When thinking of Spider-Man villains, characters like Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Venom come to mind. They are all iconic in their own ways and left a massive imprint on the history of Marvel's biggest superhero. Venom, in particular, has remained one of the most popular villains, having a terrifying appearance and similar powers to keep the wall crawler on his toes (he's also not afraid to take lives on his own time). Despite being an alien parasite from another planet, Venom is not the most dangerous Spider-Man villain. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of bad guys in New York that are much more dangerous than Venom, but you likely won't know much about them. Many of these villains never became as popular as their contemporaries nor were they used enough to have a larger impact on the Marvel Universe.

A lot of these villains have faded into the realm of obscurity, only featured on lists like these. Unfortunately, these characters are criminally underrated and will never get the credit they deserve. Instead, Marvel fans will just keep clamoring for Venom to be thrown into the MCU with Doc Ock and the Green Goblin, regardless of the fact that using other characters gives the potential for new and unique storytelling. It's a shame that these underrated Spider-Man villains never got to see the light of day. Get ready to take a deep dive into Spider-Man's history as we explore 20 underrated villains that are actually more dangerous than Venom ever will be.

20 KRAVEN THE HUNTER

Kraven The Hunter

Kraven the Hunter was a big joke when he first debuted. However, his obsession with trying to hunt down all sorts of animals eventually led to him being a threatening foe. Wanting to have a much bigger prize hung over his fireplace, he set out to try and end Spider-Man to get all the glory for himself.

Believe it or not, he actually succeeded once and buried Spider-Man alive (thinking he was gone) during "Kraven's Last Hunt." It took Spider-Man a long time to crawl out of the dust, but the damage had already been done and Kraven won the battle.

19 SHOCKER

Homecoming-Shocker

The Shocker just so happens to be one of the most unstable Spider-Man villains. Couple that with the electric gauntlets he wears, and there is a lot of potential with the character to do some serious damage. While the wall crawler already has one "shocking" villain in the form of Electro, Shocker has still caused a lot of harm.

With the right tech, there was a time where Shocker had a serious upgrade to his suit, which was powerful enough that he was able to defeat Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the writers ditched the suit after that, fearing that it would make him too much of a challenge for the hero.

18 SCORPION

Due to his hatred of Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson hired Mac Gargan to be the subject of an experiment that would give him the powers necessary to take down the wall crawler for good. Unfortunately, the experiment was a success with the unfortunate consequence of Gargan losing his sanity in the process.

Taking the name Scorpion, Gargan has sworn vengeance on Spider-Man. Because he was imbued with the DNA of a spider's natural predator, Gargan has all the tools he needs to bring Spidey down. Sporting an impressive suit with a tail that can shoot lasers, Scorpion has always been an issue.

17 MISTER NEGATIVE

Mister Negative SpiderMan Videogame

Mister Negative was once a regular man who was imbued with the powers of the Darkforce and Lightforce. Having a dual personality, one kind-hearted businessman, and another a homicidal maniac, he took the name of Mister Negative.

Mister Negative can corrupt anything he touches, has amazing hand-to-hand combat skills, and sports super strength. Because of this, he just has to give Spider-Man one good shove and the hero will be thrown through a building. Having both the resources and the power to take over crime in New York, Mister Negative poses a serious threat to Spider-Man that will, thankfully, be explored in the upcoming video game.

16 MORLUN

morlun

Morlun and the Inheritors are a group of beings that made it their life's goal to hunt down all versions of Spider-Man across the Multiverse. Not only did this call for all spider hands on deck, but Morlun just so happened to be one of the strongest villains Spider-Man has ever faced.

Morlun is the leader of the Inheritors and packs a serious punch. Going one on one with him meant certain death for anyone that was dumb enough to try it. He has just about every power needed to win any battle, and he can even absorb the lives of others for himself.

15 MYSTERIO

Quentin Beck was a special effects genius who eventually decided to use his talents to adopt a life of crime and find his own way in the world. This brought him in direct contact with Spider-Man, who wasn't prepared for all of Beck's tricks.

Taking the name Mysterio, Beck used his abilities to screw with Spider-Man's head. Having the capability to twist reality in the minds of others, Beck could make someone turn on their own friends and only realize it after it was too late. While other villains fight Spider-Man in the physical realm, Mysterio plays a different game and excels at it.

14 BLACK TARANTULA

The Black Tarantula is a mantle that is passed down from generation to generation, but the ones who wear it never have good intentions. The current Black Tarantula traveled to New York when he got word that his son was being kept safe there. Taking over the criminal underground, he was prepared to fight.

Black Tarantula has superhuman strength, speed, agility, and just about anything else you could imagine. On top of that, he has an insane healing factor that works so well that he can stop fatal injuries from ending him. Wearing a high-tech suit when fighting, Black Tarantula can also shoot blasts of energy from his eyes.

13 JACKAL

cannibal jackal

The Jackal is a villain as crazy as they come. Falling in love with Gwen Stacy, he blamed Spider-Man for her demise. As a result, he became obsessed with the idea of cloning and went to work creating copies of Stacy and Peter Parker. He tried his hardest to end the spider and almost succeeded.

Later on, Jackal decided the best way to get rid of Peter Parker was to assault his identity. He did this by creating a clone and convincing the clone that he was the real Peter Parker. His methods were so effective that Parker retired as Spider-Man for a time before eventually discovering that he was the real one after all.

12 TOMBSTONE

Tombstone-fighting-Spider-Man

Lonnie Lincoln was a young boy with albinism. Throughout his life, he was picked on for this condition. However, this led him down a dark road after he became an adult. Not only did he decide to live a life of crime, but he even filed his teeth so they would be like powerful needles.

This helped him out greatly when he was eventually given the powers of durability and super strength. This made him one of the most threatening criminals in New York, being able to withstand a lot of attacks while deal out blows of his own. Taking the name Tombstone, he would attack without thought, travel where he wanted, and leave a trail of bodies wherever he went.

11 MOLTEN MAN

After being coated in a special chemical, Mark Raxton's body completely changed into one consumed with fire and magma. Taking the name Molten Man, he decided to go on a crime spree with his newfound abilities. This brought him in Spider-Man's line of sight, but he proved to be quite strong for the wall crawler.

Molten Man has much greater strength than Spider-Man as well as the drive to keep pushing in spite of adversity. The longer he remained in the world, the stronger and more unstable his physical form became. Because of this, he would constantly pose a much more serious threat with each encounter with Spider-Man.

10 SHATHRA

Spider-Man is a character known for thinking on his feet, and he almost never uses his instincts. However, the villain, Shathra, forced him to change up his battle strategy. Shathra was a being from the Astral Plane, who was the "natural predator" of Spider-Man. Because of this, she decided to hunt him down.

Not only was Spider-Man vastly outmatched, but he knew that she would find him no matter where he hid. Because of this, he had to learn to embrace his own arachnid instincts in order to defeat her. Had he not done that, she surely would've devoured him for a quick and satisfying meal.

9 SPOT

The Spot Spider-Man

Spot is a villain with a silly name, but his powers more than make up for that. After jumping into a dimension filled with black portals, he re-emerged with many of them adhered to his skin. Becoming someone who could teleport anywhere as well as use the portals over his body to mess with reality, he became a fairly dangerous foe and even defeated Spider-Man before.

Spot doesn't relish in solely physical confrontations, but uses his powers to torment others. He can appear anywhere he wants without making a sound. On top of that, he can throw his portals to teleport anyone else to other places. It's a simple yet effective power setup.

8 WHITE RABBIT

White Rabbit is a villain that knows she's ridiculous. Everything from her name to appearance instills laughter in anyone who hears or sees her. That said, she also happens to have a lot of tech and gadgets at her disposal that make her arguably much more dangerous than some of Spider-Man's A-list foes.

One of her most impressive pieces of equipment was a giant rabbit robot that could fight in battle as well as carry her from place to place. White Rabbit also used genetically-modified bunnies to help her in battle on top of other gadgets that were difficult for Spider-Man to defeat.

7 HYDRO-MAN

What do you do when you fight someone made entirely of water? You drown, of course! At least, that seemed like the only option available to Spider-Man when he fought against Hydro-Man. This villain was made entirely of water and could manipulate the substance to his will.

Having only a liquid form, Hydro-Man can never be ended. The only way he can truly die is if all the water were to be evaporated at once. As long as there's at least a drop, he can live to fight another day. Furthermore, landing punches or wrapping him with webbing isn't effective either, as he'll just slip through all of it.

6 CHAMELEON

Spider-Man-Chameleon

When you're a hero, is there anything scarier than questioning everyone around you? Chameleon, Spider-Man's first villain, has the power to make him question even his friends and family. He has the ability to disguise himself as anyone he wants- and he's extremely good at it too.

Chameleon is so good that he has even trapped Spider-Man by disguising himself as Aunt May before. What makes him even scarier is that he can disappear for months on end and then suddenly show up disguised as one of Peter Parker's friends, and no one would ever suspect him until it was too late.

5 KAINE

Kaine Parker as Scarlet Spider in Marvel Comics

The Jackal's first clone of Peter Parker was Kaine. While he seemed like a failed experiment at first, Kaine quickly proved to be one of the Jackal's greatest successes. Not only did he have Spider-Man's powers, but he exceeded them. Furthermore, his Spider-Sense was so improved that it allowed him to see into the future. He even had a deadly touch that would corrode the skin of other people.

Unfortunately, Kaine was extremely mentally unstable. Combine that with his strong powers, and he presented a lot of problems for Spider-Man and the people of New York. Making matters worse was the fact that he didn't have a great life.

4 SWARM

Fritz Von Meyer was a fascist who wanted to use his intellect to help conquer the world for the glory of the Reich. His scheme involved controlling the mind of a Queen Bee to manipulate a hive to do his bidding. Unfortunately for him, the bees rejected him and devoured his body, leaving only his bones. Somehow, though, the bees managed to stay over his skeleton and be taken over by his mind.

After that, Meyer took the name of Swarm, as his body was composed of an entire beehive. he would use the bees to fly and even send them out to attack others. Too bad his arch nemesis was based on a spider.

3 MORBIUS

Morbius flashing his claws in the rain

Morbius was known as the Living Vampire. After Michael Morbius developed a blood disease, he tried to cure it with some experimentation involving vampire bats. Unfortunately, the experiment resulted in his body desiring blood, and he eventually became a vampire complete with all of the features and abilities attached.

Morbius boasted a lot of powers that Spider-Man wasn't prepared to dealing with. On top of super strength and flight, Morbius had an insanely good healing factor as well as keeping his intelligence. This meant that he would not only battle Spider-Man on a physical level, but on a mental one as well.

2 CARDIAC

Cardiac is a character defined by loss. After the tragic death of his brother, he decided to spend the rest of his days saving lives. Unfortunately, this led him to learn that there was a drug that could've saved his brother after all, so he decided to go on a rampage and get revenge on those companies.

Altering his body so that his heart was a beta-particle reactor and his skin was covered in Vibranium, he vowed to destroy those facilities. Spider-Man, Rhino, and even Boomerang showed up to stop him, but his powers and durability were too great for any of them to fight off. He won the day and left to deal with his grief.

1 SPIDER-SLAYERS

Spencer Smythe was the one who created the Spider-Slayers, a group of robots programmed specifically to drop Spider-Man. However, it was Alistair Smythe, his son, who turned the concept into a suit of armor. With a few other criminals at his side, Alistair posed a serious threat to the wall crawler.

The biorganic suit that he wore was armed to the teeth with all of the weapons necessary to beat the spider. Couple that with the fact that the Spider-Slayer mantle could be passed down to multiple people at a time, it almost guarantees that Spider-Man would always have to fear a Spider-Slayer.