Man, picking a top 5 villains is hard for me... I love so many of 'em for so many reasons. And, it's also hard to gauge because a lot of them work well as their own characters. Anyways... My attempt: 1.) Mysterio 2.) Kraven the Hunter 3.) Boomerang 4.) Lizard 5.) Norman Osborn Honorable mention to Black Cat and Venom, who are both great characters, but are more compelling when not villainous. Also, honorable mention to Carnage, who I almost put into the fifth slot because, when he's drawn by the right artist (Mark Bagley and Mike Perkins come to mind), he still gets me super excited. But, he's a force of nature more than a character, and the actual character of Norman Osborn just barely beats him as of right now.
Kraven's Last Hunt. I don't like when people equate dark with good, but man, that story is such a classic. If I had to make a top 5 single issues of Spider-Man list, Web of Spider-Man #31 (the first issue in that story) would be on it. Such a thrilling story about obsession.
Kraven would also present a really interesting opportunity to try and tackle issues of toxic masculinity that are super relevant today, especially concerning teenagers. I've stanned for a Kraven vs. Spider-Man movie for a while now.
Too true, though to be honest ("hot take" incoming), that just makes me wanna see a Kraven's Last Hunt-esque Kraven adapted for a Venom film, lol. Eddie Brock is already a great vessel for addressing toxic masculinity. I have no idea what the future of cinematic Venom is. I hope this upcoming movie strives to be a movie and not a franchise, and I'd love to see symbiote with Spidey and company someday. But, at the same time, if this first film works well enough, I'd love to see Sony use this character as a vessel for some of Spidey's darker stories. For example, the Lizard of McFarlane's "Torment" (with a dash of "Shed") would work great in a Venom film. Kraven was in a Venom arc last year (drawn by Bagley, who I love), and it was a really solid pairing.
My rationale for wanting it to be Spider-Man is because, especially with this particular Spider-Man (scrappy undersized teenager version), there would be fertile ground to explore Kraven "trying to make a man out of him" through their conflict, in a sense. That angle is most relevant to a teenage audience, I suppose. Eddie Brock does present a different and equally important angle to address toxic masculinity in adults, though, for sure.
Save some writing for the Spidey website, Tim. (Joking, of course, but your posts here do have some good ideas for posts.)
lol. Writing random forum posts is easier for me than taking the time to write a blog post I'm proud of, but I did think earlier, "What if I took this energy and put it into actually writing more for Whatever a Spider Can?" Today is a random slower day, though, so I do expect to get something written for you by the end of the day.
I don’t know how the writers could not come up with a better subtitle. Mysterio is my main excitement for this.
Tom said he received the script for Spider-Man: Far From Home and accidentally showed the logo on his iPad.
Part of me wonders whether he really is just so excited that he forgets these are secrets or if it's all staged and he's that good of an actor.
I’m pretty sure some, especially at first, were genuine slip ups. And I think he’s gotten close to slipping more. But I also think they might use it to their advantage to reveal stuff like this.