When it comes to iconic rogues galleries in comic books, no one in Marvel Comics has a more iconic batch of villains than Spider-Man. From classic villains like Doctor Octopus and Sandman to villains that showed up later, including Venom and Carnage, Spider-Man has enough bad guys to keep him occupied until the end of time.
Unlike many heroes in Marvel, Spider-Man's most famous villains have been around almost as long as he has. Spider-Man himself first appeared in 1962, and over the next three years, some of his most iconic villains showed up in his world. Here is a look at Spider-Man's 10 oldest villains, based on when they first showed up in comics.
10 SCORPION (JANUARY 1965)
As Spider-Man entered his third year as a hero in real-time, Marvel introduced the 10th major villain in his rogues' gallery, but one that, over time, became a B-grade villain at best. This villain was Scorpion, and while there were times in his career, he became a top guy (Dark Avengers), he wasn't a big deal for most of his career.
Despite this, Scorpion was still a well-known Spider-Man villain, and he even got a cameo at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. J. Jonah Jameson was responsible for the creation of Scorpion and paid for it when Mac Gargan became a villain.
9 KRAVEN THE HUNTER (AUGUST 1964)
The oldest Spider-Man villain in his history returned in Amazing Spider-Man #15, and he was here to hire someone to kill the Web Crawler. The villain who made his debut in this issue was none other than Kraven the Hunter.
Kraven was a hunter who killed all sorts of animals, and Chameleon calls him in as a friend to do him a favor — kill Spider-Man. In this issue, Spider-Man pretty easily defeats Kraven and Chameleon, which becomes harder as Kraven becomes more determined to capture the biggest kill of his life.
8 GREEN GOBLIN (JULY 1964)
In The Amazing Spider-Man #14, Spider-Man met the villain that hurt him more than any other in history. However, for a long time, Spider-Man had no idea who The Green Goblin was. Marvel even kept it a secret for a long time, not letting readers know that it was Norman Osborn.
See, Harry Osborn was one of Peter Parker's friends, so his dad as a supervillain was a considerable shock. Goblin later went on to kill Gwen Stacy and started the entire Clone Saga due to his deviousness. He was also the oldest villain in the movies, the very first bad guy in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.
7 MYSTERIO (JUNE 1964)
Mysterio made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #13, and his first appearance was very similar to that of Chameleon. In both instances, they tried to frame Spider-Man for being a villain. In the case of Mysterio, he did it using special effects.
Mysterio was a former Hollywood special effects creator who was able to create situations where he could appear to be a hero. However, when Spider-Man learned that he was a fraud who was a criminal himself, he set out to stop him. The same story was also the basis for Spider-Man: Far From Home.
6 ELECTRO (FEBRUARY 1964)
Electro made his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #9. Electro beats Spider-Man the first time they fought, as Spidey was worried about his Aunt May being sick. It also didn't help that J. Jonah Jameson was trying to convince the world that Spider-Man was Electro.
His origin story at the time was that he was a power line worker and was electrocuted in a freak accident, becoming Electro. He has changed a lot over the years, including becoming pure electricity at times in his history. He was also a bad guy in the movies, appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
5 LIZARD (NOVEMBER 1963)
The Amazing Spider-Man #5 saw Spider-Man take on a very different type of villain. In this issue, it was a monster known as Lizard. This issue has the origin that most people know. Curt Connors is a scientist who lost his arm in the war and was trying to find a way to cure himself.
He used lizard DNA, and it worked, but the side effect was that it turned him into a lizard monster. This villain was the first that was sympathetic, and Spider-Man made it a point to try to save him instead of just fighting him.
4 SANDMAN (SEPTEMBER 1963)
Amazing Spider-Man #4 saw the first appearance of the Spider-Man villain, Sandman. The villain showed up with his powers in this issue, and then Spider-Man learned his origin story on the news, as Sandman was an escaped convict who was on a beach where there was radioactive testing.
As a result, he could turn into sand and control his body using this power as a weapon. He then becomes a typical villain. Over the years, Sandman would rehabilitate at times, and he even got a more sympathetic story in the movie Spider-Man 3.
3 DOCTOR OCTOPUS (JULY 1963)
Amazing Spider-Man #3, saw the first appearance of Doctor Octopus, the third oldest main villain Spider-Man ever faced and the one who became his primary antagonist throughout the years. This issue showed the origin story, as Doc Ock was an atomic scientist who was in an accident that fused his mechanical arms to him and damaged his brain.
Over time, Doctor Octopus not only becomes one of Spider-Man's deadliest villains, but one that would regularly work with other bad guys to try to bring Spider-Man down. He is also someone who can say that, at one time, they killed Spider-Man.
2 THE VULTURE (MAY 1963)
The first supervillain to appear on the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man comic books came with the second issue, and it was The Vulture. This issue saw Peter Parker start working as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, since he could set up his camera to take pics of the bad guy while fighting him.
Spider-Man then sets out and stops The Vulture from committing more crimes and used the money from the photographs to help Aunt May make ends meet. Also appearing in this issue was a secondary story with the minor villain, Tinkerer.
1 CHAMELEON (MARCH 1963)
The first villain that Spider-Man faced was a burglar that shot his Uncle Ben. In the first actual issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, there were three stories, including one where he fought the Fantastic Four because he thought they paid, and he needed a job.
However, surprisingly, the first supervillain that Spider-Man ever faced came in that issue, and it was Chameleon. Angry that he missed out on a job with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man started work as a crime fighter, and the Chameleon then disguises himself as Spider-Man and starts to commit crimes and Spidey has to clear his name.