10 Most Evil Versions of Spider-Man

Almost all of us know Peter Parker as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. The hero who tirelessly protects New York City from villains, making good on Uncle Ben’s words: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

But you may be surprised to know that not every version of the webslinger upholds this idea. The Spider-Verse is vast and constantly expanding across countless parallel multiverses, and it has thus given birth to countless alternate Spider-Men. And just as there are infinite possibilities in the Multiverse, there are infinite potential outcomes for those who inherit Spider powers.

Some versions of Spider-Man are cursed with darker origins or faced with tragedy beyond imagination, which drives them to take a sinister path. They use their heightened senses and acrobatic abilities to enact vengeance, assert dominance, and threaten the innocent. Their strength is fueled by ambition and their minds are warped. From Patient Zero to Chasm, the Spider-Verse hides a bunch of notorious versions of the hero.

10 Dark Spider-Man

Mac Gargan, a former private investigator, had an unassuming life, but he was a frustrated man. Created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr., his character has picked up several roles, most of which have been evil. Before he became Dark Spider-Man, Gargan was Scorpion (as a result of a research experiment that equipped the subject with the characteristics of another animal). Later, he agreed to bond with the symbiote to become the new Venom.

As the new Venom, Gargan worked under Norman Osborn, who had taken over S.H.I.E.L.D. during the Dark Reign event. He gave Gargan a serum that would make him look like Dark Spider-Man and made him a part of his own team of Dark Avengers. As his spider-sense got activated and inner demons took control, Dark Spider-Man lost sight of what really mattered and embraced this new side to the point where he ruined the real Spider-Man’s reputation.

9 Superior Spider-Man

In Amazing Spider-Man #698, the brilliant scientist Doctor Otto Octavius is dying due to the effects of radiation poisoning. In a desperate final move, Otto steals Peter Parker’s body and transfers his own consciousness over and abandons Peter’s mind in his own deteriorating body. Going forward as the Superior Spider-Man, he tries to be a more ambitious version of the hero – but with methods that are downright violent and unhinged.

With Doc Ock controlling Spider-Man’s body, he had no qualms using dangerous tactics to go against Spider-Man’s code and disrupt the community. Not only did Superior Spider-Man beat up petty criminals and murder the villain Massacre but his disturbing behavior constantly put him at odds with the other Avengers, who had no clue that Superior Spider-Man was the result of Doc Ock’s arrogant manipulation.

However, by the end of his original run, despite his chosen moniker, he was forced to come to terms with the fact that Peter Parker was in face the superior version of the web-slinging hero, allowing him back into his body in order to ultimately thwart the Green Goblin’s latest attack.

8 Patient Zero

In a tragic alternate version of Spider-Man on Earth-11080, Spider-Man becomes infected by a deadly plague that transforms humans into cannibalistic monsters. All this happens in the Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher, and it’s The Punisher who’s responsible for unleashing the chaos and driving the hero to the brink of madness. The entire world watched as the newly infected Spider-Man, now going by Patient Zero, ate The Rhino on live TV.

Due to the mental decay caused by the virus, Patient Zero lost any trace of humanity or heroism. A savage and uncontrollable cannibal, he only ended up infecting others across ruined North America. The Punisher, who remained unaffected by the plague, ordered Patient Zero to rescue a pregnant Mary Jane, but later killed him.

Related: 10 Marvel Characters Who Became Spider-Man After Peter Parker

7 The Spider

Created by Judd Winick and Mike McKone, The Spider first makes his appearance in Marvel Comics in Exiles #12 in 2002 as an already feared character. But when he bonded with a symbiote that was seemingly similar to Carnage, he became more vicious and evil. He was drafted by the mysterious Timebreakers, who used brutal missions called Weapon X to gain control over the multiverse.

While the original Peter Parker fought to help others with his gifts, The Spider fought only to enrich himself. In his world, he was sentenced to 67 consecutive life sentences by a jury for acts like thievery, violence, a lack of a true code of ethics and taking several innocent lives as bargaining chips in his wicked schemes. He even went rogue at one point, aiming to conquer the multiverse. But the Exiles stopped him.

6 Kraven the Hunter-Spider

Ever since his introduction in Edge of Spider-Verse #5 in the year 2022, fans have known the this version of Sergei Kravinoff as a formidable hunter with exceptional hunting skills and born out of an aristocratic family. In one of the arcs of his overall story within the Spider-Verse, he’s seen hunting for a legendary lion in Zimbabwe and instead getting attacked by a giant spider and the injury transforming him into Hunter-Spider.

Upon his return to New York City, Kraven the Hunter-Spider is appointed by J. Jonah Jameson to eliminate all animal-themed costumes supervillains but because beneath his friendly-looking mask was the heart of a cold, merciless killer, his lifelong obsession to prove himself as the world’s greatest hunter leads him to turn iconic Spider-Verse characters like Rhino, Black Cat, and Madame Web into fresh prey.

5 Zombie Spider-Man

Any version of the undead, Peter Parker or not, is bound to commit the most questionable and evil acts to satiate its hunger. The same happens in another cruel reality known as Earth-2149, when the dead return as zombies and feast on the living after the outbreak of a virus. Among both the ravenous infected and the surviving humans battling this apocalypse is Spider-Man, who, in his attempt to get Aunt May and Mary Jane into safety, gets bit and consumes them instead.

Once a hero safeguarding humanity. Peter was now its worst enemy. Zombie Spider-Man preyed upon friend and foe with delightful glee and it’s horrific to see a great champion fall off the deep end so dramatically. His hunger grew so much that, along with other infected heroes, he devoured Galactus and used his cosmic powers to take control of the multiverse.

Luckily, if tragically, Spider-Man regained his senses just in time to stop the spread of the infection from wiping out all life, despite what it had personally cost him.

4 Chasm

Chasm was created by Zeb Wells and Patrick Gleason, and he debuted in 2022 with Amazing Spider-Man #93. On Earth-616 itself, there existed a genetic clone of Spider-Man in the form of Ben Reilly. He was created by a super villain named Jackal, who gave Ben the identity of Scarlet Spider and tasked him with destroying Spider-Man. Despite struggling with mental health, Ben eventually becomes an ally.

It isn’t until he joins Beyond Corporation as a corporate-sponsored hero that he’s traumatized and cloned once again – this time, with all his previous memories erased – that Scarlet Spider transforms into Chasm. Trapped between the present and past, Chasm could not distinguish right from wrong and all he wanted was to get his memories back. And to get them, he goes a little too far.

3 Pestilence

The comic narrative of Deadpool in Cable & Deadpool #15 sees the highly trained, foul-mouth assassin traveling to an alternate reality with Cannonball and Siryn in search of their friend, Nathan Summers/Cable. But they discover that this reality (Earth-5701) is taken over by Apocalypse, who has begun his agenda of world domination.

Peter Parker was chosen by Apocalypse to be one of his Horsemen alongside Angel/Death, Cable/War, and Blob/Famine. He mutated Spider-Man using cosmic technology and turned him into Pestilence. With his sickening new powers, Pestilence was a lethal enemy of peace. He took on horrible endeavors like threatening to suck the marrow out of Deadpool’s bones, but was ultimately defeated in the fight against the heroes.

Related: Actors Almost Cast as MCU Spider-Man

2 Darkhold Spider-Man

If you’re familiar with the dark side of Marvel’s sprawling universe, then you’ve probably heard of the Darkhold, which is an ancient grimoire filled with a collection of evil spells collected carefully by the Elder God Chthon. In the hands of the wrong person, pages of the Book of the Damned can lead a person to lose their mind. Or worse. In Darkhold: Spider-Man #1, the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are forced to read from the book to survive the impending threat of Chthon.

For Spider-Man, when an event known as the Unraveling occurred, he found his reality warping into a disturbing and sinister one. Seeped in the ancient tome’s mystic influences, Darkhold Spider-Man brutalized the bodies of villains like Otto Octopus, Reed Richards, and other unwitting victims, by tying them into a tether, mending it when it broke, and tragically trying to hold them all in place. The arc was made to prove a point that a hero’s life is not as glorious as it seems.

1 Patton Parnel

Taking place on Earth-51412 is the story of Patton Parnel, a young man with a traumatizing childhood. Parnel grew up with his uncle Ted, who was abusive towards him and violently experimented on animals. When Parnel was bit by a radioactive spider, he gained all the abilities of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Except the good in his heart.

Now a ruthless monster, Patton Parnel would violently tear down his uncle, eat a mouse and a cat, inflict harm upon humans, and go as far as biting the girl he had a crush on after luring her into his house. Where most spider-folks uphold hope, Patton dealt only in doom. Before Patton Parnel could do any more damage, the villain Morlun arrived. He attacked Parnel and sucked the life force out of him.