Interesting, don't read Marvel so I didn't know they've rolled out a whole new batch of Spidey-Villains. I've always been in the minority, where is I think Spider-Man has some of the worst villains in comic-book history but a few of those best seem interest. Mr. Negative has a pretty cool look, could totaly see him as a Bat-villain.

No Anti-Vennon in the "Worst" list?
Are you retarded, good sir?

Spider-Man does have a terrible group of villains for one of the flagship Marvel titles... This is most likely why I gravitate towards Batman. He has some cheesey villains but for the most part they're all great in their own right.

I dropped Spider-Man as soon as Brand New Day started, so I can't really comment on Raptor as being the #1 worst. But I hope you're not saying that anything in any way related to the Clone Wars is therefore the worst, because that's getting old.

The Clone Wars went on too long and had its share of stupidity, but it had its good moments, too, like the Scarlet Spider, the death of Aunt May and the daring idea that Ben was the real Peter Parker. Ben Reilly was good as a character, I felt; the travesty was the way they quickly killed him off in order to restore everything to the norm.

@Obvious

Anti-Venom is a hero, this is a list of Villains, Muck-Tard.

Anyway good list Matt. I always thought Spider-man was known for having some of the cheesiest and worst rouge galleries in comics. The Green Goblin and Venom are really where he peaked, and even some of the other good ones are just rip offs of those conventions.

A lil off topic but you wouldn't be the same Matt Wilson that used to moderate over at Toon Zone and even earlier the CNX boards ? Because if so, this is MSX !

Honestly, Screwball's soon-to-be-dated gimmick makes her more endearing than most of the other characters on this list.

Red Vulture? A guy who pukes acid? i think the guy's a bit mixed up on what vultures could do. Surely, if you're gonna ripoff a pre-established villain's name, you'd go for The Human Fly. Hell, it'd work thematically since the original was just a dude in a fly suit (well, he had fly strength and powers, but really, the goofy yellow suit), and the original theatrical fly was a dude with a fly head and claw, and the remake had the whole acid spit thing. Just saying...

Good list, though. Like to keep abreast of the ludicrousness of the flagship titles.

I haven't read Spidey since the Clone debacle in the 90's. Doesn't look like I've been missing much. At least I still have my Kraven's Last Hunt trade.

I too gave up on Spidey back at the beginning of the Clone Saga. I did read a few issues when JMS and JR, jr were on the Amazing Spider-Man, but that's it. Truth be told, I miss the old days of the early 80's with the original Hobgoblin and the late 80's with the intro of Venom. They were the last, great Spidey villains to date I feel. Hopefully this Mr. Negative can rise to the top of this new batch.

I should add that I do like the sound of Screwball. It's good to have the occassional "badguy" who is more opportunist than "pure evil".

@MattK

Actually, they did makeover the Human Fly. He's in The Punisher as one of the Scourge of the Underworld victims resurrected by the Hood.

And yep, he vomits acid. On hookers.

See, I liked anti-venom in theory, but only read a few issues with him in it then dropped spiderman again because the stories didn't really catch my interest that much

i was surprised anti venom did not get on the worse list. plus i would have had Menance at number one since she is the most messed up of all the new rogues. and paper doll should have been on the worse list mostly that she turns people into paper. as for the best list. just shows marvel has figured out to keep spider man fresh make his rogue gallery keep up dates instead of the same old battle with the orginal though the new Kraven looks like she needs to hunt down some artist to give her a new make over.

This should have just been called the 10 Worst New Post-Brand Day Spider-Man Villains.

I agree on this list on almost everything except that Menace should be number 1 on the "worst."

When I saw this list I assumed Paperdoll was a shoe-in for worst.

But then again, I liked Raptor, as i was just getting into Comics during the clone saga, so more Ben Reilly the better

I'd agree that Screwball is kinda enduring. I always like characters that manage to drive Spidey insane, since that's his gimmick.

And wasn't Parkour "trendy" back during Casino Royale? Now it's just something that's out there, especially after Mirror's Edge flopped.

Red Vulture just struck me as the result of someone at Marvel reading the Red Lantern stuff at DC and wanting to do a not-so-subtle parody.

I have to admit, in spite of some missteps (whenever the book has tried to be serious, such as Joe Kelly's inexplicably humourless story), ASM's been consistently readable, which is more than I could say towards the end of the previous group. I frankly expected that, since Wacker's a quality editor and adding guys like Waid and Slott couldn't be screwed up, but it's a shame that they had to turn so many people off with the One More Day stupidity beforehand.

Raptor has a plethora of pouches.

Anything Post-Brand New Day is horrible. It got me out of comics pretty much and I haven't been able to get back in. I've tried but every time I think my favorite superhero is in an alternate universe that wont end just makes me cringe and I go back to playing Xbox.

Screwball feels like a perfect villain from the later seasons of Batman: The Animated Series, like a poor man's Roxy Rocket. I see your point though. She's going to seem real dated. She's fun for now.

Menace isn't necessarily good on her own but the year end story itself was good, if only because they had a lot of issues to spend building it all up. She also has a higher level feel to her. It's a bit more of an oomph when she shows up now.

The concept of someone having a grudge with Reilly isn't bad. The fact that they pulled a mishmash of old Spider-man villain origins to create him is bad.

Pudge is a bit of an idiot. It's just comics man, grow up.

I really love Screwball but I have to admit--she'll seem like Dazzler or something in 2014.

I'm curious to know the age of the person who wrote this article because the writing style makes him seem like a crotchedy old man. It didn't come as any shock to me when it all boiled down to yet another "I hate the Clone Saga!" article.

That is getting to be fairly lame. The Clone Saga was quite interesting. Yes, it got bogged down quite a bit but there's a lot of good there and it's just so silly that so many (older) people refuse to acknowledge it. It's not a cut and dry line by any means but there is a clear divide between older fans who hate the Clone Saga and think Peter should remain a swinging bachelor and younger fans who like the Clone Saga and dig Peter and MJ as a married couple expecting their first child. It's actually kind of ironic that the Clone Saga "killed" the baby...

On an interesting note, the best two stories to come out of "Brand New Day" (which has NOT just been two years of good old Spidey stories despite what the old men say) were the Chameleon story and the new Kraven story.

I dig the classic villains and I even dig new villains as long as they're mixed in generously. I dig good old Spidey stories but there's just no reason to retcon his personal life. There's especially no reason to bring back whiny, crybaby Harry Osbourn.

Spidey has the best rogues galley in comics' history and it shows.

Also, if you think Paper Doll is unique then the Great Lakes Avengers' Flatman would have words with you.

Parkour? Oh I get it! You mean freestyle running! At least I thought what it was called. I called it 'stupid hippies who can't afford skateboards hopped up on pixie sticks and red bull'
Seriously I didn't realize that having ADD and literally bouncing off the walls qualified as a sport.

People still read Spider-Man? My Lord.

Screwball seems a decent enough character for the time we're in, except that she freakin' out-maneuvered Spidey with parkour. That was one of the dumbest things from all of Brand New Day.

The Best list is ok, except for new Kraven. She can go away. I miss Alyosha Kravinoff being cool and Hollywood-ish.

When even the people who worked on the Clone Saga are ashamed at what it snowballed into by the end (it was originally supposed to last a couple of months rather than the monstrous bloated mess it became), I think it's safe to say that it wasn't a good product.

(And I like married Peter just fine. I don't see why you're tying liking that status quo to a bloated abomination of a storyline. Peter and MJ were married for 20+ years, after all - the Clone story was a year of that.)

Glass said:

People still read Spider-Man? My Lord.
Posted 11/10/2009 at 01:15:53 PM

You do realize that Spider-man is still far and away the most popular character in all of comics, correct? It's been that way for years. Even if the product isn't as great as it once was you're in the teeny tiny minority. So when you ask if people are still reading it that just makes you appear ill-informed.

David C, by God, tell me you did not diss Dazzler.

I know it was a one-off that won't be back until the planets align, but how COMPLETELY KICKASS was that Mayan death god Spidey fought during the blizzard?! All punching him across the gutter from other panels?!

I have to say, despite my initial skepticism, Brand New Day has brought back a lot of the fun of the good ol' days of the late 70s/early 80s Spider-Man and I've enjoyed it quite a bit.

I agree with both @MattK and the article on Screwball. I thought her issues were fun enough. And I found humor in the fact that they were just piling so many flavor of the moment gimmicks on her. It is true that she will seem dated, fast: like Rocket Racer, but I also suspect that was kind of the writer's intention.

Interesting rankings. Any plan on doing something similar for the other characters post-Brand New Day? I think there's a least ten of them as well, so one could do a 5 best and 5 worst from those.

@ The Mayor of Awesometown

Spider-Man may be popular, but it hasn't been worth reading since the 90's. In fact, I feel very sorry for anyone who still follows it.

I'll be honest, I kind of love Screwball and (to a much lesser extent) Blindside for exactly the reasons they're on the Worst List. Okay, granted, the love for Blindside is entirely because the Daredevil bit in #600 cracked me up so much, but still.

While I do see Screwball being one of those horribly dated villains who in 15 years will only get page time when the next generation version of Fred Van Lente decides to bring her back for a fun little story, I usually have a soft spot for exactly those kinds of characters.

@ Glass

How can you say something's not worth reading if you're not even reading it to know what's going on?

One More Day was kind of crappy, but everything since BND has been pretty good. It's certainly better than a lot of the shit they wrote for Spidey in the 90s (Seriously... Carnage? Give me a break) and it's a shit-ton better than the lame 90s animated series that so many of the younger crowd seem to cling to as canon (it's not).

I've been reading ASM since the mid-70s, and I read everything from issue #1 onward in the years since then (Thanks to Marvel Tales reprinting ASM 1960s and 1970s issues throughout the 80s) and I still read it today. Feel sorry for me? Why? It's a fun read, and since BND I've looked forward to every issue.

On top of that, they've been publishing ASM weekly, on schedule, since BND. That's a job to be admired, especially when so many comics can barely make their monthly deadline.

ASM is better now than it's been in the past 10 years.

Now BATMAN has been sort of crap since the 90s. It's become a convoluted mess, which is a shame because the character rocks... It's just that DC can't keep their worlds straight and have fallen to the "kill or maim the major character" gimmick too many times. Seriously... Nobody wants to read about Dick Grayson as Batman.

"On top of that, they've been publishing ASM weekly, on schedule, since BND. That's a job to be admired, especially when so many comics can barely make their monthly deadline."

How, exactly? They went from three different Spider-Man books with different names to one title, Amazing, published three times a month. It's not like when Action Comics went weekly in the 80s while DC was still publishing the other Superman titles.

(yeah, yeah, Action Comics Weekly didn't really star Superman. You know what I mean.)

"Now BATMAN has been sort of crap since the 90s. "

Yeah, those horrible runs by Dixon / Rucka / Brubaker weren't worth reading at all. It's not like they produced some of DC's most high-quality, innovative series of the past decade (oh, wait, Gotham Central), gave some weight to female heroes (right, I forgot about Birds of Prey) or created characters that the fanbase adores (it's not like DC was forced to bring Spoiler back from the dead by fan outcry, right?)

"Seriously... Nobody wants to read about Dick Grayson as Batman. "

The sales charts would seem to disagree with you, since Batman and Robin is consistently DC's best selling title that doesn't have the words "Blackest Night" in it, and the other batbooks are doing very well.

The only thing about Brand New Day to remember is eventually, it's going to be rolled into an even more convoluted mess than ever before when a future creative team undoes the whole thing.

It's not a matter of "if," only "when." That simple fact makes the whole thing that much more difficult to stomach.

Screwball kind of bugs me too. Not because of her schtick (nothing wrong with parkour as her gimmick) or her personality, but because she, as mentioned already, outmaneuvered Spider-Man. Gimme a friggin' break. Parker practically INVENTED Parkour, and has VASTLY superhuman speed and agility. No human acrobat should be able to match what Spider-Man can pull off. The fact that Screwball so (ridiculously) outclassed Spidey is just an indicator of how much Marvel has chumpified the guy - he's usually a complete loser screwup in BND.

Even before that, Marvel seemed determined to jam him into the "inexperienced new kid on the block" role, despite the fact that a) he's one of the most experienced, canny fighters in the Marvel U, and b) he's been fighting everyone from purse-snatchers to gods since he was 15.

The new Kraven? She stinks, IMHO. We don't need ANOTHER child of Kraven, much less someone who looks and acts like some MTV diva. Sorry - that's how I feel about her.

Screwball kind of bugs me too. Not because of her schtick (nothing wrong with parkour as her gimmick) or her personality, but because she, as mentioned already, outmaneuvered Spider-Man. Gimme a friggin' break. Parker practically INVENTED Parkour, and has VASTLY superhuman speed and agility. No human acrobat should be able to match what Spider-Man can pull off. The fact that Screwball so (ridiculously) outclassed Spidey is just an indicator of how much Marvel has chumpified the guy - he's usually a complete loser screwup in BND.

Even before that, Marvel seemed determined to jam him into the "inexperienced new kid on the block" role, despite the fact that a) he's one of the most experienced, canny fighters in the Marvel U, and b) he's been fighting everyone from purse-snatchers to gods since he was 15.

The new Kraven? She stinks, IMHO. We don't need ANOTHER child of Kraven, much less someone who looks and acts like some MTV diva. Sorry - that's how I feel about her.

@ ZeroCorpse

I have been reading it occasionally, not following it. Most of Marvel's titles have been shit since the 90's. X-Men is even worse.

Batman is one of the few comic series that have been going strong since the 90's and has consistently been worth reading. Green Lantern is another one that's been doing phenomenally this decade. Batman & Robin is a huge seller, so obviously people want to read it. Also, it's easily one of the best comics on the shelves right now and is well worth the money.

Ironically, Zerocorpse does nothing but knock DC Comics, despite never reading the books.

Amazing Spider-man is the worst book. First we the fans are promised garbage stories that don't mean anything in the form of unmaskings and magical ressurections. We're offered these as stories but basically they just offer us and then ignore them because they're going to be retconned the next year without being explored by writers who know how to write stories with Spider-man. After you do a hyped-up story with an identity revealed to the pubic and not even care enough to do it as the big story because you want the character unmarried or whatever, there's nothing left to do and who cares what happens after that? This book is just empty promises now.

I thought all those 'villians' looked terrible. All of them! Who cares about a guy who sells out the universe like a coward and now he's still supposed to be the hero. They've managed to make this book so unapealing I'll never pick it up again.

It's about three years later and it still feels like we're waiting for that big 'unmasking' story to happen!