Highlights
- Spider-Man has had his fair share of villainous moments, like when Dr. Octopus took over his body and became the Superior Spider-Man.
- In an alternate universe, Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, gained Spider-Man's powers and fought against a race of vampires.
- Spider-Gwen's universe revealed a shocking twist, with Peter Parker becoming the Lizard instead of the typical villain, Curt Connors.
Spider-Man is one of the best superheroes Marvel has ever introduced. The webbed wall-crawler made his way through the streets of New York City helping the average citizen of his friendly neighborhood. But there were times when Spider-Man gave in to his worst impulses and became a villain.
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While Spider-Man has been called the face of Marvel due to his popularity, it's almost always fun to see what superheroes would get up to when they make the wrong choice. While Spider-Man always found a way back to being a hero, he still brought out some great villain stories for Marvel.
10 Superior Spider-Man
This is one of the weirder Spider-Man stories ever written. Dr. Octopus is dying and must find a way to survive. He transplants his consciousness into Spider-Man's body. The villain takes on the mantle of Superior Spider-Man and does try to be a hero, although his motives aren't entirely pure.
Doc Ock eventually returns the body to Peter Parker and regains his own in The Clone Conspiracy. Otto Octavius again takes on the Superior Spider-Man mantle but eventually allies himself with HYDRA.
9 Timespinner
Timespinner was an exact copy of Spider-Man who was loyal to the time-traveling villain, Kang the Conqueror. This brilliant scientist and all-around tyrant created an android to take the place of Spider-Man during one of his many battles with the Avengers.
Timespinner had the same thoughts and mannerisms as the real Spider-Man. The only way to tell him apart from his organic counterpart was his allegiance to Kang.
8 Norman Osborn
On Earth-44145, Norman Osborn is the unfortunate soul granted Spider-Man's powers. This version of Spider-Man, portrayed by the man who is normally the Green Goblin, got swept into battle with a race of vampires trying to feed on all the Spider-powered people of the multiverse. This version of Spider-Man tried to banish the Inheritors to Earth-616, the Earth of Peter Parker Prime.
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Much like Doc Ock's turn as Spider-Man, while Norman Osborn was often guided by villainous aspirations, he still committed heroic acts. He died nobly by sacrificing himself to stop Spider-Wasp Shathra who was trying to form a hive of Spider-People.
7 The Lizard
After the Spider-Verse event, Gwen Stacy served as Spider-Gwen on Earth-65. On this Earth, one of Spider-Man's love interests wound up being bitten by the radioactive spider. One of the first villains Spider-Gwen faced was the Lizard.
However, this alternate Earth through everyone for a loop when it was revealed that the Lizard was not Curt Connors but Peter Parker.
6 Spider's Shadow
This miniseries set in the What If...? timeframe revealed what would've happened if Peter Parker had continued to bond with the alien symbiote rather than abandoning it for Eddie Brock to find and become Venom.
In this series, Peter gets to know the symbiote on a deeper level and starts using far more lethal methods to stop his villains as Black Suit Spider-Man. This series looks at what would happen if Spider-Man truly gave in to those deeper impulses.
5 Patton Parnell
The Spider-Verse event allowed for the creation of dozens of other Spider-People that bring new aspects to the character bitten by a radioactive spider. Patton Parnell demonstrates what would happen if Spider-Man was a horror movie villain.
Instead of saving his community, Patton was a stalker who fed off the blood of his abusive uncle. This was a horrifying look at what could happen to Spider-People in the wrong universe, but it could still make for an interesting horror movie if Sony Pictures ever wanted to make a darker film.
4 Ben Reilly
Starting as the Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly revealed his villainous tendencies when he was discovered to also be the Jackal in The Clone Conspiracy. After being scarred and moving to Las Vegas, the Beyond Corporation reached out to Reilly to be their version of Spider-Man.
Of course, the Beyond Corporation was known for trying to shape their Spider-Men into who they thought he should be rather than who he was. This led to an even more villainous turn for Reilly when he discovered the truth. Ben wound up attacking Peter Parker, who was trying to help him, and falling into a vat of toxic chemicals. The further physical and mental scars led to Reilly becoming the villain known as Chasm.
3 Zombie Spider-Man
Marvel jumped on the zombie apocalypse craze with this immensely popular alternate universe story. In the Marvel Zombies timeline, all Marvel superheroes were either eaten by zombies or turned into zombies with an insatiable need to feed.
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Spider-Man tries his best to resist his zombie urges but eventually fails and starts looking for someone to eat. Zombie Spider-Man eats both Mary Jane and Aunt May. However, Zombie Spider-Man finds a small bit of redemption by creating a vaccine that kills all the zombies, even himself.
2 The Death of Jean Dewolff
Captain Jean DeWolff was a friend of Spider-Man's who was tragically murdered. This senseless death sends Spider-Man on a warpath to find her killer. When he finds the Sin-Eather, the villain who killed DeWolff, Spider-Man is ready to murder for vengeance.
The only thing stopping Spider-Man from crossing the line is the actions of his longtime friend, Daredevil. Unfortunately, this leads to Spider-Man attacking Daredevil. The heroes fight each other until Peter Parker is able to come to his senses.
1 Spider-Carnage
Ben Reilly is back as a villainous version of Spider-Man, but this one involves the Carnage symbiote. Ben Reilly is the clone of Peter Parker who worked with the prime Spider-Man to fight crime. However, the Carnage Symbiote stepped in to bond with Reilly during his time as the Scarlet Spider.
This was a shorter villainous arc than when he became either the Jackal or Chasm, but Carnage having control of a Spider-Man created one of the most deadly Marvel villains ever.