Villain Profile: Kraven the Hunter

He's hunting the most dangerous game, Spider-Men.

I’ve never understood the appeal of trophy hunting. Oh yes, how amazing, you used a high-powered rifle, a machine designed to kill with the minimum amount of effort possible, to kill a lion, a creature that would rip you to pieces if you tried using virtually any other weapon against it. How impressive. <SARCASM> The one trophy hunter I sort of get is the subject of this next post, Kraven the Hunter. This crazy Russian royal hunts things like Lions, Tigers and Bears (oh my) and kills them with his bare hands. And his magically/chemically enhanced strength and reflexes… but mostly his bare hands! Let’s get to it.

Honestly, the only thing holding this look back from greatness
are the paw print spotted leggings.

Kraven was born Sergei Kravinoff, an immigrant from the Russian aristocracy. His father was a duke or whatever the equivalent was in Russian that fled their homeland during the February Revolution and the execution of Tsar Nicholas II. The life of a wealthy aristocrat being denied him, due to that pesky communist revolt, Sergei spent his early life traveling around the world, working as a mercenary. While in Kenya, he got a taste for hunting. Not too shocking, given how rich folks seem to love it. What was unusual was that Sergei quickly grew bored with killing animals with guns or even bows, switching to knives and later his bare hands and teeth. His ability to hunt was then increased by taking an herbal potion from a voodoo witch doctor named Calypso (whom he was also romantically involved with for a time). Her potion gave Sergei strength, speed and senses on par with a big cat. It also made him live longer, which is a special bonus. With these incredible powers, he mostly just hunted animals in a manner similar to our early simian ancestors. Hey, they’re his superpowers, he can use them how he wants.

Over the years, even hunting Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my) with his bare hands started to bore him. Huh, guess he has something in common with Atticus Finch. … Read To Kill a Mockingbird if that reference is over your head. His boredom ended thanks in part to Dimitri Smerdyakov. Oh, don’t recognize that name? It’s the real name of the Chameleon, the master of disguise enemy of Spider-Man, and Sergei’s own half-brother. Dimitri needed some back up taking care of this pesky neighborhood Spider-Man. Getting the chance to not only hunt the most dangerous game, but the equivalent of an apex predator filled Sergei with a rush he’d never felt before. Sergei, just ask Zaroff how hunting something smarter than a big cat can and will bite you in the ass. What? If you don’t get it, read the Most Dangerous Game, it’s on the public domain now. I’m just pulling classic literature references out left and right today.

The brothers faced off against Spider-Man in Central Park, which the Chameleon disguised as Sergei to disorientate Spider-Man and allow the superior hunter to ambush Spider-Man. Despite the two of them working together and using a poison dart to weaken Spider-Man, the Web Head was able to defeat them both and see them arrested. While this first encounter infuriated Sergei, it formed an obsession in him, and he swore to never stop the hunt until he finally killed Spider-Man. Random thought, but it seems amazing to me that the expert hunter and tracker has never thought to try and follow Spider-Man to his home and attack him when he’s asleep or something. Don’t give me that look, Sergei might want a “fair” fight with Spider-Man, but the dudes not above grabbing someone in their sleep to force a confrontation.

I think Sergei Kravenoff and Gaston have the same interrior
decorator.

He was one of the founding members of the Sinister Six, joining Doc Ock’s little cabal in an attempt to kill Spider-Man. While the group in concept was smart, the execution of their plan was somewhat moronic. What? You get six of Spider-Man’s most dangerous enemies together, and you fight him one at a time? The only one that could possibly benefit is Doc Ock, who obviously would attack last, so he got to fight an exhausted Spider-Man. Anyway, Sergei attacked Spider-Man in Central Park with a trio of tigers while the hero frantically searched for his kidnapped Aunt May, and Betty Brant. Betty being Gwen Stacey/Mary Jane Watson before either character was introduced. Spider-Man over powered Kraven and his big cats, forcing the villain to give him his clue to the ladies’ location.

Kraven battled Spider-Man several times over the years, but was routinely defeated. Sergei began to grow frustrated as the years wore on, knowing that despite his potion keeping him younger and fitter than he should be, he was still slowing down due to his advancing age. Sure, fifty is still pretty young (relatively speaking), but I doubt there’d be a fifty-year-old in history that could wrestle Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my). He decided to perform one final hunt to defeat Spider-Man. He used a poison dart on Spider-Man, knocking him out and putting him in a coma. He then buried Spider-Man on his estate. After that, he donned a fake Spider-Man costume and impersonated him. In his Spider-Guise, he hunted down a mutant villain called Vermin, an enemy that Spider-Man had never been able to beat on his own. Spidey needed Cap’s assist to stop him before. Kraven captured Vermin and put him in a cage. Spider-Man emerged from his grave about two weeks later. Kraven told Spider-Man why he’d done all of this, released Vermin and bit Spider-Man farewell. Peter went after Vermin, and Sergei recorded a full confession of all of his crimes and then committed suicide.

This wasn’t the end of Kraven, obviously. He was actually resurrected by a dark ritual performed by his wife and children. Somehow, though, their ritual had a weird side effect that made Sergei unkillable, except by the hands of Spider-Man. So, while he might have let go of his grudge in death, it returned with vengeance in his new life. He’s continued to menace Spider-Man to this day.

Other than having me question if a laser spearhead is in anyway
better than a metal one, this is probably his best look thus far.

Kraven the Hunter is a skilled hunter and fierce hand to hand combatant. He’s on par with an Olympic athlete in terms of strength, speed, and dexterity even without enhancement. He also has a working knowledge of pressure points, using precise strikes to nerves to great effect. His own skill and power are improved by his potion, pushing his physical strength, speed, and senses to Wolverine levels. He’s also more durable than average, and can rapidly heal from most injuries. Not on a healing factor level, but much faster than normal. The potion has also greatly slowed his age, while he’s chronologically (in universe) in his fifties physically speaking he’s closer to his mid-thirties. He also has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of poisons and tranquilizers, which he uses to enhance his fighting prowess.

Kraven has appeared in several Spider-Man series outside of the comics. While certain aspects of him are tweaked from incarnation to incarnation, all versions retain his obsession with killing Spider-Man as he views the Wall-Crawler as his ultimate prey. Personally, I’m shocked he never decided to try hunting Black Panther full time, just sayin’.

He’s a recurring antagonist in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. He’s introduced in “Kraven the Hunter.” In this episode, Peter is going to interview a scientist named Mariah Crawford, only to find her at her office being attacked by a crazy man in a lion vest. After scaring the wild man off as his alter ego, Crawford explained to Spider-Man that was Sergei Kravinoff, her ex-lover. He’d been seriously injured protecting her from hyenas. To save his life, she used a “wonder drug” given to her by a colleague. It healed his wounds, and gave him superpowers but sort of drove him insane. Or more accurately turned his mind into something more similar to a predatory beast. Mariah came to America to create a cure for him. With Peter running interference on her unstable ex, Mariah was able to develop a serum that restored Kraven’s mind. They returned to Africa together. He returns in “Duel of Hunters.” In it, Spider-Man’s mutation had gone into overdrive, turning him into the horrid Man-Spider. Dr. Crawford returned to cure Spider-Man, as she owed him at least that much, and force Kraven to help. Kraven was able to Track down Man-Spider, but was sidetracked by an attack by the Punisher, whom had also been hunting Man-Spider. They team up and are able to subdue Spider-Man long enough to return him to normal. He returned one final time in “The Return of Kraven.” In it, Mariah had turned into a horrid monster after Kraven gave her the miracle drug to cure her of a plague. He and Spider-Man are able to restore Mariah’s mind, and the two depart together. This is easily the happiest story to involve Kraven, EVER.

Kraven the Hunter appeared in the second season of Spectacular Spider-Man. He’s introduce in “Destructive Testing” as a famous hunter that had come to New York to battle Spider-Man. Spidey is challenged by Sergei’s hand to hand fighting skills, but he’s able to disable his opponent. Sergei, unwilling to believe that he truly lost, believes that Spider-Man only won because of his powers. He enlisted the help of Professor Miles Warren, whom used a formula based on Curt Connors Lizard Formula to turn Sergei Kravenoff into a monstrous cat creature with a black lion’s mane. Changing his name to Kraven the Hunter, he battles Spider-Man again. He overpowers and outraces Spider-Man throughout their fight, but is stopped by Peter’s webbing. He returns in “Reinforcements,” as a member of the new Sinister Six.

The one version to have a happy ending. Well... happy enough.

A retooled version appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man series. This version, unlike other, uses high-tech old school tools. Think laser-knives, and energy shields instead of his hands, or more mundane knives and shields. He’s also more of Spider-Man’s ally White Tiger’s enemy in his initial appearance, as he had killed her father years before to steal their family amulet and get white tiger powers. He uses a magic drum to drive White Tiger into a fury, in an attempt to kill her while she’s enraged. She and Spider-Man are able to take him down. He returns in “Return of the Sinister Six,” “The Savage Spider-Man” “Contest of Champions” “Hydra Attacks” “Double Agent Venom” “The New Sinister Six” and “Graduation Day.” It should be note that his desire to kill and steal White Tiger’s powers is dropped after that first episode, as White Tiger and the rest of Spider-Man’s initial team are largely dropped in favor of an all Spider-Man themed team in later seasons. They had this same issue with their version of Scorpion, whom was reworked into a rival/enemy of Iron Fist, only to have the character seemingly drop a decades long grudge after only an encounter or two with Spider-Man. Weird.

They’ve tried to put Kraven into several movies, but production issues seem to be Kraven’s greatest enemy. There were plans to have him appear in the Amazing Spider-Man spin off The Sinister Six, and the third film, but those plans were shelved when the series was cancelled. His name is referenced in the new Morbius trailer, in the form of Kraven Pastries and the Kraven National Ballet. He’s got a film upcoming in Sony’s Spider-Verse movies, and has been hinted at possibly appearing in the third MCU Spider-Man film.

Like Rhino, Scorpion, Lizard and Mysterio, he has appeared in nearly every Spider-Man game in one form or another.

Kraven the Hunter is a fun Spider-Man villain. He’s strong, fast, and another of Spider-Man’s visually distinctive enemies. Say what you like about early Spider-Man comics, (the writing hasn’t aged well), but Steven Ditko was a master at making visually amazing characters. Kraven also gets points for being one of Spider-Man’s more honorable foes. Sure, he will repeatedly pick fights with someone that has zero interest in fighting him, but when Sergei promises, say, to release all of his captives if beaten, you never have to worry about him pulling a double cross. And, like I said at the beginning, I kind of get his style of hunting. Instead of using the largely “auto win” button of a gun, he truly pits his strength against that of his prey. If I could wrestle a Lion and kill it, you bet I’d display it in my living room. Though I would never do that, as I am an animal lover and largely pacifistic. Just sayin’. I do hope that Kraven get’s his film soon, especially since he makes significantly more sense to me as a star of a movie than Michael Morbius, just sayin. What? Just pit Kraven off against some fellow hunter or big corporate type like Osborn or Kingpin, boom, done, likeable anti-hero/villain story. And that's all I have to say about that. Have a good night, everybody.

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Villain Profile: Rhino

Russian Rhino rampages recklessly, routinely ruining runs, rallies, and relaxation. Boom, alliteration.

One of the most universally desired powers is that of what I think of as the Strongman. I picked this term up for the Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes. Basically, it’s anyone that has the combination of superhuman strength and endurance that turns a human being into a human shaped tank. Think guys like the Hulk, Luke Cage, or the Thing. Punching through concrete, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, always being able to open pickle jars, it’s a very attractive powerset. I don’t think that the powers per say are what Aleksei has a problem with, it’s the whole freakish hugeness and constantly being beaten up by a weirdo in red-and-blue spandex that’s a pain. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to it.

Somebody didn't care for their Uber Driver.

Aleksei Sytsevich began his career as a common thug for the Russian Mafia. He was big, dumb, and pretty much all of the other stereotypes you think of when you hear the term Muscle. Life took a slight turn for him when he was offered an obscene amount of money and the potential for a lot of personal power to undergo a little science experiment by some shady science types. Over the course of several months, he was injected with a series of chemicals and exposed to radiation treatments. The results were a massive increase in strength, due to the addition of a few hundred pounds of muscle. He was also outfitted with a suit of experimental armor that was permanently bonded to his skin, making him virtually impervious to harm, and giving him a new weapon in the form of his namesake’s sizeable horn. The scientists believed that the Rhinoceros motif was fitting as they’re one of evolutions most perfectly protected creatures.

The first mission for the newly dubbed Rhino was to kidnap astronaut John Jameson III, son of publisher J. Jonah Jameson Jr. So many Js. Sorry, back on task. He was to kidnap Jameson to bring back to his bosses so they might sell him to the highest bidder. Jameson had been exposed to a hitherto unknown alien spore, making him worth a stupid amount of money to the right people. Aleksei was given extensive, mind-bending training to teach him accent free American English and fake papers dubbing him Alex O’Hirn in order to sneak into the US undetected. Well, as undetected as a seven-foot-tall armored titan can ever be. Rather than go along with their full plan, Aleksei decided to turn on his benefactors, destroying their lab and setting out to capture Jameson on his own. As the Rhino charged his way through New York, he got the attention of a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, who quickly deduced how he could beat someone as apparently impervious as Rhino. The key factors to Rhino’s defeat were that 1. He couldn’t really change direction or easily stop once he began to charge, and 2. He’s about as dumb as a rock. Spider-Man’s agility allowed him to easily dodge Rhino until the big brute passed out from exhaustion. He was kept sedated at a prison hospital for several weeks until he eventually woke up and broke free. He tried to nab Jameson again, but was once again thwarted by Spider-Man, whom with the help of Dr. Connors, had developed an acid that ate through Rhino’s thick armored hide. He was sent to prison once again.

Yes, there was a time where we were expected to take this man
seriously.

Aleksei was eventually freed from prison and was immediately approached by his former benefactors. Guys, this is why you keep tails on former super criminals, all I’m saying. They apparently didn’t harbor any ill feelings toward Aleksei after their last encounter, and actually offered to power him up further. Aleksei, having not learned his lesson, agreed. He was subjected to gamma treatments, based on the work of Dr. Bruce Banner, and a new Rhino suit that was even tougher than before. The next job? Kidnap Banner and bring him to his bosses so they could extract the secrets of Gamma-ray treatments from him. His benefactors were able to track down Banner and sicced their new bruiser after him. Despite his recent powerup, Rhino was laughably outclassed by the Hulk’s nigh unlimited strength, was knocked out and rearrested. He was then freed and used by one of the Hulk’s enemies, the Leader, as his muscle for a short while. He kept getting his butt kicked by the Hulk, though, so he was eventually let go.

Over the years Aleksei Sytsevich has become one of the “Go To” villainous Strongmen in the Marvel Universe. Provided that you pay him well enough, he’s basically a walking tank that will hit what you want when you want him to. Guys like Kingpin or Osborn love to use him then they need something pancaked. In more recent years he attempted to turn over a new leaf. After one of his stays in prison, he met a waitress named Oksana that he somewhat hit it off with. When given the choice between becoming a new and improved Rhino or see where things went with Oksana, he choice Oksana. They quickly married and got an apartment in Yonkers. Their happiness was short lived, however, as the mad scientist that offered to upgrade him had found a new idiot, I mean volunteer to be the new Rhino. New Rhino thought the only way he could be taken seriously was by killing Aleksei. He was initially stopped by Spider-Man, but in true villain fashion, escaped prison and ended up killing Oksana. This drove Aleksei into a blind rage, he redonned his suit (he’d upgraded to a removable model some years ago) and brutally murdered New Rhino as payback.

Much better, this one actually looks like he's in an armored suit.

Most recently, he’d been hired as the muscle for New U Technologies, a company that promised Miracle cures for the terminally ill but in actuality swapped out the sick with healthy Clones. This was all a front by a returned Jackal, one of Spider-Man’s geneticist enemies. He’d bought Aleksei’s, and several other villains, loyalties by cloning their deceased loved ones as payment. So Aleksei got to be with Oksana again for a little while. This ended when one of the Jackal’s fail-safes was activated, a specific audio frequency that caused the clones to rapidly decompose. Aleksei was all but catatonic by her ashes until a quarantine team tried to move him. He went berserk and started to rampage. He was quickly stopped by Spider-Man, who forced him to calm down, and taught one of his oldest enemies his trick to living with grief. Namely, focus the pain of their loss into a desire to be the person their loved one wanted them to be. Aleksei surrendered and said he’d try. Well see if this new leaf turn is the one that sticks.

The Rhino has the standard Strongman suite of abilities. The combination of drugs and later gamma ray treatments made him super strong, unnaturally fast, inhuman stamina, and super durable. Basically, he can hit and get hit like few others can. He’s also been outfitted with his iconic Rhino suit, an artificial armor that renders him all but impervious to damage, and gives him the imposing horn of his namesake. With a running start, he can pierce 2 inches of plate steel with his horn. His really only vulnerable area is his exposed face, which is much harder to hit when he’s moving than you’d think. Originally the suit was fused to his very skin, which was a constant hassle for Aleksei to deal with, and he later upgraded to a removable suit.

The Rhino has been used several times outside of the comics, being one of the physically strongest opponents that Spider-Man regularly faces off against.

He appears in several episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. His part is pretty much down to just being the big dumb muscle that Kingpin regularly hires. I don’t think anything about him is ever explained, not his name, powers, or even the fact that he’s stuck in his armor. He appeared in “The Alien Costume” parts one and three, the “Insidious Six” two parter, and the “Six Forgotten Warriors” two parter.

He’s has a more… fleshed out appearance in The Spectacular Spider-Man, where he’s played by Clancy Brown. You know, Mr. Krabs from Spongebob or the head guard from The Shawshank Redemption? Yeah, same guy. In this version he’s known by his alias Alex O’Hirn and is a petty thug working for the “Big Man,” and was often partnered with Flint Marko (aka the Sandman). He and Marko appear in several early episodes, where they’re constantly being captured and humiliated by Spider-Man. In the sixth episode, “The Invisible Hand” one episode after Marko got his Sand powers, Rhino was put into an armored suit and given the “enhancements” that turned him into the Rhino. The Big Man had decided to upgrade some of his thugs into costumed supervillains in the hope that they’d keep Spider-Man too busy to deal with his more mundane criminal activities. While he was able to smack Spider-Man around in their initial encounter, Spider-Man was able to deduce that this version of the suit is so skin tight that it didn’t even allow Alex to sweat except around his face. Spider-Man was basically able to defeat him by inducing heat exhaustion. It’s from a conversation from the addled Rhino that Peter finally learned who the Big Man is, Alex having heard the name L. Thompson Lincoln from his own superiors. He returns as part of the Sinister Six in “Group Therapy” and “Intervention” and as muscle in “Accomplices” and “Opening Night.”

Honestly, this makes me think that Paul Giamatti is begin carried
in some kind of armored babybjorn.

A teenage version of Rhino, again going by Alex O’Hirn, appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man. In the episode “The Rhino” he’s introduced first in his more hulking form as a new villain that’s attacking and stealing Oscorp chemical shipments. He’s particularly dangerous when it’s revealed his horn can cut even Spider-Man ally Power Man’s supposedly unbreakable skin. He’s later revealed to be an angry nerd that was being bullied by Flash Thompson. To get back at Flash, he started taking one of Doc Ock’s animal-based superpower formulas to turn himself into the Rhino. He’d been hitting Oscorp shipments to prolong the transformation. He attempts to kill Flash, but is delayed by Spider-Man and his amazing friends long enough for his formula to run out. While being taken away by SHIELD, Flash does take a moment to apologize to Alex for being a dick. A little late, but it’s good to see Flash grow a little. He returned in Rhino form in “The Sinister Six” and “Return of the Sinister Six” as the groups muscle, working for more Rhino formula. He has one more character focused episode entitled “Rampaging Rhino,” where it’s revealed that overuse of the Rhino formula has left him in his monster state. The imprisoned Rhino flies into a rage when he learns that his former tormentor Flash Thompson has gone on to be the “hero” Agent Venom and breaks free. He rampages across New York, only being stopped by a combination of Hulk and the Iron Spider in Hulkbuster armor, and Spider-man and Agent Venom appealing to his better nature. Spider-Man then persuades Nick Fury to let him train as a hero at the new SHIELD academy. He rejoins Doc Ock in “Lizards” and is a part of his crew until the end of the series. Though he does turn over a new leaf for reals by the end and truly joins the SHIELD academy.

He was played by Paul Giamatti of all people in the beginning and ending of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. In the opening sequence he’s just a stupid thug that attempted to jack a truck full of Oscorp plutonium. He’s stopped by Spider-Man after a bit of a chase. He returns in full Rhino gear, this time being a full mech suit with machine guns and rockets, attacking police at the films end. He was apparently either trying to draw out Spider-Man, or use his absence as an excuse to cause harm. Peter had been taking sometime off to grieve after the death of Gwen Stacey. Spider-Man swings in to save a kid in a Spider-Man mask who’d tried to face down Rhino, before charging him and beginning to swing a manhole cover at his face before the credits rolled. Giamatti was signed to appear in the third Amazing Spider-Man film, and possibly a separate Sinister Six spin off, but the films were cancelled in favor of the second Spider-Man reboot and being rolled into the MCU. Honestly, I can’t complain. I should note that, despite “Amazing” being in the title, Giamatti’s Rhino battle suit is one of several instances of the Ultimate Universe popping in instead of the Amazing Spider-Man series.

And like the Lizard, Mysterio, and Scorpion, The Rhino has appeared in almost every single Spider-Man game as a boss character.

As I said in the beginning, as a villain Rhino is a fairly standard Strongman type. He’s big, tough, and dumb as a rock. But, like a lot of Spider-Man baddies, he’s visually iconic. I really can’t think of another villain to use the slate gray armor and massive horn combination. And while his plans aren’t ever what someone would call smart, and he’s more often used as an enforcer for worse criminals, he’s still a staple of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery and has been for decades. He’s simple, but that’s kind of part of his charm. Not everyone can be the Norman Osborn/Lex Luthor types, you need the big dumb brutes to do the legwork. Obviously, he’s a fan favorite, given how often he’s appeared outside of the comics. I wonder if that’s just the kind of street cred that a former Sinister Six member gets, or if he’s just that cool to some people. It’s a shame that Giamatti didn’t get more time as the Rhino as he probably would have had a lot of fun with the role. But hey, there’s always next time. I look forward to seeing him buttheads with Spider-Man again, soon. 

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Villain Profile: Hobgoblin

There's a new Goblin in town.

So last time we covered Doctor Connors and the Lizard, a Jekyll and Hyde style character where the kindly scientist is transformed into an unstable, unstoppable monster. That’s a fairly standard background story for horror monsters and mad scientist turned monsters. Next, let’s talk about another staple of the Halloween season, a Goblin, a Hobgoblin specifically.

Let’s flashback to 1973. That July, the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, had done the unthinkable and caused the death of Peter Parker’s long-time girlfriend Gwen Stacey. In the ensuing battle, despite being enraged by his nemesis’ actions, Peter didn’t end up killing the psychopath. Norman accidentally killed himself when he attempted to impale Peter from behind with his Goblin Glider. This marked the end of one of Peter’s happiest relationships, which is obviously depressing, but also his long-standing feud with Norman. Unfortunately for Peter, while Norman remained dead for several decades, there are never a shortage of copycat villains in the comic universes. And while there were a few heirs to the Green Goblin legacy, including Peter’s friend and Norman’s son Harry Osborn, I’d argue none was as effective as the villain that appeared ten years after ol’ Gobby’s death, the Hobgoblin.

He does look good on that glider.

I should point out most of the background I’m going to go into didn’t come up until several years after the Hobgoblin’s first appearance. According to his creators, Roger Stern, Mike Zeck and John Romita Jr., they wrote and introduced the character of the Hobgoblin and didn’t have a single idea of who would ultimately be behind the rubber mask. There were a few possible identities, which included a name you might recognize, Ned Leeds, but it wasn’t until 1997 that it was officially revealed to be a man named Roderick Kingsley was the true Hobgoblin. Let’s get into that, now that I’ve had three paragraphs of preamble.

Roderick Kingsley began his career as a fashion designing multi-millionaire. While he presented a kindlier face to the world, like a lot of millionaires in the Marvel universe… and real life if I’m being honest, he harbored a much darker personality behind closed doors. Kingsley had ties to organized crime, which he used to increase his business through corporate espionage and unethical deals. He was also the kind of jerk that strong armed his timid twin Daniel into doing the day-to-day company work. We’ll get back to that point in a minute. Kingsley made a few enemies due to his dealings, the one that started the ball rolling on his fall to supervillainy was a woman named Narda Ravanna. She was a rival designer that he’d ruined that took up the costume criminal identity of Belladonna. She tried to kill him a few times, but he was saved by Spider-Man both times. These incidents made Kingsley begin to search for… alternative means of protecting himself. One of his minions, a fella named George Hill, stumbled upon a solution. He found one of Norman Osborn’s secret lairs, which included all of his Goblin Gear and a cache of weaponry. Kingsley killed Hill and began looking over his new collection of toys.

Kingsley familiarized himself with the gear and some of the data that Osborn kept there. He decided that, since all other previous Green Goblins had (total of 3 at the time, I believe) had been driven insane, he decided to make a new identity model after the original Goblin. He created the orange and yellow costume and the alias of The Hobgoblin. His initial scheme was to use blackmail files that Osborn had compiled to get his hands on Oscorp. He was thwarted by Spider-Man on this and a few other minor crimes. Realizing that he couldn’t battle Spider-Man effectively as he was, Kingsley began trying to recreate the strength enhancing formula that Norman stole from his colleague Mendel Stromm. He eventually was able to perfect the formula. Rather than immediately take it himself, Kingsley did the smart thing and test it on someone else first. He used a mind control device he stole from a former employee and the formula to turn a small-time criminal Lefty Donovan into a Hobgoblin that could take a punch from Spider-Man and send the web-head flying with one of his own. Donovan proved to be a competent opponent for Spider-Man, so Kingsley killed him by forcing the Goblin Glider to crash. He took a hit of the gas himself, and becomes a physical match for Spider-Man.

Did he buy a Spider-Man suit just to rip in half? I don't get
rich people.

Despite his newfound power, Kingsley was still regularly defeated by Spider-Man and got onto the $%^& list of some of New York’s powerful elite, including the Kingpin. In order to keep his identity a secret, Kingsley kidnapped Ned Leeds, a reporter investigating him and brainwashed him into believing he was the Hobgoblin. He used Ned as a decoy for a while, and then had him assassinated so he could retire. He returned from retirement a few years later, to kill the current Hobgoblin, Jason Macendale, to protect his identity and remove an unworthy successor. He then captured Betty Brant, a former Parker love interest and current investigator into the Hobgoblin case. He tried to kill Peter, but in the ensuing battle, his brother Daniel is captured and Roderick is unmasked. See, in order to try to keep his identity a secret, Roderick would often send his twin into locals he’d attack as the Hobgoblin in order to protect his identity. Yes, this was a retcon in order to explain how Kingsley could be the Hobgoblin when he was shown to be in places that the Hobgoblin attacked. Roderick is arrested, Ned is posthumously cleared, and all is made right in the world. For a while anyway.

Roderick Kingsley has since escaped prison and continued to fight Peter Parker. He’s formed a bitter hatred with the returned Norman Osborn, as they both feel the other is the lesser Goblin. More recently, Roderick has gotten into the criminal arms dealing. He’d get his hands on the gear of deceased or incarcerated villains and then rented the gear and names to other would-be villains for a hefty fee. The dude is one hell of a business man.

Initially, Roderick Kingsley had no superhuman powers, but was an intelligent, cunning sociopath with an insane amount of luck. He had the knowhow to learn how to use all of Norman’s old gear and to upgrade them as he went along. He wears bulletproff mail along with an overlapping tunic, cape and cowl. He also wears an incredibly expressive rubber yellow mask to hide his identity. His main weaponry includes the incredibly useful Goblin Glider, concussive and incendiary bombs in the shape of Jack O’Lanterns, smoke and gas grenades, and bat shaped throwing knives. He later figured out how to recreate and improve the Mendel Stromm strength formula to give him superhuman strength, reflexes and stamina. He also improved it to remove the insanity inducing effects of the serum.  

The Hobgoblin identity has only been used a handful of times outside of the comics. I imagine that this is due to the similarities to the Green Goblin, and the other Goblin’s overwhelming popularity means that ol’ Hobgobby is left waiting. Interestingly, Roderick Kingsley has only been used once outside of the comics.

Roderick Kingsley appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man’s second season episode “Gangland.” In this version he’s the owner of a perfume factory and also African American. He’s one of several criminal types, including Doc Ock, Tombstone and Silver Sable, bidding on the blueprints for Rhino’s impenetrable skin. He wins the bid, but this all turns out to be an attempt by Hammerhead to set himself up as the new Big Man of Crime and eliminate his competition. Kingsley escaped unscathed. Showrunners had revealed that had the series gotten a third season, Kingsley would have returned and taken up the Goblin mantle.

The supervillain equivalent of showing up to a party in
almost the same outfit.

The Hobgoblin appeared in several episodes of Spider-Man the Animated Series. He’s voiced by Mark Hamill. Interestingly, in this continuity, he’s the first Goblin, appearing a full two seasons before Norman donned that Goblin mask. I’d read somewhere that this was due to insistence from Fox to include Hobgoblin for toy sales or some such nonsense. He appeared in the Hobgoblin two parter. He’s initially hired by Norman Osborn, irony, to assassinate Wilson Fisk. The Kingpin had recently gained control of Oscorp and regularly threatened Norman to get his way. He makes an attempt on Fisk, but is thwarted by Spider-Man. He makes several other appearances in The Mutant Agenda, Mutants Revenge, Goblin War, and Spider Wars Part 1. He’s also referenced in Enter The Green Goblin, where Norman revealed that he’d found the Hobgoblin’s cache of gear in his lab after an accident and remodeled it for his use. His identity is finally revealed in Goblin War. They used Jason Macendale as the real identity of the Hobgoblin. His identity is only revealed when his fiancé and former Peter Parker romantic interest Felicia Hardy stumbled upon the Goblin gear. I only bring him up in this as the Hobgoblin has only a few appearances, and I don’t see myself going back and doing a Jason Macendale version ever.

As far as villain’s go, Kingsley is probably just in the Okay range. The mystery of who the Hobgoblin was and his antics were good at the time, but the return of Norman Osborn a few years later pretty much solidified him as one of Spider-Man’s lesser enemies. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Kingsley, and against another hero he’d stand out great, but when you’re being compared to the Green Goblin, it’s hard to measure up. I will say he’s probably one of the most visually distinctive villains, though. I can think of only a handful of characters that would think to use orange and yellow as their primary colors. And his more recent plan as being a super-villain identity broker is beyond brilliant. Think about it, you supply the tech and name for some nobody with delusions of grandeur, collect a huge fee, and yet you’re still physically strong enough to kick their asses if they step out of line. Or hit the kill switch on their tech. I’ll be honest, were I a supervillain, this is the sort of racket I’d like to get in on. So yeah, he’s a Good Goblin forced down to an Okay Goblin by the Green Goblin.  

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Villain Profile: The Lizard

All he wanted was a hand, which he got, but then he also got a tail and scales and it just kind of spiraled off from there.

Given that it’s the month of Halloween, let’s talk about a few characters that are a bit more horrific than others, shall we?

Our next character is one of the staples of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, Dr. Curt Connors aka the Lizard. Connors shares traits with Dr. Kirk Langstrom and Dr. Henry Jekyll, in that they’re all brilliant scientists that took their research just a little too far, discovered a formula that transformed them into horrific monsters, and ended up ruining their lives. Smart guys have a habit of doing incredibly dumb things when push comes to shove. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to it, shall we?  

He smells blood in the water.

Dr. Curtis “Curt” Connors (Stan Lee and Steven Ditko loved alliteration) began his comic career as a surgeon for the US Army. He earned a name for himself by performing several emergency surgeries on the battlefield. This career ended prematurely and terribly as an explosion in the field severely damaged his right arm, which required the limb to be amputated. After his honorable discharge, Connors became obsessed with discovering how certain species of lizard’s regenerate and began researching the phenomenon. In his home in the Florida Everglades, he was able to synthesize a serum from reptile DNA. Connors used it to regenerate the limb of a rabbit, got really excited and tried it on himself. Curt, buddy, in general it’s smart to perform a few more tests before leaping to human testing. Just saying.

At first, the serum worked perfectly. He quickly grew a new right arm. But there were a few unfortunate side effects. Namely that the serum continued to rewrite his DNA, turning him into a colossal lizard-man. In this form Connors became a berserk beast that hunted on the everglades. Peter Parker found out about the Floridian lizard man when he was challenged by Spider-Man hate enthusiast J. Jonah Jameson to get pics of the beast. He traveled to Florida, and learned about Connors, his family, and what caused the researcher to go full beast. As Spider-Man, Peter was able to develop an antidote for Connors, tracked the Lizard, fought and cured the good doctor. Unfortunately, he lost his new arm after the formula was purged from his system. He briefly reverted to Lizard form a short time later, but was saved by an old friend and colleague Professor Charles Xavier and his X-Men. Ice Man cooled the Lizard so much that the Lizard went into hibernation long enough for the science types on the team to make another cure.

The almost human face of the movie version is very
uncanny valley.

After two transformations into a rampaging Lizard, Connors decided he needed a change of scenery. Connors and his family relocated to New York City… I can think of no worse city for someone that has turned into a horrible monster to live in. Just saying. Connor’s quickly ingratiated himself with Spider-Man, often helping Spider-Man developing new tech to combat his various foes. Connors did things like develop a cure for Peter’s Aunt May when she was dying of radiation poisoning from an emergency blood transfusion that Peter gave her, and to an acid to eat through Rhino’s nearly impenetrable hide. He had to earn his keep somehow, as it quickly became clear that Connors was always just one bad day away from transforming into the Lizard again. Turns out, high stress and/or foreign chemicals can force Connors to mutate again. Peter would then have to whip up a new cure and turn Connors back again. Rinse and repeat. As time passed, the Lizard’s intellect seemed to increase. He eventually developed a mind on par with his human form, and began plotting to overthrow humanity by either making a new race of Lizard people, either from scratch or from transforming the global population into Lizards. He is always stopped by Peter and his amazing friends.

Dr. Curtis Connors was once a gifted surgeon, but the lost of his right hand made that career impossible to maintain. He’s since used his high intelligence to become an expert in genetics, biochemistry, herpetology (study of reptiles, amphibians, and caecilians) and physics. As the Lizard, Connors gets superhuman strength, speed, agility and reflexes. He also gains razor sharp claws and fangs, and a massive, powerful tail. He can also cling to walls like a gecko. His thick scales make him highly resistant to damage, and his superhuman regeneration means that he’ll quickly get over hits that land. He seems to be able to control other reptiles within a mile of himself. This is either due to pheromones or a form of limited telepathy, it seems to vary from story to story. The Lizard’s intelligence also varies. At times he’s as dumb as a beast, other times he’s as smart a human and is able to speak and reason. He’s almost never as smart as he is as Connors, but tends to steal his human form’s research to further the Lizards ends.

The Lizard’s appearance varies from story to story, but, in general his body seems to be based on monitor lizards or iguanas. So massive, scaly, and occasionally with a sort of fringe on his head. Others will mix in more human elements to make the Lizard seem more uncanny and creepy.

Dr. Connors and the Lizard are two of Spider-Man’s more recurring friend and foe respectively. Connors is often viewed as a mentor to Peter, which makes his unwilling transformations all the more tragic.

It all stemmed from a simple, all consuming desire to be whole
again.

Connors and the Lizard appeared several times in Spider-Man: TAS. He was actually the first villain of the series, appearing in the first episode Night of the Lizard. In it, the college aged Peter Parker discovers that his science teacher was transformed into a monstrous Lizard due to an experiment gone wrong. This Lizard is smart enough to use Connors technology to develop his usual plan to turn the world into Lizards. The Lizard kidnaps his/Connor’s wife, Margaret, to be the first of his new race of Lizard people. Spider-Man swings in and saves the day. Connors is a supporting character for the rest of the series, appearing in Tablet of Time, The Ravages of Time, The Alien Costume pt. 2, The Final Nightmare, The Return of Kraven, The Lizard King, and all three parts of Secret Wars. In that last entry, Spider-Man and a team of heroes are fighting to save a world that had been taken over by Earth’s villains, as part of a ‘test’ created by a being called the Beyonder. Spider-Man and his allies are almost immediately attacked by the Lizard. They’re able to subdue him and use the alien tech available to them to awaken Connor’s mind in the Lizard’s body. Which must have been weird for the scientist, just saying.

He appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man. He’s a professor at Empire State University, and mentor to Peter and his childhood friend Eddie Brock. He’s introduced in the second episode Interactions, and develops the usual Lizard DNA cocktail that lets him regrow his arm. The formula seems to be thrown out of whack by an attack by Electro. Or it seemed that he only started growing scales and such after getting shocked by the deraigned Max Dillon. The next episode Natural Selection shows him transforming into the Lizard. With the help of Connor’s wife, Martha Connors, Eddie Brock and Gwen Stacy, they’re able to hit the Lizard with the cure to turn him back into Connors. The Connors remain as support characters for the rest of the series. That is until a number of Spider-Man related accidence, the loss of the Venom Symbiote, Venom stealing a vial of “gene cleaser” a perfected form of Curt’s Lizard cure, and such causes the Connors to lose control of their lab to another scientist Miles Warren. The Connors then move to Florida.

It's amazing how often Peter finds himself between a
Rock and a Hard Place. Or in this case between
Claws and Robotic arms.

Curt Connors is introduced as an engineer working for SHIELD in Ultimate Spider-Man. He has both arms for the first season, but loses it in the first season finale when a rampaging Goblin destroys the SHIELD Helicarrier. In the second season episode “The Lizard,” Spider-Man and Connors discover a lab run by Doctor Octopus. There they discover dozens of vials of animal-based formulas, including but not limited to lizard, rhino, scorpion and vulture. Oh, I wonder if these animals will ever come up again? Ugh, that amount of sarcasm actually hurt. Yeah, this is the one time that Connors didn’t develop the Lizard formula himself. Super odd when you think about it. Connors uses the lizard formula, both to regenerate his arm and to help Spider-Man fight off one of Ock’s Octobots. Subsequent injections cause him to go full Lizard. The Lizard, knowing that his time in this form is limited, tracks down Ock to get more serum. Peter follows him and faces off against both the Lizard and Ock, and is able to develop a cure for Connors. Connors is a recurring character for the rest of the series. He transforms into the Lizard again in the episodes The Sinister Six, Stan By Me, Return of the Sinister Six, Lizards, and Return to the Spider-Verse pt. 1. I should note that when he transforms again in Stan By Me, Connors seems to choose to remain the Lizard at the end of the episode and runs off. This “failure” to save Connors, in Peter’s eyes, haunts him until Return of the Sinister Six where they’re able to cure Connors once again.

Curt Connors is a supporting character in the Spider-Man Raimi Trilogy, he’s mentioned in the first film, and is portrayed by Dylan Baker in two and three. In the second film, he introduces Peter to his friend Doctor Octavius, and in the third is the scientist that researches that Symbiote when Peter gives him a sample. The Lizard was on the table to appear in Spider-Man 4, but that never came to be as Sony and Raimi’s relationship broke down.

Both sides of Connors appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man, portrayed by Rhys Ifans. He is a scientist at Oscorp that is researching how to combine Human and Animal DNA to improve health. He worked with Peter’s father, Richard Parker. He and Peter meet around when Peter was bitten by the Spider. Peter discovers his father’s research notes and gives it to Connors. Connors uses it to formulate a working serum. His superior, Dr. Ratha, fires Curt when he refuses to rush human trials. Connors uses a sample of the serum to regrow his arm, but then discovers that Dr. Ratha is going to use the formula at a VA hospital. He chases after Ratha, fully transforming into the Lizard on the way. He causes major damage to the Williamsburg Bridge, which Peter intervenes in. The Lizard escapes and returns to normal in the sewers. Connors works in the sewer, slowly being driven insane by the chemicals and growing obsessed with perfecting humanity with his formula. He and Peter clash in the sewers, where The Lizard finds out Peter’s identity when he finds one of Peter’s camera. He attacks Peter at his school, but is forced to withdrawal when the cops arrive. He then attacks Oscorp in an attempt to spread his formula across the city. Peter and Captain George Stacey are able to stop Connors, curing him, but The Lizard mortally wounds Stacey in the fight. Connors uses his last few seconds with his regrown arm to save Peter from falling. He’s arrested and taken to Beloit Psychiatric Hospital. A mysterious man arrives and asks Connors if he told Peter the truth about his father. He says no, and demands that Peter be left alone. The man disappears in a flash of lightning. No, the identity of this man is never revealed.

Like Mysterio and Scorpion, The Lizard has appeared in nearly every videogame featuring the wall-crawler. Weird.

The Lizard and Connors are two very good Marvel characters. As far as baddies go, he’s one of the most understandable. When you break down his motivations to their base level, he’s just trying to get back something that he lost. His obsession with getting back his right arm leads him to some very dark places, but I think his fall is very understandable. It starts with getting his arm back, leads to perfecting his Lizard form, to spreading his “perfection” across the world. Each step seems reasonable until he finally reaches the world domination phase. There’s a really good scene in The Amazing Spider-Man where we see Rhys’ version of Connors raising his left arm beside a mirror so he can see his “right” arm again. The movie itself is incredibly flawed, but the scene is amazing at showing Connors pain. Or so I think. Connors, like Langstrom and Jekyll, started out trying to improve himself and ended up becoming a monster along the way. It’s rather sad, especially when later versions of the character develop into one of Peter’s various mentors. Do. Not. Become Peter’s mentor, it leads to death, becoming a supervillain, or both. Just saying. We probably won’t see the Lizard again in anything live action for a while, but there’s always hope… so long as Disney and Sony don’t get into another pissing contest. Fingers crossed.

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Villain Profile: The Scorpion

Okay, so one more, slight detour before I return to the topic of Danny Rand’s adventures in New York. So, a number of years ago now, I did a theme week of characters that had been bonded to the Venom Symbiote. One of those characters was MacDonald “Mac” Gargan. While Mac is one of the better known, and long running, Venom hosts, he actually got his start much, much earlier in the Spider-Man Mythos, as the monstrous Scorpion. Let’s get to it.

I wonder how much property damage he
causes just scaling buildings.

Way back in the day, Mac Gargan was a sleazy private investigator. One of those guys that had few moral qualms, would do anything for a quick buck. Which made him perfect for a job that everyone’s favorite Spider-Man hater, J. Jonah Jameson, had in mind. See, JJ hates Spider-Man, but prints stories about him in the Daily Bugle because they sell copies. He knows that one of his freelance photographers, Peter Parker, somehow takes really amazing pictures of Spider-Man to use in these stories. And he also knows that Parker is pro-Spider-Man and would never tell someone like Jameson about the details of how he gets said pictures. So, Jameson hired Gargan to follow Parker in the hopes of learning how he takes the pictures in the hopes they could use this information to finally ruin Spider-Man. This of course doesn’t work out the way that they’d hoped, because, you know, Spidey Sense, and Gargan returns to Jameson empty handed. Obviously infuriated by this, Jameson decides to try plan B. He hires Gargan to undergo a highly dangerous and virtually untested genetic procedure. Now, a smarted man would have walked away after the words ‘highly,’ ‘dangerous,’ and ‘untested’ came up in the contract, but Jameson offered him like a $10,000 to do it, so Gargan might not have heard all the details. A geneticist named Dr. Farley Stillwell combined Gargan with the DNA of a Scorpion, as scorpions are one of the spider’s natural predators. He also outfitted Gargan with a costume that came equipped with a large club-like mechanical tail, similar to that which an actual scorpion uses.

The newly dubbed Scorpion sought out Spider-Man and easily dispatched the wall-crawler. Spider-Man slips away, but is quickly tracked down and beaten some more. Spider-Man escaped a second time, which proved most fortuitous for everyone involved. It’s at this point where the side effects of combining human DNA with an arthropods’ DNA proved to be insanely dangerous and stupid. The combination of the scorpion’s natural predatory instincts and, I’m assuming, degeneration from the DNA tinkering, quickly drove Gargan into a homicidal rage. He tried to murder Jameson and Stillwell, but Spider-Man intervened. This time he was able to disarm, or in this case de-tail, Scorpion of his mechanical appendage, and saw that Gargan was put away for his crimes.

Now, despite being one of Peter Parker’s older enemies, and being his original ‘broken mirror’ villain (similar powers to hero but few to no moral restrictions), Gargan hasn’t really done all that much of note. He’s largely a merc villain, working for anyone and everyone that’s willing to pay him for his services. Huh, the more things change… Though, he harbors a special hatred for Jameson and Spider-Man. He’s actually let more than one largely foolproof plan fall apart simply because he wanted to humiliated one or both of the men he hates so intensely. Like the time he started working as a merc for evil billionaire Justin Hammer, who even gave him some suit upgrades for his trouble, which he flushed away when he turned a kidnapping into a hostage situation. All to humiliate JJ. He lost the job and his tech upgrades right after. He also tried to kidnap JJ’s bride-to-be, but was thwarted by Spider-Man, and also tried to attack Spider-Man at a hospital. Spidey’s location had been given to him by another villain, the Jackal. Rather than finding Spider-Man, he just found Peter Parker and Aunt May. He threatens the poor old gal to force Peter to get Spider-Man. After she passes out from the shock of this ordeal, Peter slips away, gets into costume and beats the heck out of Gargan. He then forces the Scorpion to personally apologize to Aunt May.

He really hates being called names.

The Scorpion didn’t really switch into High gear until more recent years, like during the Acts of Vengeance story. A superhero reality TV show lead to an insane exploding villain named Nitro to going off in a suburb, killing hundreds. People were up in arms after this, demanding harsher punishments for super criminals, and for all super-beings to register their powers with the government. Gargan had tried to escape to Canada, but was quickly ‘deported’ by Canada’s… Avengers? X-Men? Their superhuman team Alpha Flight, and the lesser known Gamma Flight. He eventually traveled to Latervia and took up a position as an enforcer for the current Latervian dictator, Lucia von Bardas. He’s taken down by Nick Fury and the Avengers, in an unsanctioned mission into Latervia, and sent to prison. He’s eventually freed by Norman Osborn, whom turns the Scorpion into one of his enforcers. His first job is to essentially ensure that Norman stays out of prison. Namely, after Norman’s most recent arrest, Gargan was tasked with kidnapping Aunt May and forcing Peter to break Norman out of prison. Gobby told Scorpy who’s beneath Spidey’s mask, fyi. And after that snafu, it was then that the Symbiote, having recently ditched its newest host, approached Gargan with an offer.

As mentioned in his Venom post, Gargan spent a few years as Venom, but quickly grew to hate some of the more ghoulish things the suit forced him to do… like eating people. He’s finally freed after Norman, who’d been going nuts once again and used his position as head of the SHIELD replacement HAMMER to waged an all-out war with Asgard, and the rest of their compatriots were arrested. In prison, he’s eventually freed by another Spider-Man baddy, Alistair Smythe, and given a new and improved Scorpion suit. Sometimes it’s best to stick with the part you know, ya know?

Mac Gargan was given similar arachnid-like powers as Spider-Man, thanks to highly dangerous and experimental chemical and radiological treatments. This was included, but not limited to, splicing his DNA with a Scorpion, having him ingest various steroids and more exotic substances, and hitting him with near lethal doses of Radiation. The end result turned him into a hulking brute, with enhanced strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and stamina. He can climb walls, but unlike Spider-Man who adheres to the surface, he uses his claw-like fingers to punch holes into the sides of walls. He wears a cybernetically enhanced battle suit that further enhances his durability and strength, and also gives him a robotic tail. Said tail he uses like a club, but it usually comes equipped with something extra as well, like the ability to shoot acid, poison gas, or darts.

The Scorpion’s biggest weaknesses are his severe anger management issues, and his rather low intelligence. If you can get him mad, which isn’t hard, he starts making a metric ton of mistakes and is actually surprisingly easy to manipulate. His hatred of Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson often get him into trouble, as he’ll abandon any plan or turn on pretty much anyone if they try to stop him from getting his revenge. He’s a dumb, dumb, dumb man.

Scorpion is a regularly recurring villain from Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery. Not quite on the same level as the big three, Venom, Doc Oct, or Green Goblin, but he does appear in most shows. One of the few Spider-Man shows that he didn’t appear in directly was The Spectacular Spider-Man. He was alluded to in the second season finale, and show runners have confirmed that he would have appeared in season 3, had they been renewed.

His latest comic book form.
He's like a green Rhino.

Mac’s origin story was pretty much shown note for note in Spider-Man: The Animated Series from the 90s. In it, Mac began as a fat, neurotic PI that had been hired by JJ to find Spider-Man’s secret identity. After a few failed attempts at getting the dirt, Jonah convinces Gargan to undergo a genetic experiment using a device called the Neogenic Recombinator. The portly little Gargan turns into a giant Spider-Man killing machine, and goes to bring Spider-Man in. He’s stronger, and faster then Parker, being able to catch up to Spider-Man and cut his web-lines mid-swing. He’s able to capture Spider-Man, but then undergoes a much more severe and painful mutation, growing claws, fangs, and scalier green skin. He erroneously believes another dose of radiation could reverse the process, going so far as to make a reactor begin to go nuclear to meet that end. He’s distracted long enough by JJ insulting him for Peter to get the upper hand, knocking Scorpion out and bringing him into custody. After this, he’s mostly seen as part of the Insidious Six, the Fox Kids approved version of the Sinister Six. He appears in the episodes “The Sting of the Scorpion,” “The Insidious Six” parts one and two, “The Final Nightmare” part 2, “Partners” and “The Wedding.”

His most recent appearance was in Spider-Man: Homecoming. In it, rather than a PI, he’s some sort of crime boss. Because subtlety is stupid, he has a sizeable Scorpion shaped tattoo on his neck. He has a deal with the Vulture for several of his exotic weaponry. They meet on the Staten Island Ferry, but their deal is interrupted by Spider-Man, and the FBI. Gargan gets messed up pretty bad in the fight, being hit by a car as the Ferry nearly goes under. In a mid-credit’s scene, we see that Gargan is put into the same prison that Toomes is in. He has heard through the grape vine that Toomes might know who Spider-Man really is, and that he has people on the outside that could use that information to get payback. Adrian denies it though, and their ushered apart. Just got to say, much better way to set up the sequels then the Amazing Spider-Man series. This way, the villain for the sequel really could be anyone, from the Scorpion himself, to any number of lesser mercs, like Kraven the Hunter, or Mysterio.

Hm... wonder if/when he'll done his scorpion
tail?

A version of the Scorpion appears in Ultimate Spider-Man. This version is not Mac Gargan, but a young man trained at K’un-Lun and is a rival of Iron Fist. He betray's Danny and tries to force him from K'un-Lun as he feels Danny is unworthy of the title of Iron Fist, but is thwarted and excommunicated from K'un-Lun after that. That’s about all I have to say on that, as he’s largely a background character from that point onward. This is probably due to the fact that he was played by the rather popular voice actor Dante Basco, whom I'm pretty sure doesn't have all that much free time to be doing largely one off characters. Dante Basco was Prince Zuko in Avatar, Jake Long in American Dragon: Jake Long, as well as Rufio in Hook, if his name doesn't ring a bell. 

A version of the Scorpion is set to appear in Marvel’s Spider-Man, the latest incarnation of Spider-Man to appear on Disney XD. From the trailer I saw, he’s going to be one of the first villains that Spider-Man comes across, as the teen hero is in a much more makeshift costume in the trailer. And that’s all I really know about that particular appearance.

He makes an appearance in one form or another in pretty much all of the Spider-Man games. Just saying.

Huh, I didn’t really realize until I started writing this post just how little Scorpion actually has appeared outside of the comics. He has the two mentioned above, the one promised appearance that never came to fruition, and then two other appearances in older shows that I never saw. Despite this, I know this character reasonably well. He’s your pretty standard ‘wanted powers, but regrets them’ type bad guy. The powers he’s received, while making him one of Spider-Man’s more iconic villains, have left him a monstrous shell of a human that only seems to delight in causing pain and misery. It’s kind of sad when you think about it. Like a lot of more burly villains, he’s on the dumber end of the intelligence spectrum, and because of that hates being talked down to or insulted. One of the lines I remember best from him was in his initial episode when he kept screaming “Stop callin’ me names!” after JJ started laying into him about his insane plan to get a cure. I’m unsure if I’d want to see him appear in the next Spider-Man sequel, or if they should save him for a third movie, but I’m sure he’ll grace the big screen sometime soon. Have a good one everybody.

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/Spidermanep2.jpg
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Villain Profile: Doctor Octopus

Okay, so we’ve covered two of Spider-Man’s Big Three. The twisted alien parasite bonded to various foes and friends, Venom. And the insane industrialist, father figure turned girlfriend murder Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin. They have dogged Spider-Man for decades now, but they are actually more recent foes. Today we’re going to talk about the oldest villain of this trio, the original greatest foe of Spider-Man, Doctor Otto Octavius, aka Doc Ock. Let’ get to it.

Looks good, but didn't play out as well as I'd hoped.

Otto Octavius grew up in a home where his parents were… diametrically opposed on their parenting techniques. Torbert Octavius, a blue-collar factory worker with anger management issues, tried to whip his ‘wussy’ son into shape. Side note, I swear to whatever cosmic being that may or may not watch over creation that I will find a villain that didn’t have an abusive parent. Torbert was a big believer in the might makes right, eye for an eye tooth for a tooth philosophies. He would smack Otto around while screaming at Otto to do the same to his tormentors. Mary Octavius, on the other hand, did her best to protect her sweet little Otto, insisting that he’d use his brain to solve his problems. You know those moms that aren’t technically abusive but do massive psychological harm by babying their kids and doting on them, and never let them develop emotionally? Yeah, that’s Mary Octavius.

Spurred on by his mother and hellbent on not being his father, Otto excelled in school and even earned a university scholarship. He also developed an intense hatred for anyone that he deemed less intelligent then himself. Which is, in fact, most people. Interestingly enough, Otto did owe his dad for something. Torbert was killed in an industrial accident during Otto’s freshmen year. This death led to Otto’s obsession in the physical sciences, and engineering. He became a brilliant mind in the field of nuclear science. He became a highly-respected scientist, research consultant, lecturer and inventor. His biggest claim to fame was a harness. Said harness allowed him to control four robotic arms via a brain-computer interface. These arms were resistant to radiation, capable of moving incredibly heavy loads, and incredibly precise movements.

His success in his various fields increased his already large ego to near titanic proportions. Imagine the Hindenburg. That’s Otto’s ego in a nutshell, enormous, full of hot air and all it’ll take is a spark to make it go up in flames. But more on that in a sec. Otto’s personal life took a turn for the best, when he met a woman named Mary Alice. She was a fellow researcher, so she’s comparable to him in intellect, and the two had good chemistry. Despite the latter’s general… terrible attitude. I’m going to harp on this a lot, but seriously, he’s a donkey’s backside. He and Mary Alice got engaged, but it didn’t end well. You see, Mary Octavius was the sort of mother that felt that no woman was ever going to be good enough for her perfect baby boy. Otto, being a major mama’s boy, broke up with Mary Alice. A few weeks later, he was infuriated to learn that his mother was secretly dating a librarian. Same mindset as Mary’s had been, ‘why are you seeing someone beneath you’ sort of thing. The two got into an incredibly heated argument, which ended with his mother having a major heart attack. So… no girlfriend, and his overbearing mother is dead… not a great week for Otto.

Following the loss of both major women in his life, Otto’s personal life took a nosedive. Where he used to at least tolerate the ‘lesser’ minds he worked with, now everyone was an insect not worth his notice. Said colleagues took to calling him Doctor Octopus behind his back to belittle him. He knew about this little taunt, obviously, but he barely cared.

All it took was one bad day to turn a worm into an Octopus.
Feels like a lateral move if I'm being honest.

Things took a turn for the worst during an experiment. There was a minor radiation leak that led to a massive explosion. Said explosion caused his harness to fuse with Otto’s spine and torso. Upon waking up in the hospital, he flipped out and took the hospital hostage. Our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was swinging by, and stepped in. Despite being an overweight, nearly blind scientist, Doc Ock’s tentacles proved to be a physical match for Spider-Man. He actually defenestrated Spider-Man, and caused ol Spidey to consider retiring from hero work. But, he rallied after chatting with the Human Torch and gave Otto what-for.

Not one to be deterred, Otto Octavius is one of Spider-Man’s persistent foes. He’s engaged Spider-Man in combat countless times, both alone, and with is pet project, the Sinister Six. He’s very proud of founding that group, and has been known to take serious offense to anyone else using the name. Kind of shocked that the super anti-social Ock is continually allying himself with others. He actually has a very long time partnership, something akin to a friendship, with the Vulture. Cephalopod and bird of prey, how strange. Doctor Octopus, despite his numerous failures, is actually credited with being the one to beat Spider-Man. But I’ll get back to that whenever I cover the Superior Spider-Man.

Doctor Otto Octavius is one of the most intelligent men in the Marvel Universe. He’s got a Ph. D. in nuclear science, and is a gifted engineer and inventor. He’s an expert in the field of radiation, one of the best examples of this is when Mr. Fantastic sought his help when his wife the Invisible Woman was having radiation complications during pregnancy. Cosmic rays really mess with things. He’s developed several amazingly advanced pieces of technology like his tentacle harness, his legion of Octo-bots, and various upgrades for some of his villainous allies. Despite his… personality, he’s proven to be a very charismatic leader and cunning strategist with his various incarnations of the Sinister Six. He uses this group to perform his more elaborate schemes, and the group at large is typically instrumental in his closest attempts at finally finishing off Spider-Man.

Just an unsettling look.

His most iconic feature is his special harness. Said harness allows him to mentally control four robotic tentacles. These arms are incredibly strong which allow him to lift several tons but dexterous enough to perform delicate tasks like wiring machinery or stirring tea. He’s fought incredibly strong, and agile foes like Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Captain America. The arms are able to easily lift his body weight, and allow him to scale walls. Upgraded versions of the tentacles also possess retractable tools that help Otto in his schemes. Over the years, he’s gotten so good at multitasking that he can perform a complex task like constructing one of his machines while two of his tentacles fight his opponents in the background. Experimentation, constant use, and sudden brain mutations have allowed Otto to control these arms at a distance as well.

His tentacles could also be seen as his greatest weakness. Well, his reliance on them is his weakness. His arms are super, in terms of strength, speed, dexterity and so on. Otto, on the other hand, is an older, overweight, nerdy, and so nearsighted that he’s basically blind scientist. If you can just get passed the four metal arms, he’s cake. But, those arms are pretty hard to avoid.  He also has the ability to control a legion of flying Octo-bots with his thoughts. Because why not?

Like Green Goblin and Venom, Otto has appeared in some form or another in nearly every Spider-Man franchise to date. Even in series that he didn’t appear physically, there have been homages. Like in Amazing Spider-Man 2 where we see his tentacles/harness, and Vulture’s wings in a Oscorp vault. Granted, he WOULD have appeared if they’d gotten the third movie and/or the Sinister Six movie, but… the Amazing Spider-Man series didn’t really play out as they’d hoped. Given his prolific nature, I’ll only cover the series I know reasonably well. Just know that if it’s a Spider-Man series, and it lasts long enough, he’s in it.

Five costume changes to just get to an upgraded version
of his look from the 90s cartoon. Just saying.

He appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man. For the first seven episodes, he’s largely a background character, being a friend of Adrian Toomes that erroneously advised Toomes to show CEO Norman Osborn his flight harness, (Osborn stole the design) and the scientist behind the creation of Sandman and Rhino. He and boss Norman Osborn are secretly working for ‘The Big Man,’ aka Tombstone, aka L. Thompson Lincoln, to create supervillains to keep Spider-Man busy. The thought process is that if Spider-Man is busy battling super criminals, he is too busy to notice the petty crimes of Tombstone’s other goons. He’s an incredibly weak, spineless man. This changes in “Reaction” when, while cleaning out the machines that he used to make the villains, he gets stuck in the pod. Green Goblin, Norman’s alter ego, had locked him in the pod and powered it up. Otto fights hard to break the door open, but it’s too late. He shrieks, “No this isn’t right. No, not right. I’ve been good!” as he’s hit by an intense radiation. The radiation fuses the tentacles to his back. Afterwards, he’s done being good. He sets out to steal an experimental battery pack to power his arms indefinitely. Peter and Otto throw down, with Spider-Man coming out on top. He returns in “Group Therapy” where he forms the Sinister Six with Electro, Vulture, Sandman, Rhino, and Shocker. The group is able to overpower Spider-Man, once, but he escapes. In “Intervention,” they’re actually defeated by, not Spider-Man, but the evil alien Symbiote that controlled him while Peter slept. The Symbiote is more violent and less concerned with collateral damage, so it’s able to overpower the villainous group with relative ease. He returns in “Shear Strength” “Accomplices” and “Gangland.” Not many episodes, but hey, the show only had 26 in total, so those six plus the four or five pre-Ock episodes, that’s nearly half the series. Good on yeah, Ock.

He is the most recurring villain in Ultimate Spider-Man. In this version, he’s got rather long scraggly hair, his harness also works like an artificial lung, and he’s completely paralyzed from the neck down. So he’s more reliant on his arms than ever. He and Norman Osborn are behind most of the villains that attack Spider-Man in season one. In the season 1 finale, he, fed up with being Norman’s lapdog, injects him with a chemical cocktail that turns Norman Osborn into the Goblin. From then on, he’s a free agent. He appears pretty regularly in seasons 2 and 3, creating the Sinister Six, recreating the Goblin whenever he’s cured, and even goes so far to team with Loki in a failed Asgard invasion. Obviously, none of these schemes really panned out. In season 4, he teams with HYDRA and gets a nanobot upgrade. He goes from looking gross to looking like straight nightmare fuel. He looks like a casket with a creepy Bane from Dark Knight Rises mask on. He keeps dogging for the rest of the series, but thankfully gets another upgrade that makes him look less terrifying. He’s also voiced by Tom Kenny, so if you ever want to hear what Spongebob would sound like as a supervillain, there you go.

Pretty intimidating for a fat scientist,
isn't he?

He is the main antagonist of Spider-Man 2 in the Sam Raimi film trilogy. He’s portrayed by Alfred Molina. He’s initially a good scientist, married man, and a mentor to a youngish Peter Parker. Otto runs an experiment for Oscorp, directed by Harry Osborn. The experiment, using tritium to make a mini-sun, goes well until a radiation spike. The spike draws in all metallic objects in the room, causing a window to shatter and kill Otto’s wife via shattered glass. Peter, who’d been invited to observe, changes into costume and is able to shut the experiment down. While he disables the machinery, Otto is hit with electricity that fries a chip that kept the AI of his artificial arms from messing with his brain. He’s taken to an OR, where they try to remove the arms, but the arms flip out and murder the doctors. Otto initially tries to commit suicide upon walking, but the arms’ AI convince him to try to rebuild the machine. He battles Peter several times in his bid to rebuild his work, and ultimately kidnaps Mary Jane in a bid to kill Spider-Man. Honestly, while I like Alfred Molina, I do not care for this interpretation of Otto Octavius. He’s not a sympathetic character, he’s not one to recite poetry, or give advice about love. He’s a narcissist, confident in his intelligence, super prideful, and just a colossal Delusional Idiotic Callous Killer. I’m not supposed to like him. I can’t like him. I at best feel sorry that he uses his supreme intellect so selfishly. I also hate that in this version the tentacles are the actual bad guys. They might influence his actions, but they don’t dominate them. You know what motivation Otto would need to rebuild his machine in the comics? That Spider-Man interrupted the experiment. No other reason needed.

Doc Ock is one of Spider-Man’s longest running, and dangerous foes. He’s supremely intelligent, incredibly dangerous, and oddly charismatic. They’ve made a bit of a thing about how his tentacles are superpowerful, but he himself is as normal as your average research scientist. So, not really super at all, really. Of Spider-Man’s Big Three, he’s the most similar to Spider-Man when you think about it. Both are incredibly intelligent men with a form of super strength, they’re both themed after an eight-legged invertebrate, dressed mainly in primary colors, and have inspired a surprising number of their fellows to follow them. Spider-Man has the Avengers, and Doc Ock has the Sinister Six. He’s also one of the most visually distinctive villains in comics. How many slightly overweight, multiarmed villains dressed in green and yellow, can you think of? Honestly, I’ve been trying to think if he’s got an equivalent counterpart in DC comics, but all that I can think of is a minor gangster that Killer Croc killed that went by the Squid. Otherwise, Doc Ock is really the only cephalopod themed villain I can think of. He’s the sinister schemer, the malevolent mechanist, the darkly dreaming Doc Ock. Next time, Voltron season 2 V-Logs. Have a good one.

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