The Sinister Six Should Be Marvel’s Next Avengers Level Threat (So Why Aren’t They?)

The Sinister Six are Spider-Man’s most dedicated, deadliest villains all working together to bring him down together. The roster is always changing, but it always features most of Spidey’s biggest names and heaviest hitters, and they always give the Wall-Crawler more than a run for his money. Yet, through it all, Spider-Man always manages to come out on top and save the day. Despite the fact that the Sinister Six consistently lose a one-on-six matchup, I do believe that they have the potential to move on from being Spider-Man’s biggest threat to a danger to the entire world. The Sinister Six can easily become an Avengers level threat, and maybe already are.

Monsters Kept in Place

At first, it seems crazy to suggest that the team of street level Spider-Man villains can go up against the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. After all, they routinely get their villainous booties handed to them by New York’s friendliest hero, and Spider-Man is nowhere near as dangerous as someone like Thor or Hulk, who routinely take up at least one spot on the Avengers’ roster. Yet, when you dig into what each member of the Sinister Six is capable of, you realize that each of these members has the potential to do some serious damage. Although the roster is always rotating, there are some mainstays that show exactly why they’re Spider-Man’s greatest foes. 

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Doctor Octopus is one of the smartest men in the world, having built the multi-billion dollar company Parker Industries and having shown time and again that his tech can go toe-to-toe with monsters like Venom, and can match Iron Man at least on some levels. Electro can become pure energy and has shown multiple times that he is capable of standing up against several heroes at once when he puts his mind to it. Mysterio is capable of creating illusions so real that they can even fool Daredevil’s enhanced senses, so if anyone could trick the Avengers into hurting their own chances, then it is the Master of Illusion. Then we have Sandman, who can become virtually unstoppable if he chose to be, able to grow to unstoppable sizes by having no ceiling to how much sand he can absorb and being effectively immortal. The villainous team only gets exponentially more dangerous if we include non-traditional members that are still Spider-Man villains, like Carnage and Morlun. The former has plunged entire communities and cities into chaos numerous times, and the latter is stated to be as strong as the Hulk and is once again near impossible to kill. The fact that this team continuously loses to Spider-Man is more of a compliment to him than it is a detriment to them, especially given that Spider-Man is Marvel’s premier “I always hold back” hero.

An Avengers Level Threat Really Isn’t That High

It’s become common to associate world-ending threats with the Avengers’ power level, but that idea that the team only deals with apocalyptic villains was popularized by the movies more than the comics. Sure, the Avengers are far more likely to deal with threats to the entire planet than not, but that’s not saying they never deal with lower tier villains. They routinely do battle with the endless mooks of A.I.M. and Hydra, and have fought plenty of villain teams like the Brotherhood of Mutants and the Lethal Legion, and I can’t say that the Sinister Six aren’t at least comparable to those other teams in terms of capabilities. Heck, sometimes the Avengers would even all have to work together to take down singular villains, like in Avengers #183 when they had to combine their strengths to bring down the Absorbing Man. The Sinister Six have the potential to be a world-ending threat, and the Avengers clearly have a precedent for fighting villain teams,

This elevation also opens the doors for such an interesting story. Doc Oc and Kingpin get tired of being on the bottom, and decide to bring out the worst of their powerfully gifted but less maniacal villain partners, and go all the way up the food chain with the Avengers to bring down the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. They could be establishing themselves as legitimate threats that everyone initially underestimates because of their status as only Spider-Man fans, which can make for an awesome story where the Avengers are pushed on the back foot and we get to see the true depths of potential that Spidey’s rogues have. It could even offer a chance for Spider-Man to step up and help the Avengers, and who doesn’t love it when Spider-Man teams up with them? This story could be awesome, and the Sinister Six deserve the attention as the legitimate threat that they are. Which villain team do you think deserves more chops? Let us know in the comments below!