Every Spider-Man Villain in Spider-Noir, Ranked

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Spider-Noir. It’s a golden rule of superhero storytelling that any hero is only as good as the villains he faces. Batman has his Rogues’ Gallery, the MCU trots out increasingly diabolical threats to reunite the Avengers, and Spider-Man arguably has Marvel’s best collection of bad guys. It should come as no surprise, then, that Prime’s Spider-Noir has a whole host of villains for Nicolas Cage’s unhinged Ben Reilly to face off against. It’s obviously more complex than just throwing any old familiar name at the wall, though, because Spider-Noir‘s noir aesthetic and 1930s setting allowed the showrunners to mess with the formula quite a bit. And they did it very well.

Reilly inhabits a mostly pre-superhero world, where Harlem’s The Spider is noteworthy as the exception, and a huge loss when Reilly chooses to retire in the wake of the death of his lover, Ruby. But as he’s drawn into a strange series of events, villains seem to spring up every few minutes, all with connections to mobster Silvermane. But which of the new bad guys is the best in Spider-Noir? It really is an embarrassment of riches…

7) Addison

It’s difficult to say a great deal about the tragic Addison, whose involvement in the Spider-Noir plot is defined by his absence, after all. He’s the first of the mutated veterans we meet in the first episode, and he’s not based on an existing Marvel Comics supervillain (though there are a lot of pyrokinetic bad guys who could have been his inspiration). His powers are impressive, and he does pose a problem for Ben Reilly and Donegal (Cameron Britton), but ultimately, Addison is also defined by failure: he fails to kill Silvermane, kicking off his mission of vengeance, and he also fails to make much of an impact on the private detectives before he’s shot and killed by Donegal.

6) Dr Faber

A later addition to the Rogue’s Gallery, Dr Alethea Faber (Amy Aquino) is another complex bad guy who mostly means well, but balances it with an undeniably evil streak that makes her irredeemable. Inspired by her burning need to save her son, Ogden, from his rapid aging mutation, Faber exploits the desperation of the POW veterans who were experimented on by the Germans and kills (and preserves) basically the entire group other than Silverman’s gang. She also leads the experimentation on Ben Reilly to retrieve his DNA, submitting him to haunting visions that any arachnophobic should avoid watching in the series’ best episode, “Nightmare on a Gurney.” While her intentions are good, they are perversely twisted, and she’s willing to kill off Reilly to hide her crimes, marking her as a true villain.

5) MegaWatt

When Andrew Lewis Caldwell was announced as playing obscure villain MegaWatt (real name Dirk Leyden), many more cynical fans assumed Sony had struggled to use tier-A electric villain Electro, or even Shocker. Leyden was an interesting choice though, because his backstory as a failed actor means his characterisation adds a little flair to the show. He throws out quotes from famous stage plays and grandstands, making his ultimate betrayal of Silvermane over bruised ego a logical endgame. What he boasts as positives in his story, though, is counter-balanced somewhat by the fact that he’s insufferable and tends towards the grandiose for no reason. That doesn’t make him a bad villain as much as an annoying one, which is as intended.

4) Man-Spider

Impressively, we don’t get to know anything about Spider-Noir’s Man-Spider other than his part in the harrowing origin story that leads to Ben Reilly gaining his powers. He’s nameless and storyless, other than as a member of the tragic troop Reilly rescues from German captivity and is an immediate, stark warning of what could happen to the survivors if their mutations develop too far. This take on Man-Spider is the stuff of nightmares, a true body horror creature with exceptional design who is on screen for a matter of moments, but still manages to leave an incredible mark.

3) Tombstone

Abraham Popoola’s Lonnie Lincoln is very different to the typical image of Tombstone that Marvel Comics fans might expect to see. Seemingly mutated from a lobster or crab, he has unbreakable skin, super-strength and is brought in as Silvermane’s muscle. He’s also more complex than MegaWatt: unbowed by the dangerous allure of his powers, Lincoln has a very obvious sense of justice, but effectively ends up being forced to work for the mobster. In the end, when his powers are removed and he’s saved fom the mutation that would have killed him, he immediately retires from gangland and reveals his dream to take his mother to Niagara Falls. Popoola’s physical presence is irresistible and completely convincing, and his demeanor makes Lonnie a compelling figure.

2) Sandman

Like Lonnie Lincoln, Jack Huston’s Flint Marko is a more complex supervillain than most comic book adaptations go for, but that was also the case for Thomas Haden Church’s version of the character in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 all those years ago. This version of Marko is, however, still a career criminal who remains fiercely loyal to Silvermane despite the cost, and is seemingly willing to sabotage his relationship with Cat Hardy because of it. Huston plays Marko with an almost-Orson Welles-like gravitas, and manages to balance the character’s required charm with a nasty streak

1) Silvermane

If you’re already missing Vincent D’Onofrio’s formidable Kingpin after his less-than-graceful bow out at the end of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 (for now), Spider-Noir’s big bad is the perfect replacement. Based on the Italian mobster of the same name, Brendan Gleeson’s Silvermane is an Irish bootlegger with Harlem in the palm of his hand. He comes across as quite amiable, thanks to Gleeson’s Irish lilt, but he quickly proves he worked his way to the top by getting his hands dirty. Or at least bloody.

He’s menacing, incredibly powerful, and thoroughly detestable, and his status at the top of the power table in Spider-Noir’s world is unquestionable. Even Ben Reilly is pretty willing to break the law to accomodate his demands, and refuses point-blank to turn down a job from him. Sadly, we won’t get to see more of him, but so despicable was he that his death by Cat Hardy’s hand felt like the only way to go. Especially after the low-point of using her as a makeweight in trying to uncover whether Reilly was the Spider in the finale. Good riddance to a great villain.

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