Spider-Man spent his first year in Marvel Comics developing one of the deepest rogues’ galleries in the world. By the time the year ended, his new original villains were so great that Marvel decided to team them together in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 as the Sinister Six. Since that time, Spider-Man has faced countless versions of the Sinister Six. There have been so many members of this team that he even had a giant event series called Sinister War, where he battled dozens upon dozens of villains all at once as the different iterations teamed together to try to beat the Wall-Crawler at the behest of Kindred. Even with all these villains, they still couldn’t beat Spider-Man.
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While Spider-Man always wins, even when fighting six villains at once, the Sinister Six is still a powerful team-up of villains. However, while some of these villains are B-listers at best, some of them are among the most powerful Marvel Comics villains to be associated with Spider-Man.
10) Shocker
Shocker joined the Sinister Six in the fourth iteration, known as the Sinister Seven. This wasn’t even a great version, as Hobgoblin led a team that consisted of three founding members, Shocker, and two minor leaguers. While Scorpion was only the third strongest member of this version, he is still a powerhouse in Spider-Man comics. He is an engineer and created his battle suit while in prison, which allowed him to deliver blasts of vibrational punches with his Vibro-Shock Gauntlets. These blasts can take down most heroes, but are mostly worthless against people like Luke Cage. However, when they hit Spider-Man, they can do some severe damage. The one downfall is that the kickback can hurt Shocker as well, and he needed to upgrade his costume to protect himself from the full effect of the blasts.
9) The Spot
For a long time, The Spot was a joke villain. However, The Spot gained popularity thanks to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse when his tragic backstory helped increase interest in him. However, to understand his powers, look at the Kindred storyline in Spider-Man comics. Kingpin brought The Spot in to use his portal ability because nothing was more powerful than those, and even Spot was worried he couldn’t control them. His powers were strong enough to capture the demonic Kindred and hold him imprisoned in the Darkforce. He is also immortal, and if he dies, he will resurrect and reform in the Spotted Dimension. Sadly, his time in the Sister Six coincided with his status as a B-list villain, initially with the Sinister Sixteen and later with a group that collaborated with the Iron Spider.
8) Hobgoblin
At one time, there wasn’t a more interesting villain in Spider-Man comic books than The Hobgoblin. That is because Marvel chose to keep the villain’s identity a secret for a very long time, and it was one of the title’s biggest ongoing mysteries. While the reveal of Ned Leeds as Hobgoblin was disappointing, Marvel retconned that idea and instead revealed the villain was a previously unknown man named Roderick Kingsley. Not only that, but there was also a second Hobgoblin named Jason Macendale, who used to be Jack O’Lantern. Both of these men were in the Sinister Six, with Macendale even serving as the leader once. The two men used the Goblin Formula to gain superhuman powers and used armor and pumpkin bombs similar to those of the Green Goblin.
7) Scorpion
While The Scorpion was one of Spider-Man’s earliest villains, debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #19, that was year two, and the Sinister Six debuted at the end of year one. That said, Scorpion didn’t finally join the team until the Sinister Seven, and shockingly, he was only a member of two iterations of the team. Mac Gargan was a private investigator whom J. Jonah Jameson worked with. However, soon, Jameson had a more demented plan. He paid Gargan to become a test subject for an experiment to create a superhero to defeat Spider-Man. The experiment failed, bonded the Scorpion suit to his body, and caused the man to lose his grip on his sanity. As Scorpion, he possesses superhuman strength and durability, making him incredibly strong. He even got an upgrade for a time when he bonded with the Venom symbiote and worked in the Dark Avengers.
6) Kraven the Hunter
Kraven the Hunter has no natural powers, but that should not discount how powerful this Sinister Six villain is. Kraven was a founding member of the first iteration of the team, but that was the only time Sergei Kravinoff was a part of the group. However, his son Alexei was part of the sixth team, and a clone of Sergei was a member of several later iterations. Sergei had 87 clones of himself made by the High Evolutionary and had them fight each other until one was left, making this final clone “son” one of Spider-Man’s most formidable villains. He does have superhuman abilities thanks to the Calypso Serum that the High Evolutionary made for him, and added to his immense hunting skills, Kraven has the skills to conquer just about any hunt he sets his mind to. The original Kraven even defeated Spider-Man before taking his own life when he realized he had nothing worthy left to hunt.
5) Doctor Octopus
Doctor Octopus has had one of the most fascinating Marvel Comics careers of any Spider-Man villain. He debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #3 as one of Spider-Man’s earliest villains. He was one of the Sinister Six’s greatest leaders, as he remains one of the smartest people ever to face Spider-Man in the comics. He also beat Spider-Man once when he switched bodies with him just as he died, and this led to the spectacular Superior Spider-Man comics. While he is back to Doc Ock again, he looks like one of the least threatening villains. However, his tactical skills, his immense intelligence and scientific creativity, and his almost unbreakable metal arms make him more than a threat to Spider-Man. Doc Ock was part of no less than 12 different versions of the Sinister Six and was the leader of 10 of them.
4) Electro
Electro was also a founding member of the Sinister Six, and his powers are greater than almost anyone who has been a part of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. Max Dillon got his powers from a freak accident while working for a local electric company. Not a good person to begin with, he decided to use his electrical powers to rob banks and started his life of crime. Electro can generate about 10,000 volts of electricity a minute and store up to 10 million volts. This is enough to kill a man with one blast. However, over the years, he began to lose control, which made him dangerous to himself and everyone around him. He was the only person who was part of all eight of the first iterations of the Sinister Six, and was part of a total of 14 versions of the team.
3) Lizard
The Lizard is one of Marvel Comics’ most tragic villains. Curt Connors is a good man, but he sought a way to regrow his hand after losing it in an accident. He believed that certain reptiles could regrow appendages, so he tested this on himself. It had tragic results and turned him into a giant lizard, stripping him of his intelligence, and sending him out to kill and maim anyone in his path. However, Curt was a good man, and Spider-Man only wanted to save him. This was the classic Universal Horror Wolf-Man story, and he remains one of Spider-Man’s most chilling villains. Lizard was part of three Sinister Six teams, and when he was the Lizard, he had almost unstoppable superhuman strength and durability.
2) Sandman
Sandman first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #4, and as one of his earliest villains, was also a founding member of the Sinister Six. He has been part of 13 different iterations of the Sinsister Six, and he was even the leader of the sixth incarnation of the group. However, things changed in his most recent appearances, as Sandman doesn’t want to be a villain, and he has even worked to help Spider-Man more than once to deal with his villainous teammates. Power-wise, he is almost unbeatable. He can transform into sand and also harden, gaining superhuman strength and durability. While water and intense heat affect him, he is often able to get around that. He is also basically immortal and can live forever as long as any of his sand survives an attack.
1) Venom
It might be hard to remember since he has been a hero for so long, but Venom has been part of the Sinister Six more than once. Eddie Brock was part of the sixth and seventh versions of the team, and Mac Gargan was in the eighth when he was Venom instead of Scorpion. Venom is a powerful symbiote who wants to be a hero, but for many years, he harbored an intense hatred for Spider-Man, which led him to become a villain. Venom had superhuman strength and could lift more than Spider-Man. He is also strong enough to trade blows with the Juggernaut. He has a healing factor, which kept Eddie Brock alive for years despite a cancer diagnosis. Finally, Venom can stretch and deform his body to create countless weapons that he uses against anyone who gets in his way. He is easily the most powerful Sinister Six member in history, and one of Marvel Comics’ most powerful antiheroes.
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