least favorite villain

3/18/2009


Actually, you're thinking of Man-Spider, not Doppelganger. Spider-Man mutated into the six-armed Man-Spider halfway in season two.

While they're not Spider-Man villains, I didn't like seeing Baron Mordo or Dormammu. I don't think they really needed Doctor Strange and his villains taking up episodes in season three. That way, if they hadn't have been on this show, we wouldn't have lost Venom and Carnage into limbo. Don't tell me there couldn't have been another (and better) way for the writers of this show to bring the alien symbiote back.

I didn't like Morbius the Living Vampire, because he simply took up too many episodes, in my opinion. I mean, look at the other villains we could have - and I think that we should have - seen more of instead of Morbius. Norman Osborn's Green Goblin got three mere episodes against Spider-Man before he went into limbo. Venom got three episodes (or four, if you count his shadowy cameo at the end of "The Alien Costume, part 2"), while Carnage got two episodes. Poor Mysterio only got four episodes (and was killed off, which sucked). Electro only got one (I know, Kragov was in three episodes, but he was technically only Electro in one). Morbius, however, got to appear in seven episodes on this show. SEVEN!! We saw more of Morbius than we did Green Goblin, Venom and Carnage? That's just plain wrong.

Also, I hated Professor Miles Warren. He was only in one episode, sure, but since he cloned Hydro-Man and Mary Jane, that rendered the wedding episode of Peter and M.J. to be useless. Peter marries a clone on this show? Since when are clones a good idea in a Spider-Man story? Did the Clone Saga teach the writers nothing? And when Mary Jane comes back from limbo, how are they going to explain her clone's marriage to Peter to her? Then again, how is Peter going to explain Mary Jane being in limbo to her Aunt Anna? In my opinion, Warren was simply in one episode too many.

Another foe that I hated on this show was Electro. I prefer the real Electro, Max Dillon, any day over the made-for-TV character Rheinholt Kragov. Electro was the Russian Chief of Police, birth son of the Red Skull and step-brother of the Chameleon? Ugh. And his sole episode on the show just made me cringe. I mean, Electro brings down all of SHIELD with no problem, but is trapped in a vortex when Spider-Man tricks him into breaking the controls just to prove he could? Kragov is not just an egomaniac, he was pretty darn stupid. Anyone with the god-like electrical powers he possessed wouldn't have fried a control panel to just prove a point when he was about to have the world leaders hand over TOTAL CONTROL OF THE WHOLE PLANET OVER TO HIM! Then again, if he hadn't, Spider-Man would've had a tough time stopping him. Where's a fire hose when you need it?

And although I love the characters themselves, I have to cry foul on how Doctor Octopus and Scorpion were handled on this series after their first few episodes.

I'll start with Doctor Octopus. You see, Doc Ock's origin episode is brilliant and one of the best of the entire series. Doc Ock even leads the Insidious Six because Kingpin appeals to him not as a henchman, but as a scientist when he promises him "one of the finest laboratories in the world and with unlimited resources". After season two, he's reduced to being another common henchman working for the Kingpin. Granted, he tries to double-cross Red Skull in "Secret Wars" when he agrees to help him in order to get back his stolen kingdom. Even so, Doc Ock doesn't need to take orders from anyone. He's one of Spider-Man's smartest and most dangerous foes, but he never got a chance to shine after the first two Insidious Six episodes.

Same for Scorpion. After season two, his character - and appeal - fell apart. His appearance in season four was fine, when he wanted to steal money just to get the chance to be cured and be normal again so he could marry his girlfriend Sarah. But then came season five and all of the "I want to be normal again" schtick went right out the window and was never mentioned again. Instead, he worked with Smythe, Silvermane and the Harry Osborn Green Goblin to help crash Peter's wedding to Mary Jane, and then he returns as a member of the Insidious Six. What a shame. Scorpion got to be so over-exposed that, to me, he wore out his welcome. Also, I preferred Martin Landau as the voice of Scorpion over Richard Moll.

Then again, none of these guys even match my least favorite villain on this show: Mary Jane's aunt, Anna Watson. I mean, think about it. She was bossy, mean to Peter, and was constantly trying to get Mary Jane to stay away from him. In "The Man Without Fear" episode, when Chameleon is disguised as Aunt Anna and it sets off Peter's spider-sense, it's actually not so far-fetched if it wasn't Chameleon in disguise. Considering how she acted on this show, I'm more surprised Aunt Anna DIDN'T really set off Peter's spider-sense. If we had a spider-sense warning us of when Aunt Anna was going to be on-screen, you'd know when to make a snack or whatever until she was off screen again.

Then again, that's just what I think. Anyone else want to say who their least favorite villain was?



Save Spider-Man's marriage:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/spideyandmj/

The two worst villains in the series were Hydro-Man and Morbius. Hydro-Man was very one-dimensional and Morbius was annoying the way he kept saying "I hunger for plasma." We get it, you couldn't use blood because of the censorship, but you also didn't have to have Morbius repeating that line so many times.