Ranking Every Villain In The MCU's Spider-Man Movies | ScreenRant
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies have some of the strongest, most compelling villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Spidey’s first two MCU solo movies, the Vulture and Mysterio avoided the franchise’s usual “villain problem” by forging a personal connection to Peter Parker and developing their own well-rounded personalities and motivations.
And that was before No Way Home blasted the multiverse open and pulled in a couple of iconic – and a couple of not-so-iconic – villains from other Spider-Man franchises, like Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Jamie Foxx’s Electro.
8 The Sandman
The least memorable villain from the MCU’s Spider-Man movies is the Sandman. In Spider-Man 3, the Sandman was a surprisingly sympathetic figure: an ex-con who turned to a life of crime to pay for his terminally ill daughter’s treatments.
But in No Way Home, he’s reduced to a one-note archetype. Thomas Haden Church didn’t shoot any new material shot for No Way Home, so the new version of the Sandman speaks in generic soundbites to string the bare minimum of a character arc together.
7 The Lizard
While the Lizard has slightly more to do in the MCU’s Spidey threequel than the Sandman does, this reptilian menace is still just as one-dimensional and shakily animated in No Way Home as he was in The Amazing Spider-Man back in 2012.
In No Way Home, the Lizard is mostly used for reactionary gags with characters learning that “the dinosaur can talk.” The MCU’s VFX team should’ve revamped the Lizard’s look with a more comics-accurate design like they did with Electro.
6 The Elementals
In the first couple of acts of Far From Home, Spidey is terrorized by the Elementals. These villains don’t pose any kind of threat – they’re not even real, they’re just illusions projected by Mysterio’s drones – but they’re still visually stunning.
With powers drawn from basic elements like fire and water, the Elementals are based on a handful of C-tier villains from the Spidey canon. They provide plenty of spectacle in between Far From Home’s European Vacation-style comedy.
5 Electro
Electro’s revival in the MCU finally utilized Jamie Foxx’s strengths as a comedic actor: pitch-perfect timing and ice-cool charisma. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 woefully mischaracterized Electro and bizarrely cast Foxx as a timid nerd who falls into a vat of electric eels and turns into an electrical megalomaniac. No Way Home gives Foxx a Marvel supervillain role that’s much better suited to his talents.
Although Electro is largely sidelined throughout the movie, making room for other villains like Doc Ock and the Green Goblin to shine, Foxx ensures he has a couple of memorable moments, like telling Ned, “It’s just a tree, man,” and speculating, “There’s gotta be a Black Spider-Man out there somewhere.”
4 Doctor Octopus
Since his arc in Spider-Man 2 was so perfect, Jon Watts treaded in dangerous waters to bring back Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus in No Way Home. Doc Ock’s role in the Holland threequel isn’t as memorable as the Green Goblin’s, but he does achieve true redemption.
At the end of Spider-Man 2, Doc Ock simply recognized his own monstrosity and made the ultimate sacrifice. In No Way Home, he’s “cured” by Peter and returns in the final battle to help the Spider-Men in their quest to distribute the other villain cures.
3 Mysterio
The trailers and early scenes of Spider-Man: Far From Home set up Mysterio as an ally of Spidey’s. This, of course, turns out to be one of his signature ruses, which was a predictable twist. Mysterio is one of the most iconic villains in Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery, so there was no way he wasn’t going to be the bad guy of this movie. But Holland’s chemistry with Jake Gyllenhaal makes it work.
Peter gets lulled into a phony surrogate father-son relationship before the inevitable rug-pull, which personalizes their conflict. Mysterio posed his biggest threat to Spidey from beyond the grave. He betrayed Peter in the worst way possible – revealing his secret identity to the world – and set up the whole plot of No Way Home.
2 The Vulture
Michael Keaton’s Vulture was the first villain to torment Spidey in an MCU solo movie. He has a sympathetic motivation for his diabolical deeds. He was an independent contractor who got squeezed out of his industry by Tony Stark’s personal branch of the government. So, he resorted to a life of crime to provide for his family.
The Vulture’s threats of child murder (and, later, attempts at child murder) make him much less sympathetic. Homecoming’s stunning midpoint twist reveals the unseen personal connection that links the Vulture to the high school B-plot: he’s the father of Peter’s homecoming date, Liz. The scene in the car, in which he slowly figures out Peter is Spider-Man, is one of the tensest, most perfectly scripted sequences in the whole MCU.
1 The Green Goblin
Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin smashes the goofy Power Rangers mask from the Raimi movies within minutes of his return in No Way Home. This merciful mask-smashing finally puts the spotlight on Dafoe’s unnerving facial expressions, which strike much more fear into the audience than the chrome-green helmet. Dafoe’s grin when Spidey repeatedly punches him in the face is infinitely creepier than the immovable smile on that silly mask.
The Goblin is easily the most diabolical villain in No Way Home (and the least receptive to Peter’s homemade cure). His role in the story demonstrates what makes the Goblin Spidey’s ultimate arch-nemesis as he kills Aunt May, then tries to make Peter feel responsible to bring out his own “darker half.”