With such a large and ever expanding rogues gallery, Spider-Man has quite possibly faced off against more individual villains than any other hero in the Marvel universe. Maxwell Dillon, aka Electro, has been a mainstay of the Web-Slinger's rogue's gallery, having battled the Wall Crawler numerous times throughout the villain's nearly fifty year history. 2009's storyline "The Gauntlet" not only brought Electro back alongside a slew of other villains, but it saw him nearly bring Spider-Man down, not through force, but through popular opinion.
"The Gauntlet" began in Amazing Spider-Man #612 by Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta. The event was presented as one that would redefine Spider-Man's classic arch-enemies one by one, masterminded and manipulated by the family of Kraven the Hunter. The first of the original villains to show up was Electro in "Power to the People," whose powers had spun out of control and were slowly killing him. Desperate and destitute, Electro became disillusioned with the system, and placed much of the blame for his predicament at the feet of Dexter Bennett. Bennett had purchased the Daily Bugle from an ailing J. Jonah Jameson, and when he attempted to claim a government bailout during the recession, Electro rallied against him and became a hero in the public eye.
Spider-Man's classic brand of heroism no longer held true to the people of New York in the face of such hard times and blatant corruption, the city quite literally turning against him in violent fashion. After being chased into a sewer and changing into his civilian identity, Peter Parker rejoins the mob that had just attacked him, only to be confronted by a man who asks whose side the reporter is on after ranting about the luxurious life he presumes Spider-Man is living on taxpayer money.
As the streets became more restless, Electro appeared at the former Daily Bugle, now called the DB!, giving Bennett the choice to pay in cash for a reprieve from the mob who had thrown their support behind the villain. After departing, Electro headed to the lab of the Mad Thinker, who he had been working with to find a solution for his potentially lethal power spike. Peter crashed the lab just as Electro was being further supercharged by one of the Mad Thinker's machines, with the now entirely electric villain fully determined to make good on his threat to Bennett.
The citizens of New York hear Electro's call, and turn on all of their electronics so that he can drain them of their power before getting in front of the camera and thanking the people of the city for their help. Once at the DB! building, Electro makes sure that no one inside can escape, and Peter calls in for reinforcements in the form of the anti-spider squad that Jameson had organized. While waiting for backup, Spider-Man leaps into action and gives Bennett a chance to escape while he handles Electro. The city's power is cut, and Electro unleashes a torrent of lighting at his nemesis, the collateral damage from their fight doing incredible damage to the building, and leaving Bennett's legs crushed beneath a piece of falling concrete. It only takes another moment for the entire building to begin crumbling down, destroying one of the focal points of the series.
While Electro is ultimately put away again after this incident, he isn't alone in his cell, with the Chameleon and Sasha Kravinoff sitting across from him. Electro would go on to rejoin both the Sinister and Superior Six, even teaming up with Black Cat for a time. Still, the most devastating and lasting impact he ever left on his wall-crawling nemesis came though the events of "The Gauntlet."