Zombies Ruin Everything

When I first heard who the villain was for the new Spiderman movie, I thought, “Cool. As long as it’s not Topher Grace.” When it turned out to be the Lizard, I was surprised they didn’t attempt to keep the villains completely grounded and human like they did for the original trilogy, save for the third one. It’s easy to imagine Spiderman onscreen battling any one of his biggest foes; Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom… because we’ve already seen it.

Even The Lizard had his place in the previous Sam Raimi trilogy due to the fact that Dylan Baker had already been portraying The Lizard’s alter-ego, Curt Connors, in the last two sequels. But what about the myriad of other Spiderman villains? For some, Spiderman is the only superhero whose villains are second only to Batman. The reason is that they’re just awesome, but what are the chances of seeing some of his more fun, less emotionally attached antagonists?

For the new film (and whatever sequels), who knows? Sam Raimi’s trilogy only seemed interested in villains Spiderman already knew. If he didn’t know them in the comic, they still changed things around to where he did in the movie.

So how about villains that just show up to rob a bank? Where are those guys? The ones who simply want money and then revenge for Spiderman having beat them to pulp? Evidently revenge isn’t a good enough motive, or at least, hasn’t been for Hollywood’s version of Spiderman. Here are a couple of favorites that don’t necessarily have a prior relationship to Spiderman, therefore don’t expect to see them in any sequels unless Hollywood decides to turn Rhino into Peter Parker’s illegitimate son or something.

1. Electro

After a near death experience involving being struck by lightning, lineman Max Dillon was left with the ability to manipulate and create electricity. As one of Spiderman’s oldest enemies, he’s also one of the most powerful.

Proclaiming feats such as nearly killing Spiderman on multiple occasions, become actual living electricity for a time, possibly his most notorious accomplishment was shutting down the power at The Raft, a maximum security prison and releasing every single inmate you’d forgotten about, ultimately coercing the previously disbanded Avengers to regroup with a mostly-new team.

Electro is one of the villains Spiderman has to prepare for before confronting, usually by wearing a specialized suit of rubber so as not to get fried upon his fist to Electro’s face.

Yet with all of Dillon’s power, he’s not the brightest bulb and he usually resorts to holding people hostage and robbing banks. Still, he’d be great to see onscreen, lightin’ up the town.

Update: Happy to be proven wrong, Electro will be seen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, played by Jamie Foxx.

2. Scorpion

As goofy (and fun) as Raimi’s interpretation of the Daily Bugle Chief, J. Jonah Jameson was, the comics’ Jameson plays a very strange role in Spiderman’s life. Not only does he control much of the media, which has a massive effect on Spiderman’s public image, he’s also played a big part in nearly getting Spiderman killed a few times, which is enough to make him a villain in my book.

His biggest achievement, or failure depending on how you look at it, is the creation of Scorpion. A shady character before a procedure turned him into the villain known as the Scorpion, Mac Gargan was a private investigator hired to find out how Peter Parker was able to get his pictures of Spiderman. Jameson then decided to fund the experiment that would give Gargan the proportionate abilities of a Scorpion. Gargan, being a greedy man, agreed. What they didn’t know was that the procedure would drive him insane.

Cinematically, this would create an interesting dynamic that Jameson would be responsible for creating Scorpion, while Spiderman would reenact many issues in the comic where he actually has to save good ol’ J.J.J. from being killed by his own creation. It would definitely be a U-turn from J.K. Simmon’s portrayal as simply the loudmouth, meanyhead boss.

3. Mysterio

Always knowing how to make an entrance, Mysterio’s initial appearance into Spiderman’s world is a strange one, being that he originally wanted to be seen as a hero. Or at least look like one by taking Spiderman out. Special effects master Quentin Beck decided all his experience in film was taking him nowhere, so to make a name for himself, he decided to frame Spiderman. He failed, as they always do, but he’s a constant thorn in the side, as his love for smoke and mirrors (sometimes literally) makes for a confusing and formidable villain.

His look, when done properly, gives a sinister vibe that few of Spiderman’s villains can equal. Oddly enough, his biggest accomplishment involves not Spiderman, but Daredevil (not Ben Affleck). After finding out he had cancer in its advanced stages, he set out to drive Daredevil insane and commit suicide as a last defiant act to the superhero world. A ridiculous plan, and one he nearly completed before being found out and foiled. Beck himself then committed suicide.

He has recently resurfaced, but it’s unknown how. Between his decent hand-to-hand combat skills, intelligence, and various weapons/tools of distraction, Mysterio is a villain to be taken seriously and in film could be one of the creepier characters to show up onscreen. Think Scarecrow in Batman Begins (2005).

4. Carnage

This one almost seems like common sense that he wouldn’t show up. You can have Venom without Carnage, but not Carnage without Venom. And We all know how well Venom was done in Spiderman 3 (2007). Psst!…Terribly! That’s how well.

Seeing as how this new series is a reboot and they seem to be going in a slightly more mature direction (no more Jazz dancing Peter Parker), they probably won’t want to retread earlier material too soon by bringing Venom back, no matter how much they claim they’re working on a script! And being that Carnage can only come after Venom, we shouldn’t being seeing him anytime soon. Still, Spiderman’s most murderous villain would be interesting to see brought to life. After the symbiote broke Eddie Brock out of prison, the two became Venom again and a little of the alien goo was left behind, coming into contact with Brock’s cellmate, Cletus Kasaday the serial killer, and creating one of the most volatile comic book villains of all time.

You know how bad he is because anytime he shows up, Spiderman’s previously most deadly foe Venom has to team up just to beat him. Every time the symbiote attaches itself to another host, a weakness is lost. He can create weapons from his living suit, as well as use them as projectiles. Carnage was among the villains locked away in The Raft when Electro shut the power down, almost letting Carnage escape had it not been for his appetite for death.

Eventually, it was revealed that Cletus Kasaday had himself cloned and has since come back into the light, but at the time, the superhero The Sentry grabbed him, took him to space, ripped him in half, and threw him into the sun. Even though it didn’t last (cloning be damned!), it was still awesome.

A TRUE American hero. Y’know, before he went insane…

This entry was posted on 06/14/2012 at 5:03 am and is filed under Whatever with tags 2012, amazing spiderman, andrew garfield, the sentry, villains. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.