Spider-Man/Characters

Peter Benjamin Parker / Spider-Man


""And so a legend is born and a new name is added to the roster of those who make the world of fantasy the most exciting realm of all!""

- Amazing Fantasy #15, foretelling the legacy of Spider-Man

"Leo Zelinksy: "Ask me again in that Queens accent how I know you're from around here.""
 * Adorkable
 * Alliterative Name: Peter Parker
 * Always Save the Girl: Except not. Big time.
 * Animal Motifs: Most of his villains.
 * And himself, obviously.
 * Anti-Hero: Spider-Man may be the ultimate subversion of this trope. Stan Lee's original concept, and many of the original Silver Age stories portray Peter's motivations as being largely selfish, or at least relating to his personal relationships and helping his Aunt May make due, and in general Spidey's attitude and difficulties with authority make him come off as a Type I or Type II anti-hero, but when the chips are really down, his selflessness and sheer heroism are second in the Marvel Universe only to Captain America.
 * The Atoner
 * Author Avatar: Stan Lee's. An example of Tropes Are Not Bad.
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Beware the Nice Ones: You DO NOT want to threaten his loved ones. The results will not be good for you.
 * Big Damn Heroes
 * Boxing Lessons for Superman: Peter spent a bit of time as a successful show-wrestler before ever trying to fight crime.
 * In a straighter example of this trope, he studied martial arts under Shang Chi during one of the (many) times he briefly lost his spider-sense and found himself seriously handicapped without it.
 * Breakout Character: Originally the star of a story in an issue of a Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi anthology, he proved popular enough to get his own series a few months later and quickly became one of the most popular superheroes ever.
 * Brilliant but Lazy: Subverted most of the time. Peter is often perceived this way because everyone knows how smart he is, but not why he doesn't put more energy into his work (the trope is even stated by name in the second movie). However, those that do know the whole story have said that Peter isn't exercising his full potential.
 * Brooklyn Rage: The quintessential New York superhero.

"Chameleon: Does Parker know anyone who isn't a stunningly beautiful woman?"
 * Butt Monkey: Oh so very much. In the first film, not only is he being laughed at by the other students for missing the bus, but the driver is deliberately stringing him along for laughs.
 * Building Swing
 * Cannot Talk to Women
 * Character Tic: Will often crouch as a means for writers to show his super agility.
 * Likewise, he has a distinct way of hanging from the end of a web, and extreme contortion is second nature to him.
 * Characterization Marches On: Peter Parker is often described as an everyman, with all the good nature that implies, but in the early days he was a boiling pot of resentment. It's seen most clearly at the start of his story, in Amazing Fantasy #15. Poor Peter is almost a textbook case of a future school shooter. He wouldn't become the good-hearted everyman we know and love until after the reclusive Steve Ditko left artistic chores and was replaced by John Romita.
 * Clueless Chick Magnet
 * Comes Great Responsibility: Trope Namer
 * Creepy Good: He was often seen as creepy by many fellow heroes in the Marvel Universe, even as recently as The Nineties, as seen when he and Nova fought the Tri-Sentinel. Also, while it isn't canon, Wonder Woman mentioned he was creepy during his second Crossover with Superman. This is often due to Spidey's costume, his ability to cling to any surface, and his knack for showing up out of the blue, to say nothing of the fact that he is often a Hero with Bad Publicity.
 * His above tendencies, coupled with a knack for often frightening contortions and a face concealing bug-eyed mask, were likely what led to his becoming a Hero with Bad Publicity, after which it just became a vicious cycle.
 * Cursed with Awesome
 * Deadpan Snarker: And how. It's literally how he maintains composure.
 * Deconstruction: Spider-Man was actually one of the earliest Superhero deconstructions, showing just how much being a super hero could have an affect on someone's personal life.
 * Determinator
 * Dork Knight
 * Doom Magnet
 * Don't Think, Feel: Subverted. His powers work very well, if not even better, purely on instinct, but Spidey's foes tend to be exceedingly dangerous, and in very many cases more than a physical match for him. Usually, Spider-Man has to out-think or out-smart his enemies, pulling almost as many Batman Gambits as the Trope Namer. Additionally, his live-saving reflexes and Spider-sense will generally kick-in whether or not he's thinking or distracted.
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: Are you kidding? He's arguably Marvel's definitive example of this trope.
 * The Everyman: Perhaps the poster child
 * Expressive Mask
 * Failure Hero: Can happen a lot. Sometimes it's because he's too full of self-pity, other times because the writers like to Kick the Dog.
 * Fire-Forged Friends: With Daredevil. In fact, many of Spidey's superhero friendships arguably fall into this trope.
 * Genius Bruiser
 * Genre Savvy: The 2000/2010s crop of Marvel writers often tend to use this as the reason why Spider-Man fits on the Avengers. He knows almost everyone in the superhuman community at this point, both heroes and villains, and is often the guy who sneaks off into the background to get the real work done while everyone else is involved in the big fight scene. Recent examples thereof involve his guest appearances in Avengers vs. X-Men, Annihilators, and Agents of ATLAS.
 * Guilt Complex
 * Happily Married: Well, he was (for about twenty years real-time) to Mary Jane Watson. But then Joe Quesada decided that made him feel too old and boring and retconned the marriage. The backlash of ending the marriage was so bad that even Stan Lee didn't fully agree with the new direction, and kept him married in the newspaper strip.
 * The Hero Dies:
 * Hero with Bad Publicity
 * Hollywood Dateless: It mostly kicked in after high-school.


 * It's All My Fault
 * Instant Expert: His powers are hardwired into his reflexes and instincts, so he really has a harder time suppressing them than actually using them. That said, he's the Trope Namer for How Do I Shot Web? for a reason; his early days were plagued with misapplication of his powers that mostly came with not knowing how to consciously control them. Unconsciously, he reacts to his Spider Sense and leaps over a car and sticking onto the side of a building mere moments after the life-changing spider-bite.
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: With MJ (though to be technical about it, it's more like "literally loving thy neighbor's niece").
 * The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Let's just say Spidey has experience with this... as in he's never had a single relationship where this didn't factor in someway.
 * Motor Mouth: Doesn't pause his mid-fight quipping to breathe.
 * Nerds Are Sexy: He's quite the Chick Magnet, considering he used to be a complete dork. During their marriage, Mary Jane even seemed to consider moments when he talked about science as a turn-on.
 * Ordinary High School Student
 * Parental Abandonment: In most continuities, his parents die before he's old enough to remember them, leaving him with Ben and May.
 * Refusal of the Call: And then Uncle Ben got murdered.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Gwen was killed, Spider-Man hunted down the Green Goblin with a vengeance. Before delivering the final blow, however, Spider-Man backed away out of fear of breaking his Thou Shalt Not Kill rule.
 * When Jean DeWolff was murdered by the Sin-Eater, Spider-Man pursued him in a very personal way. This time, he almost beat his prey to death - only stopped by the intervention of Daredevil.
 * Subverted when the Burglar returns. During the pursuit, Spider-Man reveals his identity to show why he won't just give up. The Burglar - thinking that Peter wants the ultimate revenge for Uncle Ben's murder - has a fatal heart attack out of fear.
 * Sad Clown: To quote Iron Man, "I can't help but notice - the closer I get to an uncomfortable truth, the more lame jokes you start making."
 * Science Hero: Some writers portray him as this. Especially in the current "Big Time" arc in his new job.
 * She Fu: One of the oldest examples, believe it or not, despite being a Rare Male Example. He uses it expansively throughout his career. It can be seen a bit more clearly in some of the more recent video games, where you can see Spidey in motion more easily.
 * Starving Student: His college years.
 * Superpower Lottery
 * All Webbed Up: Created his webshooters on his own in one of the clearest displays of scientific genius on his part. The formula for his webs in particular is nothing short of miraculous, given it's tensile strength and adhesive properties. It disappears after a couple hours or so, so he doesn't even leave a mess.
 * Green Lantern Ring: There is little he can't do with his webs. Possibly justified—in real life, spiders do tend to be pretty brilliant with them.
 * Healing Factor
 * Spider Sense: Trope Namer
 * Super Reflexes
 * Super Speed: Borne of Super Reflexes and strength, much like The Hulk.
 * Super Strength
 * Super Toughness
 * Superhuman Agility and Dexterity
 * Wall Crawl
 * Teen Genius: At the start of the series (and the most common portrayal of him in most media).
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill: He's strongly against killing anyone. Though in fits of rage or frustration, he has been known to say he's going to kill *insert villain here*, but never actually goes through with it.
 * Tranquil Fury: When he's so enraged that he stops wisecracking mid-fight. Opponents and allies both have commented this is terrifying.
 * Trickster Archetype: Often.
 * True Companions: With the Fantastic Four.
 * True Love Is Exceptional: His relationship with MJ is this.
 * Unlucky Everydude
 * Vindicated by History: Another in-universe example. Several different future continuities show Spider-Man being remembered as a great hero. When Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099 pays a trip to the present day he says as much... to Jonah's face.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Johnny Storm. Their team-ups are a constant snark-fest, but Johnny is Peter's closest friend in the superhero community, and Peter is Johnny's closest friend outside the F4.
 * Wolverine Publicity: Just how he manages to balance being a member of two Avengers teams, his job, his social life, and the Future Foundation is quite amazing.
 * Would Hit a Girl: Shriek doesn't get special treatment for having a vagina.
 * Yiddish as a Second Language: Especially when Bendis is writing him.
 * You Fight Like a Cow: The master of this trope, deadpan or not.
 * OOC Is Serious Business: If Spidey isn't snarking, bad things are happening.

Mary Jane Watson / Mary Jane Watson-Parker



 * Abusive Parents: Her dad sucked.
 * Badass Damsel: She may not be a superhero, but it's your funeral if you try to harm this chick.
 * Betty and Veronica: Formed this with the good girl Gwen Stacy. Was actually the Betty when she found herself in this situation again with The Black Cat.
 * Blind Date: How she met Peter and was introduced to the book.
 * Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: With Betty Brant and Gwen back in the day.
 * Big Bra to Fill: Mary Jane is one of the curviest non-superheroic females in the entire Marvel universe. In Sam Raimi's film series she was portrayed by Kirsten Dunst, who doesn't quite have the body Mary Jane in the comics does (but few real life people do).
 * Catch Phrase: "Face it, tiger -- you just hit the jackpot."
 * Character Development: One of the most notable moments occurs, when she decides to stay with Peter whilst he is grieving over Gwen's death.
 * Amazing Spider-Man #259 delves a good deal into her past.
 * Dark-Skinned Redhead: Sometimes her skin is colored darkly.
 * Deadpan Snarker: She's every bit as good at snarking as Peter.
 * Establishing Character Moment: The famous panel with her first appearance is pictured on the trope page.
 * The Faceless: For a while she was never seen or her face was obscured, not until Romita's Sr.'s run did we see the jackpot.
 * As noted elsewhere, it took slightly longer to see her in-person fully than it did to find out who the Green Goblin was.
 * The Fashionista: Although as noted on that trope's page, she's an unusual example in that outside of her interest in fashion and her very girly appearance, she's a bit of a tomboy with an interest in sports.
 * Fiery Redhead
 * Fun Personified: Until some hidden depths where revealed and we latter find out it was mostly an act to hide the pain her brought on by her abusive childhood, anyway. She's still a fun character though, just not in a way that it's only only defining trait or that makes her seem like she doesn't care about anything.
 * The Ghost: Early on in the series, she was mentioned for dozens of issues, but was never seen until the final panel of issue #40.
 * Green Eyes
 * Green Eyed Red Head
 * Happily Married: To Peter Parker. And then Mephisto came. Stan Lee kept her married to Peter in the newspaper strip.
 * Hello, Nurse!: The exact thing that Peter was not expecting when he opened the door to her for the first time. Hit the jackpot, he did indeed.
 * Heroes Want Redheads
 * Heroic Bystander: Many times (just check the awesome moments page!).
 * Hidden Depths: Up until she stayed with Peter after Gwen's death, she was never shown to do anything seriously.
 * Readers would also later learn about her abusive father and that her party girl attitude was an act to keep people from finding out how screwed-up her personal life was.
 * Ironic Echo: When May and Anna Watson were trying to set them up on a blind date, Peter resisted - thinking Mary Jane must be some pathetic teen that couldn't possibly get a date without help. Turns out in Parallel Lives, Mary Jane had said the same things about him.
 * Keep the Home Fires Burning: Many issues focus on her conflicted feelings of being supportive towards Peter and her fear that this could be the time he doesn't make it back.
 * Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: With Peter (though if you want to be technical about it, it's more like "literally loving thy aunt's neighbor").
 * Muggle Best Friend
 * Painted-On Pants
 * Plucky Girl: Although she's gone through some rough patches and worries more than most examples of this trope, she still the type of character that will have no qualms about beating a B list hero with a baseball bat or bringing Peter out of slum with some helpful optimism.
 * Official Couple: Was this with Peter until One More Day. Let's just say the fans were not happy with the end of their offical couple status and leave it at that.
 * Outdated Outfit: Naturally as the most fashion conscience member of the cast, she falls victim to this the most as time passes.
 * Secret Secret Keeper: During Tom DeFalco's first run on Amazing Spider-Man, it was revealed that Mary Jane was this. Parallel Lives elaborated that it was since the night Ben Parker was murdered (she had observed Peter returning home and then Spider-Man leaving through his bedroom window). Obviously, after Peter learned all this, Mary Jane was upgraded to Secret Keeper.
 * Ship Tease: The ending of Spider Island suggests that she may get back together with Peter after One More Day and One Moment in Time.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: With Peter.
 * Stepford Smiler: Put on the facade that she was happy when on the inside she was really upset with her childhood.
 * The Tease: Her original role in the series.
 * Totally Radical: In The Sixties at least, to the point of nigh-incomprehensibility to some modern readers.
 * True Love Is Exceptional
 * The Watson: Incredibly Lame Pun aside, her questions about Peter's current superhero crisis can be a pretty handy device for readers.

Aunt May Reilly-Parker



 * Almighty Mom: she can get J. JONAH JAMESON and WOLVERINE of all people to submit to her requests!
 * Beware the Nice Ones
 * Granny Classic: Depending on the writer she might Take a Level In Badass, but everyone seems to be in agreement she likes to bake, cook, and can't be bothered with hair dye.
 * Happily Married: With JJJ's dad as of BND (the ceremony takes place in issue #600). Peter alternates between finding it adorable and horrifying. Jonah would rather not think about it at all.
 * And of course to Ben before his Death by Origin Story
 * Heroic Bystander: More so when written by JMS, during her brief time being in on the secret.
 * Insistent Terminology: In The Sixties, would constantly say "pussywillow" instead of "pussycat" when attempting to use hip lingo.
 * The Matchmaker: For Peter and MJ. One More Day aside, it works!
 * Maiden Aunt: Although she's a widow and not a maiden.
 * Mama Bear
 * Never Mess with Auntie
 * Parental Substitute
 * Shipper on Deck: Is usually a pretty vocal Peter / MJ shipper, and conspired with Anna to set them up on their first date.

Uncle Benjamin "Ben" Parker



 * Beam Me Up, Scotty: Never actually gave Peter the "with great power" line in the original... origin, but he says it in just about every adaptation.
 * Cool Old Guy: In Ultimate Spider-Man, and quite a few flashbacks.
 * Death by Origin Story
 * The Obi-Wan: It varies in continuity to continuity, but he is the main inspiration in Peter's resolution to do good.
 * Posthumous Character

Anna Watson



 * Maiden Aunt
 * The Matchmaker: See Shipper on Deck
 * Obnoxious In-Laws: More so in TAS.
 * Shipper on Deck: Less so than May, but still helped set up Peter and MJ's first date.

Ben Reilly / The Scarlet Spider



 * Badass Biker: During "The Lost Years" Mini and "The Clone Saga" revamp.
 * Can't Hold His Liquor: Just like Peter. Not played for laughs like usual.
 * Civvie Spandex: The Scarlet Spider costume.
 * Cloning Blues
 * Cool Loser: Sometimes, especially when compared to Peter.
 * Dead "Brother": For Peter and Kaine... Depending on the Writer (and era).
 * To  in Spider Girl.
 * Heavily implied to be his reaction to finding out he's a clone. Luckily, he snaps out of it after rescuing a man suffering from the same feelings.
 * The Ghost: In Spider Girl.
 * Hair of Gold / *Important Haircut: Decides to wear his hair in a different style and bleach it blond to differentiate himself from Peter.
 * Meaningful Name: His first name is that of Peter's uncle, while his surname is Aunt May's maiden name.
 * Nerds Are Sexy: Just as much of a Chick Magnet as Peter. He even hooks up with MJ after Peter dies in one Alternate Universe.
 * Not So Different / You Are Not Alone: Towards Kaine, eventually starting Heel Face Turn.
 * Rummage Sale Reject: His first two costumes—the first when he answers Judas Traveller's challenge at the beginning of the Clone Saga, and the other when he went up against Venom. Justified Trope in that he was pressed for time in both cases. He ended up wearing the second costume for a long time before he finally got a proper costume.
 * : The "New" Clone Saga Revamp.
 * Uncanny Family Resemblance: Inverted; this is how he and "cousin" Peter explain why they look so much alike..
 * Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Because he's a clone. Until he settles on a job at the Daily Grind, anyway.
 * Uncanny Family Resemblance: Inverted; this is how he and "cousin" Peter explain why they look so much alike..
 * Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Because he's a clone. Until he settles on a job at the Daily Grind, anyway.

May "Mayday" Parker / Spider-Girl



 * Building Swing
 * Death by Cameo: Turns out, that red-headed little girl in One More Day was a version of May. Also, the Deal with the Devil Peter and MJ made also aborted her in the womb.
 * Distaff Counterpart
 * Legacy Character: Becomes Spider-Girl in the Marvel Comics 2 universe of course.
 * Plucky Girl
 * Spider Sense
 * Wall Crawl
 * "Well Done, Daughter" Gal: She constantly tries to live up to her father's name and honor his legacy. That said, Peter is pretty darn proud of her.

Benjy Parker



 * Badass Adorable

Richard and Mary Parker



 * Death by Origin Story
 * Reverse Mole: They were spies; in some continuities they were Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099



 * Animal Motifs
 * Cassandra Truth: When Miguel tries to tell his mother that he's actually Spider-Man (whom she idolizes), she laughs it off as a pathetic attempt to get her attention.
 * Child Prodigy
 * The Chosen One: The Thorites of 2099 call Spider-Man the "Herald of Thor", who is prophesied to save the world.
 * Drugs Are Bad: When Miguel wanted to quit Alchemax, his boss secretly gets him addicted to illegal drugs as a retention technique. Miguel's attempt to shake the addiction leads to the accident that grants him his powers.
 * Deadpan Snarker: In a deliberate inversion from Peter Parker, Spider-Man tends to speak tersely while in costume, and saves his snarking for his civilian identity.
 * Freak Lab Accident
 * Generation Xerox: Subverted; creator Peter David deliberately based much of Miguel's personality by setting his traits as opposite those of Peter Parker's.
 * Genius Bruiser
 * Jerkass: Before the accident that gave him his powers, Miguel was an unabashed self-centered egotistical jerk who belittled almost everyone else he knew.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Miguel secretly discovers that his father is
 * Revenge: Miguel's original motivation was to get revenge on Alchemax CEO Tyler Stone for accidentally getting him addicted to Rapture.
 * Super Reflexes: Instead of Spider Sense, Miguel has enhanced perceptions that happen to tune in very quickly to what's pertinent, such as an immediate danger or a general plot point. It's still limited by what he is focused on, and he can still be caught flat-footed.
 * The Unfavorite: Miguel's younger brother Gabriel is clearly their mother's favorite, largely due to Miguel's Jerkass behavior.
 * Wall Crawl
 * Wolverine Claws: Miguel acquires retractable talons on his fingers and toes. Not only does this allow him to Wall Crawl, but he also uses them as a slashing attack.

Elizabeth "Liz" Allan



 * Alpha Bitch --> Lovable Alpha Bitch
 * Beta Couple: With Harry Osborn for a while.
 * Betty and Veronica: Initially played the Veronica to... Betty's Betty.
 * Boomerang Bigot: In Ultimate Marvel, she is the resident Fantastic Racist against Mutants (because her uncle (actually, her father) is the Blob. Although as it turns out ).
 * Composite Character: In the Ultimate Universe,
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: She became considerably nicer to Peter as she got to know him. Especially in The Spectacular Spider-Man, where she developed genuine romantic feelings for Peter and was deeply hurt when he broke up with her (to be with Gwen).
 * Demoted to Extra
 * Hero Worshipper: During her High School days, she develops a crush on Peter after she mistakenly believed he had tried to pull off some heroics. (In reality, he was suffering from Worf Had the Flu).
 * Put on a Bus
 * Race Lift: The version of her that appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man appears to be of Hispanic ethnicity, compared to her mainstream counterpart, who is Caucasian and blonde.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Her last name is Allan, no "Allen".
 * The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: In the Ultimate Universe, her father is apparently The Blob.
 * Unrequited Love Switcheroo

Betty Brant



 * Alliterative Name
 * Betty and Veronica: Literally the Betty to Liz's Veronica.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl
 * Damsel in Distress
 * Important Haircut: Got a page-boy cut after her brother died.
 * The Load
 * Platonic Life Partners: Her current relationship with Peter.
 * Sympathetic Adulteress: She had a brief affair with Peter and Flash Thompson when she was married to Ned Leeds.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Following her husband Ned's death, Betty checked out for a while. Once she got her head together, she reinvented herself, going from the Bugle's harried secretary to a fearless reporter in her own right, willing to go toe-to-toe with supervillains and monsters if required. Recent adaptations that include Betty tend to start from this characterization, to the point where a lot of newer fans won't recognize her at all if they go back and read her pre-1989 appearances.

Gwendolyne "Gwen" Stacy



 * Alpha Bitch: Before Characterization Marches On
 * Betty and Veronica: Was the Betty to MJ's Veronica.
 * Bury Your Gays: Ultimate incarnation.
 * Not sure this counts as she also mentions she was joking in the next scene and has a long-lasting relationship with Peter later on.
 * Characterization Marches On
 * Defrosting Ice Queen
 * Damsel in Distress: Takes this trope to its logical conclusion...
 * Girl Next Door
 * I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Trope Namer, obviously. Gwen's death is one of the most traumatic events in Peter's entire life, and the memory of it comes back to haunt him on more than one occassion.
 * Killed Off for Real
 * My Secret Pregnancy: Was retconned into having had one of these during the "Sins Past" storyline. Naturally for many, it's Fanon Discontinuity.
 * Never Speak Ill of the Dead
 * Nerds Are Sexy: Her incarnation in The Spectacular Spider-Man, mostly.
 * The original incarnation as well. She was every bit of a science geek as Peter while still looking like an absolute bombshell.
 * Pretty Spry for a Dead Guy: It's teased that she's actually alive a couple of times, only for it to revealed to be a clone or something each time.
 * Spared by the Adaptation: For someone who's best known for being one of the first love interests killed in super hero history, Gwen always seems to survive outside of the comics.
 * Tsundere: Her original characterization. Also her tomboyish Ultimate incarnation.
 * Woman Scorned: Initially was upset that Peter gave her the cold shoulder upon their first meeting.
 * Women in Refrigerators

Debra Whitman



 * Shrinking Violet: Although she's not necessarily shy, her aversion to conflict and reluctance when it comes to taking initiative makes her this in the comics.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: She disappeared completely after being written out of the early-'80s Spectacular Spider-Man book. Every other woman in Peter Parker's dating life tends to reappear from time to time as a member of his supporting cast, except for Debra. She finally reemerged following Peter's unmasking in Civil War, having written a tell-all book about her time dating him, and promptly disappeared again.

Felicia Hardy / Black Cat



 * Absolute Cleavage: She's had several outfits that all tend to draw on the same basic design scheme, but the unifying factor is that they almost all tend to have an impossibly low neckline.
 * Action Girl
 * Alternate Continuity: In the 90s cartoon, she was the Alpha Bitch at Parker’s school before becoming the Black Cat and ultimately gets paired up with Morbius the Living Vampire. She's also very different in the Ultimate Universe as well.
 * Animal Motifs
 * Badass Biker: Gets a Cool Bike courtesy of Puma.
 * Badass Normal / Badass Abnormal: Depending on the continuity or storyline.
 * Becoming the Mask: In the comics, she starts dating Flash Thompson to get Parker jealous, but ends up falling in love with him (only to be dumped by him when he finds out and asks Was It All a Lie?).
 * Betty and Veronica: With Mary Jane
 * Bi the Way: Spider-Man/Black Cat: Evil That Men Do #1 and in Spider Girl.
 * Blue Eyes or Green Eyes: Depending on the Artist.
 * Building Swing
 * Catgirl
 * Classy Cat Burglar
 * Dating Catwoman
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Designated Girl Fight: Often in team-ups.
 * Evolutionary Levels: In some storylines / continuities she’s a low-level Mutants.
 * Expy: She's a not-particularly-villainous burglar with the word "cat" in her name, she dons a black feline-themed suit, she has a on-and-off-again relationship with a superhero who's attracted to her, but has a problem with her immoral ways, she fancies the superhero in the costume more than the man underneath it... sounds kinda like Catwoman, doesn't it?
 * Exposition Fairy: In the Activision game.
 * Femme Fatale
 * Femme Fatalons
 * Fetish Fuel Station Attendant
 * Heel Face Revolving Door
 * Hell-Bent for Leather
 * Hello, Nurse!
 * Karma Houdini: At this point, Felicia is probably one of the single best professional thieves in the Marvel Universe, but she can walk right up to Captain America and say hello without a problem. By rights, she should be treated like she's a super-villain, but almost no one has even expressed an interest in catching her.
 * Loves My Alter Ego: Becomes extremely weirded out when Spider-Man first reveals to her that he's Peter Parker. In the Ultimate version, she goes so far as to vomit on him after lifting the mask.
 * Love Redeems: Ultimately, she ends up developing legitimate feelings for Peter in 616.
 * Most Common Superpower: Apparently, they act as ballast.
 * Ms. Fanservice
 * Rape as Backstory: Retconned as her Freudian Excuse.
 * Revenge Before Reason: Ultimate Black Cat against the Kingpin (he was the reason )
 * Roof Hopping: By means of grappling hook.
 * Secret Identity Identity: Back in the day she identified more with herself as Black Cat than as Felicia Hardy, and preferred to think of Spider-Man as the same way, not really liking the idea that there's a person with his own life under the mask. The video game adaptation of Spider-Man 2 has her try to convince Peter to give up his civilian identity and become a hero full-time, but he refuses.
 * Shallow Love Interest: Played with; Peter dumps her because she only has interest in his Spider-Man persona.
 * The Smart Gal: In a recent Amazon Brigade run of Heroes For Hire, she was their infiltration expert.
 * Sticky Fingers
 * Stripperiffic
 * Tsundere: Type A
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl
 * Winds of Destiny Change: She had this power for a time, but she had Doctor Strange get rid of it after she learned that it was permanently jinxing Spidey.

Kitty Pryde / Shadowcat (Ultimate Marvel)



 * All the Other Reindeer
 * Author Appeal: For Brian Bendis.
 * Intangible Woman: Acquired post-Ultimatum.
 * Nerds Are Sexy
 * Romantic False Lead
 * Violently Protective Girlfriend

Carlie Cooper



 * Alliterative Name
 * Disappeared Dad: During the Mysterio arc of The Gauntlet, she finds out that
 * Character Shilling: She is queen of this trope (sadly).
 * Dude Magnet
 * Cop Girlfriend
 * Depending on the Artist: Due to how frequently she falls victim to this, fans still aren't sure how long or even what color her hair is supposed to be.
 * Designated Love Interest
 * Editor's Daughter Avatar: The fans took this just about as well as you'd expect...
 * Embarrassing Tattoo: Almost got one of the Green Goblin while drunk, which crosses from embarrassing to downright psychotic. The one she got of Spider-Man subverted this orginally, only to play it straight when she found out Peter was Spider-Man and broke up with him.
 * Hot Scientist
 * Important Haircut
 * Informed Ability: We hear a lot about all the various reasons she's awesome and perfect for Peter, but we rarely if ever see these.
 * Meganekko
 * Nerds Are Sexy
 * Official Couple: Was this with Peter until Spider Island. That is all we have to say on the subject.
 * Remember the New Guy?: A retcon story showed she was best friends with Gwen Stacy and her dad worked with Captain Stacy. (As you might guess this didn't exactly do much to endear her to the fanbase that was already throwing around the term "Mary Sue" liberally).
 * Tuckerization: Named after Quesada's daughter.
 * "Well Done, Daughter" Gal

Eugene "Flash" Thompson/



 * Asian Gal with White Guy: Had a relationship with Sha-Shan though she went to America and re-met him from Vietnam, and then they started something. Averted in Spectacular Spider-Man where she seems to have been born in America.
 * Badass Normal: Well, he didn't earn his rank as Corporal in the U.S. Army on looks...
 * Big Fan of My Alter-Ego: Even in the earliest stories, he was a huge fan of Spider-Man and was as committed to defending him as he was to giving Peter Parker a hard time.
 * Blonde Guys Are Evil: Well, a big jerk... in high school. Grew out of it later & became one of Pete's best friends.
 * Character Development: He grew from being a Jerk Jock, to Jerk with a Heart of Gold, to one of Peter's closest friends in his adult life.
 * Embarrassing First Name
 * Hidden Depths: Back in the high school days he once admitted that it was he that started a fight with Parker, after Parker got caught fighting.
 * Irony: Picked on Peter in high school, but was Spidey's biggest fan.
 * Loves My Alter Ego: A rare non-romantic version of this trope.
 * Jerk Jock --> Jerk with a Heart of Gold
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: Must be careful not to get angry while wearing the.
 * Jerk Jock --> Jerk with a Heart of Gold
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: Must be careful not to get angry while wearing the.

Harry Osborn / Green Goblin II / American Son



 * Abusive Parents: Norman. Oh boy, Norman.
 * Avenging the Villain
 * Back from the Dead
 * Cannot Spit It Out
 * Calling the Old Man Out: In American Son, Harry finally gives one to Norman. His revival was worth it, just for that.
 * Cool Glider
 * Crazy Jealous Guy
 * Create Your Own Villain
 * Cycle of Revenge
 * Drugs Are Bad: In a landmark issue Stan Lee defied the comics code authority to spread this message (revolutionary at the time...) when Harry overdoses and nearly dies from taking too many pills... his drug problems are translated as Drowning My Sorrows in The Movie and a "Globulin Green" addiction in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
 * Easy Amnesia
 * Evil Tastes Good: In The Movie: "MMMM, so good!"
 * Friendly Enemy
 * Gadgeteer Genius
 * Heel Face Revolving Door
 * Impossibly Cool Weapons: Apparently Harry redesigned the Goblin weaponry so that it's even COOLER.
 * Legacy Character: Green Goblin II.
 * Living with the Villain: Peter and Harry are best friends... and, from time to time, mortal enemies.
 * Powered Armor
 * Rival Turned Evil
 * Room Full of Crazy
 * : In The Movie
 * Two Guys and a Girl: Peter, Harry, and Mary Jane... yes, this will end well...
 * The Unfavorite: The comics originally had Norman (when not as the Green Goblin) as an absentee father that loved his son, but since his return, his opinion of his son hasn't been very kind. The adaptations also tend to go this route. And remember, Harry is an only child. More recent writers have actually played with the idea that Norman sees Peter as more worthy of being his son.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to his and Liz's son post-OMD?
 * Um, nothing special. He still lives with his mom.
 * You Killed My Father
 * You Killed My Father

Randy Robertson



 * Alliterative Name
 * Angry Black Man

Kenny "King Kong" McFarlane



 * The Big Guy
 * Canon Foreigner: To the mainstream comics.
 * Canon Immigrant: To The Spectacular Spider-Man.
 * Hidden Depths
 * Jerk Jock
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold

John Jonah Jameson

 * Abusive Parents: His Abusive Step-Dad.
 * Alliterative Name: Taken even further recently: he's J. Jonah Jameson Junior.
 * Anti-Villain: Type I.
 * Badass Mustache
 * Bad Boss: Played with. He regularly verbally abuses those that aren't Joe Robertson, but he's also protective of his staff.
 * Illustrated rather well in the first movie, where he protects Peter from the Green Goblin by refusing to say who takes their pictures of Spider-Man, despite the fact that doing so would certainly result in severe personal injury or worse.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Da Editor
 * Depending on the Writer: JJJ's character varies from writer to writer and the reasoning behind his hatred of Spider-Man and the depth of that hatred run the gamut from being a jerkass to secretly being jealous of Spider-Man's truly heroic nature.
 * Doting Parent: Praises his son, the astronaut John Jameson, every chance he can get. He may be compensating.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Stands up for human rights... because he Hates Everyone Equally!
 * Also in everything else except where Spider-Man is concerned he is absoloutely commited to truth in reporting. Even then, many interpretations of the character have him genuinely believing the superhero is a menace, despite all the evidence to the contrary, his hate runs that deep. Even then, JJJ has printed so many retractions of his published accusations that at least one fan kept a whole photo album's worth of the clippings.
 * Actually, even when it comes to Spider-Man. For example, in the third movie, he's thrilled with finally getting photographic proof that Spider-Man is a criminal. Then he finds out those photos were faked and (begrudgingly) issues an immediate retraction.
 * George Jetson Job Security: Played for laughs in the second movie, where he fires and un-fires Peter in the span of five seconds.
 * Heroic BSOD: After Spencer Smythe shackled Spidey and Jonah together with a bomb. As time was about to run out, Jonah cracked under the pressure. Spidey naturally saved the day in the nick of time, but Jonah realizes that the man he hates most has seen him at his most vulnerable. Already reeling from the supposed death of his son, Jonah launches a new anti-Spidey campaign and appears to be having a nervous breakdown.
 * Hidden Depths: From his verbal tirades against Spider-Man and his own staff, you'd never know how much Jonah loves his family or how much he values those that work for him. He's also a staunch supporter of human and civil rights for everybody, black, gay, mutant, whatever. Heck, he even paid Peter's legal bills during The Clone Saga (secretly, of course).
 * Intrepid Reporter: Was a photojournalist in World War II, among other hostile environments and eras.
 * I Take Offense to That Last One: When accused of spreading Malicious Slander "It is NOT! Slander is spoken, in print, it's libel."
 * Jerkass
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold / Jerk with a Heart of Jerk
 * Strawman News Media: Outside his hatred of superheroes, his integrity as a journalist is unimpeachable.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: Spidey has saved his and his loved one's lives again and again, and yet he goes right back to smearing the superhero as always.

Joe "Robbie" Robertson

 * Black Best Friend: Jonah
 * George Jetson Job Security: He has been threatened with being fired a few times and in 2005, Jonah fired him and issues later went to his house to apologize and mentioned he would start to beg if he refused.
 * Good Parents
 * The Lancer: To Jonah.
 * Nice Guy
 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Jonah's very, very, red one.
 * Secret Secret Keeper: For decades before Civil War, it had long since been implied that Robbie knew who Spider-Man was, but didn't say anything (due to the awkward position of paying Peter for taking pictures of himself for years).

Ben Urich

 * Big Brother Mentor: To Peter Parker sometimes in Ultimate Spider-Man.
 * Hot Scoop

Ned Leeds

 * Race Lift: The Spectacular Spider-Man made him a Korean American, shortening his surname to "Lee".
 * The Rival: When Pete was dating Betty Brant and when Ned and Betty were married.

Gloria "Glory" Grant

 * Alliterative Name
 * Sexy Secretary

Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman I

 * Cloning Blues: Her Ultimate Marvel representative is an Opposite Gender Clone of Peter.
 * Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Seriously, she's easily the most popular Spider-Woman partially for this reason.

Cassandra Webb / Madame Web

 * Blind Seer
 * The Cassandra: It's even in her name!
 * Omniscient Morality License: Especially in the 90s cartoon.

Hobie Brown / The Prowler

 * Angry Black Man
 * Expressive Mask
 * Gadgeteer Genius
 * Heart Is an Awesome Power: He defeated Spider-Man (temporarily) using gadgets he invented for window cleaning.
 * Weak but Skilled: In his first appearance he was able to do rather well by catching Spider-Man off guard.

Captain John Jameson

 * Ace Pilot
 * Alliterative Name
 * Animal Motifs
 * Anti-Villain
 * The Captain
 * Clingy MacGuffin: The moonstone turning John into the Man-Wolf.
 * Heel Face Turn
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight
 * Our Werewolves Are Different
 * Physical God: As Stargod.

Thomas Fireheart / Puma

 * Animal Motifs
 * Birds of a Feather: for a while he was dating the Black Cat
 * Cat Boy
 * Heel Face Revolving Door
 * Magical Native American
 * Odd Friendship: With Captain America (comics) villains Armadillo and Deadly Nightshade after MODOK's 11.
 * Rich Idiot With No Day Job
 * Super Strength
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting
 * Worthy Opponent: Considers Spider-Man to be one.

Mark Raxton / Molten Man

 * The Brute: When his temper gets the better of him.
 * Genius Bruiser: He has both science smarts and superhuman strength
 * Hair of Gold: Duh.
 * Heel Face Turn: Went from being a Jerkass Anti-hero/villain to accepting his change and apologizing to Liz.
 * Jerkass: Gave a lot of crap to Liz back in the day. He got better at least.

Ollie Osnick / The Steel Spider
A chubby young nerd who idolized Dr. Octopus and built his own set of octopus tentacles. After meeting Spider-Man, he idolized Spidey instead and redesigned himself as "Spider-Lad", Spider-Man's sidekick. After being turned down by Spider-Man, he's had an off-again off-again career as the Steel Spider, in a metal exo-suit equipped with Spider-like abilities.


 * Ascended Fanboy
 * The Chew Toy: Literally, once Venom III got his fangs into him.
 * Gadgeteer Genius
 * Gonk
 * Jumped At the Call
 * Loony Fan
 * Progressively Prettier: Since somewhere in the Nineties he started to look much more slender and muscular. And to wear a cooler costume.
 * This Loser Is You

Anya Corazon / Araña / Spider-Girl

 * Accidental Murder:.
 * Badass Normal: She doesn’t have any superpowers now.
 * It seems she has a new set of spider-powers with the outbreak of Spider Island. She now seems to have speed, strength, camolflauge and Peter's organic web shooters from 'The Other', truly making her Spider-Girl. Unlike most, she keeps these powers after the storyline.
 * The Chosen One: It was stated in a "What If" story that if Peter Parker is killed or did a Face Heel Turn, Anya would have to become the new "Web of Life" Champion, which would lead to...
 * It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Her first mission would be take down Peter Parker (if he became evil), and after that took the role of Spider-Man.
 * Dead Serious: Brutally done to.
 * Distaff Counterpart
 * Expy: Her original exoskeleton is generally modeled after Kamen Rider.
 * Enemy Mine: With on Spider-Island.
 * Future Badass / Cynical Big Sister Mentor: In Spider Girl
 * Guile Heroine: Has demonstrated traces of this now that she has lost her powers,.
 * Heroic BSOD: After
 * I Just Want to Be Special: After losing her powers (and before she got new ones), Anya had some doubts about her usefulness as a costumed hero. One particular moment was when she became depressed because she thought that if she had retained her old powers, maybe she could have prevented.
 * Legacy Character: Julia Carpenter gave her the Spider-Woman costume, but she chose to keep her old nickname. Eventually, she changed to Spider-Girl.
 * Named by Democracy: She didn't actually choose the name Spider-Girl, she resigned herself to it because everyone kept calling her that.
 * Parental Abandonment: Originally only lacked a mother,
 * Retcon: Anya hated the idea of having to dress in spandex like a freak, but suddenly she began to like it when she became Spider-Girl. In the same way, she used to hate the name “Spider-Girl”, but suddenly she began to like it.
 * These aren't really retcons, Anya has explicitly said she still dislikes the "Spider-girl" monicker, she's merely resigned to it because people refuse to call her anything else. Similarly, she still has never expressed a liking to the spandex suit, she just uses it because it was a gift from Julia Carpenter.
 * The position of her old tattoo was changed from a Spider-like tattoo on her right shoulder to a big Spider-like tattoo on her back.
 * Secret Identity: Her identity was revealed during Civil War, but when she became Spider-Girl, her identity became secret again.
 * This is a little subverted. A lot of people know her true identity because Anya is really careless at keeping her identity as a secret, often tweeting her whole life, putting her costume in open bright streets and arriving her apartment and staying inside with the costume on. Her friend Rocky and have pointed out how easy was for them to find out her true identity.
 * The Symbiote: Though of a different kind than Venom and Co.
 * Tears of Fear: When she was imprisoned during the "Grim Hunt".
 * Too Happy to Live:
 * Too Happy to Live:

Johnny Storm / The Human Torch

 * Flight
 * Playing with Fire
 * Vitriolic Best Buddies: In the first few years, friendly in the Ultimate version.

Bobby Drake / Iceman

 * An Ice Person

Angelica Jones / Firestar

 * Action Girl
 * Canon Immigrant
 * Composite Character: She's pretty much Mary Jane Watson with Human Torch's powers.
 * Distaff Counterpart: For the Human Torch, see below.
 * Expy: She was created when they couldn't get the rights to use the Human Torch in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoon.
 * Playing with Fire
 * Two Guys and a Girl: Amazing Friends.

Tyrone Johnson / Cloak

 * Angry Black Man
 * Anti-Hero
 * Bad Powers, Good People
 * Battle Couple: With Dagger.
 * Black Cloak
 * Casting a Shadow
 * Dark Is Not Evil
 * Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: He is a living gateway to a dimension of "Darkness".
 * Lovecraftian Superpower

Tandy Bowen / Dagger

 * Action Girl
 * Battle Couple: With Cloak.
 * Holy Hand Grenade
 * Light'Em Up
 * Morality Pet: For Cloak.
 * Most Common Superpower

Patrick Mulligan / Toxin I
"Venom: We're naming him Toxin, isn't it pretty?"
 * Bad Powers, Good People
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Has not been seen since 2006.
 * Clingy Costume
 * Combat Tentacles
 * Cursed with Awesome
 * Dark Is Not Evil
 * Fire-Forged Friends: With Spider-Man and the Black Cat.
 * Happily Married: Well, he was, and then the plot happens, so he's stuck raising the spawn of Carnage instead of his own son.
 * I Hate You, Symbiote Dad
 * It's Not You, It's My Enemies
 * More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Though he is able to conceal the symbiote's mouth.
 * New York City Cops
 * Odd Friendship: With the Black Cat.
 * Papa Wolf
 * Phlebotinum Rebel: Quite literally.
 * Superpower Lottery
 * Super Strength
 * The Symbiote
 * Unfortunate Names


 * Wall Crawl
 * White Sheep: The symbiote.

Captain George Stacy

 * The Commissioner Gordon
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Da Chief
 * Heroic Sacrifice: He was crushed by falling debris while saving a child.
 * Killed Off for Real
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Of the few cops to show trust in Spidey, George was the first.
 * Secret Secret Keeper: Upon his introduction, George was determined to figure out Spider-Man's true identity (as he felt it would better make him understand the young hero's motives). Peter made sure to watch his step, but upon his death, George revealed that he had long-since figured out the truth, but kept the secret out of respect.

Jean DeWolff

 * Killed Off for Real
 * Loves My Alter Ego: Developed a crush on the webslinger, though was never blatant about it. Spider-Man didn't figure out the truth until after she had died.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure

Norman Osborn / Green Goblin I / Iron Patriot

 * Abusive Father: Had one, and was one to Harry.
 * Ambition Is Evil
 * Arch Enemy: One of them. Though, since his return in the 90's, he has eclipsed the other two.
 * Ascended Fanboy: Apparently he was a big fan of comic books as a child.
 * Ax Crazy
 * Badass in a Nice Suit
 * Bad Boss: Mainly to the Thunderbolts.
 * Oscorp employees, too. During "The Final Chapter" arc, he uses several employees as unknowing test subjects for his DNA weapon. The first Pulse storyline also demonstrated his habit of murdering his employees to satisfy his urges.
 * Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Attempted to invoke this with Peter. Nearly succeeded. Added a lot of points to Peter's woobie factor.
 * Big Bad: For a lot of Spidey's recent existence. And of Dark Reign.
 * Blue Blood: comes from old money. His father squandered the family fortune and Norman built it back up.
 * Board to Death
 * Broken Ace
 * Canon Immigrant: Thematic example. In Revenge of the Green Goblin, Osborn, his son Harry then long dead, started to realize that Peter himself was everything he ever wanted in a son and heir—smart, resourceful, tough, and able to live through everything life throws at him. This was since retconned out of existence (partly because Harry is back, partly because Norman no longer knows who Spidey is), but it was well received and became an integral part of his character in other media, such as the movie and the The Spectacular Spider Man cartoon. So successful some more recent fans thought it was an integral part of the character.
 * Character Development: He is a very different person from the one who appeared in the 60's and 70's, but not just because of Depending on the Writer. The main difference is the Osborn from the old stories had no idea he was the Green Goblin; the one in the modern takes knows, took control... and realized he liked it. The other big one is the changing nature of his emnity with Spider-Man, from business, to personal, to very personal, to twisted admiration, and finally warped Friendly Enemy. One More Day regressed it back to "very personal", minus the motivator of Harry being dead.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Despite a common belief, he predates Lex Luthor in this department.
 * Cool Glider
 * Crazy Prepared: Mac Gargan once described one of Norman's hideouts as a "cornucopia of plans and counter-plans."
 * Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Frequently Lampshaded, though also inverted. The Hobgoblin only turned to crime becase he wasn't as smart as Norman, and though Osborn had to be insane to use his amazing tech in the same way when he could easily make a fortune out of it. That said, Osborn is already a successful corporate millionare and his superbrain has only made him more money and power (ironically enough, he ended up buying out the Hobgoblin's own company when the latter tried to blackmail him). Nonetheless, he is still too messed up to use his mind to its fullest potential.
 * Death Seeker: In one storyline (in which he Mind Rapes Spider-Man in an attempt to get Spidey to kill him.)
 * Depending on the Writer: Mark Millar's version of the character is noticeably smarter—bordering on Omnidisciplinary Scientist—compared to most other takes on the character.
 * Don't Tell Mama
 * Easy Amnesia: Formerly. Now mostly averted.
 * Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Type 2 at times as the Green Goblin. He can rival The Joker in this trope.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Peter. Also to Tony Stark (including, but not limited to the Iron Patriot).
 * Evil Genius
 * Evil Laugh
 * Evil Mentor: Once tried to be this to Peter. Nearly succeeded.
 * Evil Sounds Deep
 * Oddly inverted in his pre-Spectacular cartoon appearances, where the Goblin had a high, screeching voice and laugh. (In fact, a later Goblin, Phil Urich, weaponized the laugh.)
 * Faux Affably Evil: He tries to be Affably Evil, but eventually falls in this.
 * Friendly Enemy: Before One More Day, he had started to imagine that he and Peter were these, albeit at a pretty extreme level. Peter didn't agree.
 * Gadgeteer Genius
 * Gollum Made Me Do It: In The Movie
 * Good Parents: In Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
 * He-Man Woman Hater
 * Hoist by His Own Petard
 * Impossibly Cool Weapons: The razor bats and the pumpkin bombs, especially in The Movie.
 * Jekyll and Hyde: Subverted. Norman is evil. The Goblin is just crazy-evil.
 * Played straight in many of his incarnations outside of the comics, however, like Spider-Man: The Animated Series or the movies of Sam Raimi.
 * Living with the Villain
 * The Mentally Disturbed: Norman has been consistently depicted with a range of mental illnesses, in addition to his psychopathic tendecies. He is a manic depressive, prone to violent mood swings and, untreated, paranoia, hallucinations and occasionally a Split Personality. This is in additon to his textbook sadism, egomania and antisocial personality, and they tend to make each other worse. It's very common for these to bite him in the ass particularly since he denies or covers up the fact that he has such "weaknesses". It especially threatens his attempts to be a Villain with Good Publicity, usually because he finds himself unable to control his homicidal urges.
 * Morality Pet: Harry; once in the 70s, Peter defeated the Goblin by showing him his overdosed son, causing the Goblin to actually cry and snap back to Norman's benign personality.
 * Also the Ultimate version, who asked to be killed after seeing what he did to Harry.
 * And now subverted to hell and back, as Norman has tried to murder him. For ratings.
 * Never My Fault
 * Not So Different: The Hannibal Lecture in The Movie. Occasionally in the comics. He really does have a lot in common with Peter.
 * Offscreen Villain Dark Matter
 * The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Cult of Scryer.
 * Powered Armor
 * Professor Guinea Pig
 * Retcon: In the 60s and 70s, he was portrayed as being a decent guy before becoming the Goblin, however since his return, it's been established that even before he became the Goblin, he was quite a bastard.
 * Um, decent? In the early comics when his origin is revealed, we found out he screwed his business partner over and had him arrested and then stole his formula. The only difference is that before the retcon, Norman genuinely loved his son, but he was still power hungry. The Goblin formula just made him crazy.
 * It seemed more like that Norman started off as a misguided father who gave his son gifts. Then one day there was a lab accident and he gradually became a Jerkass and stopped being a legitimate businessman then became a villain.
 * Oddly, the Norman side only became unambiguously good when he had amnesia.
 * Secret Circle of Secrets: The Cult of Scrier.
 * Self-Made Man: He comes from a rich family, but his father squandered their fortune, forcing Norman to build it back up himself.
 * The Social Darwinist
 * The Sociopath
 * Stuffed in The Fridge: The classic example; the Goblin's killing of Gwen Stacy.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: Subverted. Played straight in the early stories when he got amnesia and lost his powers, but now his powers are permanent regardless of who is in control (though the Goblin has not actually been in control since then).
 * Super Strength
 * Throw Down the Bomblet: He loves his pumpkin bombs.
 * Took a Level in Badass/Took a Level in Jerkass: He is several magnitudes more dangerous, calculating and sadistic than he was in his early appearances since he came Back from the Dead. The main reason for this is that though Osborn survived being Hoist by His Own Petard back in the 70's, The Goblin seems to have been largely suppressed. The result though was that Norman retained his memories as the Goblin for once and evolved into a much more rational psychopath who was able to take advantage of his considerable strength, intelligence and resources, and since he decided that Evil Tastes Good he now frequently Kicks the Dog For the Evulz. Some notable examples include:
 * Killing Peter and Mary-Jane's unborn baby.
 * Getting Flash Thompson drunk and putting him behind the wheel of a truck (after hiring the unwitting Flash to be his driver, just to mess with Peter), resulting in Flash being brain damaged after Osborn made the truck crash into his and Peter's school (oh, and class was in).
 * Trying to murder everyone who was connected to either Peter or his son (he felt that those friends had "betrayed him" and indirectly caused Harrys death by making him a weakling) after orchestrating "The Clone Saga", a convoluted plot to drive Peter insane (meaning he nearly got Marvel bankrupt, which means he is guilty of both Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking and being an Omnicidal Maniac).
 * Attempting once to murder every living thing on the planet by turning them into prehistoric goo (he was more crazy than usual at the time thanks to some messing with magic, which convinced him he was a Physical God and mistakenely think he would survive such a scheme, but the plan was clearly set in motion before that occured).
 * Giving a prison guard advice on how to cure his wife's illness, that actually made the woman die a faster and more painful death (the guard came to him).
 * And after Brand New Day, he tried to murder his own son just because the public would feel sorry for him and give him more support, since his son was dead.
 * Ubermensch: There were shades of this in The Movie.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: Became one at the end of Secret Invasion, and rode on this throughout Dark Reign.
 * He was also this after his return, where he expended considerable resources to trick the masses into believing he was never the Green Goblin.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Ultimate Goblin.
 * We Can Rule Together: To Spidey, mainly in the movie but briefly in the comics.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: In Dark Reign. Or rather, he thought he was one of these, but liked to gloss over the fact that he was often creating his own problems, sometimes on purpose.
 * Would Hurt a Child: His biggest Moral Event Horizon in the movie is when he threatens to drop both MJ and a tram full of kids to their doom and forces Spider-Man to make a Sadistic Choice between saving MJ or the kids.
 * Xanatos Roulette: "The Clone Saga"

Dr. Otto Octavius / Dr. Octopus

 * Alliterative Name
 * Affably Evil: In the first annual, he kidnapped Betty Brant and Aunt May and then gave them tea and cookies while apologizing for neglecting his guests.
 * Anti-Villain: In The Movie
 * Arch Enemy: Another contender. First villain to defeat Spider-Man, first villain to take up an entire issue, first villain to get his own two-part story, leader of the Sinister Six. Had the role during most the original Stan Lee run and for most of the hiatus when Norman Osborn was thought dead (whenever the Jackal, Hobgoblin, or Venom didn't have the role).
 * Badass: Despite being fat and blind without his glasses, he's one of Spider-Man's deadliest enemies.
 * Badass Longcoat: The movie and The Spectacular Spider-Man.
 * Bald of Evil: At the moment.
 * Big Bad: for his arc and the second movie.
 * Blind Without'Em
 * Broken Ace
 * Clothes Make the Superman: Without his tentacles he's a normal guy... although he's a genius and could build more...
 * Combat Tentacles
 * Cool Shades
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul
 * Did Mom Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: At one point, Aunt May was dating him.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas
 * Evil Counterpart: To Peter, on the scale of being a scientist, using smarts for evil purposes and being based in one eight-legged creature. Also he's a motor mouth to Spidey's wisecracks.
 * Evil Genius
 * Glass Cannon: If Spidey can get past the tentacles, it doesn't take much to knock him out. This is being played very harshly in BND: the years of repeated blunt force trauma have shortened his lifespan (he only has one year, 18 months at most, left to live) and left him a wreck. He's added four extra arms to compensate, and is looking for ways to stave off death.
 * Goggles Do Nothing
 * Lightning Bruiser: Often surprises Spidey by moving very fast.
 * Momma's Boy
 * Motor Mouth: Sometimes depicted as constantly talking... even by older comic book standards.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Some sources say that his look was based on Roy Orbison.
 * Spidey himself even calls him "Roy Orbison's evil twin" at one point.
 * Pet the Dog: Some writers tend to depict him as actually enjoying Aunt May's company... but not in a romantic way.
 * : In The Movie.
 * In comics too. Once.
 * Twice now, actually.
 * Rouge Angles of Satin: He once called Spider-Man "Super-Man".
 * Smug Snake
 * Spider Limbs
 * Steven Ulysses Perhero
 * Took a Level in Badass: Two words, adamantium tentacles. He beat the Hulk unconscious. He gave Iron Man such a thrashing he considered retirement. At the end of the "Revenge of the Sinister Six" storyline (not the novel of the same name), he was, per Spidey's own words, "holding his own" against Spidey, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Nova. At the same time.
 * Wicked Cultured
 * Wicked Cultured

Eddie Brock / Venom I / Anti-Venom/

 * Always Someone Better: Part of the reason why Brock hated Spider-Man so much. The symbiote wanted revenge for being rejected, but apparently held out a bit of hope that its original host would want it back. If that ever happened, the symbiote would abandon Brock in a second - something he knew and (given his cancer) couldn't bear the thought of.
 * Alternate Continuity: In the Ultimate Universe, Eddie is Pete's long lost childhood friend and Rival Turned Evil.
 * Anti-Hero: Type V --> Type IV as Anti-Venom. Unknown as Toxin.
 * Arch Enemy: Not so much nowadays, but early on Venom was basically presented as Spider-Man's superior Evil Counterpart that was also undetectable to his Spider Sense.
 * The Atoner
 * Ax Crazy
 * Badass
 * Badass Abnormal
 * Badass Longcoat
 * Badass Long Hair
 * Badbutt: The 90s cartoon.
 * Believing Their Own Lies: "No, no, no. We're the good guy. Spider-Man's the evil one."
 * Berserk Button: As Venom, it was Spider-Man's percieved wrongs against him. As Anti-Venom, not even being The Punisher will help you if you call Jenna Cole a junkie to his face.
 * Big Bad: For his Story Arc and The 3rd movie.
 * Black Eyes of Evil
 * Strawberry-Blond Guys Are Evil
 * Blood Knight
 * Blue Eyes
 * Body Horror
 * Broken Ace: Backstory, he excelled in sports and in school in an attempt to make his father proud... and it really messed him up.
 * Building Swing
 * Character Development: If there's one good thing about BND is that Eddie is actually feeling sorry for all the stuff he's done and became Anti-Venom. Now he is Toxin
 * Christianity Is Catholic
 * Clingy Costume
 * Clothes Make the Maniac
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience
 * Combat Tentacles
 * Create Your Own Villain
 * Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes actually made Spidey scream at him to shut up. Think about it.
 * Death Seeker
 * Determinator
 * Did Mom Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: One time, Pete comes home to find Eddie helping Aunt May with the laundry.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Ax Crazy, Hair-Trigger Temper, prone to having bouts of self-justification, and a chocolate addiction... sounds like someone's got a roaring case of PMS...
 * Doom Magnet
 * Driven by Envy
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: Occasionally during his run as a Nineties Anti-Hero, there would be ungrateful Too Dumb to Live citizens that go Bullying a Dragon but he would not harm them, not wanting to violate his own code and hurt "innocents" (provided they don't resort to violence... if they attack him, they're fair game.)
 * Enemy Mine
 * Evil Counterpart: Great power with zero responsibility. Looks like an evil Spider-Man.
 * Evil Sounds Deep
 * Evil Tastes Good
 * Fangs Are Evil
 * Friendly Enemy: At times...
 * From Nobody to Nightmare
 * Genius Bruiser: It's Depending on the Writer whether his own brains are an Informed Ability or not.
 * Good Thing You Can Heal
 * Hair-Trigger Temper
 * Healing Hands: As Anti-Venom.
 * Heel Face Revolving Door
 * Heel Face Turn
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Of a sort:
 * Horrifying Anti-Hero: Considers himself to be one, especially during his stints as the "Lethal Protector" and as Anti-Venom.
 * Honor Before Reason: Upon first appearance, often claimed that despite his hatred for Spider-Man, others were innocent and would not be harmed. Of course, the trope was often subverted - with him killing guards, doctors and a clown for getting in his way.
 * Horror Hunger: Braaaains! (Chocolate works too.) Taken Up to Eleven by the Ultimate version.
 * I Am Legion: "We are Venom!"
 * If I Can't Have You: The symbiote specifically. It hates Spider-Man for rejecting it and first bonded with Brock (who hated Spidey for his own reasons) to exact revenge. The second Venom story showed that the symbiote still had a desire to be with Spider-Man, who exploited that to survive the day.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Goes fang-in-flesh with Horror Hunger.
 * Implacable Man
 * Informed Ability: In his heyday, Venom was widely feared in the rest of the supervillain community, although this likely has more to do with how effective he is against Spidey. He's been defeated much more easily by C-List characters like the villain Styx and the superhero Darkhawk. It crosses into Fridge Brilliance when you realize that he has a major psychological edge against Spider-Man (he knows Peter's civilian identity, and has even visited him at Aunt May's house to freak him out) and is immune to Peter's spider-senses, which puts a major cramp on Peter's usual fighting style. Against someone like Darkhawk, who isn't weakened or psyched out by Venom, Eddie loses all his trump cards and goes down much more easily.
 * Invisibility Cloak: One of the Symbiote's powers is a camouflaging effect.
 * I Was Just Passing Through: The number of times he saves Spider-Man during team-ups.
 * Kill It with Fire
 * Kingpin in His Gym
 * Knight Templar: Despite having, Eddie is planning on
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * Loud of War: Sonic attacks are most effective against the Symbiote.
 * Lovecraftian Superpower
 * Malicious Slander
 * More Teeth Than the Osmond Family
 * Most Writers Are Male: Venom was originally going to be a female villain (and a truly innocent victim) but the editors at the time shot that idea down believing that even a superpowered woman with More Teeth Than the Osmond Family wouldn't be physically threatening enough...
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast
 * Never Hurt an Innocent: Depending on the Writer.
 * Nineties Anti-Hero: The poster-child.
 * Offing the Offspring: Carnage and the C-List Fodder symbiotes (Scream, Lasher, Trevor, Leslie, the Venom-clone, etc.)
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: "HE'S MINE!''
 * Overly Long Tongue
 * Perma-Stubble
 * Pet the Dog: During an attempt to kill Spider-Man, Venom interrupted things to save a baby from falling to its death.
 * Phlegmings
 * Playing Possum: A favored tactic of his...
 * Power Nullifier: The Symbiote cancels out the Spider Sense.
 * Protagonist-Centered Morality: How sympathetic he is depends on whose book it is...
 * Revenge Before Reason
 * Retcon: To both Eddie and the symbiote: Eddie was given terminal cancer, while the symbiote was given an addiction to adrenaline and a growing bloodlust. The adrenaline-addicition seems to have been discarded and Eddie was cured, but the symbiote now makes Carnage seem tame.
 * Rival Turned Evil: In The Movie and the Ultimate Universe.
 * Rivals Team Up
 * Room Full of Crazy
 * Serial Killer Killer
 * Shooting Superman
 * Slasher Smile
 * The Sociopath
 * Sociopathic Hero
 * Spider Sense
 * Superpower Lottery
 * Super Strength
 * Survival Horror: One of the spin-off mini-series featuring the Venom-clone.
 * The Symbiote: Well, duh!
 * Talking to Themself: "WE ARE VENOM!"
 * Tautological Templar
 * Unexplained Recovery: He was dying of cancer when the Symbiote left him.
 * Eddie's cancer was cured by Mr. Negative's Healing Hands, which also fused the remnants of the symbiote inside him to his white blood cells, creating Anti-Venom.
 * Unstoppable Rage
 * Up to Eleven: Every measurable power that Spider-Man has, Venom has an augmented version. In addition to nullifying the Spider Sense (Spidey's most useful power), this gave Venom pretty much every advantage possible against Spidey in a straight fight. And indeed, trying to take Venom head on in any manner usually spelled suicide for Spider-Man. Later in his career (and in most of the video-games) Spider-Man can usually hold his own by dint of just being a better fighter.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting
 * Walking the Earth: In the various mini-series.
 * Wall Crawl
 * Weaksauce Weakness: Sonics and fire.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: His Freudian Excuse.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist
 * Wolverine Publicity: Lampshaded while he was fighting Nova. Several executives from Marvel Comics watched the two battle and pointed out how an appearance from Venom always boosts sales in their comics and that this battle would be sure to give Nova a popularity boost.
 * The Worf Effect: During team-ups, it's inevitable...
 * Yandere: The Symbiote for Peter and.
 * During one issue early in their conflict, Spider-Man actually consults a psychiatrist for advice on dealing with Venom's love/hate obsession with him.

Dr. Curt Connors / The Lizard

 * Alliterative Name
 * Anti-Villain
 * Badass Labcoat
 * Darker and Edgier: Since the 90s, they've tried making the Lizard more feral and fiercer. And they've tried it again in BND, where  YMMV.
 * The basis of two retcons (so far) regarding the Connors persona.
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Often occurs since Peter is friends with Connors. A few times Connors was actually in control of the Lizard body, the first when Morbius was introduced.
 * Lizard Folk
 * Prehensile Tail
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent
 * Super-Powered Evil Side

Cletus Kasady / Carnage

 * And I Must Scream: After running afoul of the Silver Surfer, Carnage was imprisoned in a statue-like state - able to think, but in no way able to move or talk. He later got better, though.
 * Antagonistic Offspring: To Venom I.
 * Ax Crazy: Oh God, yes...
 * An Axe to Grind
 * Badbutt: The 90s cartoon.
 * Bloody Murder: The Symbiote is somehow bonded to his blood.
 * Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: The Maximum Carnage storyline did the whole "Agent of Chaos" thing before The Dark Knight.
 * Card-Carrying Villain
 * Evil Counterpart: He's VENOM's Evil Counterpart...
 * Evil Redhead
 * Expy: For the Joker (with a bit of Norman Bates in there too.) Not that The Joker was particularly impressed with him when they actually met.
 * Arist Erik Larsen even admitted to patterning Kasady's looks on the Clown Prince of Crime.
 * For the Evulz
 * Hilariously Abusive Childhood
 * I Am Legion: Generally averted. In his first appearance, Kasady acknowledged the Carnage symbiote's intelligence, but tended to refer to himself as "I". Successive appearances had Carnage continue to do so - implying that Kasady outright overtook the young symbiote's personality (the fact that it's bonded with his blood likely helps).
 * In the 90s cartoon, Spidey suggests that it's a sign of them taking their 'union' a step further than Venom.
 * Kill It with Fire: One of the symbiote's weaknesses.
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * Loud of War: The symbiote's other weakness, although he claims to have developed a resistance to it.
 * Lovecraftian Superpower: To a greater degree than Venom.
 * Multiple Choice Past
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: He doesn't believe in order and morality, and kills people for fun.
 * Psycho for Hire: Only in the 90s cartoon.
 * Red and Black and Evil All Over: The symbiote's coloration is red and black, and Cletus is certainly evil all over.
 * Self-Made Orphan: Possibly...
 * Serial Killer: Before he got the symbiote. It just made him worse.
 * The Sociopath: Even before being bonded with the Carnage symbiote, Cletus was a diagnosed psychopath.
 * The Symbiote
 * Unholy Matrimony: With Shriek.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting
 * Villain Song / Image Song :Carnage Rules by Green Jelly.
 * Where I Was Born and Razed
 * Unholy Matrimony: With Shriek.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting
 * Villain Song / Image Song :Carnage Rules by Green Jelly.
 * Where I Was Born and Razed

Adrian Toomes / The Vulture I

 * Badass Bookworm: Makes powered armor and goes toe to toe with Spidey.
 * Bald of Evil
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Clothes Make the Superman: Without his suit, he's a normal old man.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy / Only Sane Man: In the very first Sinister Six team-up, the Vulture was the only one who advocated that all six of them attack Spider-Man together, as opposed to making him fight them one at a time. After he was outvoted, and his turn did come up, he forced Spidey to remove his web-shooters before the fight ("otherwise I'll just fly away") as he knows the webs were the only reason Spidey won last time.
 * Darker and Edgier: In the Mark Millar 12-parter, his costume is black and red... and it actually works!
 * A new Vulture has popped up that is darker and edgier like it was the 90s again.
 * Even before that, two Vultures were introduced in the 60s and 70s to be more formidable replacements. Adrian outlasted them both.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In 1980, he had a nephew who was loyal to him. When he was shot by a gangster they were trying to kill, he wept and then went berserk at seeing the one family member who cared about him die. Later in 2004, he learned he had a sickly grandson and went on a crime spree to pay for his treatment.
 * Evil Old Folks
 * I Am a Humanitarian: The Noir incarnation.
 * Pet the Dog: See Even Evil Has Loved Ones.
 * Powered Armor: Even his original costume qualified, but in recent decades, it has become more metallic.
 * Power Parasite: Depending on the Writer, he can drain his victims' youth as a result of stealing their abilities.

Quentin Beck / Mysterio I

 * Back from the Dead: In a Peter David Friendly Neighborhood arc with a dose of Body Horror.
 * Driven to Suicide: During Kevin Smith's Daredevil run, Beck learned he had cancer and wouldn't last long. After making Daredevil's life a living hell, Beck shot himself in the head.
 * Evil Genius
 * Glass Cannon: Really good traps, but once he's face to face with Spidey, he tends to have one or two final tricks before going down quickly.
 * Played for laughs in the Spider-Man 2 video game. When Spider-Man meets Mysterio late in the game, it seems to be the set up for a long drawn-out boss battle (the game gives him about five health bars to diminish). One punch knocks him out.
 * This really depends on the writer though. Beck is seomtimes depicted as a Badass Normal who can swallow a ridiculous amount of punishment before he even starts to consider falling down.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: He got cancer from overexposure to the materials he used for his illusions.
 * Large Ham
 * Legacy Character: Aside from Beck, Daniel Berkhart and Francis Klum each took up the role for a time.
 * Master of Illusion
 * Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Was shown as returning via supernatural means with new magical powers before One More Day; post-OMD, he's been sticking to his usual special effects fakery, implying that his demonic phase was more special effects trickery. Writer Dan Slott has thus far refused to say for sure, though.
 * Only in It For the Money: His main motivation for joining up with Doc Ock's current Sinister Six.
 * Rogues Gallery Transplant: A Spider-Man villain, but also battled with Daredevil.

Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin

 * Acrofatic: Averted. See Villainous Glutton.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking
 * Badass Normal
 * Bald of Evil
 * Big Bad: In the 90s cartoon.
 * Big Eater: According to Spider-Man.
 * Freudian Excuse
 * Kingpin in His Gym: Trope Namer
 * Large and In Charge
 * The Mafia
 * Mister Big
 * Race Lift: In the Daredevil movie. Notably, some versions hold that he originally was supposed to be black, but Marvel was wary of having a black villain at the time.
 * Rogues Gallery Transplant: He's also the Big Bad of Daredevil.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: He's not hideous but his wife is a MILF.
 * Villainous Glutton: He looks like one, but his body is two-percent-fat according to Spider-Man: The Animated Series. You don't want to know what he can do with all that muscle.

Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter
"Where'd you come from? Mother Russia. By way of Mother Africa!"
 * Ate His Gun
 * Badass Family: Though they don't get along all that well.
 * Badass Normal: Though he's often depicted as getting some kind of enhancement before or after meeting Spidey.
 * Depending on the Writer/Spell My Name with an "S": Writer J.M. =De Matteis= (who wrote "Kraven's Last Hunt" and introduced Kraven's second son and the second Kraven, Alyosha) writes Kraven's last name as "Kravinov".
 * Driven to Suicide
 * Egomaniac Hunter
 * Evil Poacher: It's definitely illegal to hunt Spider-Men.
 * Hotblooded Sideburns: Ditko used to draw him with an impressive set, although they've been mostly abandoned since.
 * Hunting the Most Dangerous Game
 * Husky Russkie: Summed up in Spectacular.
 * Hunting the Most Dangerous Game
 * Husky Russkie: Summed up in Spectacular.



Aleksei Sytsevich / "Alex O'Hirn" / Rhino I

 * The Brute
 * Characterization Marches On: In his origin, it was mentioned he got smarter due to the process; however, everyone wrote him as dumb afterwards. Recently, he's gone back to being written as being of at least average intelligence but who knows how long that will last.
 * The Chew Toy: For a time, Deadpool shrunk him down to about the size of a hamster and kept him as a pet. He eventually got payback on Deadpool though.
 * Depending on the Writer: His intelligence and how strongly affixed his costume is. The first time he took on the Hulk, his costume was more of a slip-on thing, while other writers have made it clear that he can only go to the bathroom due to a tiny flap and he can't get laid. This has since been fixed and he can put it on and take it off at will.
 * Mark Waid once explained this by claiming the mutation was unstable regarding his intelligence, then had it stabilized in that same story.
 * Dumb Muscle
 * Even Evil Has Standards: His fight with Spider-Man in "The Origin of the Species" is short-lived as Spider-Man reads him the riot act for trying to start a fight when Spidey has a baby in tow. Rhino, much to Spidey's shock, actually does drop the fight and leave of his own accord in response.
 * Flowers for Algernon Syndrome: Becomes a heck of a lot smarter in Flowers for the Rhino. So much so that he reverses it because it made his life far less interesting.
 * Genius Bruiser: Briefly in Flowers for the Rhino.
 * Morality Chain: His wife, Oksana. She doesn't last long.
 * Pet the Dog: Misses his dead mom and the storyline Flowers for the Rhino.
 * Rogues Gallery Transplant: See above about Deadpool and he has also fought The Hulk several times.

William Baker / "Flint Marko" / The Sandman

 * Anti-Hero: Originally a full villain but these days he's this.
 * In the films, his depiction is closer to an Anti-Villain.
 * The Blob: Can become soft sand or a hard rock.
 * Book Dumb: Not very well educated but he can be clever in a pinch.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Eventually revealed to be the main reason the Heel Face Turn didn't stick; his old partner, the Wizard, used a device to turn him back into a criminal.
 * The Brute
 * Elemental Shapeshifter
 * Enemy Mine: Teamed up with Spidey a few times, once concerning his father in Friendly Neighborhood.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Keemia, as of BND - they're not actually related, but she thinks of him as a dad.
 * Friendly Enemy
 * Glass Cannon: Nearly impossible to hurt, but if you bring water into the mix...
 * Heel Face Turn: for most of the 1980s and 1990s.
 * And later more of a Heel Face Revolving Door
 * Jerkass: Depends on the writer or...
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Depends on the writer.
 * Lantern Jaw of Justice: Mostly of injustice but he did try to go straight for a time.
 * Me's a Crowd: He seems to have taken a page from Agent Smith recently: the drawback is that his different bodies can act out subconscious urges without him even being aware of it.
 * Rogues Gallery Transplant: After Spider-Man, he fought The FF and Hulk in the 70s.
 * Shapeshifting
 * Weaksauce Weakness: First defeated by a power vacuum, also water can really slow him down. And intense heat turns him to glass.

Mac Gargan / Scorpion I / Venom III / The Sinister Spider-Man

 * Animal Theme Naming
 * The Atoner: Played straight, and then brutally deconstructed. After doing some soul searching, Mac decided to pull a Heel Face Turn. Immediately afterwards, he bumped into Spider-Man, who was having a very bad day and was delighted to have an opportunity to vent. Mac's sanity took a dive, and he went right back to being a bad guy.
 * Ax Crazy: As Venom.
 * The Brute
 * Beware My Stinger Tail
 * Deadpan Snarker: Especially when he impersonates Spider-Man.
 * Evil Counterpart: Based in one arachnid as Spider-Man.
 * He also impersonated Spider-Man in Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers.
 * Evil Is Petty: At one point he vomited a rabid squirrel onto J. Jonah Jameson's desk as a prank.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: As Venom III and the Sinister Spider-Man.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Briefly went AWOL from the Dark Avengers and set up a gang war For the Evulz.
 * Private Detective: Was initially an unscrupulous detective hired by JJJ to find out what Peter Parker's connection to Spider-Man was.
 * Psycho for Hire
 * Scary Scorpions
 * Super Strength
 * Wall Crawl
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Mild example; the treatment that gave him his powers affected his sanity, making him the psychopath he is today. On a few occasions, he's falsely believed he was stuck in his costume. Being bonded to the Venom symbiote didn't help, although Gargan adjusted and came to relish its bloodlust.

Shocker / Herman Schultz

 * Badass Bookworm: Smart guy and puts up a good fight. Has updated and improved his costume and blast gauntlets based upon past encounters with Spider-Man.
 * The Chew Toy: Especially in Ultimate Marvel.
 * Clothes Make the Superman
 * Have a Gay Old Time: People mock his name a little more these days.
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain
 * Lethal Joke Character: Half of the real world population seems to think he's just a joke character... but more people need to remember that he's got one of the best records of fighting Spider-Man. His victories rival that of Doc Ock!
 * One time he even defeated Spidey with the help of fellow Lethal Joke Character Trapster (aka Paste Pot Pete). The only reason they let him live was because their employer told them he'd double their pay if they let him go.
 * Only Sane Man: Arguably the most professional of the Spider-Man rogues.
 * Revenge Before Reason: Also averted.
 * Running Gag: In Ultimate Marvel: "Hi, Herman!"
 * Say My Name: One of his more memorable schemes involved causing mass blackouts in Manhattan that when viewed from above spelled out SHOCKER. Can't remember what he was actually trying to do, but it was pretty cool.

Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon

 * Abusive Half-Brother: Kraven the Hunter.
 * The Blank: Has his real face ever been shown?
 * Partially in The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Dirty Old Man: While impersonating Peter during Brand New Day. The writers had to clarify in the letters page that he and Peter's roommate just kissed.
 * Expy: Of the character Smerdyakov in The Brothers Karamazov. For one thing, both characters are Bastard Bastards from big Russian families.
 * Master of Disguise
 * Shapeshifting: Took a Level in Badass and become more of a mutant than needing masks.
 * As of his reintroduction in the Gauntlet he's back to using masks.
 * The Voiceless: In the '90s cartoon he only ever spoke when disguised as someone else.

Max Dillon / Electro

 * Bald of Evil: Possibly from the process, but he had some tufts of hair; any chance he gets, he blasts his scalp smooth.
 * Bi the Way
 * Power Creep, Power Seep: Has been powered up twice in the comics, and tends to be a LOT more powerful in adaptations.
 * Psycho Electro: Especially in the Spectacular cartoon.
 * Rogues Gallery Transplant: Become an enemy of Daredevil for a while.
 * Shock and Awe
 * Too Dumb to Live: He once made fun of Venom's weaknesses to sonics and fire... to Venom's face. Venom later nearly beat him death.
 * Took a Level in Badass: In Mark Millar's Marvel Knights, it's shown how terrifying someone with electric powers would actually be; also, he used his powers with metal to magnetize them.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: During The Gauntlet, he persuades people to rally behind him against government bailouts, arguing that he may be a crook, but he's never gone after the average man. It actually works.

Hammerhead

 * The Dragon: To the Big Man in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: It's not known what he was after getting left for dead in an alley, but he certainly didn't have super powers before hand.
 * BND stories have made his background reasonably clear; as a bonus, he's now an example of both The Mafia and The Mafiya.
 * Suddenly Ethnicity: Despite being a walking Italian gangster stereotype, when his past is finally revealed, he turns out to be Russian.
 * Took a Level in Badass: BND, another alright thing about that period.
 * Use Your Head

Roderick Kingsley / Hobgoblin I

 * Arch Enemy: For most of The Eighties.
 * Cain and Abel: Roderick Kingsley, the heartless, multiple-murderer Hobgoblin, and his twin brother Daniel, the spineless, but well-meaning wimp that Roderick can manipulate and terrify with ease.
 * Camp Straight: Before he became Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley was depicted as a somewhat effeminate fashion designer (Roger Stern based him off Rex Reed and Jim Backus). After his first appearance, some readers wrote in to complain that Stern was stereotyping gay people. Stern, who had never intended Kingsley to be gay, gave him a supermodel escort in his next appearance to make sure everyone knew he was straight. Instead, the same fans said she was just Kingsley's beard.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Hollywood Hacking
 * In the Hood
 * Jack the Ripoff: Of the Green Goblin.
 * Legacy Character: It got so bad that he had to personally kill the fourth Hobgoblin, who he considered inferior.
 * Meanwhile, the second and third ones were his puppets - ones that he happily sacrificed when they were no longer useful.
 * Palette Swap: Hes the Green Goblin with a blue and orange costume instead of a green and purple costume, a hood and a cape.
 * Race Lift: Became black in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning
 * Took a Level in Badass: Once he found the Green Goblin's gear, and then again when he recreated the strength formula.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Once he found the Green Goblin's gear, and then again when he recreated the strength formula.

Morrie Bench / Hydro-Man

 * Elemental Shapeshifter
 * Giant Wall of Watery Doom
 * Kill It with Water
 * Making a Splash
 * Stalker with a Crush: He was obsessed with MJ in TAS.
 * Too Dumb to Live: A ridiculously high percentage of his defeats seem to come from him carelessly electrocuting himself. When you're used as a byword for self-defeating stupidity by the Riff Trax crew, it's rarely a good sign.

Professor Miles Warren / The Jackal

 * Abusive Creator: To just about every clone he made.
 * Arch Enemy: For a few years, he was siccing super villains after Peter Parker and was his more frequent enemy, but from behind the scenes.
 * Hot for Student: Gwen Stacy. His refusal to admit it to himself until after she died led to him becoming a supervillain.
 * The Man Behind the Man: He hired numerous villains to attack Peter like Tarantula, the Scorpion, or the Grizzly before going in himself. And here's where it gets impressive: he was this to the Punisher in his debut.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Briefly regained his sanity at the last moment and was able to save the Gwen Clone before dying in an explosion, or so it seemed.
 * Unwitting Pawn: Of Norman Osborn, per the end of "The Clone Saga".

Kaine /

 * Abusive Parents: The Jackal.
 * Anti-Hero:
 * The Atoner: In Spider Girl.
 * Badass Longcoat
 * Badass Long Hair
 * Cain and Abel: With Peter and Ben.
 * Clone Degeneration
 * Cloning Blues
 * Cool Old Guy: In Spider Girl.
 * Death Seeker
 * Heel Face Turn: Starts during Spider-Man: Redemption. Ends in a  in "Grim Hunt".
 * : In "Grim Hunt"..
 * My Greatest Failure: Killing  in "The Lost Years" because she was a Dirty Cop. Not to mention losing his "brother" Ben.
 * Name of Cain
 * Nineties Anti-Hero
 * Not So Different: With Ben. It's what starts his Heel Face Turn.
 * Seer: Has unpredictable, painful visions,.
 * Shadow Archetype: To Ben Reilly, and Peter to a lesser extent.
 * Up to Eleven: As implied in the comics and later confirmed by Word of God, some of Kaine's powers are actually augmented spider-powers - the Mark of Kaine for wall-crawling and premonitions for Spider Sense.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Sometimes, with Ben and Peter, when they weren't trying to kill each other. Also with his nephew Darkdevil in Spider Girl.
 * Up to Eleven: As implied in the comics and later confirmed by Word of God, some of Kaine's powers are actually augmented spider-powers - the Mark of Kaine for wall-crawling and premonitions for Spider Sense.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Sometimes, with Ben and Peter, when they weren't trying to kill each other. Also with his nephew Darkdevil in Spider Girl.

Spencer Smythe / Spider-Slayer

 * Characterization Marches On: In his first two appearances he was more of a scientist who was doing a good deed by trying to stop Spider-Man. In the 70s, after a long absence, he was a card carrying criminal.
 * Dead Guy, Junior: His son Alistair, who also fits Generation Xerox and Avenging the Villain.
 * Death Trap: Before dying from cancer he makes one last attempt at revenge, he puts a bomb on Spidey and Jameson's wrists.
 * The Dragon: His son Alistair became this to the Kingpin in the 90s cartoon. His first attempt at revenge against Spidey and Jameson mirrors Spencer Smythe's last one mentioned above.
 * Evil Genius

Abner Jenkins / The Beetle

 * Frickin' Laser Beams
 * Heel Face Turn: As a member of the Thunderbolts.
 * Powered Armor
 * Rogues Gallery Transplant: An enemy of the Human Torch but well known for fighting Spidey too.
 * Took a Level in Badass: People today would probably laugh at his old costume, which didn't look very beetle-esque, however when he updated his armor in the 80s it's stuck around.

Martin Li / Mr. Negative

 * Badass in a Nice Suit
 * Balance Between Good and Evil
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * The Corrupter: Mr. Negative's powers allow him to corrupt people's souls when he touches them, giving him some measure of Mind Control over them as a result. The more goodhearted the person was prior, the more easily they can be corrupted..
 * Dark Is Evil: The Mr. Negative persona.
 * Evil Costume Switch: Whenever Li transforms into Mr. Negative, his hair, skin and even his clothes turn into photo-negative versions of themselves. The same thing applies to anyone he corrupts with his powers.
 * Katanas Are Just Better
 * Healing Hands: As Martin Li.
 * Light Is Not Good: The Martin Li persona.
 * Master Swordsman
 * McNinja: He employs several of these, known as his Inner Demons, who have the ability to heal from grievous injury.
 * Split Personality: Played with, in that both sides are aware of each other but don't interfere with each other for the most part.
 * Super Serum: How he first got his powers.
 * Super Strength: Strong enough to punch Spider-Man through two buildings with one blow.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: As Mr. Negative.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: As Mr. Negative.

Michael Morbius / Morbius the Living Vampire
"Morbius: ...I borrowed this equipment from the ESU Science Department. Felicia Hardy: Pilfered. Morbius: ...Borrowed."
 * Anti-Hero
 * Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word: In TAS.


 * Flying Brick: Can fly and is strong.
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: At times.
 * Nineties Anti-Hero
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Not really a traditional vampire.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: He wondered how he got so lucky.

Silvio Manfredi / Silvermane

 * Evil Old Folks
 * The Maggia

Lonnie Lincoln / Tombstone

 * Adaptational Badass: In most continuities, he's a brutal thug who does other people's dirty work. He assumes the role of the Kingpin in Spectacular due to legal issues (and it works).
 * Badass Normal: His original role in the comics.
 * Badass Abnormal: and then he got actual superpowers
 * Evil Albino / Scary Black Man: Yes, both.

Frances Louise Barrison / Shriek

 * Abusive Parents
 * The Aggressive Drug Dealer
 * Ax Crazy
 * Badass Family: Intent on creating one with Carnage and any other villains they "adopt" into their little family.
 * Brown Note
 * Card-Carrying Villainess
 * Create Your Own Villainess: One flashback suggested that she was a normal drug dealer and only gained her powers when Cloak and Dagger attacked her.
 * Convenient Coma: Recently placed in one, courtesy of "Scorn".
 * Dark Action Girl
 * Dark Mistress
 * Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has black hair and white skin.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While Carnage and Demogoblin probably just saw her as a useful killing tool, Carrion and Doppelganger actually grew to reciprocate the "motherly love" she had for them.
 * Evil Matriarch
 * Expy: Looks like a Distaff Counterpart of Lobo.
 * Facial Markings
 * Fashionable Asymmetry
 * Fluffy Tamer
 * Formerly Fat
 * Freudian Excuse: She was horribly abused by her parents.
 * Glass Cannon: Spider-Man once knocked her out with little more than a flick.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Just one, for some reason.
 * Hand Blast
 * Hate Plague: She can induce temporary insanity in others; the exact mechanics of this are never explained, but it's presumably an extension of her sonic powers.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather
 * I'm Taking Him Home With Me!
 * I Reject Your Reality: She once irrationally blamed Spider-Man for Doppelganger's temporary death, even though she was right there when Carnage attacked him.
 * I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: When Carnage gets pissed at Shriek for whatever reason in Maximum Carnage and tries to attack her, Doppelganger steps in. Carnage then decides killing Shriek's "baby" will be punishment enough (though he gets better... after a couple decades).
 * Loony Fan: Carnage's groupie.
 * Love Martyr
 * Mad Love: For Carnage.
 * Make Me Wanna Shout
 * Messy Hair
 * Metalhead: According to a line in Maximum Carnage, though it later became apparent it's not make-up, and her skin really is just bleach white.
 * Mind Over Matter
 * Mommy Issues: Horrible abuse at the hands of her mother caused her to develop a twisted fixation with family and motherhood.
 * Most Common Superpower
 * Mutants
 * Nightmare Fetishist
 * The Ophelia
 * Prophet Eyes: Her eyes inexplicably become blank midway through the Carnage miniseries.
 * Psycho for Hire
 * Psycho Supporter
 * Stripperific
 * Unholy Matrimony: With Carnage.

Fred Myers / Boomerang

 * Butt Monkey: Sometimes written as a joke villain, especially in Ultimate Spider-Man.
 * I Know Madden Kombat: Was a major league baseball pitcher before getting kicked out for accepting bribes. It does help him throwing his boomerangs... A LOT.
 * Jet Boots: Boomerang likes to use them as a secondary weapon.
 * Power Armor
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang: His Weapon of Choice.
 * Psycho for Hire
 * Rogues Gallery Transplant: He started out as a Hulk villain, but will be more known as one of Spidey's foes. He's also tangled with Iron Man, the Defenders and the X-Men.
 * Trick Boomerangs: Shatterangs, Gasarangs, Razorangs, Screamerangs, and Bladarangs, just to name a few varieties.