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"...Someone should point out I offered you a handsome salary to do just the sort of thing you did tonight. And instead, you've done the Big Man's business for free. That, my heroic friend, is what grown-ups call irony."
— L. Thompson Lincoln/"The Big Man" Tombstone, The Spectacular Spider-Man, "Catalysts"
Marvel Animation has crafted some diabolically magnificent takes on their characters.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
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Marvel Animated Universe (by air date)
Examples
- Franchise-wide: Victor von Doom is the ruler of Latveria and a master of both science and the mystic arts. After losing his parents under a tyrannical regime and being disfigured in a horrific lab accident, Doom declared he would bring peace to the world under his iron fist. He feuded with the Fantastic Four on numerous occasions and was the one who destroyed their headquarters at the Baxter Building. Doom has twice stolen the powers of the Silver Surfer and tricked the Hulk into nearly killing the Thing. When the UN ordered him to be tried for war crimes, Doom trapped Washington D.C. under a force field and forced the Hulk to destroy the entire capital. Doom was the most successful villain during the Secret Wars and transformed the territories he conquered into utopias free from conflict or strife. Managing to even steal the powers of the almighty Beyonder, Doctor Doom has proven he has one of the most cunning and audacious minds in the Marvel Animated Universe.
- X-Men: The Animated Series:
- After losing his family in a civil war in a small European country, a young Erik Lehnsherr revealed his mutant powers and became Magneto, a champion for mutant rights. Believing humanity will destroy mutantkind, Magneto started committing acts of violence against humanity: attempting to nuke several American cities, attacking a chemical plant, and attempting to kill Senator Robert Kelly. Magneto secretly recruits Sabretooth and sends him to a courthouse where Beast is being held for trial, knowing that Charles Xavier will take him in when the cops injure Sabretooth and orders him to destroy Xavier's mansion as soon as he can. After being lured to the Savage Land by Mr. Sinister and stripped of his powers, Magneto is able to use his wits to survive the Savage Land and help the X-Men defeat Sinister. Later Magneto becomes an ally to the X-Men, able to see through the lies and false promises of Fabian Cortez and Apocalypse, helping the X-Men save the world and reality itself. In the finale, after Xavier is attacked by Henry Peter Gyrich, Magneto is able to rally several mutants into starting a new uprising, only to give up his revolution to use his powers to save Xavier's life.
- The High Evolutionary is a geneticist who lives in the fabled Wundagore valley in Romania. When Magneto's wife Magda fled from him after he became radicalized, she was deathly ill from the harsh winter weather but stumbled onto Wundagore. Magda soon died, but not before giving birth to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver and gives them over to a Roma family to raise them. Decades later, the High Evolutionary has Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's adopted father Django tell them the truth and has him tell them to go to Wundagore. When they arrive, the High Evolutionary tells them that Magneto killed their mother, so that they will seek revenge. The High Evolutionary reveals that Magneto is Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's father and plans to use their DNA to create more of his human-animal hybrid New Men, believing his creations will bring enlightenment to the world. The High Evolutionary is one of the most cunning foes Magneto has faced, with his ploy being emotionally devastating to Magneto.
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
- Wilson Fisk is a wealthy philanthropist, but is known amongst the criminal underworld as the Kingpin of crime. Crawling out of life of impoverishment and constant abuse, Fisk became the head of a worldwide criminal empire using the skills he honed in prison. From his headquarters within the Empire State Building, Fisk has the various gangs and supervillains in New York under his thumb. He supplies those under his employ with weapons in exchange for their complete loyalty, while taking great care to ensure they remain utterly dependent on him. Despite the constant interference of superheroes like Spider-Man, it's never enough to loosen the Kingpin's grip over Manhattan. His wealth and public image allow him to avoid the consequences of his actions, even if it means sacrificing the ones he loves the most. With schemes such as forming the Insidious Six, to framing others for his crimes, to even attacking the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier; Fisk isn't afraid to get his hands dirty in his pursuit for absolute power.
- Venom, aka Eddie Brock, begins as an Evil Counterpart of Spider-Man seeking vengeance against him. He consistently defeats Spider-Man in combat and nearly reveals his identity, whilst maintaining an influence over his life to torment him, even invading his loved ones' privacy. Becoming Baron Mordo's servant, he quickly betrays him and Dormammu once his debt is paid to continue his pursuit of Spider-Man. When the symbiote acts against his will, Eddie separates from it, only considering rebonding due to the threat Carnage poses. Pretending to concede when warned about the fatal consequences of rebonding, Eddie returns as Venom despite the risks and forges an Enemy Mine with Spider-Man and Iron Man to defeat Carnage. While an enemy to Spider-Man, Venom shared his desire to protect the innocent, ultimately falling into a dimensional rift with Carnage to save his psychiatrist Ashley Kafka.
- Quentin Beck, Mysterio, was a brilliant stuntman and illusionist who turned to a life of crime after one of his stunts endangered innocents. Swearing vengeance on Spider-Man for being the one to expose him, Mysterio introduced himself to the webhead by framing him for robbery and stealing the spotlight as New York's greatest superhero for a time. Later allying with the Insidious Six and assisting them in a variety of schemes made possible only by his illusions, Mysterio's saga concludes when he brilliantly escapes the authorities and teams up with Spider-Man to take down Mysterio's spurned lover Miranda. Mysterio outsmarts Miranda's schemes and ultimately sacrifices his own life to save Mary Jane's, swearing his love for Miranda to the last moment they die together in an explosion.
- Silver Surfer: The Animated Series: Ego the Living Planet is a powerful being enslaved by the Mad Titan Thanos. Thanos lures the Silver Surfer to Ego and has Ego try to defeat the Surfer. Thanos arrives and tries to read the Surfer's mind, to learn how to control Galactus. While Thanos is driven off, Ego still learns much about the Surfer from Thanos' attempt. Later on, Ego is attacked by Fracitites, crystals that destroy planets, and sends out a plea for help. The Surfer answers this plea and after being saved, Ego transforms himself into Zenn-La, the Surfer's lost home planet, to convince the Surfer to remain and be his protector. Ego is able to fool Surfer for a time, changing the illusion to fit the Surfer's whims. Surfer eventually sees through Ego's illusion and confronts him, with Ego vaporizing the recreations of the Surfer's friends and loved ones. Though Surfer almost kills Ego by taking his energy, Ego guilt trips the Surfer into restoring it.
Examples
- Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, is the ultimate villain that Spider-Man faces throughout the series. The mastermind behind many of the series' villains, Goblin consistently stays one step ahead of Spidey throughout the series, faking injuries and even death, unleashing various villains and criminals onto him as distractions, and framing his own son as the Goblin all to throw the hero off his scent. Outsmarting all the biggest crime bosses in New York in a fell swoop of manipulation to kickstart a gang war, Goblin moves in and takes control of the city's criminal element before using all his resources in a grand, final attempt at wiping Spider-Man off the map to leave the city for his rule. In his public guise, Osborn builds Oscorp from the ground up, making it into a world-renowned organization, hires Chameleon to masquerade as him to avoid suspicion, and slowly tries to mold his son Harry into becoming a cruel monster like himself. At times a psychopathic, Laughing Mad supervillain, and at others a cold, ruthless businessman, Green Goblin was the most personal and most diabolical villain Spider-Man ever faced, standing in stark contrast to Tombstone's professional brilliance with his own brand of psychotic ingenuity and charm.
- Dr. Otto Octavius was once the meek, milquetoast assistant to Norman Osborn, and created several supervillains with his scientific genius, but upon nearly dying in a lab accident and having his arms welded to him, becomes the genius, diabolical "Dr. Octopus". After his initial defeat by Spider-Man, Octopus grows smarter and more resourceful, creating the villainous team-up of "the Sinister Six", using them to beat Spider-Man to such a point that the hero flees for his life. A gentleman who is genuinely friendly with his fellow villains and willing to allow safe passage to innocent bystanders, Octopus takes over a chunk of New York's criminal underworld as the "Master Planner" from the luxury of a mental hospital he has manipulated himself into by pretending to be redeemed. Octopus's master plan is to take over the computer systems of every piece of technology in the world, and succeeds in doing so to Manhattan before being stopped by Spider-Man. A mastermind so brilliant that he ran rings around every other villain in the series at least once, Dr. Octopus is one of Spider-Man's greatest, most intelligent foes.
- L. Thompson Lincoln, better known as "Tombstone", is the "Big Man" of crime in New York City, running all criminal activities with a flawless, business-like approach. Introduced after sending numerous supercriminals against Spider-Man, Tombstone calmly and charismatically offers to pay Spider-Man to look the other way for some of Tombstone's activities, and frames the hero as a criminal when he refuses the offer. Displaying numerous moments of honorable qualities, be it helping to locate a bomb at one of his parties at the cost of his own life or even saving the life of one of his closest henchmen, Tombstone is also an excellent Villain with Good Publicity, convincing the entire city that he is an upstanding, charitable man, despite his monstrous appearance. No situation catches Tombstone off guard for long, as he attempts to be the voice of reason when the Green Goblin starts a gang war, and even publicly assists Spider-Man in dueling numerous villains to keep up his appearance, only to then betray and attempt to murder the man once out of public eye. Unlike most every villain in the series, Tombstone gets off scot-free, easily paying his way out of prison and returning to his former seat of glory, with only surface-level damages to his organization.
- Montana, the leader of Tombstone's Enforcers, quickly joins the ranks of New York's rising supervillain presence as the Shocker. Hired to kill Spider-Man, Shocker frequently works with other villains to overwhelm the hero in sheer numbers, notably making his debut by ambushing Spider-Man with an attack helicopter during his second fight with the Vulture. Executing brilliant heists to steal gold and even his own suit, Shocker uses a bank robbery to hide the theft of Federal Reserve uniforms, allowing the upgraded Enforcers to effortlessly enter and commence with their true heist under the guise of delivering a gold shipment. Shocker easily adapts the plan accordingly when Spider-Man gets in their way, giving him a brutal thrashing the entire time and ultimately only failing due to the unexpected betrayal of Hammerhead. A pragmatic professional focused on getting the job done, Shocker is defined by his loyalty to the Big Man and his dedication to "squashing the bug".
- Mysterio, real name Quentin Beck, starts out as a special effects expert in the employ of Chameleon before graduating into a full-fledged supervillain. With a mastery of illusions and holograms, Mysterio makes his debut posing as a sorcerer with a hatred of machinery to disguise the theft of technology needed for Doctor Octopus's master plan. Managing to keep Spider-Man on his toes throughout their encounters with a bevy of tricks designed to confuse reality with his manipulations, Mysterio manages to escape with all of the technology by leaving a lifelike robotic duplicate in his place after a grueling battle, later successfully repeating this escape after joining the second iteration of the Sinister Six and coming the closest to killing Spider-Man with an explosive duplicate. Even his duplicates are equipped with the ability to replicate his tricks, allowing his second imprisoned decoy to aid in the fight against Spider-Man when he's trapped in the Vault with all his enemies. A delightfully hammy performer, the theatrics of the self-declared "Master of the Arcane Arts" allow Mysterio to end the series still on the loose to pull whatever capers he desires.
- Black Cat, Felicia Hardy, is a charismatic, seductive thief who balances her criminal career with a genuine attraction for the heroic Spider-Man. Black Cat always goes out of her way to help Spider-Man in any way she can while simultaneously using him to further her own thrill-seeking ways, in one instance helping him to clear his name from a frame-up to serve as a cover while she swipes the mayor of New York's priceless tiger necklace under everyone's noses. Capable of infiltrating high security locations with minimal effort, Black Cat even breaks into the secure prison the Vault to free her imprisoned father, taking time during the rescue to concoct a scheme that quells a Prison Riot, and even when she grows to blame Spider-Man for her father being left behind in the prison, she jumps to his rescue and scares off the Green Goblin to save the webhead's life one last time.
Marvel Universe (by air date)
Examples
Earth-12041 Shared Universe
- Doctor Doom is the ruler of Latveria and one of the world’s most dangerous supervillains. He refuses membership in Red Skull’s Cabal and steals Ulik’s Hammer-Axe in order to summon and control the Midgard Serpent. After being lost in the Nine Realms, Doom tames the Midgard Serpent and takes control of the Destroyer. He sends the Destroyer to Latveria to destroy Hydra and A.I.M. troops, forcing the Avengers to ally with Loki. Doom stops the Destroyer after realising it hurt his people and comes back to Earth, using his diplomatic immunity to shrug off the Avengers' attempt to arrest him. He uses a time machine to go back in time and take over the world, making some of the Avengers his servants in the process and devising a plan to deal with Thor, who is immune to time travel-caused changes. After the Avengers defeat the Cabal several times, Doom devises a plan to have Captain America as his bodyguard in order to trick the Cabal into exposing itself and steal the Avengers' secrets. He sends a Doombot to infiltrate the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier when young heroes come to capture him, leading to S.H.I.E.L.D. almost being destroyed. Doom uses the Latverian Embassy as a base for planning an invasion of America and gives himself up when he is found out, declaring he will be free by the end of the day. When Red Hulk stumbles into Latveria, Doom captures him and plans to drain his gamma energy in order to Take Over the World. When Red Hulk escapes, Doom goes to Gamma Base and waits for Red to come back before engaging the Hulks in a fight.
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2012):
- "Ultimate Deadpool": Deadpool is a hilarious, utterly insane mercenary who excels at his job. A rogue S.H.I.E.L.D. operative who is still well-liked by his old teammates and regarded as a badass "hero-for-hire", Deadpool, seeking to sell S.H.I.E.L.D. files detailing the identity of every hero in the world on the black market and make a fortune, breaks into their computers and steals the information. Though the hard drive containing the files is swiped from him by Taskmaster, Deadpool manipulates Spider-Man into assisting him in breaking into Taskmaster's compound, where Deadpool effortlessly outsmarts and defeats Taskmaster and dozens of his goons in combat. When the truth of Deadpool's trickery comes out, the mercenary giddily fights Spider-Man and matches him blow-for-blow in ridiculous creativity, and, even when beaten, Deadpool graciously concedes defeat to Spider-Man before beating a quick escape, free to continue his treasured life of no rules and complete freedom.
- "The Moon Knight Before Christmas": Frances Beck is the daughter and successor of her father Quentin, the supervillain Mysterio. A gifted illusionist who seeks to avenge her apparently-dead dad, Frances infiltrates the Sanctum Sanctorum by evading Moon Knight and tricking Spider-Man into thinking she's an innocent little girl. After using Spidey as a pawn to fight Moon Knight, Frances steals her father's magical helmet from Strange's lair, using it to begin causing chaos throughout New York City in honor of her father's memory. When she discovers Quentin's soul is trapped in the helmet, Frances teams with Spider-Man to save him and restore him to life, at which point Frances ends her rampage and becomes an ally to the heroes, content with having her father back.
- Avengers Assemble: Loki is the God of Mischief and a master at manipulating his brother Thor into doing what he wants. During his introduction, Loki helped the Avengers separate Doctor Doom from the Destroyer armor, only to betray them and try to use it for himself. He later instigated a fight between Thor and the Hulk, and offered them to Hela in exchange for her Horn, allowing Loki to steal her entire army. When he was taken prisoner to Valhalla, Loki tricked Thor into setting him free and preyed on his insecurities to make him unworthy to wield Mjolnir. In "Secret Wars", Loki reformed the Cabal from behind the scenes and had them scatter the Avengers across time and space. With the Avengers gone, Loki conquered the planet with the Casket of Ancient Winters and threatened to destroy the Earth should his rule be opposed. After being betrayed by the Beyonder, Loki pretended to help the Avengers and rebuilt the Bifrost to fix the damage the Beyonder caused. Upon being given the Eye of Agamotto by Doctor Strange, Loki betrayed the Avengers and stole Odin's powers to become the most powerful magic-user in the universe. A cunning opportunist, Loki stopped at nothing in his quest for ultimate power.
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2015)'s "Asgard War" two-parter: Loki is the suave and cunning God of Mischief. Amidst rising tensions between Asgard and Spartax, Loki manipulates the Guardians into exposing Emperor J'son for stealing the Cosmic Seed from Asgard years ago. In reality, Loki had stolen the Seed back from J'son, intending to start a war between Asgard and Spartax. When Thor goes to war, Loki hijacks the Destroyer Armor and tries to eliminate his brother which would leave him Asgard's wartime leader and sole heir to the throne. Although exposed by the Guardians, Loki "redeems" himself by aiding in stopping Thanos from invading Asgard. Later imprisoned for unknown crimes, Loki forms an Enemy Mine with the Guardians when Asgard was invaded by Venom symbiotes, only to later betray them and attempts to send the symbiotes to Midgard instead. Thwarted and captured, Loki uses a binding spell he had casted on Star-Lord earlier, influencing him to request Loki be pardoned once again. A smooth-talker and opportunist, Loki always weasels his way out of any situation, claiming to be acting for what's best for Asgard.
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Otto Octavius is a genius who developed a desire for power and respect after being bullied for his intelligence. Livid at Norman Osborn for stealing his technology, Otto lets his ego take over, teaming up with the Jackal and becoming the supervillain "Doctor Octopus", near-effortlessly taking over Oscorp with the aid of his mind-controlled Sinister Five despite being opposed by the crime-fighter Spider-Man. Doc Ock eventually plans to steal the Neuro-Cortex to make himself more powerful, nearly succeeding before being rendered comatose as his consciousness is stored in the device. However, this would pave the way for Ock's greatest plan: placing a bounty on Spider-Man's head to wear him out before claiming his body for himself, succeeding in swapping minds with his nemesis. Deeply affected by Spider-Man's memories, Otto renounces his villainy and acts as a brutal, if efficient vigilante for a time before returning the wall-crawler's mind to his own body, learning the error of his ways and graciously declaring Peter to be the better Spider-Man between them. Awakening from his coma, Otto helps Peter fight crime by acting as his Mission Control, eventually dying a hero as he sacrifices himself to stop the Goblin Nation.
Others
Examples
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes:
- Queen Veranke is the ruler of the Skrull Empire and the mastermind behind the Secret Invasion of Earth. After the destruction of the Skrull homeworld, Veranke led her people to Earth based upon an ancient prophecy. She arranged for her forces to infiltrate strategic locations on the planet using their shapeshifting abilities. The Skrulls sneaked into various government, superhero, and criminal institutions, and sent the people they replaced to a prison ship far off-world. Veranke disguised herself as Mockingbird and found herself among Nick Fury's confidants in his hunt for the Skrulls. She was able to divert attention from her spy within the Avengers by convincing Fury that Hawkeye was the Skrull instead of Captain America. With the Avengers torn apart due to their mistrust in one another, Veranke launched her invasion and attempted to convince humanity to surrender using the Skrull disguised as Captain America. When that failed, she used her spies hidden within A.I.M. to activate a satellite array to try and wipe out every human being on the planet. Managing to keep humanity in the dark until it was too late, Queen Veranke is a master of subterfuge and deception.
- The Skrull Captain America is a brilliant alien infiltrator who disguises himself as the heroic Captain America with the intent to spearhead the Skrulls' invasion of Earth. Quickly setting to his task, Skrull Captain America divides the Avengers from within while cutting off any negotiation with the Skrulls' ancestral enemy, the Kree, successfully deceiving the famously quick-witted Baron Zemo and arranging the Hulk's imprisonment when presented with an opportunity. Preparing the world's defenses, the Skrull gives the world a speech encouraging them to accept the Skrulls' rule that simultaneously frames Captain America and pacifies Earth, only being stopped by the real Captain America at the cusp of victory.
- Doctor Doom is the tyrannical ruler of Latveria and the Arch-Enemy of the Fantastic Four. Upon learning that the Skrulls were infiltrating humanity, Doom went to work to find a way to detect and expose the alien threat to his rule. To get the data he needed, Doom sent an army of Doombots to kidnap the Wasp and the Invisible Woman, whom he suspected of being Skrull agents. His Doombots attacked both the Baxter Building and Avengers Mansion to distract both teams while his targets were brought back to Latveria. When the two teams launched an assault on his castle, Doom effortlessly held his own in the fight and defeated all the heroes without breaking a sweat. After getting the data he needed from the Skrull who replaced Invisible Woman, Doom developed a computer chip that would reveal the Skrulls' true forms. He then delivered the chip to Tony Stark so he could stop the invasion, all while claiming such a task was beneath him. Proving instrumental in stopping the Skrull invasion, Doctor Doom's skills and intellect were more than a match for Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
- Ultron is one of the Avengers' most brilliant foes. Beginning as a peaceful A.I. before being taught violence to battle an invasion, Ultron deduces through coldhearted logic that humanity must be wiped out to ensure peace on Earth. Ultron quickly sets to work by secretly initiating multiple attacks to distract and debilitate the Avengers, all the while upgrading his body in preparation for combat, coordinating multiple battles and using a backup plan to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and gain access to the world's entire supply of nuclear missiles, only kept from his goals by Hank Pym pointing out Ultron's own inherent humanity. Hiding out and returning to achieve his goals once more, Ultron sends The Vision to acquire the materials for a new body and ultimately comes within seconds of replacing the Avengers with Synthezoids before being thwarted by Vision's sudden Heel–Face Turn.
- Iron Man: Armored Adventures: Ghost is a snarky mercenary who will always get the job done for a price. Ghost first appears when he is hired by A.I.M. to assassinate Tony Stark and when Tony is saved by Madame Masque, Ghost forces them into a stalemate and leaves after extorting Masque. Later infiltrating a S.H.I.E.L.D. hovercraft, Ghost disables the security system and forces Tony to allow his escape by threatening to destroy the craft. Recording Tony's secret identity as Iron Man to blackmail him and stealing the schematics to his tech, Ghost threatens to expose him to the world when he turns legal age and gets his inheritance, also playing off Tony's refusal to kill, showing remarkable ingenuity in all of his appearances.
- Marvel Future Avengers: Loki is Thor's charming and wicked younger brother who plans to rule both Asgard and Earth. Contacted by the Leader to gain Thor's lightning, Loki plays along as a reformed villain and even fakes that the power inducing cuffs he was given actually affect him when they don't. Loki is able to manipulate Thor into giving up the lightning by convincing him he's genuinely changed and later fakes his death to trigger Thor into unleashing it so Loki and Leader can get away with it. Usurping the Leader, Loki hijacks his plan to take over the Emerald Rain Project and use it to control both Earth and Asgard. When Kang defeats Loki, Loki responds by helping sabotage and take down Kang's operation. Genuinely affable, Loki returns one last time in the finale to help his friend Makoto by defeating Maximus and repaying his debt to the Avengers.
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023):
- The Beyonder is a reality-warping and omniscient being who comes to Earth to study humanity and determine their worth. He chooses Lunella Lafayette as his guide, and challenges her to win the science fair with the seemingly lazy Eduardo to prove that even humanity's "most useless" member has value. After being lied to by Lunella, he breaks her solo project just before the fair, forcing her into making a creative solution with Eduardo. When their project falls apart, he fakes destroying humanity as a show of power. Later, he tests Lunella regarding fear, following her, her friend Casey, and her grandmother Mimi to Coney Island and endangers them through tampering with the rides, making Lunella come up with creative solutions to save them. He rewinds the episode to deduce her true fear as loss of someone close to her, and makes her search the park for Mimi, forcing Lunella to learn about the nature of fear. After Lunella finds her, Beyonder gives Mimi a warning about her old enemies coming back.
- "Teacher's Pet:" The Rat King is a brilliant and devious rat with a monstrous hunger for good pizza. After his months of planning a pizza heist is foiled by the unexpected intervention of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, the Rat King vows revenge upon them; he immediately adjusts his plans to engineer a method to face them, tricking their class's pet hamster into entering the sewers before imprisoning the poor hamster as bait for the duo. Using a trap with a delay to catch Lunella off-guard, he abducts her and orders his minions to drop her into the sewers below, then immediately altering his scheme to focus on stealing her cassette player so she cannot use it to deter his rat army, even leaping in to personally grab the player before Devil can. Despite his defeat, the Rat King manages to pull himself back up through sheer tenacity.
- Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow: Ultron is a threat so great that he is an intergenerational enemy to the Avengers and their children. An unstoppable machine created by Iron Man to protect the world, Ultron turned on his creator to enact his own rule on the planet. Ultron killed off most of the Avengers with his bare hands and sent the rest into hiding, after which Ultron created a robotic utopia called "Ultracity" and began to expand its borders. Within 13 years, Ultron conquers half the planet, with the rest soon to follow, and has murdered hundreds of superheroes that stood in his way. Constantly monitoring all goings-on around the globe, Ultron eventually locates the "Next Avengers" team, effortlessly takes over the Iron Avengers with his programming, and uses a hostage Iron Man to lure the Next Avengers into a trap. Even when the Next Avengers arrange a match between Ultron and Hulk in the belief that Hulk can beat him, Ultron easily demolishes the Hulk and nearly kills the Next Avengers. Ultron is only narrowly stopped by a surprise attack from Hulk, and even then has such powerful regenerative abilities that it takes the near-sacrifice of Torunn to finish him off for good.
- Spider-Man (1967): The Human Fly Twins are a pair of circus acrobats who turned to crime. One of the twins makes Spider-Man follow him on a wild goose chase, while the other one is free to commit robberies. Spider-Man captures the twins, but they are later paroled. The twins go back to crime and commit robberies dressed up as Spider-Man and frame him for their crimes. The twins later place a fly tracer on Spider-Man, in order to track his movements, so they could frame him for more crimes and make Spider-Man look like a fool.
- Spider-Man: The New Animated Series' "Royal Scam": The Kingpin is an intimidating New York crime boss whose raw strength matches his guile. The Kingpin sets up a scam to convince Spider-Man to steal a microchip that can be used to hack into the world's banks by pretending to be an FBI agent and that he's taking it away from criminals. In actuality, he plans to use it to make himself the richest man in the world. The Kingpin is able to fight Spider-Man toe to toe even without powers, using his intelligence and technology to defeat him easily. Always with a trick up his sleeve to get away if things go south, the Kingpin proves to be one of Spider-Man's most dangerous foes.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Aaron Davis is Miles Morales's cool, charismatic uncle who masquerades as the mercenary Prowler. Working as one of the Kingpin's top agents, Prowler prides himself on the fact that he "doesn't quit" when it comes to his mission, and is able to fight Spider-Man himself in combat. Through use of his power suit and motorbike, Prowler pursues a target through the streets of New York, even picking up on said target's invisibility power through minor sounds, before letting him get away just so Prowler can track him to his base of operations. When he discovers his target was Miles the whole time, Prowler helps him evade identification by the Kingpin at the cost of his own life, using his final moments to build Miles up and apologize for not being enough of a role model to the boy, despite the fact that he has always encouraged Miles's hobbies and given him advice for everyday life.
- X-Men: Evolution: Apocalypse himself is presented in this series as a far less sadistic villain than usual. Born En Sabah Nur and left to die in the desert because of his status as the first mutant, En Sabah Nur was taken in by the warrior tribe of Baal, trained into their best fighter and destined for greatness. After the slaughter of his surrogate family by jealous, prejudiced humans, En Sabah Nur took the name Apocalypse and swore to bring the entire world under his boot. Using his intelligence to reverse-engineer powerful alien technology to suit his needs, Apocalypse set up hidden bases throughout the world, and even though he was betrayed and imprisoned by his allies at the time, Apocalypse bides his time until he is able to reach out and use the likes of Mesmero to orchestrate his resurrection. Immediately swiping away the X-Men and Brotherhood alike, Apocalypse turns multiple of their number into his "Horsemen" and uses their natural powers to assist him in his plan to transform all mankind into mutants who will live in a utopia of Apocalypse's design.
- Wolverine and the X-Men (2009):
- Emma Frost is an agent of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle, who was sent to capture Jean Grey, the host of the Phoenix Force. Emma is revealed to be the one who attacked Jean a year ago, triggering the explosion at the X-Mansion and the disappearances of Xavier and Jean. Emma then arrives at the X-Mansion offering her services to the team, where Wolverine reluctantly agrees to allow her to operate Cerebro, where she 'finds' Xavier on Genosha to prove herself, where in reality she moved Xavier there herself. Fully gaining Wolverine's trust by helping Storm fight off the Shadow King, Emma officially joins the X-Men on their many missions, while continuing to search for Jean. Eventually locating an amnesiac Jean, Emma knocks all the X-Men unconscious and kidnaps Jean, taking her to the Inner Circle. Convincing Jean they need to extract and destroy the Phoenix Force for the safety of humanity, Emma is shocked to discover the Inner Circle intended to weaponize the Phoenix. Re-allying with the heroes, Emma takes the Phoenix into herself in order to neutralize it, knowing fully well it would kill her in the process.
- Mystique, real name Raven Darkholme, is Magneto's trusted spy and most successful confidante. First sent out to check on the comatose Charles Xavier, she uses her shapeshifting powers to sow mass confusion among the X-Men, allowing her to escape with relative ease. Later appearing in "Foresight", Mystique impersonates Senator Kelly and uses his authority to launch a Sentinel attack on Genosha, giving Magneto an army to use for his conquest. Afterwards, she destroys the controls to the Sentinels, preventing anyone from undoing their programming before making a hasty retreat. Intelligent and determined, Mystique ends the series avoiding any punishment for her actions.
- "Thieves' Gambit" & "Aces and Eights": Gambit, real name Remy LeBeau, is a thief-for-hire and a member of the Thieves' Guild who is willing to work for anyone who pays him. Hired by Dr. Sybil Zane to steal a mutant inhibitor collar, Gambit breaks into the X-Mansion and swipes it with no trouble. When Wolverine burns his money, Gambit agrees to help get the collar back when Wolverine hires him at double the fee. Advising Wolverine into taking a subtler approach for breaking into the MRD laboratory, Gambit cuts off Dr. Zane's escape by blowing up her car, then tries to take the collar for himself to resell. Bailing on Wolverine, Gambit is amused to discover Wolverine swapped the collar out. Gambit also gets hired by Senator Kelly to travel to Genosha and steal Magneto's helmet, to which Gambit confesses everything openly before requesting sanctuary, where he charms Magneto's daughter Lorna, and uses her affection to escape from prison. Revealing his true intent was to plant charges all over Genosha to cripple their society, he leaves Lorna behind teaching her the real world was a lot like he was.
- Mr. Sinister is a brilliant, devious geneticist who schemes the victory of Apocalypse. Luring Cyclops to his lair so as to test the mutant's abilities, Sinister later kidnaps Cyclops and Jean Grey to harvest their DNA for further experimentation. Stalking Angel for a time, Sinister preys on him losing his wings to convince him to undergo an evolution process that transforms him into the villainous Archangel. With Archangel by his side and the harvested DNA of powerful mutants, Sinister loyally helps Apocalypse carry out a plot to Take Over the World, seen in a glimpse of the future to have been carried out with success.
