try to do more with less. Try to avoid mass murderers. Try to have some charismatic schemers.
this sort of thing is why I liked Menace. Aside from the novelty of being a female goblin, Menace was the sort of villain that the hero has reason to fight repeatedly.
Carnage was adapted into two cartoons, multiple video games one of which he was the main villain of, he's been the star of a string of mini-series, is regarded as physically Spider-Man's most dangerous opponent, his debut was a smash hit seller without the modern marketing and promotion techniques and he is routinely beloved by a whole generation of Spider-Man fans.
I THINK we just might be able to say yes he is absolutely a classic Spider-Man villain. You literally can't think of Venom without also thinking of Carnage.
Unless you want to count Superior Spider-Man as his own character (even then I'd say he's merely memorable not actually good as a character the way other characters are) then I don't think we have nor could have another steller villain unless we get like a really stand out female villainess. Yeah, yeah Black Cat but nobody likes her as a villain by and large and she is conceptually not really supposed to be one (at least not at this point).
However I would argue that if we built them up more White Rabbit or Shriek could achieve classic status. White Rabbit is like the Harley Quinn of Spider-Man and Shriek has a cool look, unique powers and has got depth to her thanks to Dematteis' Shrieking storyline. She has also made it into a few adaptations.
Both villainesses possess strong gimmicks that render them unique within Spider-Man's rogue's gallery even beyond the fact that they are female.
White Rabbit is crazy in a kookey charming kind of way that's played for laughs and she fits into Spider-Man's animal themed villains but in a subversive way.
Shriek meanwhile is crazy in a disturbing kind of way but also isn't wholly evil. She's interesting because whilst you have guys like Norman and Otto (arguably also Vulture merely due to his age) who are dark father figure villains, Shriek is a dark mother figure villain (albeit not for Spider-Man himself). And on an old school super villain level she has a classic gimmick in the form of sound manipulation, although her powers extend into affecting your mind through that (I've always figured it's a little like how music affects your mood).
So there is a lot of potential there.
There's no doubt there is a lot of potential with many of the villains adapted over the years with Spidey but none of them since the 1990's (and, from that decade, just Carnage and that's arguable----both Hobby and Venom were introduced in the '80's) have stuck. White Rabbit and Shriek are interesting picks on your part and you make good arguments for them; still, I think there are many others that had/have even more potential if only subsequent writers had followed up on them. I also wonder how it would play out if a writer selected a "dark horse" villain to be the antagonist of a major storyline. It's rarely done but I would welcome seeing someone besides Norman Osborn or Ock being behind the scenes of a big plot one of these days.
The dark horse is always a possibility.
This was Deadshot. He popped up once in the golden age.
He didn't appear again until one issue of the Englehart/ Rogers Detective Comics run decades later, but that was a really good story, which made the character intimidating enough that other writers wanted to use him (and gave him a much-improved visual).
That led to his role in Suicide Squad. Which eventually led to Will Smith playing him in a movie that made plenty of money.
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
That's only been in literally his latest ongoing.
Carnage after his debut (which sold extremly well despite no special promotion for it) appeared in
Maximum Carnage
Power and Responsibility
Web of Carnage
Mind Bomb
An ASM annual
It's a Wonderful Life
A venom mini-series
Minimum Carnage
New Avengers
the Carnage Cosmic Arc
2 issues of Mackie's ASM/PPSM volume 2
A multi-parter in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man
Spider-Man the Animated Series for either 2 episodes or 5 depending upon how you want to count it
He was going to be in Spectacular Spider-Man season 3 and got a cameo in season 2
Spider-Man Unlimited the Cartoon
Ultimate Spider-man the cartoon (albeit a crappy version)
Ultimate Spider-Man the video game
Spider-Man 2000 for Playstation 1
His own video game
Ultimate Spider-Man the comic book where he was given the honour of killing Gwen Stacy...and later becoming Gwen Stacy...and thereby dating Peter at one point...
His 1990s appearances (not even just his early ones) sell for ridonkulous prices on ebay.
He's had his FOUR trade collections centred primarily on him, two of which were made in the 1990s when it wasn't policy to collect everything just the biggest stuff
He ha been considered as the main antagonist of various Venom movie ideas by the studios.
He has overall a much higher profile within the Spider-Man brand and franchise than even the mega popular Hobgoblin has
Maximum Carnage was literally conceived of to make money off the back of him and Venom
What more do you need?
At this point, Carnage probably has classic status.
I could get the argument that he's still missing a classic story, although Maximum Carnage is rather popular (undeservedly so) and he has been in some decent comics (Spider-Man/ Batman is rather underrated.)
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
Carnage has no business existing outside of the 90s. He's like Mad Mod.
Mr Negative was pretty cool.
Perhaps his inclusion in the new PS4 game will elevate his status?