Characters / Spider-Man (Insomniac): The Sinister Six

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Heroes (Peter Parker) | Supporting Cast | Major Villains (The Sinister Six | Venom) | Minor Villains

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The Sinister Six

In General

Five of Spider-Man's most infamous villains, united under the leadership of a sinister figure with grand designs of revenge against Norman Osborn.

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• Adaptational Deviation: Mysterio, Sandman, and Kraven are all replaced as founding members with Rhino, Scorpion, and Mr. Negative. Doctor Octopus averts this, remaining the team's founder and leader.
• Dual Boss: Two of the four confrontations are against two members at once (Electro and Vulture in a trap at Octavius' base, Rhino and Scorpion as they attack an Oscorp relief center).
• Dwindling Party: The Six start off with enough members to easily give Spider-Man a Curb-Stomp Battle when he faces them all at once, only to be gradually whittled down throughout the game. Electro and Vulture are apprehended first when they try to ambush Spider-Man, then Rhino and Scorpion, and followed soon after by Mr. Negative in a penultimate fight over the Devil's Breath antiserum, leaving Doctor Octopus as the Final Boss.
  • Exacerbated all the more come Spider-Man 2, where Scorpion, Vulture, and Electro are murdered by Kraven and Mr. Negative is both depowered and reformed, leaving Doc Ock and Rhino as the sole active members.
• Legion of Doom: The Sinister Six consist of four of Spider-Man's greatest foes—along with two new ones, Mr. Negative and Octavius—who have joined up to kill the Wall-Crawler. Doctor Octopus is the Big Bad and the Evil Genius, being the ringmaster who sets the whole plan in motion; Mr. Negative is The Dragon and The Heavy, being the most prominent member and the mastermind's closest accomplice; Rhino and Scorpion are variants of The Brute (Rhino being Dumb Muscle, while Scorpion is an unhinged Sadist); and Electro and Vulture are their own variants of the Evil Genius (Electro using the landscape, electrical buildings, and pylons to his advantage while Vulture has a tactical approach and fights with a mechanical suit, contrasting Electro's charging in and natural powers).
• Leitmotif: "The Sinister Six", an appropriately creepy and foreboding tune that underlies the sheer danger these villains pose not just to Spider-Man, but to all of New York.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: Not that they were ever a fellowship, but with three of its members having been killed off by Kraven and Mr. Negative both depowered and having willingly returned himself to prison, it's safe to say that this current incarnation of the Sinister Six is dead and gone.

The Mastermind (Unmarked Spoilers)

Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus

Voiced by: William Salyers (English)^{Other Languages} Victor Covarrubias (Latin American Spanish), Hiroshi Naka (Japanese), Diomid Vinogradov (Russian)

Appearances: Hostile Takeover | Spider-Man | Spider-Man: Miles Morales | Spider-Man 2

"Oh, Parker... if you want to change the world, you have to be the kind of man who can make the hardest decisions."

The ringmaster of the Sinister Six, who wants revenge on Norman Osborn for ruining his career.

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• Adaptation Amalgamation: As one of Spider-Man's greatest enemies, Doc Ock has had many variations over the years, and this version takes cues from just about all of them.
  • He's a former mentor to Peter Parker before he turned evil, just as he was in the Animated Series and Spider-Man 2.
  • He blames Norman Osborn for his woes and seeks revenge on him, just like his cartoon counterparts from Ultimate and Spectacular Spider-Man.
  • His insanity is at least partially due to the neural interface used to control his arms affecting his brain. In Spider-Man 2, the AI in Otto's tentacles drives him mad after the inhibitor chip controlling them is fried.
  • His body slowly becoming crippled and useless is similar to the comics, where Otto suffers from brain damage for a time thanks to taking one too many blows to the head, causing his body to waste away.
• Adaptational Badass: Most versions of Doc Ock were foes Spider-Man could defeat with just his standard arsenal or after a modest amount of prep work (with their first fight being very early in Spider-Man’s career). This version outright curb stomps Spider-Man to near death the first time they fought (with Spidey having 8 years of experience at this point) and Spidey had to build a specialized suit to counter Doc Ock's tentacles.
• Adaptational Context Change: Like his comics counterpart, this Otto suffers from a disability which will eventually render his body incapable of doing anything. In the comics it was the result of his supervillainy (brain damage after repeated blows to the head during battles with Spider-Man), which isn't possible here for a multitude of reasons. Instead, here it's reimagined as an actual illness that partially causes his supervillainy (the research to slow down his illness ends up removing his inhibitions).
• Adaptational Late Appearance: In the comics, Doctor Octopus was one of the first supervillains Spider-Man faced, and most adaptations have stayed true to this. Here, he first shows up 8 years into Peter's superhero career.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: To Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Martin Li, and Norman Osborn, none of whom factored into Otto's descent into villainy in the source material.
  • Peter is a fledgling researcher working under Otto at Octavius Industries, a relationship that allows him to work out that Spider-Man and Peter are the same person late in the first game thanks to Peter using Octavius Industries hardware to fix his Spider-Man gear early on.
  • Norman is a former friend and business colleague who eventually cut Otto off due to their differing goals on their research. This results in a deep-seated hatred and bitterness for what Otto perceived as an unjust life lived in Norman's shadow and the eventual acceptance of extreme methods to get justice for himself.
  • While working with Norman, Octavius worked on the procedure that Norman tested on a young Martin Li (without Otto's knowledge), causing the death of Li's parents. It's implied to be the incident that turned Osborn and Octavius against one another.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Rather than being an Insufferable Genius like usual, Otto's motivation is to make Norman Osborn pay for being a Karma Houdini that gets to live in the lap of luxury in spite of his sins, while he, who's done the right thing all his life, is barely scraping by.
• Alas, Poor Villain: No matter how exaggerated his goals were, it's very hard not to feel bad for him at the end. Having gone fully insane and growing obsessed with his vengeance, Otto, after being thrown at the ground from a skyscraper and barely surviving, shares a final conversation with Peter and tries convincing him that they should team up together. Peter, while breaking down in tears, has to leave Otto for obvious reasons, while Otto tries one final time to get him back. It hurts to watch, to say the least.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Discussed in-universe during the sequence when Spidey is going on a Mushroom Samba from Scorpion's poison. Peter espouses the idea that Otto was driven mad by the flawed interface messing with his brain, while a hallucination of Doctor Octopus mocks him for his belief in Otto's innocence and says that all the interface did was convince him he didn't need to wear a Mask of Sanity anymore.
• Arch-Enemy: To Peter Parker, as his former mentor and friend who turns to villainy, becomes the leader of the Sinister Six, and ends up killing Aunt May by attacking New York with the Devil's Breath bioweapon. Peter is furious when he discovers that Otto knew he was Spider-Man all along and opposed him anyway, proving Otto cares more about his revenge on Norman Osborn for shutting down his company than the wellbeing of Peter and innocent people.
• The Atoner: It is heavily implied that he gives Martin Li his medicine and makes him his second-in-command out of remorse for being involved in the experiment that killed his parents. Although...
• Ax-Crazy: He's absolutely nuts by the time he gets the arms working, wreaking devastation with no remorse.
• Bad Boss: When Mister Negative fails to defeat Spider-Man during the climax, Ock deems him useless and knocks him out with his tentacles.
• Bald of Evil: More like Receding Hairline Of Evil.
• Batman Gambit: Sets up a surprisingly simple but effective one that nearly kills Spider-Man after the wall-crawler broke into his lair. The notes he left on a map of New York to destroy Oscorp had Mr. Negative attack and steal the cure to the Devil's Breath with something called "Icarus." Spider-Man searches the lair for whatever "Icarus" might be, but by the time he finds a call from Ock, he realizes there was no "Icarus", and Ock admits it was a ruse just to get Spider-Man into a position to kill him with a bomb. He obviously knew that Spider-Man would get out of the lair before it could detonate, so he had Vulture waiting for him outside.
• Benevolent Boss: Despite the above, it appears that he was genuine in paying back the other members of the Sinister Six, given that there are signs of him looking into their individual problems (curing Vulture's spinal cancer, freeing Rhino of his suit, fulfilling Electro's dreams, and so on).
• Beyond Redemption: Initially, Peter is determined to save Otto from himself and repeatedly reminds him of the good man he once was... but then Otto reveals that he knew Peter was Spider-Man all along, meaning he had planned the Sinister Six formation and release of Devil's Breath (which is killing Aunt May and countless other citizens as they speak) behind Peter's back and exploited the knowledge of their borderline father-son-esque relationship to best lure him into traps and danger. Hearing this, Peter stops holding back and beats Otto down, sadly acknowledging his hero is beyond saving.
• Big Bad: Though he only becomes a supervillain very late into the first game, it's his usurpation of Mr. Negative's plan that ends up posing the greatest threat to New York and the world at large: on top of personally releasing the Devil's Breath virus, the breakout that Doctor Octopus orchestrates at the Raft leaves the city at the mercy of an army of criminals and the destructive powers of the Sinister Six, whom he leads in worsening the carnage in order to satisfy his vendetta against Norman Osborn. Mr. Negative himself, despite being The Heavy who gave Otto the idea to use the Devil's Breath, defers to his authority after Octavius breaks him out, and is ultimately smacked aside before the final confrontation as Otto personally tries to destroy the Devil's Breath cure.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Played With. Despite Otto being the leader of the Sinister Six in the first game, the plan to destroy Norman's reputation with the Devil's Breath began as Mr. Negative's idea, and Otto doesn't become Doctor Octopus until after Li has been apprehended well into the second half of the story. Octavius is unquestionably the mastermind behind their shared plot for revenge once they join forces in the climax, but even he acknowledges that it was Mr. Negative who laid the groundwork for their plan and inspired him to fall to villainy in the first place.
• Big Bad Slippage: He starts off as a kindly old scientist, but the untested neural implant in his tentacles brings out the demon within and turns him into Doctor Octopus, who proceeds to nearly destroy New York with the help of the Sinister Six.
• Big "NO!": Yells this when Peter disconnects him from his neural implant connecting his arms.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tragic as Otto may be, listening to his audio logs while in his lair at Oscorp and you learn that he had been planning his attack on New York as early as Martin Li's initial bombing at City Hall. Similarly, if you revisit his lab in the post-game, you learn that he had already turned on Peter and planned to eliminate him.
• Blessed with Suck: On one hand, thanks to the neural implant, Otto now has four mechanical arms that he can use to defend himself as well as give him a hand in actively ruining Norman and his reputation. On the other hand, it's stripped him of his inhibitions and could eventually make his neurological condition worse than it already was.
• Broken Pedestal: Peter does not take his Face–Heel Turn very well. At all.
  Peter: I worshipped you! Your mind... your conscience, wanting to help others... the way you never gave up! [...] You were everything I wanted to be! You just... threw it away!
• The Cameo: When Miles and Mister Negative are having a Battle in the Center of the Mind in Peter's brain, a hallucination of Doctor Octopus shows up to briefly attack the former. The real Otto later shows up in The Stinger, where he's shown to be plotting against Spider-Man from prison.
• The Chessmaster: After devolving into Knight Templar territory thanks to the neural implant's failings, Otto has become this. He developed the mechanical arms that he now wields as weapons (with input from Peter), freed the Sinister Six from the Raft and upgraded them, unleashed a bio-hazardous virus on the city, and ordered the Six to go on a rampage, all to distract Spidey while he and Li got their revenge on Norman. Had Peter not been there to stop him at several turns, Otto would've arguably succeeded.
• Clothes Make the Maniac: Played with. Peter is never quite certain how much of Doc's rage, viciousness, and mania was inside of him all along and was just finally brought out by the implant's power, or if it was a result of its flaws altering his personality, let alone how long Otto has been testing it on himself in secret. At the very least, Otto's paranoiac tendencies towards Peter are wholly original, horribly twisting their friendship into a bitter rivalry.
• Combat Tentacles: What Otto evolved the human arm-like prostheses into, with reflexes that rival even Peter's. They even have yellow Tron Lines when their internal wiring is exposed, explaining why the tentacles don't look relatively the same when they extend as they do when they're retracted as in the comics. For a more threatening appearance, the arms come with Spikes of Villainy too.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Outside of a character bio that can be gained in-game, Otto is never referred to as Doctor Octopus; even the subtitles^note  Except the final part of Scorpion's nightmare sequence, for some reason and the rest of the Sinister Six refer to him by his civilian name rather than his supervillain name. Jameson's podcasts start calling him an octopus in the postgame and DLC campaigns.
  • He's finally referred to by his supervillain name in Miles Morales, with the eponymous character mentioning him in relation to the Raft prisoner he and Peter are escorting.
    Miles: One of those guys who helped Doc Ock is in there?
• Crazy-Prepared: He kept the details of his plans in his hideout a secret by writing them in ink that required special light shined on them to be seen. In the event Spider-Man actually found the hideout and the plans he left notes about Mr. Negative attacking with something called "Icarus", simply to get Spider-Man looking around the building until he got near a bunch of bombs. In the event the bombs didn't kill Spider-Man, he had Electro and Vulture waiting to ambush him. He could give Batman a run for his money in his level of preperation.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Inflicts a brutal beatdown on Spider-Man after the second boss fight with Mr. Negative.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Justified: Otto very much wanted to use his advanced cybernetics to benefit mankind, but a combination of Norman Osborn screwing him over and his own impatience at his condition potentially crippling him results in him becoming completely consumed by revenge.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Mainly thanks to Otto's reckless jump from simple prostheses into mechanical tentacles, as well as an unrefined neural interface.
• Deal with the Devil: Otto has promised each of the Six their heart's desires in exchange for following his plans for vengeance against Osborn.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: A very downplayed example. When Otto has been defeated and Peter is preparing to turn him over to the authorities, Otto begs him to reconsider, saying that he wasn't himself due to the implant he was using that was unstable (which Peter was worried about before everything went wrong). Peter seems to seriously consider this for a moment... but then Otto throws in blackmail on top, noting that Peter will be able to rest easy knowing his secret identity is safe with Otto. At this point, Peter 100% gives up on his mentor and walks away and leaves Otto for the police, telling Otto that he'll have to do what he thinks is best with that knowledge.
• Dramatic Irony: No one mentions it, but if the Devil's Breath had been perfected instead of stolen and released as a bioweapon by Otto to spite Norman, it could have cured the very neurodegenerative disease that partly drove his insanity in the first place. Though to be fair, he likely lost all rational thought by that point.
• Et Tu, Brute?: After Peter beats him, he states he should have known Peter would "turn on him too." Peter had this reaction first when Otto reveals he knew Peter was Spider-Man and did all this to him anyway.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Has some sort of twisted dynamic of this to Peter, he even states at the end that he saw Peter as a son. That said, whether or not he actually feels this way is debatable, considering he does try to kill Peter. Even if he spoke the truth, those feelings have completely evaporated by the end of the game, replaced by pure vengeful hatred.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In his unstable state, Otto fails to recognize that Spider-Man has other motives for protecting Norman Osborn other than being paid to. He's also smugly unable to realize that Peter would've probably listened to his attempt at an appeal if he didn't shoot himself in the foot by adding an implied threat of revealing his true identity. He appears genuinely confused when Peter doesn't budge at said threat.
• Evil Counterpart: When Peter rebukes Otto's claim that he'd turn on him by telling him everything he'd admired about Otto, Octavius responds that he did what he did because men like them need to use their abilities in the service of others. Even if those people don't understand. They have to do what's best for those beneath them. It's a dark twist on the overarching "with great power comes great responsibility" theme of Spider-Man as a whole.
• Evil Costume Switch: Most obvious when he wears the suit and arms, but is especially notable with his opaque goggles. Once the goggles are on, his shift to villainy is complete.
• Evil Is Hammy: Beyond his violent tendencies, you can see how far gone he is thanks to this.
• Evil Old Folks: In his 60s and by far the most dangerous antagonist Peter has yet faced.
• Face–Heel Turn: He starts off as Peter's kindly old mentor and boss, but after he finishes the tentacles, he becomes the game's Big Bad.
• Fallen Hero: Was a genuinely good man, wanting to enrich the world through science and give mobility to those who have been stricken without it. However, his obsession with his pursuit of mobility through machinery to aid his own predicament coupled with the deep-seated bitterness over the fact his desire to do good in the world resulted in Norman Osborn screwing him over pushes him into dangerous and ultimately villainous territory.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Impatience. His inability to just wait until Peter can help him iron out the kinks causes both the accident that gives Osborn the excuse to pull the plug and him to put the neural link in before it was even close to safe, which drove him insane. Furthermore, his refusal to wait for Osborn to face justice leads directly to his battle with Spider-Man, who directly mentions he only wants the antiserum to Devil's Breath to save as many people as possible, not to fight his old friend.
  • Wrath. He hates Osborn and ultimately his rage is what causes him to put the neural link back on after being talked down by Peter and fall completely into supervillainy.
• Fat Bastard: A much bigger emphasis on "bastard" than on "fat"; he's a bit portly instead of being obese, but he's very psychotic at this point, as he's willing to destroy an entire city if it means getting his revenge.
• Faux Affably Evil: This is pretty clear - one second he can appear charming and charismatic, the next he's staring on coldly as people are infected with Devil's Breath.
• Final Boss: He's the last obstacle standing between Spider-Man and the cure for the Devil's Breath at the end of the first game, and he's not letting it go without a fight.
• Foil: Even though he only appears briefly in a post-credit scene in the second game he's clearly become one with Martin Li. While Otto has refused to let go of his need for vengeance against Norman even taking delight in hearing Norman is losing his son, Martin is eventually able to let his quest for revenge go. Martin even manages a sort of reconciliation with Peter and Miles, something Otto clearly has no interest in.
• Foregone Conclusion: Otto's descent into villainy doesn't happen until the game's third act, but given the character's history it was bound to happen sooner or later.
• Foreshadowing: It's quite obvious fairly early on in the game that at some point Otto is going to become Doctor Octopus. Putting aside that his work on neural interfacing prosthetics lines up perfectly with the inevitable creation of his harness and tentacles, as things progress the designs for prosthetics on his whiteboard in the lab begin to look more like tentacles than arms, his voicemails to Peter excitedly talk about "going beyond the limits of the human body' with this technology, and when using the prosthetic he wears a green welding suit that looks very much like a modern re-imagining of his comic outfit. He's also repeatedly demonstrated that while he's a good man with good intensions, he's prone to emotional outbursts and willing to resort to dangerous and amoral extremes to push the boundaries of his research. Even someone only vaguely familiar with Doctor Octopus would pick up on the obvious clues that Otto is going to become a supervillain. This actually makes it more effective when the real plot twists are revealed — that he was masterminding the Sinister Six since at least the City Hall bombing, and knows Peter's secret identity.
• Formerly Fat: In The Stinger to Spider-Man 2, Otto’s looking worse for wear, having lost a significant amount of weight in prison. His chin has loose skin, his face is gaunt, and in his loose prison jumpsuit, he’s closer to Lean and Mean than his formerly chubby physique.
• Freudian Excuse: Otto was once a good scientist who wanted to help people (as well as himself), but was betrayed by Osborn, and now wants revenge on him instead.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The humble researcher Dr. Otto Octavius becomes New York City's number one menace. In fact, his status as a nobody is part of what pushed him to become a nightmare (Norman Osborn saw great success without Otto, despite a close working relationship in the dawn of their careers, while Otto's attempts to use science for the good of mankind are vastly overlooked and disregarded; he holds a deep-seated grudge against Norman and his achievements).
• Genius Bruiser: Thanks to his robotic limbs, he is extremely strong, and he is a crafty mastermind on top of being a brilliant scientist.
• Gollum Made Me Do It: After Peter defeats Doctor Octopus, Otto blames his Sanity Slippage and rampage on his tentacles' AI — a reference to Spider-Man 2.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Attaching an untested, unperfected neural link directly into his brain did not go how he'd hoped.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Part of the reason he hates Osborn so much is that he's jealous of all the success that Norman has enjoyed, while he works in relative obscurity and his funding is dependent on Osborn's goodwill.
• Hammerspace: He somehow manages to hide all four of his robotic tentacles from Peter behind his own back in order to pleasantly surprise his protege. In the comics, the tentacles are six feet long at minimum - longer than Octavius is tall (5'10").
• He Who Fights Monsters: He wants to make Osborn pay for his crimes... but becomes so consumed by his desire for revenge that he becomes a monster himself and releases a plague.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The main villain for most of the game is the obscure Mr. Negative, but the iconic villain Doctor Octopus seizes control of the plot in Act 3.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: On two levels: partly from Peter making the Anti-Ock suit from the same technology Otto's tentacles were made of, left lying around at their old lab which helped him keep in the fight even as the two beat the ever-loving hell out of each other; and partly because Otto decided to try to finish the fight by stabbing Spider-Man with a tentacle and drawing him close. His emotions and rage running high blinded him to realizing that he was unwittingly keeping Spidey in reaching distance of disabling the neural transmitter, and finally gets shut down for good due to it.
• Hope Spot: Prior to his descent into madness, Peter sees Otto having finally create the arms, but turns it off after Peter tells him it's not only incomplete, prolonged use would worsen his condition. Otto agrees with a smile... until he sees Norman on the news.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Each of the Six wants something Otto claims he can give them. Outlined in his evil lair, where he has a station for each member of the Sinister Six. Whether or not he could actually manage to give all of them what they want as quickly as he suggests is probably debatable depending on the bribe, though Peter does note that his attempts at fulfilling his end of the bargain are extremely good.
  • Martin Li's hatred of Osborn is at least as strong as Otto's, so all Otto has to do is promise a shot at Revenge and he's in. It's definitely possible that once Osborn was fully at Li's currently nonexistent mercy he and Otto would disagree about exactly how to punish him.
  • Adrian Toomes is dying of cancer thanks to his suit and is promised a quick, effective treatment.
  • Max Dillon is in for a piece of the action, wanting to become 'pure energy'. Otto promises him power and gives him gear that boosts what he has.
  • Aleksei Sytsevich wants to be able to remove his armor, and Otto whips up a solvent that took a sample piece off. The lure of release is enough that despite not being a team player and detesting the Scorpion he works with Mac.
  • Mac Gargan has the simplest payment: Money. He could probably get it himself given time. However, unspoken there's the fact that he's a Card-Carrying Villain and the sadism of the plan appeals to him, even when it means working with the Rhino.
• Intergenerational Friendship: It is made clear by the note Spider-Man finds in Li's lair, along with his willingness to consistently refer to him as Martin, even when he refers to the rest of the Six by their aliases shows that Octavius and Li have known each other for years, despite the fact that Li is 46, and Otto is over 60.
• It's All About Me: By the time of the climax, he's so obsessed with getting revenge on Norman, nothing else takes precedence. He seems entirely blind about the casualties he's causing, at most considering them necessary collateral damage to take down Norman. Even when Peter is practically begging him to give him the anti-serum so he can cure those affected by Devil's Breath before dealing with Osborn, he completely refuses to compromise and forces Peter into a battle since he won't get his way.
  Peter: Can't you see all the people you're hurting!?
  Otto: You'll never understand! You haven't suffered like I have!
• I've Come Too Far: Seems to have this mentality by the first game's final battle, even as he reveals he knew Peter was Spider-Man the entire time. As Peter puts on a look of disappointment seeing how far Otto has gone from the man he once was, Otto has his own look of regret, and only has this to say:
  Otto: I won't let you win. This means too much to me!
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The result of the neural interface controlling his arms being unrefined by Otto and Peter turned off Otto's inhibitions and into a full-blown supervillain, going so far as to release The Plague on the city and put thousands of lives at risk.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Beyond knowing that Spider-Man was Peter Parker and thus everything he did to him was pretty much this right down to exploiting their relationship to his advantage, Otto also decides to call Martin Li useless for failing to stop Spider-Man and promptly slams him aside before utterly beating down Spidey to near-death. Keep in mind that Martin may have been on the cusp of a Heel Realization when he does this, and that he and Octavius have semi-identical motives that brought them together in the first place.
  • Upon hearing Norman confirm that Harry was taken from him by the Spider-Men, an innocent person having absolutely nothing to do with their rivalry, Otto merely says "Good." Even considering Otto's hatred for Norman, saying that to a grieving parent is downright cold, also even considering the things Norman was previously involved with.
• Knight Templar: A very interesting example. While he has genuine shades of a Well-Intentioned Extremist for the larger part of the game, thinking of Osborn as a criminal who needs to be punished, he becomes so obsessed with his revenge on Osborn at the end that it is hard to understand him as necessarily well-intentioned rather than obsessed.
• Knight of Cerebus: Otto's transformation into Doctor Octopus changes the tone of the entire game, as Peter's anguish reaches new heights and the entire city is in danger.
• Large Ham: He hams it up a bit at the end. "Everything you have is built on lies! LIES!!"
• Lightning Bruiser: Doctor Octopus is horrifically powerful and quick, making a late-middle-aged man more than Spider-Man's match. Otto's neural interface moves his prosthetic limbs faster than the speed of thought, so once he completes his Combat Tentacles, he's able to curb-stomp Peter at the peak of his strength and is much, much stronger (to the point that Peter has to develop a specialized suit to combat him).
• Like a Son to Me: Whereas he never admitted it prior to becoming Doctor Octopus, he does now - after finally being beaten by Spider-Man, his neural interface disabled, and being left on the side of collapsed rubble begging for Peter to help and join him against Osborn. And in the same breath as accusing Peter as having turned on him like Osborn did. It hurts Peter, especially since Otto continues to try to justify his views, implying that at this point they're nothing more than a hollow declaration compared to if he had bothered saying it before.
• Made of Iron: Doc Ock can take a hell of a beating despite being a portly man in his early 60s. This is justified in-story when you check the blueprints in Otto's Lab on the evolution of his harness — his green jumpsuit reinforces the harness and serves as powerful body armor to protect the user in the event of a fall.
• Mirror Character: With Norman Osborn, no less. Both of them are willing to take enormous risks to vanquish a disease (Otto's neural condition, and the disease affecting Harry and his mom, respectively), regardless of the price to themselves and others, and both are willing to skip steps and jump ahead to get results. In fact, this very behavior on Osborn's part is what caused their falling out. Osborn, against Otto's advice and without his knowledge, proceeded to test a cure on Martin Li, hoping it'd allow him to save his wife. Otto ends up doing the same thing himself when it comes to testing the neural interface, disregarding Peter's advice and going behind his back. Similarly, both him and Osborn hold a certain superiority complex over regular people due to their intelligence.
  Otto: We have to do what's best for those beneath us, whether they understand it or not.
• Moral Myopia: Even after all the damage Otto has done to New York City, potential casualties included, Otto insists to Spider-Man that he’s fighting the wrong man by confronting him.
  Otto: OSBORN’S the criminal! Not me.
• More than Mind Control: Discussed; after Spider-Man is poisoned by Scorpion, he sees hallucinations of Otto as he was before the neural interface corrupted him. Said hallucinations state that Otto's "obsessions" were always there, and the interface just removed his inhibitions and allowed him to fully embrace them. Even this is likely Spider-Man's subconscious placing too much blame on the interface, as Octavius designs his upgrades for the Sinister Six and plans the breakout at Ryker's long before the interface is even developed.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: His suit is more or less taken straight from the comics, but it's now a much darker shade of green, and the traditionally yellow collar and gloves are totally black. The yellow isn't completely gone, as some of the black parts of his suit (the aforementioned gloves in particular) are highlighted somewhat with a mustard-y color. His tentacles, meanwhile, are jet-black instead of the usual silver, with glowing yellow lights.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Otto has a brief expression of regret after throwing Spidey from atop of the Raft when the Sinister Six form.
  • He also flashes the same expression when confronting Peter about knowing he was Spider-Man, after seeing Peter's distraught face under the mask/helmet. Although that could just be pure terror at the realization he just pissed off a very powerful superhero who now has a very good reason to stop pulling their punches.
• Never My Fault:
  • Minor example; he actually acknowledges the catastrophe that he's caused, but tries to justify it by saying its his way of punishing Norman, and tries to say Peter betrayed him.
  • Interestingly, a lot of his vindictiveness towards Norman can also come off as that. He's spiteful over the fact that while Norman went on to become rich and successful, Otto was left unacknowledged and left him penniless. Even though Otto, justifiably, was taking a moral stand, he ignores the fact that technically he was the one to cut off ties between the duo.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Delivers an absolutely brutal one to Peter under Oscorp's lab. It leaves the latter unconscious and bleeding heavily through his suit. It takes a doctor, surgical equipment and several hours for him to recover, and even then he should be resting.
  • After revealing that he knew all along about Peter's secret identity as Spider-Man (perhaps as far back as the beginning of the game), he attempts this again hoping it broke Peter's fighting spirit. Otto quickly finds out the hard way that he instead just pressed a Berserk Button and gets pummeled himself, only barely managing to turn it around with his tentacles and a bit of stabbing at the last minute. Which draws Peter in close enough to disable his neural interface anyway.
• No Sympathy: When Norman tells him about Harry's condition, Otto replies with an ice-cold "good". He's likewise unsympathetic to Norman's desire for revenge, refusing to even confirm that he knows who either of the Spider-Men are when asked.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He tries to justify his crimes by passing them off as an attempt to bring the otherwise untouchable Norman Osborn to justice. However the fact that he is willing to release dangerous criminals to run wild on the streets and infect Manhattan with a deadly disease that could becoming a global pandemic that could kill millions if not billions, shows that all he really cares about is getting revenge, innocents be damned.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Despite becoming Doctor Octopus a good 8 years in Peter's career as Spider-Man in this adaptation, this is actually one of the biggest inversions; Peter is in his early 20s, while Otto is a 60-something year old man.
• Opaque Lenses: His goggles reflect the city, and it's used for rather great effect.
• Pet the Dog: Downplayed. He sounds genuine about wanting to help the Sinister Six with their respective goals, but it's ambiguous as to whether he would follow through (though there are implications he's quite sincere about wanting to help Vulture since Octavius is also suffering from sickness). In 2, he actually keeps his promise about keeping Peter's identity as Spider-Man a secret when Norman demands to know his civilian identity, though it's blatantly obvious he's keeping Peter less because of whatever remains of their bond and more because he really hates Norman, still being the last person he'd ever even tell it to.
• Red Herring: Peter convinces Otto to stop using the neural interface until it is perfected since it could result in a change in his personality, implying that the tentacles are what drove him to villainy. However when Otto reveals he knew that Peter was Spider-Man all along and the implications that he was planning the attack on Rykers and the formation of the Sinister Six well before he created the tentacles, it becomes clear that he was already evil and they, at best, just removed his inhibitions.
• Revenge Before Reason: Even though he says he'll cure the Devil's Breath victims during his boss fight, he also makes it abundantly clear that he doesn't care how many people die from it as long as Osborn suffers for everything he's done first.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: Doctor Octavius wants revenge because Norman Osborn ruined his career years ago and continues to cause trouble for him even after. When Octavius's tentacles begin to chip away his inhibitions, he becomes more and more desperate for revenge. At first, Peter assumes that it was the tentacles manipulating him until he discovers that Octavius was always in control and he knew all along that Peter was Spider-Man. Finally realizing that his friend and mentor was willing to sacrifice countless civilians to hurt Osborn and that their friendship meant nothing to him, Peter finally drops the special treatment and defeats him.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Wears green as part of his supervillain outfit, and even wore a green sweater as a normal man.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Refers to Spider-Man as "Parker" when he gains the upper hand in their final confrontation, revealing he may have slowly realized, or just always known, that Peter was the hero rather than Spider-Man's research partner or gadget technician. The end of Spider-Man 2 suggests he's not so easily going to tell Norman of all people who either of the Spider-Men are, since he of course feels Norman deserved to experience loss through what happened with Harry.
• Self-Serving Memory: After Peter finally defeats his fallen idol, Otto curses Peter for “turning on him,” ignoring the fact that Otto was the one who chose to turn on Peter first. Otto attacked the Raft to recruit the Sinister Six with orders to attack Spider-Man, knowing full well that Spider-Man was Peter.
• Shadow Archetype: To Ben Parker. Both are important father figures to Peter but their legacies are very different from each other. Whilst Uncle Ben ultimately dies a good, just man who (most likely) taught Peter that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, Otto is ultimately imprisoned for letting his rage and genius corrupt him and impose his power and intellect onto others, something he emphasizes to Peter before being sent to the Raft.
• Spandex, Latex, or Leather: Leather, in this incarnation. His outfit resembles his tights from the original comics, but the suit he wears is noted to be an insulated over-clothes jumpsuit used for electro-mechanical work, has a more muted color, and is made from thicker, stiffer material.
• Start of Darkness: Unlike his comic book counterpart, this version finds his descent into villainy happening long after Spider-Man has risen to prominence as Manhattan's friendly neighborhood superhero. The game tells the story of how his rage at Norman Osborn and the race against time he believes he's in against his degenerating condition blend together to create a powerful new enemy for Spider-Man.
• Stop Hitting Yourself: Can be subjected to it by using a Finisher-type move on him. Spider-Man grabs one of his mechanical arms and forcibly slams the claw down over him. Ouch.
• Super-Reflexes: His tentacles can transmit and receive information from his brain in under a nanosecond^note  equal to a billionth of a second, or 0.000000001 seconds. That's the amount of time it takes light to travel one foot., far faster than any signal the human brain can normally produce^note  which normally travel at 70-120 m/s, or a third of the speed of sound. This lets Otto take on Spidey and his own Super-Reflexes and maintain the upper hand throughout their fight.
• That Man Is Dead: When Spider-Man tries to reason with him, reminding him of the good man he once was, Octavius tells him point-blank that that man is gone and Peter can't save him, regarding his former self as a weakling and a loser.
  • This gets to the point where "Otto Octavius" and "Doctor Octopus" receive their own, separate bios instead of being just one; justified in that Peter himself writes the bios, and believes that he can rehabilitate Otto.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Even beyond his Sanity Slippage, Otto has become so embittered during his time in prison that he tells Norman it's a good thing that Norman's son was left in a coma, despite Harry being innocent of Norman's crimes.
• Tragic Villain: One of Octavius's main reasons for delving into neural prosthetic research is because steady exposure to toxic chemicals in his "reckless youth" left him with an undamaged brain but deteriorating motor functions, and Osborn's betrayal ensured that he couldn't even benefit from his past — Norman got the profits while Otto just suffered in obscurity.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He had just started his stint as a rogue during the events of the game, being the least experienced in actual crime of all of Spidey's villains. That said, his arms are so powerful that Pete needs to create a suit specifically designed to fight him. He also more than makes up for his lack of experience as a criminal with his sheer brilliance, such that the Vulture praises Otto's skill as a planner.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: When he has Osborn hanging off a rooftop, ready to kill him, he expects Osborn to beg for his life. Instead, he proceeds to give Otto a scathing "Reason You Suck" Speech, and his sheer anger combined with sadness gives the impression that he felt it was All for Nothing.
• Villainous Breakdown: Completely loses his cool in the final battle. When Peter leaves him for the police, Otto begs him not to leave, but Peter has already lost faith in him and has no choice but to get him to face justice for his crimes.
• Villain Has a Point: Nobody denies Osborn has done terrible things and that Otto has every right to hate him. It's a pity that Otto's desire for revenge is going too far. Otto's words about how Norman ''has to lose everything!'' rings somewhat true since Norman avoids going to prison by the end of the game.
  • In The Stinger for 2, he's not entirely wrong about how Norman deserved to experience loss through what happened with Harry, as with or without the more personal stuff between them or the Spider-Men, he practically brought it on himself.
• Villain Team-Up: As stated above, he's the Big Bad of the Sinister Six in this game, having developed their suit upgrades, but is primarily working with Mr. Negative in taking revenge on Osborn while the other four occupy Spidey.
• Walking Spoiler: The mere fact that Otto Octavius is in the first game was completely left out of marketing because it alone spoils that Doctor Octopus would be in it.
• Was It All a Lie?: After he becomes Doctor Octopus, Pete and MJ discuss his feelings about the "good" Octavius:
  Spider-Man: MJ, hey. You mind if I toss a kinda thorny ethical question at you? When is it OK to give up on a friend?
  MJ: Oh wow, Pete. Thinking of Otto?
  Spider-Man: That obvious, huh?
  MJ: Yeah; understandable though. Man... the high minded, generous part of me wants to say “never” — being a true friend means being there, even when people lose their way... but with what Otto’s done... I just don’t know, Pete. I guess you have to decide if the Otto Octavius you knew is still in there or not... maybe if he was ever even in there at all…
• We Used to Be Friends: Now that his ties to Norman have long since devolved into unrelenting hatred, Otto ends up repeating this trope with Peter at the end. Peter and MJ discuss this after his attack on the Raft, with Peter wondering when is the right time to give up on a friend. MJ consoles him by noting that Peter should decide if the man he knew is still inside Octopus, or if he ever existed in the first place. MJ also points out that she doesn't know if Otto's rampage, and his unleashing of a biochemical weapon, injuring and killing many people, can actually be forgiven.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He sees himself as this, failing to realize that his vengeance against Norman won't really solve much beyond self-vindication and the fact that he released Devil's Breath onto the populace of Manhattan. He tries to get Spider-Man to join him by claiming he'll cure it once he's killed Norman, but this rings hollow given the sheer apathy and/or rage he's demonstrated for the world around him at this point.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: A dark aversion of the trope. In his final monologue, Otto rants about how it's his and Peter's responsibility as superior and powerful men to guide those beneath them... whether they want it or not.
• You Are What You Hate: As mentioned above, he and Osborn have a lot in common which might be part of why Otto hates him so much. Osborn represents everything bad that also exists in Otto.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Throws Mr. Negative aside after the latter's boss battle, calling him "useless".
• Your Size May Vary: The size of the claws at the end of his tentacles fluctuates from scene to scene. During the Curb-Stomp Battle he gives Spider-Man after Mr. Negative’s defeat the claws are roughly the size of Spidey’s head, yet during their fight on the side of Oscorp tower they’re bigger than Spider-Man’s torso

Martin Li / Mr. Negative

Martin Li / Mr. Negative

^{Click here to see Martin Li}

Voiced by: Stephen Oyoung (English)^{Other Languages} Marco Guerrero (Latin American Spanish), Mitsuru Miyamoto (Japanese), Gennady Novikov (Russian)

Appearances: Hostile Takeover | Spider-Man | Spider-Man 2

The founder of F.E.A.S.T., a network of homeless shelters spread throughout New York City, and a friend of the Parkers for years. But his friendly exterior belies something darker than anyone could have ever anticipated.

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• Adaptation Name Change: Martin Li is his actual name here instead of the name of someone whose identity he stole when he arrived to the US.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • In the first game, his powers and the deaths of his parents were the result of a freak accident caused by Norman Osborn's experiment going wrong and he seeks revenge on him, while in the comics they have no personal connection aside from being rival crime-lords.
  • Inverted in that he does not play a role in Yuri Watanabe's downfall and becoming the vigilante Wraith in this continuity. That "honor" instead goes to Hammerhead.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Strangely, he gets this treatment with himself. In the comics, Martin Li and Mr. Negative have a Jekyll & Hyde relationship — both Martin Li and Mr. Negative are separate entities and aware that the other exists, but not of what they do. This version of Martin Li and Mr. Negative are one and the same, though it is hinted throughout the first game that Mr. Negative may be a Superpowered Evil Side just like in the comics.
• Adaptational Badass: Downplayed. While Mr. Negative in the comics is a powerful opponent, strong enough to send Spider-Man flying through a building with a single palm thrust, he rarely fights himself and mostly relies on his Inner Demons to do the dirty work. This version is more than willing to get his hands dirty. Also, in the comics, Mr. Negative mainly uses his powers to corrupt others, while in the game, he demonstrates a wider range of abilities such as creating illusions, firing energy blasts, Super-Speed, conjuring Living Shadows and a demon-shaped Battle Aura.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Mr. Negative in the comics is the dark persona of Martin Li, and more or less your stereotypical Card-Carrying Villain, a ruthless crime-lord who seeks to take over New York City's underworld. While this Mr. Negative is every bit as ruthless, his motivations are portrayed in a far more sympathetic light.
  • In the comics, Martin Li/Mr. Negative is a cruel Triad member who smuggles Chinese people into the United States; he steals the identity of one of the deceased Fujian slaves (the real Martin Li) and rises to power as a crime lord while posing as a illegal Chinese immigrant who spent the following years building a large fortune and dedicating himself to helping those less fortunate. This version, however, is a real immigrant who came with his parents to the United States in search of a better life, settling in New York City.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: His corruptive touch seems to have been hit with this. In the comics, his ability to control someone is directly proportional to their morality. The more good a person had done in their life, the easier they'd fall under his control. This version's touch seems to lack that distinction. However, this ends up making it weaker than in the comics. In the comics, he was able to easily control Spider-Man and it took outside help for the wall-crawler to break free while in the first game, Peter's able to free himself through sheer Heroic Willpower.
• Adaptational Sympathy: The Mr. Negative of the comics is an identity thief and a vicious crime lord only out for himself. In the game, he wants revenge against Norman Osborn for the experiments he conducted on a young Li causing the accident that killed his parents and transformed him into Mr. Negative.
• Adaptational Villainy: Sort of. While Mr. Negative is a super villain in the comics, his "Martin Li" persona is a case of Dead Person Impersonation, as the real Li was intended by the Triad to be sold into slavery, and thus Negative isn't actually the real Li. The game presents "Martin Li" as Negative's real identity.
• Adaptational Wimp: Only in one case, When creating the Anti-Venom Symbiote he puts in all of his energy into Peter who was weakened by the venom symbiote who left traces of itself inside him, to purify Peter's symbiote hence creating Anti-Venom, and is left completely powerless as a result. while in the comics Mr Negative does so to Eddie very casually when curing his cancer but accidentally making the Anti-Venom Symbiote and still has lots of power within him.
• Affably Evil: He's genuinely polite even despite being a super-powered crime lord. Also, he did enjoy being the head of F.E.A.S.T. and all of the good he did as charity work.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's left vague on how much of his actions are his own and how much of him is being influenced by his negative side. Helped by the fact that, as revealed through journals of his, not even Li is entirely sure himself.
• Alas, Poor Villain: During his final boss battle, it is evident just how insane Li has become, and even Peter sympathizes with him, as Li screams how he just needs to kill Norman for killing his parents. Right after having a supposed Heel Realization for a second, Doc Ock knocks him out for being "useless".
• Arch-Enemy: To Miles Morales, for killing his father in the City Hall bombing in the first game. Most of Miles's arc in Spider-Man 2 revolves around confronting Li and overcoming his need for revenge on him.
• Ascended Extra: His comic book counterpart is a rather obscure character and a relative newcomer to the Spider-Man mythos, existing for ten years at the time of the first game's release. This version gets to be The Heavy of the story here.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's the leader of the Demons and by far the strongest member of the gang.
• The Atoner: Li's mellowed out a lot in the sequel. The only time he fights Spider-Man is when he's forced to battle Miles to the death by Kraven, and instead of wreaking havoc or trying to kill Osborn when freed, he goes straight to F.E.A.S.T. to warn Peter like he's been told to by Miles. He ends his time free of the Raft by saving Peter from the last effects of the symbiote, inadvertently giving him Anti-Venom powers in the process, before quietly turning himself in to police custody again.
• Ax-Crazy: During the first game's climax, he's gone completely off the rails, willing to do absolutely anything if it means getting revenge on Norman Osborn. Spider-Man's attempts to appeal to his better side have no effect.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: A staple for the character. He's always seen in a stylish business suit that turns white when he's using his powers.
• Battle Aura: The second phase of the final battle with him has him create one in the shape of a giant shadow demon that will either rake the ground with its claws or use an giant energy sword in a deadly Spin Attack.
• Beard of Evil: It's revealed in the sequel that he's grown one of these since the events from the first game while in prison. Averted in general, though; he's ultimately helpful to both Peter and Miles and turns himself into the police after he'd been broken out by Kraven.
• Berserk Button: It's subtle, but it's clear that even when he's still a kind generous character towards the beginning of the story that he has a dislike of Norman Osborn which becomes full-on rage when he lets his negative side out.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Played With. Mr. Negative is the main villain for three-quarters of the first game; the main plot centers around his rise to power in the New York underworld as he wreaks havoc in pursuit of revenge against Norman Osborn, culminating in him trying to release the Devil's Breath. Once he's apprehended and broken out of prison by Doctor Octopus, Li is Demoted to Dragon and begins facilitating Otto's own plans to damn New York to the virus. However, Otto himself acknowledges that it was ultimately Mr. Negative's actions that inspired him to take up supervillainy, and their master plan—aimed at accomplishing their shared end goal of destroying Norman—is in essence just an escalated version of Li's scheme, now backed by an army of convicts and supervillains. So while Octavius ultimately eclipses him as the greatest threat, Li is still responsible for the bulk of the conflict, and he remains the most consistent villain tied to the Devil's Breath crisis up until his defeat in the penultimate fight.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Miles from the Symbiote Horde and teams up with the latter to save Peter from succumbing to the Symbiote inside of him
• Breakout Villain: Mr. Negative was well liked in the comics but underused in recent years. His major appearance in this game has made many see him as a new major villain to be ranked among Spidey's classic rogues.
• Broken Pedestal: Once Li's true nature is exposed, both Peter and Aunt May are saddened and heartbroken by what he has turned into. On social media, some people whom Li saved via F.E.A.S.T. react the same way, wondering if all he told them was a lie.
• The Bus Came Back: He's shown during the Story Trailer in Spider-Man 2, being confronted by Miles.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: During the events of Spider-Man 2, Miles brings up his dad's death when he finally confronts him. Even when Li rummages through Miles' mind and discoverd his real name and who his loved ones are, it still takes him a while to figure out whose death exactly made Miles so upset.
• Casting a Shadow: Mr. Negative can generate and manipulate a form of dark, negative energy^note dubbed Darkforce in the comics. that he can use for a variety of purposes such as destructive energy blasts, empowering his minions and weapons, and corrupting other people.
  Li: The shadows are sworn to me and I will give them strength!
• Climax Boss: The first boss fight with him in the subway serves as this for the first game. Once Li is arrested, Otto becomes inspired by his vendetta against Osborn and becomes Doctor Octopus, creating the Sinister Six to plunge New York into chaos.
• Color Motifs: Black and White. While Black is the dominate one here, he and his goons still have a secondary white theme.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: He's referred to as "Mister Negative" in a few subtitles where he's let his dark persona take over completely, but otherwise the only time he's ever referred to by anything other than his real name, is in an off-the-cuff remark by J.J. Jameson contrasting him to the beloved humanitarian he used to be.
• Composite Character: In the comics, Martin Li was really a separate person who the Triad intended to sell into slavery, and Mr. Negative, a member of the Triad, pulled a Dead Person Impersonation after the real Li was killed. The game presents Li as Negative's real name.
• Cool Sword: He wields a Jian, a Chinese straight sword in his final boss fight that he can energize with his powers.
• Cop Killer: His attack on City Hall sees the deaths of several cops, including Jefferson Davis.
• The Corrupter: Mr. Negative can use his negative energy to corrupt others and bring them under his control by amplifying their negative emotions. He tries to do this to Spider-Man, but his Heroic Willpower saves him.
• Crazy-Prepared: His secret room is booby-trapped to destroy evidence and kill anyone inside.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was a young child suffering from a disease and was used as an experiment for Oscorp in hopes of finding a cure. However, a freak accident not only gave him his powers, but resulted in the deaths of his parents (inadvertently by his own hand). Li has sworn revenge against Osborn ever since.
• Dark Is Evil: Not only is black his main color, he wields a strange dark energy and is the leader of a major gang.
• Dark Is Not Evil: When he has a Heel–Face Turn in Spider Man 2, he uses his powers to help Miles get into Peter's mind to help remove the remnants of the symbiote from him. Not only is the same dark aesthetics still present, but the Demon he usually summons in his boss fights shows up to help Miles get further into Peter's psyche.
• A Degree in Useless: When Peter asks him to take a look at a mask he found he comments this will be the first time he's actually used his degree in art history.
• Demoted to Dragon: The first game starts out with him as the Big Bad leading the Demon gang. Once he's arrested around halfway through the plot, he willingly steps aside to act as The Dragon to Doctor Octopus within the Sinister Six.
• Deliberately Monochrome: More like Deliberately Photonegative. As Mr. Negative, his skin and clothing turns a photonegative black and white. Likewise, when corrupting others, he can bring them into a photonegative nightmare realm.
• Depower: In Spider Man 2, he shows up to save both Miles and Peter when they're being mobbed by symbiote-possessed civilians at City Hall, his powers having the unique effect of countering the Symbiote matter because of their inherent nature of enhancing and corrupting the negative emotions in a target to bend them to their will — something Li's powers also do, which Miles takes note of. Due to the remnant symbiote matter still within him, Peter is still heavily affected despite this, forcing Li and Miles into a Battle in the Center of the Mind to reach the source of the negative emotions the Symbiote is feeding on. To free him fully, Li decides to channel all of his powers into Peter, despite the risks to himself, the result reformatting the residual symbiote into the Anti-Venom suit whilst rendering Martin into a normal human once more, which he's perfectly okay with as part of his efforts to atone for his past.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Li is the main villain for the first half of the first game, kicking off the conflict by taking advantage of the power vacuum from Fisk's arrest to steal the Devil's Breath. However, despite his grand ambitions, he's ultimately beaten and arrested before he can actually release the virus. Doctor Octopus proceeds to take over as the Big Bad, breaking Mr. Negative out of prison to aid him as he puts his own variation of the plan into motion.
• The Dragon: To Doctor Octopus in the second half of the first game. Li shares Otto's personal vendetta against Osborn—unlike the rest of the Sinister Six, who are purely mercenary in their involvement—and his Inner Demons make up a significant portion of their muscle.
• Duel Boss: The first fight with him is a one-on-one fight between him and Spidey. When two Mooks show up, he drains them of their powers for a boost.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His primary motivation, as he wants to avenge his parents by murdering Osborn.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The note in his office reveals that, despite all the shit he's doing, May is totally off-limits; she and F.E.A.S.T. have done nothing to hurt him, so he intends to spare them. In the sequel, he has learned that May had tragically died from the Devil's Breath released by Otto, his former leader. Li is devastated and acknowledges that he's just as responsible for her death as Otto is.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Peter. Both characters gained their powers as a result of an accident involving Oscorp and both of them have lost loved ones. However, Peter was able to move past his pain and devoted himself to using his powers for good, while Li allowed his hatred to consume him and became a crime lord, representing what Peter would've been had he followed the same path.
  • After the events of the sequel, it can be argued he's this for Miles, too. Miles also gained his powers thanks to Oscorp and both lost loved ones due to the actions of another. When Miles has two opportunities to get revenge and kill Li, he's able to resist the temptation. The two later come to a reconciliation while helping to save Peter from the symbiote.
• Evil Former Friend: He was a friend of the Parkers for years before the events of the first game, only to descend into villainy.
• Evil Running Good: He is the director of F.E.A.S.T and in a letter to May, assures her that, though he will be guilty of horrific, monstrous acts, his work on the homeless shelter was a sincere expression from his heart and to not let his actions ruin all the work they put into it.
• Ex-Big Bad: After serving as The Heavy of the first game, Li returns as a reformed man in the sequel. Though he's briefly forced to fight Miles by Kraven, he quickly sets to helping out the Spiders once Miles spares him, even creating Anti-Venom to give them a fighting chance against the Symbiote hordes.
• Flunky Boss: He can summon Living Shadow mooks during the second phase of his second boss fight.
• Foil: By the end of Spider-Man 2 he's become one with Otto. By the time of the sequel Martin eventually is able to let go of his drive for vengeance against Norman and even reconciles with the Spider-Men promising to turn his life around. In his brief scene it's made clear Otto hasn't let go of his vendetta against Norman and refuses to try and go back to the man he used to be.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: As Miles brutally lays out for him during their battle in Spider-Man 2, it doesn't matter what Martin Li lost; he still killed innocent people just because he decided his problems were more important than their lives.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He started out as a young boy suffering from a disease who would eventually gain superpowers. Powers he would use to become a major crime lord and inflict untold damage on New York City.
• Hand Blast: Another application of his powers is the ability to fire destructive blasts of dark energy powerful enough to send Spidey flying through a room.
• The Heavy: Mr. Negative is the main villain for the majority of the first game, with his Inner Demons causing chaos throughout the city as he plots revenge against Norman. Even after he's Demoted to Dragon by Doctor Octopus, it was Li's criminal acts that inspired Otto's own actions, and their shared plot is ultimately an escalated version of Li's plans for the Devil's Breath virus.
• Heel–Face Turn: In Spider-Man 2. By that time, he's had a Heel Realization, and is pushed the rest of the way by Miles calling a truce with Li, despite Li causing the city hall bombing that killed Miles' father, Jefferson Davis. All the good that Li has done with the F.E.A.S.T. Foundation is ruined, he ultimately got nothing he wanted, and he knows that Miles will never forgive him for what he's done. Even so, after the boss battle with him, Li uses his powers to help the Spider-Men, including freeing Peter from the symbiote's corruption and giving him the Anti-Venom Suit.
• Heel Realization: It's hinted at several times throughout the first game that Li isn't as fully committed to his vendetta against Osborn as he'd like to be. When snooping around his office, Peter finds a journal entry written on the day of Fisk's arrest where he openly questions if he can actually go through with his plan, knowing full well that even if he succeeds, all the good he has done with the F.E.A.S.T. Foundation will be ruined. He even contemplates turning back, but feels he can't fight the Demon inside him. Likewise, in the final battle, as Spidey begins to reason with him, Mr. Negative briefly hesitates for a moment before giving into his rage and engaging Spidey in battle. By Spider-Man 2, he's cottoned to how much of his life he destroyed in the name of revenge and by the end works towards reforming, even though he is aware no one will likely ever forgive him for what he has done.
• He Who Fights Monsters:
  • In an audio recording found in a hidden room in his office, Li realizes that his actions have undoubtedly made him an even worse monster than Osborn, but he feels that it's too late to turn back.
    Li: I can feel my power growing, feeding off my anger. Father would say I've lost the path of balance. But he wouldn't understand: The only way to fight a monster... is to become one.
  • This exchange with Spidey during their final battle cements it.
    Spidey: I know you can beat the Demon, Martin!
    Li: Beat the demon? I AM the Demon!
• Hidden Depths: He's the owner of a homeless shelter/terrorist supervillain with a dark, traumatic backstory...and he majored in Art History, of all things.
• I Control My Minions Through...: As well as the Demons, he briefly gets the Shocker involved in his plans. The Demons follow him out of a complicated cocktail of authority, corruption, fear, loyalty, and power; he also has the Corrupted, who are simply driven to a temporary rage and may follow simple orders, but are mostly created to sow chaos rather than to carry out plans themselves. Once subdued, which is easier than with most Mooks, the Corrupted return to normal. Herman meanwhile is working purely out of fear.
• I've Come Too Far: While snooping around Li's office, Peter finds a journal entry and audio recording where Li questions if he can actually go through with his plan to get back at Osborn and acknowledges that he's becoming a monster, but feels it's too late to turn back.
  Li: Wilson Fisk has been arrested. I can barely believe it. The day I've planned for — dreamed of — is finally here… but for some reason I hesitate. Can I really go through with this? Things will happen quickly if I give the word. My men will claim Fisk's arms, his explosives... his secrets. We'll use that knowledge to teach Norman true pain. He'll know what it is to see the things he loves most destroyed by his own hands... But achieving that end will mean giving up so much. Everything I've built here at F.E.A.S.T. — all the good I've done — could be wiped out if my plan succeeds. My chance is finally here yet still I hesitate… should I turn back? A part of me wants to... but the Demon is hungry… and I don't think I'm strong enough to hold it back...
• Implied Death Threat: Makes this subtle warning to Peter after he catches him snooping around his office which he follows through by siccing a trio of corrupted bystanders on him.
  Li: I'm sure you and May have nothing to worry about... as long as you stay away from places you're not supposed to be.
• King Mook: In the final battle with Mr. Negative, he fights like a stronger and faster version of his Demon Swordsmen with an expanded moveset.
• Knight of Cerebus: Once his true nature is exposed, the game takes a much darker turn. His terrorist attack on City Hall is the moment the game goes from a relatively lighthearted superhero adventure to a full-on drama with frequent life-or-death scenarios. It's telling that in both their fights, Spidey never cracks a single joke.
• Light Is Not Good: Downplayed; Although black is his primary color, he also has a secondary white color scheme in his "Negative" mode. Plus, he seems to favor darkness over light.
• Long-Range Fighter: The first battle with him has him mostly firing energy blasts at Spidey.
• Lightning Bruiser: As demonstrated in the final battle, Mr. Negative's powers let him move with inhuman speed, often darting across the room faster than Spidey can react and he possesses enough reflexes to deflect Spidey's web shots with his sword. His attacks also have great range and can tear through a chunk of Spidey's health.
• Man of Kryptonite: Li's powers make him The Corrupter and a dangerous foe throughout the game because he can take the negative emotions within a person to enslave them to his will. In the sequel, this exact trait means Li naturally counters the symbiotes when they're overrunning the city because their corrupting nature also works along similar lines, something Miles takes ironic note of. Channelling his powers into Peter to save him from the residual effect of the Venom symbiote's possession "purifies" it into the Anti-Venom suit, making Peter in turn able to use the strength of the Symbiote suit without falling prey to its manipulations, and also capable of damaging symbiote matter on touch.
• Master of Illusion: When corrupting others, he brings them into a bizarre, photonegative realm populated with Living Shadows that he has full control over. It happens again during the second phase of the final battle, implying that as his negative emotions grow, his powers get strong enough to affect reality as well.
• Master Swordsman: The final battle with him shows that Mr. Negative is quite handy with a sword.
• Moral Myopia: Is initially outraged when Miles hesitates to save him from drowning, apparently the idea that his many victims having loved ones who may want revenge on him, hadn’t occurred to him. Even later he dismisses Miles’ anger towards him, sarcastically asking if Miles expects an apology. Eventually however, after Miles saves him, it’s enough for Li to start questioning himself.
• Named by the Adaptation: Played with. This version's real name is Martin Li while his comic book counterpart merely uses "Martin Li" as an alias with his real name being unknown.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A Tragic Villain variant. He is aware that his Roaring Rampage of Revenge as Mr. Negative will almost certainly undermine all the good he has done at F.E.A.S.T. and apologizes for it to Aunt May in a letter.
• Parental Abandonment: Or so it seems. Before discovering the truth, Peter notes that (as far as he and the world know), Martin Li's parents abandoned him as a child and that he was a Rags to Riches story. Given the nature of his parents' deaths and the degree to which Li openly idolizes them, this was likely a cover story devised by Osborn — which could not have improved Li's opinion of him.
• Pet the Dog:
  • From the very moment Peter asks him to inspect one of the Demons' masks, Li subtly tries to warn Peter and Mary Jane away from interfering with his plans. Aunt May even notes that he seems genuinely worried for them, and his relief that Peter survived the attack on City Hall also appears to be genuine. He later calmly, but pointedly, makes the above Implied Death Threat, but only throws a few corrupted people at Peter when he could've sent actual Demons after him. As much as he wants to destroy Osborn, he truly doesn't want to hurt his friends and coworkers unless they give him no choice.
  • He stops one of his men from killing Miles in the aftermath of the City Hall attack.
  • When snooping around Li's office, Peter finds a letter Li wrote to Aunt May that attempts to apologize for all the horrible things she'll hear about him on the news and states that for all his villainy, he genuinely believed in all the good the F.E.A.S.T. Foundation did and hopes she'll be able to carry on that good work even after he's arrested.
    Li: Dear May. Very soon, you'll hear stories about me. Stories that I'm a terrorist and a murderer. Those stories will be true. But the story we wrote together— the story of F.E.A.S.T. — is also true. I want you to know that I always believed in our mission. It wasn't a front, or a show. It was an honest expression of my heart. When you help someone, you truly help everyone. Please don't let my failings shake your belief. You are strong, May; Strong enough to write a new story of F.E.A.S.T., one undaunted by my faults. Thank you for all you've done.
• The Power of Hate: His powers are fueled by his negative emotions, particularly his hatred for Osborn. The more he gives in to his rage, the stronger his powers get. However, it's implied that his powers are also creating a Superpowered Evil Side within Li that causes him to act on his darker impulses.
• Redemption Earns Life: Martin pulls a Heel–Face Turn during the sequel, and out of the Villains captured by Kraven, he is one of only two to survive.
• Secret-Keeper: He figures out the identities of both Spider-Men as a result of using his powers to look into their minds, but his Heel–Face Turn means he has no intention of exploiting this knowledge.
• Self-Made Orphan: The moment he gained his powers as a kid, Li immediately lost control and accidentally killed his own parents. Despite blaming Osborn for their deaths, he holds himself partly responsible as well, and it hasn't helped his sanity.
• Seriously Scruffy: In Spider-Man 2, he has longer hair and a beard, a far cry from his clean and neat appearance in the first game.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Played with. He runs a homeless shelter and is well known throughout New York as a humanitarian, and turns out to be the supervillain/crime boss Mr. Negative, causing a lot of damage throughout the city for the sake of getting back at Norman Osborn as it was Osborn's experiments that gave him his powers and led to the deaths of his parents. However, Martin genuinely enjoyed being the head of the F.E.A.S.T. Foundation, and he makes it clear that his desire to help those less fortunate than himself was sincere; Peter even finds a journal entry where he openly questions going through with his plan because it'll ruin all the good he's done.
• Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: As a child, Martin suffered from an unspecified but serious illness. One experimental medical treatment later and well... look at him now.
• Spared, but Not Forgiven: In the second game. Just before a Battle in the Center of the Mind to free Peter of the Venom Symbiote's corruption, Miles takes an opportunity to speak with Li. Essentially, Miles says that, even though he's confident that Li's Heel–Face Turn is legit and will let go of his need for vengeance, Miles can ultimately never forgive Li for causing his father's death. Li appears to sadly accept this conclusion.
• Stalker Shrine: Has one of Osborn in a hidden room.
• Super-Empowering: He can gift his Demons with lesser versions of his powers and when he needs a boost of power himself, he can take it back... though this seems to kill them.
  • Works out in the sequel, too. Li's use of his powers on the symbiote awakens Anti-Venom powers in Peter, helping him fight off the symbiote.
• Superpowered Evil Side: It's less distinct and less science-fiction than in his comics. Before Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, he referred to his Mister Negative persona as his inner demon and took medication to avoid lapsing into it but when Norman became mayor, he felt his control slipping despite increasing his dosage.
• Sword Beam: He can fire these by channeling his energy through his sword.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: A variation. Much of the snippets about his character, especially when he falls further into his Villainous Breakdown, make it clear that Li blames himself for his parents' death as much as Osborn and considers himself a monster. He ultimately chooses to don the Mr. Negative identity not just because of revenge, but because he feels he has no choice and does not deserve to be otherwise.
  Li: My parents died because of me!
• This Is Gonna Suck: Though he speaks some decent bravado during his boss fights, he beforehand gives an expression that mixes Oh, Crap! with exasperation, implying he knows Spider-Man is a foe he can't defeat easily. Not helped by how Spidey has proven able to resist Li's corrupting powers.
• Token Good Teammate: Out of the six, Martin is the only one who has an inner struggle with his superpowered negative side, and goes through several Heel Realizations over the course of the story. He even undergoes a full Heel–Face Turn in the sequel, helping Miles to save Peter from the symbiote's corruption.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Has mellowed out significantly in the sequel, instead of continuing his crusade against Norman once he gets out of the raft, he decides to help give Peter the Anti-Venom suit.
• Tragic Villain: Li was initially just a young boy suffering from a disease who gained superpowers via Norman Osborn and ended up accidentally killing his parents because of it. His villainy stems from simply wanting to avenge them by destroying Norman and he does genuinely think he's doing the right thing.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Downplayed. While Li is a skilled swordsman and has enough martial arts prowess and superhuman strength to trade blows with Spidey on relatively equal footing, he mostly utilizes large and impractical energy attacks like his Battle Aura, which not only leaves him open to attacks but often tires him out quickly, implying that he's never had to use his powers in a serious fight before. This is much more evident in his first fight, which is also Li's first real fight with another superhuman, where his attacks are slow, heavily telegraphed, and easily avoidable. He's also the first boss both requiring no complex strategy to defeat ^note as Spider-Man had to pin Shocker under a piece of structure to defeat and had to custom make an antidote to Tombstone's powers to weaken him first and which Spider-Man walked away from neither injured or fatigued ^note Kingpin left visible damage on Spider-Man and Spidey is visibly winded after defeating Tombstone. Notably, his time during his captivity inside the Hunter zoo in 2, meant that he managed to train his powers, enough, that he doesn't tire out upon unleashing his negative energy, while protected by a barrier at the same time. Requiring Miles' Evolved Venom powers to stun and leave him vulnerable for a beatdown.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He's a mob boss in charge of the Demons, but he's also a big-time humanitarian who runs a homeless shelter. When Spidey sees him on the scene at the New York bombing, not even Yuri, his Friend on the Force, believes his claims until he can find concrete evidence against Li.
• Villainous Breakdown: As his hatred for Osborn grows, it begins to take a toll on his sanity. Over the course of the final battle, Li devolves from a sophisticated crime-lord into a screaming, vengeful, hate-filled wreck of a man driven purely by his desire for vengeance.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wants to kill Norman as vengeance for killing his parents. Granted, it was an accident and Li is exaggerating it, but he genuinely thinks he's doing good.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He completely vanishes from the story after being taken out by Doc Ock. For all we know, the hit from Otto killed him. Lampshaded by the Daily Bugle during the DLC campaign, where a headline inquires about his whereabouts. In Spider-Man 2, it's revealed that he was imprisoned back on the Raft some time after the events of the first game.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He's the leader of a violent gang, and as Mr. Negative, his hair turns white.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: On both the giving and receiving end. After corrupting Dr. Isaac Delaney and forcing him to give the name of the doctor who created the Devil's Breath virus, he has Delaney kill himself. When defeated by Spidey in the final battle, Octavius calls him useless and tosses him aside.

Max Dillon / Electro

Maxwell "Max" Dillon / Electro

Voiced by: Josh Keaton (English)^{Other Languages} Luis Fernando Orozco (Latin American Spanish), Nobutoshi Canna (Japanese), Stanislav Tikunov (Russian)

Appearances: Hostile Takeover | Spider-Man

One of Spider-Man's longtime enemies, Electro has the power to produce and manipulate electricity.

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• Ax-Crazy: Certainly a cackling maniac who enjoys what he does too much.
• Bald of Evil: Like the Ultimate version of the character, he's completely bald.
• Cop Killer: He's repeatedly noted as having murdered police officers before.
• Costume Evolution: While his in-game costume is a high-tech suit built by the Mastermind, someone at a Halloween party can be seen wearing a costume based on his original outfit — and he has scars evocative of his original costume's mask.
• Dual Boss: Spidey has to fight him and Vulture at the same time.
• Faux Affably Evil: Mixes some friendly banter and jokes with Spider-Man as he tries to murder him.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Like Shocker before him, Spidey must chase him down during the jailbreak at the Raft.
• Goal in Life: Electro wants to take his power to its logical conclusion and become an Energy Being.
• Godhood Seeker: His ultimate goal is to become a being of pure energy.^*WITHOUT PA— wait, sorry, wrong game.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Spidey can damage him by destroying one of the transformers with his webs.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Villainous version. Spider-Man's in-game bio states that if Electro gets smarter and learns to harness his powers he could be a much bigger threat, and a villain that Spider-Man doubts the Avengers could fully handle.
• Ink-Suit Actor: He's modeled after his voice actor, Josh Keaton.
• Killed Offscreen: In Spider-Man 2, MJ finds Electro's vest and a recording of Kraven deriding Dillon for being poor prey in the Hunters' zoo base.
• Large Ham: Throughout his chase and later during his boss battle.
• Nerd in Evil's Helmet: He gets Spider-Man's movie references and even responds with one of his own, to Spidey's delight.
• Not So Above It All: Despite being a sociopath with a god-complex, he happily plays along with Spider-Man's joke in his and Vulture's boss fight by responding with his own.
  Electro: "Spider-Man! I must break you!"
  Spider-Man: [overjoyed] You got it! You got my joke!
• Not Wearing Tights: His appearance has neither the green spandex nor blue skin, and his clothes look more civilian than anything, with an armored harness on top of them to boost his power. He also keeps his green and yellow color scheme. The star-like scar on his forehead is also a clear reference to the shape of the mask of his original suit. A person wearing his outfit at a Halloween party implies that he did wear that outfit at one point, however.
• Psycho Electro: Befitting the trope namer himself, he's a deranged supervillain with electrical powers.
• Pure Energy: The trope is name dropped as Electro's ambition to become a being of "pure energy".
• Rebel Relaxation: When Spider-Man corners him on the roof of the Raft, Electro is standing against a cell tower resting on it with one foot against the base of the tower before the rest of the Six gather to beat him up.
• Scars Are Forever: Instead of the star-shaped mask, this version has star-shaped scar tissue/burn wounds on his forehead.
• Shock and Awe: He can control electricity, as usual.
• Starter Villain: Although Vulture was Peter's first villain, Electro was Peter's first legitimate supervillain. Before them, Peter had only faced regular street criminals and Fisk.
• Token Flyer: Both Electro and Vulture can fly. However, Electro's powers of flight are an innate part of his powerset while Vulture relies on a Jet Pack.
• Unskilled, but Strong:
  • Described as this in his character bio by Peter. The reason he lost his first fight to Spidey was that he was still getting used to his powers and he burned himself out. Spidey fears that if he ever tapped into his true potential, not even the Avengers would be able to stop him.
  • Becomes Electro's downfall in the second game; his raw power is something to be feared, but against the Strong and Skilled Kraven his inability to utilize his powers to their fullest means Kraven kills him with relative ease and calls him "weak of body and mind" after.
• Villainous Friendship: Unlike Scorpion and Rhino, Electro and Vulture seem to get along really well.
• The Worf Effect: In the first game, Peter considered him a villain who could one day pose a threat to the Avengers. In 2, he is hunted and killed off-screen by Kraven. He didn't even put up the best fight against him; Shocker did.

Adrian Toomes / Vulture

Adrian Toomes / Vulture

Voiced by: Dwight Schultz (English)^{Other Languages} Sergio Moriel (Latin American Spanish), Hōchū Ōtsuka (Japanese), Ilya Isaev (Russian)

Appearances: Spider-Man

One of Spider-Man's earliest foes, the Vulture is equipped with a special bird-like suit that allows him to fly and throw razor-sharp metal feathers.

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• Airborne Mook: As a boss battle.
• Bald of Evil: A bald and murderous old man.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Invoked In Miles Morales, while voicing a fake Vulture, Peter notes that Adrian loves Shakespeare, but always misquotes Hamlet while they fight, and constantly refuses to admit it.
• Butt-Monkey: He constantly gets his ass handed to him by Spider-Man during the Sinister Six's introduction. While all the others get at least one good hit in, Vulture doesn’t manage to land a single punch and is punched/webbed/kicked in the face at least FIVE times during the fight. Spidey even cuts off his introductory taunt by shooting a web in his face mid-sentence.
• The Comically Serious: Doesn't understand, nor tolerate Spidey's quips.
  Spider-Man: "Yo Adrian! It's me, Spider-Man!"
  Vulture: What are you babbling about!?
• Composite Character: His appearance evokes his classic look, but he uses a jetpack to fly and his suit is very armored, clearly inspired by his appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming. A graffiti mural in Hell's Kitchen also depicts him as a Robin Hood figure, a characterization more in line with the Homecoming version of the character, who mostly stole from Tony Stark.
• Death from Above: How he attacks Spidey.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • In the first game, Vulture opens his boss fight by declaring that his feud with Spider-Man will end that night. He turns out to be more correct than either or he or Spidey knew; as he's arrested at the end of the fight and killed by Kraven in his next appearance, that was indeed his last fight with Spider-Man.
  • It's unlikely that Kraven knew or would care, but considering Toomes was also suffering from cancer, by Kraven's philosophy hunting and killing Vulture gave him the good death that Kraven himself is seeking.
• Dual Boss: In the first game, Spidey must fight him and Electro at the same time. And in Miles Morales, he gets fought alongside... himself. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Evil Genius: Peter once describes Adrian as "brainy" compared to his other foes.
• Evil Old Folks: The oldest character in the first game at 76 years old. Still doesn't stop him from putting up a good fight against Spidey.
• Feather Flechettes: He can fire the razor-sharp feathers of his wings like projectiles.
• Handicapped Badass: He may be a geriatric old man suffering from spinal cancer, but that doesn’t stop him from going toe-to-toe with Spider-Man.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The power source for Vulture's Wing Suit has apparently given him spinal cancer.
  • Also how he can be beaten in his boss fights, throwing his knives back at him.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Gets along really well with Electro, who's several decades his junior.
  Electro: Amazing what a little teamwork can achieve, isn't it?
  Vulture: The vigor of youth, the wisdom of experience. A fine pairing.
• Killed Offscreen: In Spider-Man 2, MJ finds Vulture's jetpack and a recording in the Hunters' zoo base of Kraven admitting that while he wasn't sure he'd be able to win at first, he was ultimately able to clip Vulture's wings, and laments that Toomes was not the Worthy Opponent Kraven was looking for.
• Legacy Boss Battle: The Vulture hologram in Miles Morales is pretty much exactly the same fight in the last game, except there's two of them this time.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Spider-Man's improvised dialogue for Toomes during the Holo-Vulture boss fight includes remarks about "Casual racism that isn't worth challenging me on", though it's hard to tell if Vulture actually is prone to racist remarks or if it's just Spidey's classic tendencies to crack jokes at the expense of his enemies.
• Starter Villain: As revealed in Miles Morales, the Vulture was the first supervillain Spider-Man fought, attacking Empire State University at the same time Peter was starting class there.
• Start of Darkness: According to Peter in Miles Morales, as one of Spider-Man's first villains, Adrian attacked Empire State University to try and take out his old research partner, Greg Bestman, who taught class there. In the comics, Gregory Bestman was the catalyst for Adrian's path to villainy after the former embezzled from and fired Adrian on the spot to assume full credit of his research, which led to Adrian becoming the supervillain, Vulture.
• Talk to the Fist: When he first attacks Spider-Man in the Raft, his threats are cut short before he can get started.
  Vulture: Long time no see! We're gonna have so much— [gets a face full of webbing]
• Villainous Friendship:
  • Unlike Scorpion and Rhino, Vulture and Electro seem to get along really well.
  • He and Doc Ock, as fellow scientists, seem to get along. Otto addresses him as "my friend" in his message to him and Vulture praises working for a genius like Otto as a refreshing change of pace during his boss fight.
• Wicked Cultured: He's quite eloquent in his speech.
• Wicked Pretentious: According to Peter in Miles Morales, Vulture tries to come off as cultured by quoting the works of William Shakespeare, but he always misquotes Hamlet and refuses to admit he's wrong when Spider-Man corrects him.

Mac Gargan / Scorpion

MacDonald "Mac" Gargan / Scorpion

Voiced by: Jason Spisak (English)^{Other Languages} Mauricio Perez (Latin American Spanish), Ryūsei Nakao (Japanese), Ivan Litvinov (Russian)

Appearances: Hostile Takeover | Spider-Man | Spider-Man 2

A psychopathic killer who was cybernetically enhanced by an experiment funded by J. Jonah Jameson to kill Spider-Man, he has since turned his talents to supervillainy.

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• Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, Mac Gargan was a low-rent private investigator Jameson hired to find out how Peter managed to get such good news pictures of Spider-Man, and his descent into villainy was largely due to the process that gave him his powers driving him insane. THIS version of Scorpion, on the other hand, was an unhinged lunatic even before getting his powers and outfit, and the process that made him into what he is now has not done any favors for his sanity and sadism.
• Alone with the Psycho:
  • After insulting Rhino one too many times; Rhino charges into him, allowing Spider-Man to trap them both in a cargo container. By the sounds of the yelling within the container, Scorpion isn't having the best time in there. Given that he's a massive Jerkass who deserves it, we'll let Rhino off the hook this time.
  • In Spider-Man 2, Peter discovers through security footage that Scorpion broke the lock of his cage in Kraven's compound; after killing his guard, he laid in wait under the sand for the chance to catch Kraven unawares. Kraven, knowing that Gargan was there, walked calmly into the room anyway, and was left disappointed by the fleeting struggle that ensued.
• And Show It to You: Apparently, the last time Spider-Man and Scorpion fought, Gargan threatened to show the web-slinger what the inside of his own skull looked like.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: He stylizes himself after a scorpion and utilizes poisonous toxins in his attacks. He also hangs off walls and jumps from platform to platform.
• Asshole Victim: After he belittles and mocks Rhino too many times, Rhino decides enough is enough and hits him with what sounds like a pretty fierce No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Considering how unpleasant Scorpion was being, it's hard to feel sorry for him.
  • In the sequel, he's killed by Kraven when the latter impales him with his own tail. Considering all the stunts he's pulled and the fact that he poisoned Miles after tricking the young hero into saving him not too long ago, it's still hard to feel any sort of pity for this psychopath.
• Ax-Crazy: Easily the most deranged of the Sinister Six. To clarify, he takes pleasure in torturing, fighting, and causing destruction, and talks about torture, murder, and killing Spidey in incredibly gruesome ways,. Best shown when he notes that their leader wants to torture Spider-Man, which he respects and appreciates despite wanting to kill him right then and there. Spidey even calls him "Crazy Pants McCrazy" in-universe.
• Back for the Dead: Killed by Kraven not long after his capture by the Hunters.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: A staple for the character. His suit is outfitted with a mechanical tail that can fire off corrosive poison.
• Boisterous Weakling: Mac sure talks a big game about torturing Spider-Man and using his corpse as a toy, but that's where his effectiveness ends. He can only be a threat to Spider-Man by getting the drop on him, has the least health of any of the bosses, and is the only boss in the game affected by Spider-Man's gadgets.
• The Brute: He and Rhino employ different variations of this trope, with Rhino being a violent thug and Scorpion an Ax-Crazy Sadist.
• Butt-Monkey: In his dual-boss fight with Rhino, because Rhino is bigger and stronger of the two bosses, it's possible to let Rhino take out Scorpion and knocking him out of the fight so you'd have one less boss to worry with. Even after the fight is done, Rhino and and Scorpion start bickering at each other, resulting in another fight. Apparently, Rhino won that fight.
• Bullying a Dragon: Their mutual loathing notwithstanding, Scorpion continues to mock and insult the much larger, much stronger, not particularly even-tempered Rhino even after Spider-Man has beaten them both, which leads to an already agitated Rhino deciding to beat Scorpion to a pulp.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Wears a menacing scorpion costume and unlike his boss, Doc Ock, who thinks he's doing the right thing, Mac takes delight in his sociopathy.
• Clingy Costume: His stinger tail is grafted to his spine, so odds are it's not coming off anytime soon.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Is shown starting to torture some Sable henchman, stabbing one through the shoulder with his tail, but he's distracted by Miles before anything else comes of it.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Gargan only really has one trick, and that's to catch his opponent off-guard with his stinger and inject them with a potent dose of his venom or splash them with acid. Against Spider-Man, it's enough to put him on the ropes should Gargan connect. But when that doesn't work or he can't get a sting in, he goes down pretty easily. Notably, Gargan has a major Oh, Crap! moment when Kraven flat-out No Sells his stinger and tears it from his tail, and all Scorpion can do is feebly crawl away from the hunter in fear.
• Cyborg: Jameson mentions that he is one; along with his prehensile tail, he also appears to have three-fingered claws for hands.
• Didn't Think This Through: Dim as Rhino may seem, Gargan is arguably more so for thinking he could belittle the guy who could easily flatten him into a green paste when pissed off enough. Sure enough, he pushes his luck too far when he hits Rhino's Berserk Button and ends up trapped with him for what was likely an extended pummeling.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Scorpion's idea of a clever name for the Sinister Six is "the We Murdered Spider-Man and Used His Corpse For a Blanket Six", which fits with Scorpion's personality, but is so clunky and overly wordy that even Rhino thinks that Scorpion's embarrassing himself.
• Evil Knockoff: The Scorpion persona was crafted to be like Spider-Man, having Super-Strength, being able to cling to walls and even has an arachnid motif of his own. Unfortunately, while Spider-Man is a Guile Hero with a strong moral code, Mac Gargan was a Psycho for Hire with a sadistic streak and is Only in It for the Money, resulting in yet another villain Spider-Man has to deal with.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: It makes him even more like a scary scorpion.
• Faux Affably Evil: Talks to the Sable units that he's torturing like they're good buddies.
• For the Evulz: There is no reason or tragic event for his actions. He only does what he does because he enjoys torturing and killing.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Not himself, but J. Jonah Jameson is the reason he exists as the Scorpion: Jonah funded an experiment to create an "Anti Spider-Man" that would work for good... only to find out too late that Mac was just about the least suitable candidate for such a procedure.
• Hate Sink: Scorpion is the most despicable villain in the main game, as he's the only one without a sympathetic trait, only joining the Sinister Six for money and sadism, on top of being an absolute jerk towards anyone, regardless of affiliation. ^note The leader of the Sinister Six and Li both hate Osborn for different crimes the latter committed, Vulture is trying to cure his cancer, and Rhino wants to get out of his suit. Even Electro genuinely gets along with his teammates and is humorously Not So Above It All.
• Hypocrite:
  • For all the shots Scorpion takes at Rhino's (supposed) lack of intelligence, he proves that he's no paragon of intelligence himself by repeatedly mocking and insulting Rhino, an eight-foot-tall walking tank who already doesn't like him.
  • One of Scorpion's insults towards Rhino is "freak show"; given that Scorpion himself is an Animal-Themed Superbeing with a Clingy Costume, just like Rhino, he doesn't have much room to talk.
• Jerkass: Whether he's taunting Spider-Man or insulting the Rhino, his own teammate, Mac is one massive dick.
• Large Ham: Spends most of his screen time making himself the center of attention and talking in a raspy voice about violence.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Constantly kept berating Rhino during their battle with Spider-Man. He ends up locked in a crate with him at the end of the fight and well, suit or no, it's unlikely he'll come out of that unscathed.
• More Hateable Minor Villain: Mac Gargan/Scorpion is the Sinister Six's resident Hate Sink. While the Master Planner motivated the other villains by promising them a better life (freeing Rhino from his suit and curing Vulture's cancer) or helping them achieve his goals (giving Electro his wish of becoming pure energy and helping Mr. Negative kill Norman Osborn), Scorpion is motivated only by money and opportunities to indulge his sadism. He poisons Spider-Man and taunts him as he swings around New York finding the ingredients for an antidote. Once the hallucinatory parts of the poison kick in, hallucinations of Scorpion harass Spidey, crossing a line by mocking Uncle Ben's death. To make him even more infuriating, he's completely incapable of backing up any of his tough talk, relying on sneak attacks and Spider-Man being overwhelmed by numbers in their two fights. In his boss fight, his contributions consist of screaming insults at Rhino and throwing easily-dodgeable poison attacks, all the while talking a big game of killing Spider-Man and keeping his corpse as a trophy. All this to say, most players understood when Rhino snapped after one too many insults and turned on Scorpion to deliver a long-due beatdown.
• Never My Fault: After Spider-Man defeats him and Rhino, Scorpion starts insulting Rhino and tells him Octavius will be displeased with his failure, even though he's equally at fault.
  Scorpion: Do you know what Octavius'll do if he finds out you failed?!
  Rhino: I failed?
  Scorpion: Yes you, freak show!
  [Rhino starts charging Scorpion and at the moment, Gargan realizes how badly he screwed up]
• Only in It for the Money: While the rest of the Six have personal reasons for working together with Octavius, reasonable or otherwise, Mac's chief motivation is getting paid a lot of money and having his gambling debts erased. Of course, he also admits that he'd gladly kill Spider-Man for free either way.
• Poisoned Weapons: His Tail is equipped with poison that takes Spidey out of the first fight with the Six and later causes Spider-Man to hallucinate poison in the streets of New York, giant scorpion tails, and multiple versions of himself and Doctor Octopus.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: One of his insults towards Rhino is "red menace", a term for a communist which was used as a slur for Russians.
• Primal Stance: Spends a lot of time on all fours, most notably when fleeing from an enraged Rhino.
• Psycho for Hire: He's openly Ax-Crazy, joining the Sinister Six for money and sadism. During his Boss Battle, he openly admits that he'd gladly "rip Spider-Man's face off" for free, and getting paid for it is "a bonus."
  Scorpion: [after poisoning Spidey] Me, I'd end it here. But Octavius is paying, and he wants to torture you... which I respect.
• Sadist: Mac is by far the most bloodthirsty of the Six, and delights in making violent threats of torture; while the others only go so far to mention frying or trampling Spidey, Scorpion taunts him with descriptions of cracking his skull open and making a blanket out of his skin.
• Sanity Slippage: While Gargan was hardly a picture of mental health before his procedures, it's mentioned in Spider-Man 2 that Stillwell's continued experiments deteriorated his mental state even further.
• Smug Snake: Incredibly arrogant whenever he's torturing someone, even going far as to say if he wanted to, he could kill Spider-Man easily. It's mostly bark, however, as he's a complete pushover in the fight with Rhino, possessing less health, being vulnerable to basic web attacks, and can be taken out pretty quick if Spidey gets Rhino to run him over.
• The Sociopath: A low-functioning example. He is sadistic, superficially charming, lacks empathy or a conscience, and as his relationship with Rhino shows, is incapable of forming emotional attachments. His lack of impulse control also bites him in the ass when he realizes too late that constantly belittling, insulting, and talking down to an almost unstoppable tank of a man probably won't end well for him.
• Stupid Evil: Since he is a sadistic psychopath and a total jerkass in his interactions with everyone, he is very prone to this, to the point where he's Too Dumb to Live. For one, he continually taunts and demeans Rhino until he finally has enough and pummels him senseless. On a small level, he's deplorable at banter, something even Rhino points out.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Rhino. They can barely stand to work with each other as they team up to fight Spider-Man. Spidey can exploit this during the boss fight by tricking Scorpion into attacking Rhino with his poison, or getting Rhino to trample him underfoot.
• Ungrateful Bastard: How does he repay Miles for saving him? By poisoning him with his stinger of course.
• The Worf Effect: Scorpion's poison is strong enough to affect both Peter and Miles once injected, sending both on extended trips stuck inside their own minds before they can create an antidote or shake it off. When he stabs Kraven with his tail, Kraven just tanks it and stabs him back, killing him.

Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino

Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino

^{Click here to see his Roxxon Upgrade}

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore (English)^{Other Languages} Alfredo Basurto (Latin American Spanish), Jin Yamanoi (Japanese), Vladimir Antonik (Russian)

Appearances: Spider-Man | Spider-Man: Miles Morales

A former Russian mob enforcer who had an experimental combat suit grafted into his skin and desires to be free, by wreaking havoc and destruction in his wake.

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• Adaptational Badass: The Rhino is generally treated as a B-level supervillain, bordering on C in the comics. With the increased intelligence he gets in Spider-Man, this one is an unstoppable brute that can easily take two Spider-Men on at once. He actually defeats Spider-Man in a one-on-one fight, which he's almost never done and is only defeated by Miles due to the latter developing his venom blast.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Downplayed. This portrayal of Rhino is a little different than most interpretations of the character. In the comics, Rhino was specifically chosen because he had no education and lived in poverty, making him desperate enough to take the suit and was believed to be dumb enough to follow orders without question.
  • In the game, Rhino's flaw isn't necessarily his stupidity, but his wrath and desperation because Rhino is quick-tempered and thinks irrationally when angered, something that Peter takes full advantage of by provoking him during the fight and luring him into traps.
  • If Octavius is to be believed, Rhino has an artistic side due to taking classes in prison and he specifically has an affinity for poetry, but he doesn't show it very well during the fight due to his irrational anger. Rhino is also shown to be cunning in Miles Morales because he's able to manipulate Phin into attacking him and Miles by referencing the death of her brother. He even tries to bargain with Spider-Man in the main game by pointing out that he's only interested in getting his suit removed and Spider-Man could be free of him if he lets Rhino have what he wants.
  • It's also worth noting that he's one of the two villains in the cast to have learned a second language ^note  English is said to be quite challenging because of its large vocabulary, tricky grammar, and challenging pronunciation so he might just be having difficulty speaking more fluently in English than his native Russian.
• Adaptational Sympathy: All he wants in this game is to be free of the armor that's trapped him for all these years—a promise of which Otto intends to fulfill—rather than stay in it like many of the other Rhinos beforehand.
• Adaptational Villainy: Comics Rhino has mellowed over the years and actually made a Heel–Face Turn for a while. This Rhino is a brute who kills and causes destruction without a second thought.
• Adaptational Wimp: At the same time, Miles' Venom Blasts are something of a Kryptonite Factor here, whereas in the comics he is one of very few characters to have shrugged it off without any discomfort whatsoever.
• Ambiguous Situation: He is the only member of the Sinister Six to not show up or even get mentioned in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and as a result it's never revealed if he is still imprisoned at the Raft like Doc Ock, or if he was among the villains who got captured and killed by Kraven. A Dummied Out part of Kraven's trophy room would have revealed he was indeed killed with his head mounted on the wall alongside the other killed villains, but due to being scrapped content and other inconsistencies with the final game^note Electro is absent from the trophy room but is one of Kraven's confirmed victims in the final game it's unclear whether this should still be treated as canon.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: His suit is directly themed after a rhino and his battle style is to charge into anything that moves and smash it to bits. Coincidentally, Rhino also has anger issues that frequently surfaces during the boss battle with Scorpion against Spider-Man.
• Arch-Enemy: He is a recurring nemesis for Miles Morales, dating back to before Miles became Spider-Man, as Rhino terrorizes Miles in a stealth mission in the first game, before becoming The Dragon to Simon Krieger and fighting Miles twice in Miles Morales.
• Ascended Extra: In the first game, he was just another member of the Sinister Six and didn't get a lot of time to shine. In Miles Morales, he's the guy who kicks off the plot by escaping confinement and rampaging through the city, nearly killing Peter and awakening Miles' venom powers in the process. He also becomes Simon Krieger's chief goon in the endgame and kidnaps Miles and Phin for him.
• Atrocious Alias: At some point in the past, he tried to use "Santa Clause" as an alias in the United States.
• Ax-Crazy: Not to Scorpion's level, but Rhino is a violent, foul-tempered brute who's more than happy to bulldoze his way through Manhattan, utterly uncaring of whoever gets in his path of destruction.
• Blessed with Suck: His suit grants him superhuman strength and durability, but he can’t take the suit off and hates being stuck in it. He joins the Sinister Six because its leader promised to remove the suit from him.
• Berserk Button:
  • Making fun of how he looks in the suit is a definite do not. A conversation between two inmates in the first game during one of Miles' stealth missions reveals that Rhino once crushed a man's skull for making a crack about his suit. Scorpion calling him a "freak show" was the last insult Aleksei could stand before charging at him.
  • He also really doesn't like being duped into a Wild Goose Chase. Mentioning multiple times in both the first game and in Miles Morales that he hates "Chase of Goose".
    Miles: You know man, chasing you through the city, kinda felt like a wild, uh... *beat* What's the word? Wild GOOSE chase.
    Rhino: Wild... goose? No. NO! I HATE CHASE OF GOOSE!
• The Brute: Technically fills the role alongside Scorpion but Rhino plays it straighter. He's big, strong and short in the brains department.
• Buffy Speak: Mockingly refers to Miles' venom powers as "zappy pops".
• Bullfight Boss: As usual, Rhino attacks by charging at Spidey, though he mixes it up by throwing heavy objects at Spidey if he’s too far away. Spidey has to first stun him using equipment around the construction site before attacking him. This can be used to hurt or even defeat Scorpion if he's tricked into running him over.
• Clingy Costume: His costume is bonded to his skin due to a genetic experiment on him, and his reason for joining the Sinister Six is for its leader to remove it for him. He also starts working for Roxxon in hopes that they can remove it instead, but Simon Krieger's just stringing him along.
• The Comically Serious: Reacts to Scorpion's "jokes" by telling him that he's embarrassing the both of them. Reacts to Spidey's jokes the same way.
  Spider-Man: So you guys and Octavius; you have a name yet? The Scary Six? The Dirty Half Dozen?
  Scorpion: How about the "We Murdered Spider-Man and Used His Corpse For a Blanket" Six?
  Rhino: Gargan... please. You embarrass yourself.
• Composite Character: His armor appears robotic like his Ultimate counterpart, but it's clear that most of his mass is his enhanced body. His Russian accent also evokes Paul Giamatti's portrayal in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
• Cursed with Awesome: He's a walking, talking tank but the suit he wears is bound to his skin and thus he cannot remove it. The leader of the Sinister Six promised to remove it after he helps him in his vendetta against Osborn.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: During the fight, he tells Spider-Man that he's only interested in getting the suit removed and that he'll quit the criminal life once it's taken off.
• Deadpan Snarker: He rarely jokes, but he pulls one out in the opening of Miles Morales after rampaging through a shopping mall, beating Peter and moving on to trying to kill Miles.
  Rhino: This Spider-Man is broken. I would like to exchange for new one.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He really doesn't like being called Rhino to his face, referring to himself with his real name.
• The Dragon: For Simon Krieger in Miles Morales. Rather than turning him over to the police, Krieger instead outfits him with better armor and makes him his muscle.
• Dual Boss: In the first game, he and Scorpion are both fought at the same time.
• Dumb Muscle: Not exactly in the traditional sense: Doc Ock claims that he's something of a poet and Rhino himself seems less dumb and more foul-tempered and impatient, but he doesn't put too much thought and strategy into what he does: his fighting style begins and ends with smashing through everything in his path. Since he's nearly unstoppable, it works out quite well for him. His dialect is also a result of speaking a second language as he's shown to be more articulate and fluent in Russian than in English.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Implied, when Rhino is speaking in English, he speaks less fluently and eloquently than he does in native Russian. As he says "It is chase of goose" while hunting Miles but is able to threaten the soldiers more effectively by speaking Russian.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's appalled by Scorpion's lack of principles and sense of humor.
  Spider-Man: Rhino's getting his suit removed... what did Octavius promise you, Scorpion?
  Rhino: Money. Gargan has no principles. He fights for profit.
  Scorpion: Untrue. I'd rip Spider-Man's face off for free. The money's a bonus.
• Evil Is Bigger: Dwarfs every other character (including Wilson Fisk and Tombstone) in the first game and Miles Morales, and it remains unclear just how much the suit adds to his already very, very large frame.^note Much like Killer Croc in the Arkham franchise, his profile doesn't seem to take into account how big he is; his height is listed as 7'5" (a foot higher than his comic book counterpart) and his weight as 710 pounds, but the version seen in-game is at least 10 feet tall and several tons heavier. It's possible his stats are supposed to be without the suit, and it's less form-fitting than it looks. Only a fully cybernetic Hammerhead could rival his height.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He constantly speaks in a deep and intimidating tone, to the point it sounds like he's snarling while talking, as befitting of a perpetually pissed-off man dressed like a rhino.
• Fatal Flaw: Wrath, Rhino is quick-tempered and is prone to explosive irrational anger when provoked. Peter takes full advantage of this during the fight by making jokes and using the environment against him by getting Rhino to charge into him. Peter can even have Rhino knock out Scorpion by charging into him while he's on the ground.
• Freudian Excuse: The fact of turning into Rhino and being trapped for years in that suit could certainly have contributed to his violent behavior. In fact, he wishes for freedom from his suit and his identity as Rhino, and joins Doctor Octopus to do so.
• Hidden Depths: In Miles Morales, he claims to enjoy fly fishing on the river Volga when Miles asks if he has any non-violent hobbies. Subverted when his reason for it is the thrill of controlling life and death. Still, he definitely doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd be patient enough for something like that at first glance.
• Husky Russkie: He's massive, Russian, and formidable in combat.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: His reason for joining Doc Ock is wanting to get rid of the Rhino suit.
• Informed Attribute: His intelligence is constantly made fun of by Scorpion and Spider-Man but, to his credit, Rhino learned a second language and is said to be taking poetry classes in prison. The insults from Scorpion imply that he is racist as he calls Rhino a "red menace" and Spider-Man is only calling him dumb so Rhino would lose his temper and focus. In Miles Morales, he succeeds in turning Miles and Phin against each other though emotional manipulation as he talks about how Phin's brother died and how she could only watch as it happened.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: Rhino may have become The Dragon to Simon Krieger, but the former is still regarded as Miles Morales’ Arch-Enemy due to being his most reoccurring nemesis, while Miles doesn’t have much of a personal conflict with Simon beyond learning that Simon is the reason why Miles’s friend Phin has become the villain The Thinker.
• The Juggernaut: He's huge, he's practically invincible, he's insanely strong, and he's got a metal horn that allows him to crash through whatever's in front of him when he charges.
• Kick the Dog: Once he's defeated near the end of Miles Morales, he taunts Phin about the death of her brother while blaming it on her, just to be a dick.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fittingly for being based on a rhino, he's really big and really fast; the only barrier his size presents to his speed is that he's got to brace himself before he runs. As shown in Miles Morales, if he doesn't lose his momentum, he can run at full tilt for minutes without getting even slightly tired, and facing him head-on requires a lot of quick dodging until Miles can charge up a Venom punch.
• The Mafiya: Very Russian and was a mob enforcer before he became the Rhino.
• No Indoor Voice: He's always angry and shouts every time he speaks.
• Noodle Incident: For anyone out of the loop on the Mythology Gag, the alias "Santa Claus" in his bio might raise a few eyebrows.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He's basically a walking, talking tank who speaks in broken English and has the mentality of an angry teenager.
• Recurring Boss: In Miles Morales, he's fought twice.
• Rhino Rampage: What his suit is based on, which him fight like a berserker.
• Sadist: While he may want to be freed from his suit, it doesn't stop him from reveling in the death and destruction he causes.
• Shockwave Stomp: He can create a small but powerful shockwave by stomping the ground, injuring Spidey if he gets too close.
• Super-Strength: Thanks to the armored, robotic suit he's bonded to, he's strong enough to rip boulder-sized chunks of concrete out of the ground, and can hurl them dozens if not hundreds of feet.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Scorpion. The two of them constantly get in each other's way and insult one another as they try to take down Spider-Man. Spidey can exploit this during the boss fight by tricking Rhino into charging Scorpion.
• Uncertain Doom: The last time he's seen on-screen in Miles Morales is when the Tinkerer drives a sword right through his chest. Alleviated by the second game's trailer, where Kraven's overview of NYC confirms Rhino survived and was sent back to the Raft. The game has an unused area where Rhino's mounted head appears as one of Kraven's trophies, but unlike Vulture, Shocker and Electro (who also appear as trophies) nothing in regular gameplay suggests his death..
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Interestingly, in the comics, Rhino actually has a family and came to the United States to provide for them. In the game, there is no mention of his family.
• Unskilled, but Strong: After spending years in the suit, Rhino is complacent with his usual tactic of enduring every hit and attacking anything that moves. As a result of his anger, he fights wildly and relies on overkill tactics that either destroy the environment or leave civilians at risk.
• Unwitting Pawn: He's teaming up with Roxxon so they can get his suit off him, but is oblivious to the fact that Simon Krieger has no intention of doing so and wants to milk his brute strength for everything it's worth.
• Upgraded Boss: After Miles defeats him at the start of Miles Morales, he returns donning armor provided to him by Roxxon which enables him to resist Miles's Venom attacks and see Miles when he's invisible.
• Villain Has a Point: During his boss battle, Rhino accurately points out that if he does manage to get his suit removed, he'll be much less of a headache for Spider-Man.
• Warrior Poet: Subverted; although he's not quite as much of a mindless brute as most people would assume, he also doesn't seem to have the artistic side he claims he does. Either he's much more poetic and articulate in private or Doc Ock was just trying to be polite when describing Rhino as such in his taped message to him. On the other hand, given his imperfect English, perhaps his poetic side is best heard in his native Russian tongue.
• The Worf Effect: Rhino is already a formidable opponent by the first game, but becomes even stronger in Miles Morales, nearly killing Peter at the beginning and posing certain death to a comparatively inexperienced hero like Miles — making it a big deal when Miles' newly-manifested Venom punch is able to knock Aleksei on his back and stun him for a moment. Played with, in that Miles clearly took the big guy by surprise and it still takes a lot of those Blasts to wear him down for good once he's back on his feet. Not to mention that Peter was just badly weakened from taking a point-blank gas tank explosion, which Miles was lucky to avoid himself.
• Worthy Opponent: Comes to see Miles as this, and genuinely respects him in his own twisted way.
• Would Hurt a Child: Despite the fact that Miles Morales is more of a teenager than a child, he has absolutely no problem attacking him. He also doesn't give a damn about the baby he's about to run through during his rampage in a mall.
• You No Take Candle: He speaks with imperfect English and mixes his native Russian in his dialect.
  Rhino: [interrogating two Sable agents] Supply routes and schedules. Now! Я сказал- ^TransYa skazal = I said

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