Spider-Man’s rogues gallery has been explored more thoroughly on film than perhaps any other superhero. From iconic villains like Doctor Octopus, Venom, and the Green Goblin to more obscure bad guys like the Prowler, Tinkerer, and Shriek, the majority of Spidey’s well-known enemies have already made it to the big screen in one form or another.
But with any comic book hero who’s been around for nearly 60 years, not every villain is going to be a hit with the fans. For every antagonist who’s become a beloved fixture of the franchise, there’s countless more who have been reduced to inside jokes among fans — or worse yet, faded into obscurity altogether. Here’s just a few oddball Spider-Man foes who are unlikely to make it to the MCU anytime soon.
The Living Brain
By far the oldest villain on this list — and the only one with the honor of being created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko — the Living Brain first appeared all the way back in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man #8, making it predate Electro, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, and even the Green Goblin. Ironically neither living nor a brain (Aren’t all brains living anyway?), the Living Brain is a robotic supercomputer with a nasty habit of being stolen and reprogrammed by criminals. Most famously, Otto Octavius even turned the Living Brain into his lab assistant during the “Superior Spider-Man” storyline. There’s not much to it, but the Living Brain’s lovably weird design gives it plenty of retro charm.
Swarm
In what is perhaps the most comic book-y premise for a villain ever, Swarm is quite literally a Nazi made of bees. Yes, really. Born Fritz von Meyer, Swarm’s entire body save for his skeleton is made up of a swarm of killer bees, which he can mentally command. He may not be the most famous villain, but Swarm’s delightfully weird gimmick has earned him a guest spot in multiple adaptations, from the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon to the infamous Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark musical.
The Spot
Originally a scientist working for the Kingpin, Dr. Johnathon Ohnn (Get it? Johnny Ohnn, The Spot?) was transformed by a lab accident into the Spot, a being with the ability to create portals through space at will. Despite having a genuinely impressive power, the Spot’s offbeat design, unintimidating name, and general lack of ambition have branded him an eternal joke. He once even teamed up with fellow oddball villains Kangaroo, Gibbon, and Grizzly to form the Legion of Losers.
Hypno-Hustler
A character who could only have been created in the 70s, the Hypno-Hustler is, true to his name, a disco-themed villain with mind control powers. In his debut appearance, he plays at a nightclub with his backup singers, the Mercy Killers, only to hypnotize the crowd while he robs them blind. Predictably, the character didn’t have much staying power, landing him a role as an eternal background character.
The Ringer
Plenty of comic villains have their schtick right there in the name — Doctor Octopus is a mad scientist with tentacles, Sandman is a man made of sand, Boomerang uses trick boomerangs, et cetera. The Ringer, naturally, is a villain who uses rings as weapons. No, the rings don’t give him special powers like the Mandarin, his gimmick is that he fires giant rings at his enemies. Some of them explode, some of them freeze people, but all of them are literally giant ring-shaped projectiles. It’s not the most imposing ability, and Spider-Man has mocked him mercilessly for it over the years.
White Rabbit
Lorina Dosdon was a wealthy young woman who grew up obsessed with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland — so obsessed, in fact, that she created her own supervillain persona based around the book once her life of idle privilege started to bore her. A cross between a playboy bunny and Batman’s Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit has employed plenty of quirky weapons over the years, from an umbrella that shoots carrot-shaped projectiles to a gang of henchmen dressed as playing cards to a giant robot bunny.
Delilah
Unlike most of the villains on this list, Delilah doesn’t have a reputation as a Z-list loser, mostly because she’s too obscure to have much of a reputation at all. Introduced in 1996, Delilah was a prominent villain for a few years as the right-hand woman of the assassin known as the Rose. Unlike many comic villainesses, she’s not just a manipulative femme fatale, but a super-strong brawler in her own right — though she’s still very sexualized, as was typical for female charactees at the time. But despite having the potential to be one of Spider-Man’s few prominent female rogues, Delilah has no backstory or personality to speak of. The most memorable thing about her is a downright bizarre speech quirk where her words will occasionally be written in a colorful, flowery font for no apparent reason.
Spidercide
One of many antagonists featured in the infamous “Clone Saga” storyline, Spidercide was initially introduced as a third Spider-Man — ostensibly the real one, causing both Peter Parker and Ben Reilly to doubt their claims at being the original Peter. However, the third Peter quickly devolves into a raving madman, mutating into a shapeshifting monstrosity with complete control over his molecular structure. What that has to do with being Spider-Man is anyone’s guess. Coming off as a strange hybrid of Spider-Man and Carnage, Spidercide is a true relic of the 90s who’s been left to fade into obscurity with the rest of the Clone Saga.
Big Wheel
Big Wheel, aka Jackson Weele, is a villain who commits crimes using a big wheel. A giant mechanical wheel equipped with high-tech weaponry, to be precise. That’s about as deep as Big Wheel gets. His gimmick is baffling in its specificity, but there’s something about how offbeat and ridiculous he is that has endeared Big Wheel to Spider-Man devotees. He may not be making his cinematic debut any time soon, but Big Wheel will surely live on in the hearts of fans forever.
