As one of Marvel's most iconic superheroes, Spider-Man has a powerful rogues gallery that is loaded with villains like Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Venom. The new trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home implies a pending team-up of villains from previous Spider-Man films, making it the closest onscreen depiction of the web-head's most infamous super-villain team, the Sinister Six.
There have been many incarnations of the Sinister Six over the years that have posed a huge threat to New York City, but there is another supervillain team that once managed to defeat the wall-crawler. The often forgotten “Spider-Man Revenge Squad” is made up of some of the hero's least intimidating villains, including The Spot, the Kangaroo, Grizzly, and Gibbon. While the group only had one appearance together, the issue in question offered commentary on both Peter Parker and the villains that his alter ego faces.
The Spider-Man Revenge Squad (itself a reference to the Superman Revenge Squad), is made up of what was considered Spiderman's ‘joke’ villains. Grizzly, Gibbon, and the Kangaroo all have abilities modeled after their namesake animals, while the Spot has the ability to create “spots” that teleport people or objects to the other spot. All these villains had become jokes in comparison to the power of the veteran hero, who would often ridicule them before defeating them with little effort.
Tired of the humiliation, the villains formed the revenge squad and made their debut in Spectacular Spider-Man #246 (by J.M. DeMatteis and Luke Ross). The four manage to apparently knock out Spider-Man after a bank robbery and take him back to their hideout (which turns out to be Grizzly’s apartment). They debated what to do with him, as the Spot suggests putting him in a death trap like the “Bat Guy” television show (a reference to the ‘60s Batman series). Gibbon did not want to kill Spider-Man but just to “beat him up” and when Spot insulted him, the group began to fight among themselves.
After Gibbon and Grizzly managed to knock out Kangaroo and Spot, Spider-Man reveals that he wasn’t unconscious but was playing possum, to see what the squad was planning. As he takes the unconscious villains to the police station, he lets the other two go, as they were planning on giving the money they stole back. He also revealed that he never thought Grizzly or Gibbon were particularly bad guys, even though they were both considered by most to be villains. The two former criminals then expressed a desire to become heroes, and hoped to one day be good enough at the job to rival Spider-Man.
Each of the members of the Revenge Squad has made appearances since the dissolution of their ill-fated group. The Kangaroo still does various odd jobs for higher-level villains and the Spot was seen fighting Kindred. Grizzly returned to his criminal ways but expressed a desire to reform again in Ravencroft #1 (by Frank Tieri and Ángel Unzueta). Gibbon tragically died in 2019’s “Hunted” storyline, where he was killed by Kraven the Hunter’s robots when the Vulture used him as a human shield.
While the issue may seem like a one-off storyline about a joke supervillain team, it does help to showcase Peter Parker’s belief in the inherent good of people. Many of Spider-Man allies were once criminals, such as the Black Cat, the Prowler, Morbius, and Silver Sable, and the web-slinger has worked with more prominent members of his rogues' gallery such as the Sandman, Venom, and Doctor Octopus on occasion. While not all of his redeemed villains stay that way, Peter has shown leniency with criminals who he believes are good people at heart and as Spider-Man, he always tries to set them on the right path.