With The Amazing Spider-Man 2 showcasing several different villains such as Rhino, Green Goblin and Electro, along with the news that both Sinister Six and Venom are being looked at for future films, speculation about Spider-Man villains is at an all time high.
There have even been teases that Hobgoblin, Vulture, Doctor Octopus, and Morbius amongst others could have some kind of presence in upcoming motion pictures, meaning we're far away from a time when only the top villains could be used in movies.
After all, Alistair Smythe isn't going to draw crowds for Spider-Man like The Joker did for The Dark Knight, is he? But just because they don't need to have an entire film revolving around them as the driving force of the plot doesn't mean we can't show some love to the villains that aren't exactly the top tier enemies.
With that being said, here's a list of five Spider-Man villains that I think we need to see incorporated into movies at some point, whether it be in Amazing Spider-Man 3, number 4, or anything else down the line.
*Note: This list is presented in no particular order as opposed to a solid ranking of importance.
Also, if you're interested in checking out part 2 of this list which features the more obscure villains, head on over to
Fanboys Anonymous .
1. Black Cat Sex sells and Black Cat's character revolves around that. Studio execs should be going crazy over this character, trying to figure out a way to get her in the films. Incorporating more women into the ensemble cast to help appeal to the girls out there in the audience by showing them a badass action character and selling those toys works just as much as getting the male audience by showing off Felicia Hardy's…assets.
It would be a nice change of pace as well to see Spider-Man in a romantic relationship with someone who isn't just a damsel in distress like Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson often are. Black Cat can handle herself in a fight and she's often the one getting the better of Spider-Man even, so that is a fun dynamic that a film can play around with.
2. Shocker All signs seem to point to Rhino being a supporting villain in Amazing Spider-Man 2 that's used more for a random fight scene than any actual character development. Shocker is yet another villain that could be given this treatment. Does anyone really care about Herman Shultz? For that matter, does Shultz even have a story to tell to begin with? But even so, Shocker could be awesome to see in a single fight sequence to start off a film or as a member of the Sinister Six if you've already used up some of the better characters, such as…
3. Mysterio With the advancements in CGI that have taken place over the years, Mysterio has so much more potential to be a fun character than ever before. This is a villain that has endless possibilities when it comes to stretching our imagination and going for cool visuals. The illusions, holograms, and everything else that come with Mysterio are things that the series has yet to see in film format for the Spider-Man series as well as other superhero films in general.
Giving him a backstory that translates to a film might be a bit of a challenge, but then again, we've seen crazier things happen.
4. Kraven the Hunter This one is a bit tricky as well and runs the risk of being ridiculous, but if pulled off well, it could come off quite the opposite. A literal translation of the shirtless character wearing a lion's mane and animal print pants will just be laughable. But if you keep it simple, think of what could be done with a grizzled, tough guy (like a Gerard Butler) in Kraven's trademark facial hair acting as a cunning and brutal hunter. He can be tasked by someone like J. Jonah Jameson to track and take down Spider-Man and the rest of these hybrid humans. The more intelligent the character is made, the more you could buy into him as a secondary problem that Spider-Man has to deal with on the side while someone else is also causing issues…
5. Scorpion How self-explanatory is this one?! Scorpion could easily be the primary physical threat of a movie (particularly if Kraven is the other half of it, hunting both of them). It's all already there: scorpions hunt spiders, animal/human hybrids can exist now that we've seen Lizard, and you can get around Spider-Man killing him by having one of Kraven's traps do the job.
And let's get this straight - this is not Mac Gargan as Venom. This is Scorpion. There's room for symbiotes elsewhere.
6. Carnage The Spider-Man fan in me still wants this to happen even though the realist and the creative director / writer in me knows that the challenges far outweigh the benefits.
How could you possibly translate this character and do it justice? The sight of Carnage alone is scary enough to cause problems for families, let alone how Cletus Kassady is a literal psychopath mass murderer. Perfect for a PG-13 movie, right?
When a character literally revolves around creating a bloodbath, you would either have to bump it up to an R rating (which the studios would never, ever do) or tone down the character so much that it would effectively make it pointless and effectively neutering the character.
As such, all of the fans like myself would feel disappointed and if you're not even going to appease those fans, you'd better have mass appeal for everyone else, and Carnage just doesn't have that. But still, a fan can dream, and if there was ever a possibility of pulling it off well, I would be ecstatic.
So who are some of the villains that haven't been in a Spider-Man movie yet that you're hoping we'll get to see in upcoming films? Sound off in the comments below!