Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse“With great power, there must also come great responsibility.” Those words have fueled Peter Parker, aka the Amazing Spider-Man, for 60 years. It’s provided the bedrock for a variety of stories, from comics to video games and most recently Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It’s even helped inspire other Spider-People, whether it’s Miles Morales or Gwen Stacy. But what about the Spider-Men who use their powers irresponsibly? 60 years is a long time after all, and in all that time, there has been more than one Spider-Man who decided to break bad. Here are a few of them.
Beware the Superior Spider-Man, AKA Doctor Octopus
Of all the villains Peter Parker has faced, one of the most deadly is Otto Octavius — better known as the diabolical Doctor Octopus. Octavius was caught in a nuclear explosion which fused four mechanical tentacles to his body, also affecting his mental state. Over the years, Octavius engaged in battle with Spider-Man and various other heroes. He paid a massive price for it: repeated blows to the head as well as other trauma caused his body to wither to a horrifying state. Desperate to cement his legacy, Octavius formed a new Sinister Six and attempted to launch a scheme to destroy the world. Spidey ended up stopping him, and Octavius was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in an iron lung.
The mad scientist had one last trick up his sleeve. In one of the weirdest threats Spider-Man ever faced, Otto managed to transfer his consciousness into Peter’s body, trapping the web-slinger’s mind in his dying body. Though Peter attempted to take back his body, he failed — but not before mentally linking with Otto and showcasing all of the heroic deeds he’d done over the years. Otto vowed to live up to Peter’s legacy as well as surpass it, becoming a “superior” Spider-Man in the process. This journey brought him into conflict with his former villainous associates as well as Peter’s fellow heroes. Eventually, Otto would learn that a piece of Peter remained within his memories and gave back his body after a confrontation with the Green Goblin.
Otto managed to return to his body during The Clone Conspiracy storyline, where he helped the villainous Jackal perfect his cloning technology. Once again Spider-Man interfered in his plans, but Otto was able to make himself a new body using a fusion of his and Spidey’s DNA. He resumed his tenure as the Superior Spider-Man before allying himself with HYDRA during the Secret Empire storyline.
Doctor Octopus Isn’t the Only Villain To Take up the Mantle of Spider-Man
Norman Osborn and Peter Parker have been at each other’s throats for years as the Green Goblin and Spider-Man, respectively. Osborn has caused no end of strife in Peter’s life, playing a hand in the death of his first love Gwen Stacy and even having his Aunt May kidnapped. But on another world, Osborn ended up donning the mantle of his foe and was swept into a battle against the vampiric Inheritors. In order to stop the Inheritors from feasting on every Spider-Person in the multiverse, Osborn wanted to strand them on Earth-616 — which happened to be Peter Parker Prime’s home dimension. He eventually destroyed the Web of Life and Destiny and took a piece of it to study. Osborn even befriended Spiders-Man, — the strangest alternate version of Spider-Man, possibly ever — the Spider-Man who happened to be a colony of spiders piloted by the mind of their home dimension’s Peter Parker. After a confrontation with the Superior Spider-Man, Osborn found himself targeted by the Spider-Wasp Shathra as she was forming a hive out of all the Spider-People in the multiverse. Unwilling to join the Hive, Osborn sacrificed himself in a massive explosion.
Spider-Man Is Consumed By Darkness in the ‘What If…?’ Miniseries
Everyone knows the origin story of Venom: when Spider-Man found a new black costume that happened to be an alien symbiote, he ended up abandoning it in a church when it tried to forcibly bond with him. By a stroke of pure luck, Eddie Brock — a reporter whose career had fallen to pieces after Spidey exposed one of his stories as a falsehood — was in the same church and ended up bonding with the symbiote. Together they became Venom and sought to kill Spider-Man. But on another Earth, things took a rather dark turn. In the Spider’s Shadow miniseries by Chip Zdarsky and Pasqual Ferry, Peter never got rid of the symbiote; this led to him bonding with it on a deeper level. It also meant he used more lethal methods in dealing with his enemies, outright punching a hole through the Kingpin’s chest. Zdarsky crafts a compelling tale, showcasing just what would happen if Peter Parker gave into his darker impulses. Paired with Ferry’s gorgeous artwork, it’s one of the better “What If…?” tales Marvel has put on the stands to date.
Ben Reilly, AKA Scarlet Spider, Breaks Bad
Ben Reilly may be a fan favorite character, but in recent years the former Scarlet Spider has suffered a major fall from grace. The Clone Conspiracy revealed that Ben had taken up the mantle of the Jackal, using the villain’s cloning technology to bring the dead back to life. Peter Parker managed to stop him, leaving Ben penniless as well as suffering a horrific scarring. He attempted to forge a new life for himself in Las Vegas, but was ultimately approached by the Beyond Corporation to become the new Spider-Man. It turned out that Beyond was using memory manipulation to shape Ben into the Spider-Man they believed he should be; when Ben found out, to say he didn’t take it well was an understatement. Peter attempted to help him, but Ben attacked him, eventually falling into a mixture of toxic chemicals. The chemicals altered his biology as well as his mental state, leading him to take the new moniker of Chasm.
These Spider-Men are a clear example of how twisted a path Peter Parker and his fellow spiders could have taken. Across rhe Spider-Verse takes a similar tactic, having Miles Morales come face to face with an alternate version of himself who took up the mantle of the Prowler. With the Spider-Verse concept taking off in popularity, we’re bound to see more evil Spider-Men in the future.