Modern comic-book storytelling has been leaning pretty hard on the classic villains, making it necessary for each hero to have one Greatest Villain Of Them All. Daredevil with Bullseye, The Fantastic Four with Doctor Doom, Iron Man with Jack Daniels… All of these are somewhat obvious, but it can be more difficult with some characters. It’s easy to say that Batman’s perfect foe is the Joker, but who would it be for Spider-Man? His dark mirror, Venom? The murderer of his first love, The Green Goblin? The guys who wrote the Clone Saga? Because of the multi-faceted nature of the Web-Head’s character, it stands to reason that he has multiple antagonists who fit the bill, which begs a query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has opinions, but nobody seems to wanna listen, asking: Who do you believe is Spider-Man (Peter Parker)’s ULTIMATE foe?
13 Comments
At one point in time I would definitely say that it was Norman. But having read just about everything, I think it’s Otto. But let’s face it, it’s Joe Quesada. Cheap Shot? Maybe. Will I get over it? Never.
Are you referring to One More Day? That would be my reasoning behind agreeing with your last pick. What a disaster.
I still think of it as being Norman Osborn. Nobody’s ever gotten as personal with ruining Spider-Man’s life as Norman Osborn has. I mean, Otto may have taken over his life, his body.. but he’d have done that no matter who Spider-Man really was, Peter Parker’s life being irrelevant, really.
Norman Osborn drove the knife deep into Peter’s life and twisted it, again and again and again.
Dan Slott – What all those villains couldn’t accomplish in 50 years, he managed with a few keystrokes on his computer.
Peter Parker. He seems to always be miserable, and he seems to want it that way, at least subconsciously.
I was going to say self-doubt, but you basically beat me to it
Angry activist mother groups that think Spidey is far too violent for their special little snowflakes.
Rhino! :D
Shouldn’t this be ‘was’, Parker is dead he doesn’t have enemies anymore.
Marvel in general though, how many different times did they try to do these big redefinitions of Spiderman the hero, while not doing a thing to let Peter the person grow as a character. Stuff like the Judas Traveller, The Other, Iron Spider, Spider-Fu, whatever that stuff they keep trying to bring back about animal spirits and the web of life, lasted like one arc and then was summarily dropped. Then they finally decided the best way to handle all of this was just to kill Peter.
Peter Parker is no more permanently dead than he is permanently married.
“The guys who wrote the Clone Saga”??? Classic and also tragic, since it was the Clone Saga that forced me to quit reading Spider-Man.
I haven’t been reading the current Spider-Man comics or the Ultimate Spider-Man, nor for that matter “Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham” (yes that actually WAS a comic book) so I can only speak to the Classic (pre-clone) Spider-Man.
Doc Ock was the villain I always wanted to see again and again, so he wins out. And who can forget that ultra-creepy story arc where Doc Ock is sparking old Aunt Mae – ick!!! Truly one of the most ghastly story lines in comic history! Or whichever issue it was during or shortly after that arc when Spidey realizes that Doc Ock has known his secret identity all along? It was on a par with that episode of Batman the Animated Series where Jim Gordon revealed he know who Batman was all along and proceeds to take down the whole Batman family in a one-man vendetta…
I think it’s still Norman Osborn. To this day, Peter still feels guilt about Gwen Stacy. His best friend Harry was turned, by association with Norman, into another villain for Peter to fight.
While it’s true that Doctor Octopus is currently in the limelight and is going to harm Peter’s life for a while, nobody is kidding themselves that Peter is eventually going to come back. His life will eventually go back to normal (or as close to normal as he ever had), and a few years later it will be as though nothing has happened. They will probably never really mention this event again unless they decide to dredge up some old plot point.
In the end, it’s Osborn that has caused the more lasting damage. We’ll always remember him for causing the first truly dark moment in comic books (that was good enough to remember, at least). As for Ock, I’d be surprised if this was all still relevant 5 years from now.
The Thinning Paycheck.