Favorite Lee/ Ditko Villain debut

[Mister Mets]

First appearances of major Spider-Man villains were mentioned in the CBR Top 100 Stan Lee stories list, and that got me to wonder if there would be a consensus for a favorite.

So, for those of you have read the Lee/ Ditko run, what's your favorite villainous first appearance? The main criteria would be the quality of the story, and not the degree to which you like the bad guy.

The contenders.

Amazing Spider-Man #1) The Chameleon
Amazing Spider-Man #2) The Vulture
Amazing Spider-Man #3) Doctor Octopus
Amazing Spider-Man #4) The Sandman
Amazing Spider-Man #6) The Lizard
Amazing Spider-Man #9) Electro
Amazing Spider-Man #10) The Big Man and the Enforcers
Amazing Spider-Man #13) Mysterio
Amazing Spider-Man #14) The Green Goblin
Amazing Spider-Man #15) Kraven The Hunter
Amazing Spider-Man #20) The Scorpion
Amazing Spider-Man #25) Spencer Smythe and the Spider Slayers
Amazing Spider-Man #28) The Molten Man
Amazing Spider-Man #36) The Looter

And I've got an "other" option for people who like the more obscure bad guys.

For argument's sake, the Burglar and the Sinister Six shouldn't count as options. One is a supervillain, and one is someone else's bad guy.

This might be an interesting selection because these aren't their best-regarded stories.

[Batman Begins 2005]

Between Chameleon and Doctor Octopus. Chameleon gets bonus marks as Fantastic Four guest stars while Doctor Octopus beats Spider-Man which sets Spidey back but he returns and beats him. I'll go for that.

[Scott Taylor]

Not going to over-analyze this - Doctor Octopus was the first villain from that run that came to mind so going with him.

Lizard is my second choice.

Even though I like the Green Goblin as a character, I really wasn't all that fond of many of the Green Goblin stories from the early days.

[K7P5V]

My personal favorite is Princess Python. So I voted for other.

[oldschool]

Mysterio’s debut was wonderful, had to go with that.

[Celgress]

Amazing Spider-Man #3: Doctor Octopus, for me.

[Mister Mets]

It might be that the Scorpion's first appearance is the first Lee/ Ditko issue I read, but that's probably my favorite debut of a major Spider-Man villain in the Lee/ Ditko run.

But I did really like Mysterio. And Lizard. And the Spider Slayer. And Sandman. And I could go on and on.

[Nero]

Unsurprisingly, selecting one is more harder than I initially thought. So many classic villains along with classic stories to accompany them which shows how good of a job Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did at building Spider-Man's rogues gallery.

But ultimately I have to go with Amazing Spider-Man #3-The Debut of Dr. Octopus. I remember that issue in particular stood out the most to me when I first went back and read the original Spider-Man run by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. I could tell by the way he was both illustrated and characterized that Dr. Octopus was going to be a force to be reckoned with.

[Chubistian]

Hard choice, especially between Dr Octopus and Scorpion. While Dr Octopus I think is the first villain to defeat Spider-Man to some degree, I read first Scorpion’s debut, and I just love the savagery of his fight against Spidey. Seeing Spider-Man with holes in his mask, going beyond the pain of the body, and defeating Scorpion in the offices of the Daily Bugle, in a outburst of will and brute strenght really made an impression on me and keeps repeating itself every time I go back to that story, so I will have to go with Scorpion. Also, a more polished Ditko (he’s amazing from square one, but there’s clearly a progression in his art as ASM developed)

[comicscollector]

The debut of Electro is my favorite.
Mysterio and Doctor Octopus stories were the runner ups.

[oldschool]

This was a cool question to post; again, I have to go with Mysterio as that one-issue tale still holds up remarkably well. Might even be my favorite Mysterio tale ever......at worst, second place to the great Lee/Romita story in ASM #66-67. But I also loved the Scorpion intro in ASM #20 and of course Ock's intro as well.

[John Ossie]

I'll go with Doctor Octopus out of the list. Mysterio is my second favourite from the list.

[esskay]

Voting for Sandman. I love how he just randomly end up at the school while on the run and then is like, "While I'm here, give me a diploma!" And then I can remember every single panel of the fight. Those first issues where every fight is the first time Spidey's had to deal with this particular problem and it's so hard! And then the weird bit where Spidey's throwing sand around to fake photos of the battle. I love it, but I love everything in this poll as well.

[Chubistian]

just realized Green Goblin is missing from the options in the poll and Sandman appears twice

[Celgress]

just realized Green Goblin is missing from the options in the poll and Sandman appears twice

Good catch, I read the options and totally forgot about Green Goblin lol.