Your favorite stories for every Spider-Man villain

[Turlast]

As I was reading, I started thinking about this.

What are some of your all-time favorite stories for Spidey's rogue gallery?

Doctor Octopus - Octopus and Owl Gang War (Spectacular Spider-Man #73-79), Doctor Octopus Recovers (Amazing Spider-Man #296-297), Spider-Man: Threat or Menace? (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15),

Green Goblin - Amazing Spider-Man #39-40, The Night Gwen Stacy Died , Revenge of the Green Goblin, The Night of the Goblin (Spider-Man #75)

Venom - Amazing Spider-Man #300, #346-347

Kraven - Kraven's Last Hunt. This is an obvious one.

Vulture - Funeral Arrangements (Spectacular Spider-Man #186-188)

Scorpion - Amazing Spider-Man #20, The Predator and the Prey (Spectacular Spider-Man #215-216)

Shocker - Unscheduled Stop (Amazing Spider-Man #578-579)

Mysterio - No clue.

Hobgoblin - (ASM #238-239, 244-245, 249-251, Spectacular #85, Hobgoblin Lives)

Lizard - Fathers and Sins (Amazing Spider-Man #365)

Electro - Light The Night (Spider-Man #38-40) Really great story diving into Max Dillon's psyche.

Carnage - Carnage (Amazing Spider-Man #361-363), The Mortal Past (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #28) I understand Maximum Carnage is usually the go to answer for many, but I feel like these issues were better.

Kingpin - In The Clutches of The Kingpin (Amazing Spider-Man #50-52)

Rhino - No clue

Chameleon - Web of Spider-Man #51-55

Mister Negative - No clue

Sandman - No clue

You can include villains like Carrion, Macendale, and whoever comes to mind if you want. This is not limited to the villains in this post.

Include as many stories as you'd like. It'll help me catch up on stories I've yet to read or forgotten about.

[K7P5V]

Venom - Amazing Spider-Man #300, #346-347

OMG! Totally agree about ASM #300, but don't forget ASM #299
(even though it's only a cameo at the end, it's still the 1st full appearance of Brock's Venom):

Mysterio - No clue.

As for Mysterio, might I suggest...

Guardian Devil

Sandman - No clue

As for Flint Marko/William Baker, might I suggest...

"Time Runs Like Sand!"

[HypnoHustler]

Looter - Sensational Spider-Man #8

Swarm - Sensational Spider-Man #9-10 (Dezago and Wieringo were criminally underrated… currently rereading the run for a piece I’m writing)

Electro - I guess ASM#425… I heard ‘Light the Night’ was a good arc, but I can’t find it collected. He really hasn’t had many good stories…

Carnage - ASM #361-363 … nothing approaches his first arc

Venom - ASM# 346-347 as well… nothing beats the deserted island setting. I also like ASM #317 though.

Kraven - yeah, KLH of course

Green Goblin (Norman classic aka pre-“death”) - ASM volume 1 #17… he attacks the Spidey fan-club!

Green Goblin (Norman post-classic) - PP:SM#75 with ASM (volume 2) #25 and PP:SM (volume 2) #25 is a runner-up

Green Goblin (Harry) - Spec #189 with Spec #200 being a runner-up

Vulture - Yeah, ‘Funeral Arrangements’ Spec #186-188, but Roger Stern wrote a great runner-up with ASM#241 (which has a great cover with Vulture bathed in the Spider-signal light)

Shocker - Unscheduled Stop ASM#578-579… which is great more due to Spidey than Shocker, but is still by far the best story Shocker has appeared in

Chameleon - Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #10-12 (again… another criminally underrated story arc… great storyline by Paul Jenkins)

Mysterio - the classic two-parter in which Mysterio tricks Spidey into believing he’s small in ASM (volume 1) #66-67

Doctor Octopus - this is a weird choice but probably the Dennis O’Neil/ Frank Miller ASM annual 15. Undoubtedly the best work O’Neil did on Spidey but probably ghost-written a bit by Miller.

Okay, my hand is sore from typing. Will follow up with other villains in a later post.

[K7P5V]

Definitely, these would be my next three (3) choices:

• Tarantula: ASM #134; #135

• Jack O'Lantern (Macendale): Machine Man #19

• Man-Wolf: Creatures on the Loose & Marvel Premiere #45; #46

[HypnoHustler]

Good choices, but my favorite Tarantula story has to be ASM #233-236 when he gets turned into a literal tarantula. Nothing beats the scene of him as a giant spider jumping off a building while screaming for police to kill him (and they do).

https://www.cbr.com/spider-man-taran...horror-marvel/

[K7P5V]

Good choices, but my favorite Tarantula story has to be ASM #233-236 when he gets turned into a literal tarantula. Nothing beats the scene of him as a giant spider jumping off a building while screaming for police to kill him (and they do).

https://www.cbr.com/spider-man-taran...horror-marvel/

Thanks, HypnoHustler! Body-Horror at it's finest, with a sad ending. They don't make 'em like that anymore

[Mister Mets]

This is a good question. This isn't the best stories with a bad guy, but the best story for the character.

Chameleon- Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #30
Vulture Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1-4
Doctor Octopus- The Master Planner saga is the best story featuring him, but better stories for understanding the character are "A Small Loss" (Fantastic Four #267) and the Superior Spider-Man saga.
Sandman- Fantastic Four #61-63 "When Stalks the Sandman"
The Lizard- Amazing Spider-Man #630-633 "Shed"
Electro- Amazing Spider-Man #82
Mysterio- Amazing Spider-Man #193-200 "The Burglar saga"
Green Goblin (Norman Osborn)- Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 "The Night Gwen Stacy Died"
Kraven the Hunter- You know the answer.
Rhino- Amazing Spider-Man #617/ 625
Shocker Amazing Spider-Man #578-579 "Unscheduled Stop"
Kingpin Daredevil: Born Again (if we're talking Spidey comics, the Ultimate Spider-Man arc "Learning Curve")
Green Goblin (Harry Osborn)- The Dematteis/ Buscema Harry Osborn saga (the highlight is #189)
Black Cat- Millar and Dodson's Marvel Knights Spider-Man
Hobgoblin (Roderick Kingsley)- The Stern/ Romita Jr Hobgoblin saga (the highlight would be #238-239)
Tombstone- Amazing Spider-Man Volume 6 #1-5
Venom- Marvel Knights Spider-Man #5-12
Carnage- Spider-Man/ Batman