Spider-Man's most powerful villain: why Morlun tops the ranking

Spider-Man is one of the biggest superheroes in the world, and because of that he has one of the best rogues galleries in the world too. I've ranked his villains from weakest to strongest to answer one question: who is Spider-Man's most powerful, most dangerous villain? My answer is Morlun, and I don't think it's close.

The ranking starts with Richard Fisk, the son of the Kingpin, and builds up through Venom and Carnage to Morlun at the top.

Richard Fisk, the Chameleon and the Tarantula open the ranking

At the bottom is Richard Fisk, the son of the Kingpin. All he wanted was to dethrone his dad as the Kingpin of crime. He took on a few different identities, from the Schemer to the Rose, to try to take Fisk down. It never worked. The best the Rose ever became was a middle management boss in Fisk's crime empire, and an alcoholic.

The Chameleon is one of Spider-Man's first villains. He debuted in the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man, and he's a master of disguise. Once, after learning Spider-Man's secret identity, the Chameleon built robot versions of his parents to mess with him, which is "some truly sick stuff right there."

Antonio Rodriguez was a South American revolutionary. After being kicked out of his freedom fighting group, he was recruited by the government he had been trying to overthrow, and they turned him into the Tarantula, "a fascistic Captain America." Despite the spider in his name, he has no spider powers. He's a skilled fighter who likes to use hidden blades.

Fritz von Meyer's Nazi bees, Black Cat and Tombstone

Fritz von Meyer was once a Nazi scientist obsessed with killer bees. One day he found a hive unlike any he'd seen. The bees showed no fear, unusual passivity and a highly developed intelligence. Von Meyer built a device he hoped would kickstart the bees' killer instincts so they could serve him. That didn't work out, because the bees killed him. Since it's comics, his consciousness jumped into the swarm, and he became the living embodiment of a bunch of bees. Nazi bees are probably one of Spider-Man's weirder villains.

Like Catwoman, Felicia Hardy, also known as Black Cat, is a former cat burglar and an on and off again villain for Spider-Man. She's also in love with him, and the two have been in a relationship. What sets Felicia apart is her ability to cause bad luck around her and to other people, which comes in handy in a fight or while stealing.

Tombstone was originally a bully named Lonnie Lincoln whose strength was increased by a science experiment. He gained diamond hard skin that made him invulnerable to bullets and extremely strong. Tombstone became one of the Kingpin's top hitmen before becoming one of New York's top crime bosses himself, regularly facing off against Spider-Man.

Kingpin, Alistair Smythe and Molten Man

Kingpin has become more of a Daredevil villain in recent years, but he's still very much a Spider-Man villain too. He started out as a generic mob boss and has gone on to become one of Spider-Man's most dangerous enemies. He doesn't need powers to do it, relying on his massive brute force along with his influence and intimidation.

Alistair Smythe is the son of Spencer Smythe, the creator of the Spider Slayers, robots designed to destroy Spider-Man. Alistair followed in his dad's footsteps and also tried to destroy Spider-Man. He created a bioorganic armor that made him superhumanly strong. It's covered in blades and sharp spikes, which makes him a very dangerous opponent.

Molten Man is a simple concept: a man covered in molten metal from a science experiment gone wrong. Still, he's incredibly strong, able to lift up to 40 tons and survive a whole range of attacks. He can also produce an enormous amount of heat, melting almost everything around him.

The Spot and the Jackal are stronger than they look

After being exposed to the Spotted Dimension, Dr. Jonathan Ohnn grew spots all over his body and gained the ability to teleport between dimensions, jumping in one spot and coming out of another. That makes him a seriously powerful villain. He's even technically immortal because of his connection to the Spot Dimension.

The problem is that the Spot isn't all that competent. He doesn't use his powers to the best of their potential.

Miles Warren was the original Jackal. He is powerful, and he transformed himself into a strange jackal person, but the main way he torments Spider-Man is through manipulation and cloning. He's a genius and the world's leading expert in cloning, to the point where he has cloned Spider-Man before, creating Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider.

Vulture is a Spider-Man original, while Scorpion and Shocker each bring their own threat

The Vulture might not be as famous as some other Spider-Man villains, but he's the second villain to ever show up in a Spider-Man comic and a founding member of the Sinister Six, so he's an original. Adrian Toomes is a mad scientist and inventor who came up with an electromagnetic wing harness that lets him fly around while he commits crimes. It also grants him superhuman strength and durability. This is a man of about 70 fighting Spider-Man, so the suit gives him the powers to make it a fair fight.

Mac Gargan was originally a private investigator hired by J. Jonah Jameson to look into Spider-Man's identity. Jameson also paid him to go through an experimental transformation. Scientists mixed his genetics with a scorpion, put him in a powerful suit of armor and sent him out onto the streets of New York City as Scorpion.

For a time, Scorpion was one of Spider-Man's most dangerous and powerful enemies. He has many of the same powers as Spider-Man, plus a tail. He has dropped down the list as Peter has grown stronger and more powerful villains have risen up to fight him.

Shocker is unique in Spider-Man's rogues gallery. He doesn't hate Spider-Man and doesn't want power or control. He's perfectly content to steal a lot of money, and that's it. To do that, he uses his vibro shock gauntlets, sending out powerful shocks that can injure Spider-Man.

Kraven the Hunter once took the Spider-Man mantle, and the Lizard overpowers him

Kraven the Hunter was a formidable big game hunter before he enhanced himself with potions that increased his strength, speed and durability so he could fight Spider-Man. He might not be the most physically powerful villain in the gallery, but Kraven is the world's best hunter. He has studied Spider-Man for years, knows his weaknesses and knows how to take Peter down.

Kraven has done exactly that. He beat and nearly killed Spider-Man, then took on the Spider-Man mantle to prove he was better at it.

All Dr. Curt Connors wanted was to help the world and restore his missing arm. He succeeded in regrowing it, but the experiment also caused him to transform at times into a powerful, bloodthirsty lizard. The Lizard is incredibly strong and tough, able to regularly overpower Spider-Man in their fights. He can leap up to 20 feet into the air, take any attack that comes his way and unleash devastating attacks in return.

Black Tarantula, Mister Negative and Hobgoblin

You might not have heard much about Black Tarantula, but he has proved to be a powerful villain to Spider-Man a few different times. With superhuman strength and the ability to heal from almost any injury, it's close to impossible to hurt him, much less beat him. He's one of the few villains Peter has said is more powerful than him: in one fight, Spider-Man said he was both weaker and slower than Black Tarantula. His eye blasts, a lot like Cyclops, also come in handy in a fight.

No one really knows what Mister Negative is capable of, because his power levels vary depending on his form and energy levels. Criminals kidnapped Martin Li and experimented on him with a drug, giving him powers linked to both the Darkforce and the Lightforce. Martin Li has limited control of the Lightforce, while his alternate form, Mister Negative, wields the Darkforce, a Jekyll and Hyde situation. Mister Negative has the strength to punch Spider-Man through multiple buildings with one hit, but we'll never know what he is at his best.

A few different people have used the name Hobgoblin over the years, but the original was Roderick Kingsley. He used an advanced version of the Goblin formula to enhance his strength to superhuman levels, to the point where Hobgoblin's strength surprised Green Goblin the first time they fought each other.

Doppelganger, Mysterio and Doctor Octopus

During Infinity War, Magus, the evil half of Adam Warlock, created powerful doppelgangers of many different heroes. Most of them disappeared over the years, but a few have stuck around, and one of those was Spider-Man's. As a doppelganger of Spider-Man, he has the same powers and abilities as Spidey, plus razor sharp webs, razor sharp teeth and razor sharp talons. If Doppelganger had Peter's intelligence, he would be nearly impossible to beat.

A lot like the Scarecrow is for Batman over at DC Comics, Mysterio doesn't necessarily have superpowers, but he is the world's best trickster and illusionist. That's how he routinely goes toe to toe with Spider-Man, tricking him and sending him on strange, hallucinatory and wild rides more than once.

Doctor Octopus isn't only one of the world's smartest men. In his brilliance, he accidentally bonded four massive metal tentacle arms to his body, which started his supervillain career. Each of those arms can match up against Spider-Man, and with complete control over them, Doc Ock has proven to be one of Spider-Man's most dangerous enemies.

Kindred, Kaine and Morbius

Kindred is one of Spider-Man's most powerful and most mysterious villains. Kindred is Gabriel and Sarah Stacy, twins who believed they were the children of Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy. They were really clones created by Harry Osborn, who gave them a mixture of the Green Goblin formula and powerful demonic possession from Mephisto, transforming them into Kindred. In nearly every one of their fights, Kindred has been able to overpower and beat up Spider-Man.

Kaine is one of the more complicated characters. He started out as a clone of Peter Parker created by the Jackal, but he was quickly cast aside because he had flaws and the cloning process wasn't perfect. That left him mentally unstable and suffering from psychosis. After time as a hitman for the mafia, Kaine turned his back on the criminal world and began killing anyone he thought was a threat. That led to Peter Parker being arrested for murder, "some classic Parker luck right there." As a clone, Kaine has the same powers as Spider-Man, which makes him an incredibly powerful threat.

In a desperate attempt to save his own life, Dr. Michael Morbius injected himself with DNA from a vampire bat. It transformed him into a vampire stalking the night and drinking blood as Morbius, the Living Vampire. He was originally a powerful villain to Spider-Man, but Morbius is now more of a vigilante who struggles with his insatiable thirst for blood.

Electro, Sandman and Rhino bring raw power

Electro, or Max Dillon, is one of Spider-Man's most powerful villains and a constant threat to Peter. He's a founding member of the Sinister Six and can generate hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity throughout his body. That usually means launching powerful lightning blasts at Spider-Man, but he can also fly, he's superhumanly strong and tough, and he can transform his entire body into pure living electricity.

Flint Marko was a petty thief until exposure to radiation let him transform his body into sand. That makes him almost impossible to hurt, since he's sand, or he can turn as hard as stone to fight back. Sandman can even become a giant sand monster that easily overpowers Spider-Man and lifts 100 tons. It depends on how much sand is around him; if he's fighting on the beach, he's close to unstoppable.

Aleksei Sytsevich was a member of the Russian mafia before he was chosen for a science experiment that gave him superhuman strength and durability. The side effect was a powerful suit of rhino armor permanently bonded to his body. Rhino is one of Spider-Man's strongest villains, able to lift anywhere from 75 to 100 tons. What he has in strength he lacks in brains, and that's often how Spider-Man beats him.

Green Goblin, Venom and Carnage sit near the top

Norman Osborn is the corrupt founder and head of Oscorp, a multibillion dollar corporation. He took the experimental Goblin formula to enhance his intelligence, and his already unstable mind broke even further, turning him into the Green Goblin. The formula also gave him superhuman powers that let him match Spider-Man in every one of their fights. He has been Spider-Man's greatest villain for years, his arch nemesis, and the Goblin will always be known as the one who killed Gwen Stacy.

The alien symbiote first bonded with Spider-Man, making Peter far more powerful, and when it bonded with Eddie Brock it did the same thing again, creating Venom. Venom has routinely been able to beat and overpower Spider-Man. He can lift up to 70 tons and copy Spider-Man's powers. Because Peter has bonded with the symbiote before, his spider sense doesn't work around Venom, which makes Venom all the more deadly.

The Carnage symbiote is an offshoot of Venom that bonded with the brutal serial killer Cletus Kasady. Like Venom, it gave him superhuman strength and Spider-Man's other abilities. The kicker is that he was far more powerful than both. He could lift over 80 tons, which made him a challenge to Venom and Spider-Man combined.

Morlun is Spider-Man's most powerful villain

Morlun is undoubtedly one of the coolest Spider-Man villains out there, and also the most powerful. He can absorb the life force of others, giving him an unlimited power source to draw on, and he can track anyone he wants. He can fly, he's incredibly durable, and he has been known to cheat death on multiple occasions.

He has defeated countless different versions of Spider-Man, and every fight Peter has ever had with Morlun has been the hardest fight of his life. There's no doubt in my mind that Morlun is the most powerful villain in Spider-Man's rogues gallery. He's in a class of his own.