has genuinely reformed. After being attacked by the Sin Eater, he was removed from all evil and became the Gold Goblin, a genuinely heroic character. Knowing Norman’s history though, it is predictable that he will eventually return to evil somehow.