The Best Animated Version of Every Major Spider-Man Villain, Ranked

There have been more Spider-Man animated series than nearly any other superhero franchise. From the old days when Spider-Man had a cartoon on The Electric Company (Spidey Super Stories) to the 70s, when both Spider-Man and Spider-Woman had their own cartoons, he has been a mainstay of children’s entertainment for six decades and counting. However, things took a massive step up with Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the 1990s, and since then, it has offered some of the best animated superhero stories on television. Each series also had a chance to introduce its own slants on Spider-Man villains, and some of them have been even better than the comic book versions.

From re-imaginings of villains like Tombstone to iconic versions of Electro, Sandman, and Doctor Octopus, here are the best versions of Spider-Man’s best villains in animated cartoons.

10) Tombstone in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

The most recent Spider-Man animated series premiered on Disney+ in 2025 and reimagined several of Spider-Man’s friends, enemies, and moments. This was Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and the show turned the classic villain Tombstone into a high school student and Peter Parker’s friend. In the comics, he is older and is a nemesis of Robbie Robertson. However, the series shows his tragic downfall here.

This is the best Tombstone in any Spider-Man animated series by far because it shows a young man with a lot of promise, a good and protective person, slowly turning into a mobster and a street villain, thanks to nothing but the situation he finds himself in. This makes him more sympathetic, and he remains one of the best characters on the new Spider-Man animated series.

9) Venom in Spectacular Spider-Man

There have been several versions of Venom in different Spider-Man animated series, but the best comes in Spectacular Spider-Man. That is because, like Tombstone in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, this series reimagined the character, making Eddie Brock a young friend of Peter Parker, and the two volunteered to work for scientist Curt Connors.

Making Eddie and Peter childhood friends changed the dynamic between them, making Eddie’s transformation into the villain Venom more of a tragedy, whereas in most other adaptations, Eddie was not a good person before bonding with the symbiote. If there is one downfall, it is that this Eddie Brock never becomes the hero he was in the comics, but that doesn’t diminish the brilliance of this take on the Spider-Man villain.

8) Scorpion in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Scorpion in the comics was a character who underwent many changes. He went from someone J. Jonah Jameson hired to take out Spider-Man to a superpowered villain who blamed JJJ for his woes, and eventually even became Venom for a time. However, the animated shows mostly have him as a B-level villain. That changed in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Here, Scorpoion was a very powerful street-level gangster. The entire season focused on these street gangs, and Scorpion was a terrifying creation, almost killing Tombstone, and he was even too much for Spider-Man to handle for much of the season. This was the first animated Spider-Man series that made Scorpion a scary presence.

7) Sandman in Spectacular Spider-Man

Sandman has always been an interesting character to adapt. He is a villain, a thief, and someone who often breaks the law for his own gain. However, deep down, Sandman has always been best as a tragic villain, someone who wants to be good but always finds life knocking him down. That is why he was the best villain in Spider-Man 3. In the comics, he was even a member of the Avengers.

This Spider-Man villain’s best animated appearance came in Spectacular Spider-Man, which had a knack for making the bad guys sympathetic in many cases. Here, the animated series follows a similar template to Spider-Man 3, presenting his tragic backstory and explaining his motivations as a reluctant criminal seeking redemption. It was a brilliant retelling of his story.

6) Kraven in Spider-Man: TAS

In Marvel Comics, Kraven the Hunter was always an interesting character, a big-game hunter who sought to kill the greatest prey. He had done it all and now set his eyes on Spider-Man. Kraven’s Last Hunt was the best comic book storyline for the character, and few animated series captured this aspect of his personality.

The one that came close was in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Here, there was a sci-fi twist, and he had actual motivations other than just hunting elusive prey. Here, he was mauled by lions and saved with a serum that fractured his mind. This corrupted him, leaving him with little control over his impulses. This series also enabled him to find a cure, which brought him peace, something Kraven never received in the comics.

5) Lizard in Spectacular Spider-Man

What is most impressive about Lizard in Spectacular Spider-Man is that he hardly ever appears in this form. Instead, this series made Curt Connors a main character throughout, someone who had a hand in many aspects of Peter Parker’s life, and he was even there when the Venom symbiote began to corrupt another young man he had mentored, Eddie Brock.

Having him serve as a mentor to Peter Parker and introducing his family made him a beloved and respected character. That made the moment when he turned into the Lizard all the more tragic. It made Spider-Man want to save him more than ever, and that made him easily one of the best characters in a series full of fan favorites.

4) Rhino in Ultimate Spider-Man

Rhino is a complicated Spider-Man villain to get right. He is often portrayed as a goofy, yet nearly indestructible, bad guy who is usually just a generic muscleman. However, he had a fantastic redesign and reimagination in Ultimate Spider-Man, which made him much more complex and interesting than he had ever been.

Instead of a generic bad guy, Rhino was a Midtown High School student who was relentlessly bullied by Flash Thompson and only wanted to get revenge and defend himself. He turned himself into a mutated Rhino supervillain and joined forces with the Sinister Six. Sadly, he realized he could never turn back and became part of SHIELD Academy as he sought redemption.

3) Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man: TAS

In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Doctor Octopus was portrayed as someone close to Peter Parker, a portrayal that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 also adopted. Instead of Doc Ock being a mad scientist villain when he meets Spider-Man, in this series, he is Peter’s former teacher and seems like a good man. However, he was always working for Kingpin, so he was always a villain in the background.

What really makes this version of Doctor Octopus the best when it comes to Spider-Man animated villains is that this was the Doc Ock from the comics, personality-wise. Once the story moves past his role as Peter’s old teacher, this Doc Ock becomes the arrogant, belittling villain who made him one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes in the comics. For an entire generation of Spider-Man fans, it is impossible to hear Doc Ock without hearing Efrem Zimbalist Jr.’s voice.

2) Electro in Spectacular Spider-Man

Electro’s depiction in Spectacular Spider-Man is the best of any version, by far. However, one thing that hurts it somewhat is that he becomes more of a generic villain as the series wears on. However, it is his introduction that makes him such a masterwork of storytelling. Max Dillon was never going to be a villain, but he was in an accident that gave him electric powers he couldn’t control.

Max just wanted to be left alone, but when he went out in public, it scared people. The police attacked him for no reason other than that he was a victim of his powers, and then Spider-Man assumed he was a villain. When Spider-Man attacked and brutalized Electro, it turned Max into a villain. Electro wanted people to help him, and they attacked him instead. It is no wonder he chose a life of crime.

1) Green Goblin in Ultimate Spider-Man

One of the best story arcs in any Spider-Man animated series was the moment in Ultimate Spider-Man where he began traveling through the multiverse. This included his battles with Norman Osborn’s Green Goblin, who was also traveling through the multiverse with him. So many cool things happened here, from Miles Morales showing up to the ultimate moment with Green Goblin.

When the main Green Goblin encountered his Ultimate Universe counterpart, things exploded. Seeing Ultimate Goblin, in all his monstrorsity, battling the regular Green Goblin was a Marvel fan’s dream come true. This series easily presented the best version of Norman Osborn and his monstrous counterpart.

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