Sandbox / The Amazing Spider Man Series Electro

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Main Characters | Supervillains (Electro) | Others | Extracanonical

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Maxwell "Max" Dillon / Electro

"You know, Spider-Man saved my life one time. Out of all the people in the whole city, he saved me. He said he needed me."

^{Click here to see Max as Electro in Times Square}
"It's my birthday. Now it's time for me to light my candles!"

^{Click here to see Electro in his suit}
"I will control everything. And I... will be like a god to them!"

Played by: Jamie Foxx

Voiced by: Michael A. Shepperd (second console game), Liam O'Brien (second iOS game), Salvador Delgado (Latin-American Spanish dub), Shido Nakamura (Japanese dub), Jean-Baptiste Anoumon (European French dub), Pierre Auger (Canadian French dub)

Appearances: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | Spider-Man: No Way Home

"But you better make damn sure you kill me this time. 'Cause if you don't, I'm gonna kill the light so that everyone in this city is gonna know how it feels to live in my world... A world without power... a world without mercy... a world without Spider-Man! Then everyone will be able to see me for who I truly am... Don't you know? I'm Electro!"

An Oscorp electrical engineer who felt ignored by the world and developed an unhealthy obsession with Spider-Man. After suffering an accident involving an electric wire and a tank of mutated electric eels, Dillon's skin turned blue and he gained the power to control electricity.

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A-H

• Abusive Parents: In a deleted scene, his mother treats him cruelly and insults him despite the fact that he is working hard to take care of her. Since this wasn't included in the final cut of the film however it's not clear whether it's canon.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Part of Max becoming evil is that he feels rejected by his idol Spider-Man, who saved him previously in the movie. Such a relationship between Max and Spidey doesn't exist in the comics, where they're just casual and occasional enemies with no personal connection.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Like most of the villains in the TAS movie franchise, Max Dillon was an employee of OsCorp where the accident that leads into him getting his superpowers happens. Dillon's transformation in the comics is completely unrelated to OsCorp.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: At least pre-Electro. In the original continuity, Max was a Jerkass with few morals long before even becoming a supervillain. Here, he's a nice guy (if somewhat unstable) before turning into a Tragic Villain.
• Adaptational Sympathy: His sufferings in this film, being a relentlessly bullied electrician instead of the victim of a freak accident, make his turn to villainy more understandable than in the comics.
• A God Am I: By the end of the film, his powers have expanded to such a degree that he declares this of himself.
  Electro: You're too late, Spider-Man. I designed this power grid. Now I'm gonna take back what is rightfully mine. I will control everything and I will be like a god to them!
• Amazing Technicolor Population: He gets blue skin after gaining his powers. He turns redder when fully using his powers.
• Anti-Villain: He was a powerless nobody who was constantly ignored, exploited, and abused by the people around him. When he finally gets his powers, multiple misunderstandings cause him to snap and lash out against the world that has wronged him.
• Ax-Crazy: Started off as a Loony Fan to Spider-Man, then he got his powers and... well, the rest is history.
• Badass Boast: Tends to give out a lot of these as the quotes above will indicate.
• Badass Bookworm: Much like Peter, though he's more skilled in things relating to electricity.
• Bald of Evil: Post-transformation. Before it, he sports a truly hideous combover.
• Body Horror: The transformation really took a toll on his appearance.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Max Dillon really liked Spider-Man at first, because Spidey helped pick up Max's work blueprints and said something mildly encouraging. Unfortunately, that scene meant way more to Max than it did to Peter, who couldn't immediately recall the meeting when super-powered Electro tried to bring up their 'friendship'.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: He's noticeably more villainous after being "examined" by Dr. Kafka.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Eventually forms a partnership with Harry after being freed from Oscorp, though he's ultimately fighting Spider-Man for his own separate reasons.
• Big Bad Slippage: Even after becoming Electro, he doesn't become antagonistic until he sees Spidey get admired by the crowd. And then Dr. Kafka tortures him, leading to a Big Bad Duumvirate with Harry.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: His horrible transformation happened on his birthday.
• Black and Nerdy: Initially. Not to mention unusual.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: Develops these as Electro.
• Breath Weapon: During his last fight with Spider-Man, he pins him down and shoots electricity at him out of his mouth by shouting.
• Broken Pedestal: He sees Spider-Man as his enemy once a police officer tries to snipe him while Spider-Man’s trying to talk things out with him, making him think Spider-Man was just distracting him so the cops could shoot him, when Spider-Man was just trying to calm Electro down. Nicely reinforced by the lyrics to "My Enemy".
  He lied to me, he shot at me, he hates on me, he's using me, fragility, electricity, afraid of me! He's dead to me! He lied to me! He shot at me! He hates on me! He's using me! He's dead to me! That Spider-Man, HE IS MY ENEMY!!
• Bullying a Dragon: On the receiving end of this from many after gaining his powers. It never ends well for them.
• Butt-Monkey: His status as this is partly what makes him snap.
• Cardboard Prison: In Electro's own words, Oscorp thought it was a brilliant idea to place him in a harness that runs on electricity, the very substance he's made of and can control. Electro all but lampshades how stupid that was. And he later proves this to be true when he breaks out of it during Harry's visit.
  Electro: You do realize you locked me in a prison that runs... on electricity? I can feel it in the walls. I can feel it in my veins. No matter what you do, doc, you can't contain it. It's a force of nature. Like me.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Has a notable gap in his teeth as a part of his characterization as someone nebbish. It visibly closes as he gains his powers.
• Climax Boss: The climax of the second film centers around stopping Electro from taking over the city. However, he's not the last enemy, as Harry confronts Peter and Gwen soon after his defeat for a lower stakes (yet far more emotional) final confrontation.
• Composite Character: Of several previous Electros.
  • His origin is taken from the Electro seen in The Spectacular Spider-Man (an electrician turned into a superhuman that controls electricity thanks to genetically modified electric eels who gets in a fight with Spidey over a misunderstanding) and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (a social outcast seeking vengeance against the world he feels has wronged him).
  • His appearance is a fusion of his Ultimate incarnation (a blue Energy Being) and his The Spectacular Spider-Man incarnation (wearing a suit to contain his powers).
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • While both Dillon and Connors worked at Oscorp, Dillon is essentially the Butt-Monkey while Connors was a highly respected scientist. Also while Connors mutated himself on purpose and became a lizard creature that acted as a more physical threat to Spider-Man, Dillon was mutated by accident and became a Energy Being with far more power than Spider-Man could fight without outsmarting Dillon.
  • As he appeared in the last film before his series was rebooted, he contrasts Sandman from Spider-Man 3 as the main threat in his film before Spider-Man confronts the second villain (Venom for Sandman and Harry for Electro). Both himself and Sandman are elemental beings with a weakness for water and their origins involve them falling into things, but Sandman had a personal connection to Peter Parker and was sympathetic as he simply wanted to look after his sick daughter while having only accidentally killed one person prior to getting his powers. Meanwhile, Electro was obsessed with Spider-Man, killed after getting his powers and was only sympathetic since most of his villainy was caused by how he was treated and experimented on after getting his powers.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: His second fight with Spider-Man starts off even at first until Electro gets his second wind, at which point the fight turns into a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown with Spidey on the receiving end.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: His body explodes after being force-fed with electricity to the point of overloading.
• Demoted to Extra: He doesn't play as big a role in the second console game as he did in the film.
• Desperately Craves Affection: He's an Extreme Doormat with No Social Skills and possibly an Abusive Parent (if the deleted scene is canon), so the second he has a positive interaction with someone, he becomes obsessive. He is deeply touched that Gwen remembers his name barely a minute after meeting him and learning it, and after Spider-Man saves his life Max starts calling him his best friend and obsessing over him to the point of imagining what he would say if Spider-Man visited him on his birthday. The closest he's ever come to having an actually friend is with Harry Osborn, who he saves after Harry tells Max that he needs him and ironically, it's due to him being more suspicious of people by the time they meet so they settle into being polite allies.
• Dragon-in-Chief: To a pre-Goblin Harry in the final act of the film, helping him reclaim Oscorp after he's kicked out.
• Driven to Villainy: He had poor control of his powers at first, and clearly just wanted somebody to help him. Then the police attacked him.
• The Eeyore: He's had a miserable life and as a result, he's rarely happy except when he thinks he's made a connection with another person.
• Electric Black Guy: Since he's played by Foxx.
• Extreme Doormat: Prior to the accident, he had no self-confidence and therefore everybody at Oscorp took advantage of him. This led to nobody caring whether he was safe when making repairs and Oscorp not giving him credit for the power grid he designed. After getting his powers, he quickly shows everyone why this was a mistake.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He gains a sinister bass-baritone voice upon gaining large quantities of electricity.
• Evil Wears Black: He later wears a black skintight suit in the second film.
• Flight: He learns to levitate in the air in the second half of the film.
• Forgotten Birthday: Which kicks off a string of really unfortunate accidents that culminate in him becoming Electro.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He transformed into a super-powered freak of nature all because he had to work an extended shift.
• Going to Give It More Energy: How Spider-Man and Gwen ultimately defeat him.
• The Heavy: While Harry's actions as he tries to cure himself drive the plot, Electro's rampage is a far more prominent and direct threat.
• Humanoid Abomination: He ultimately ends up as a Doctor Manhattan-esque thing made of electricity that occasionally takes on human form to communicate with or punch Spider-Man.
• Hydro-Electro Combo: In what is likely a Shout-Out to The Spectacular Spider-Man, this version of Electro was mutated after falling into a water tank filled with genetically-engineered electric eels.

I-Z

• I Just Want to Be Special: He wants to be able to save the day with Spider-Man.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: What Max ultimately and desperately desires is to have friends, genuine human bonding, and not be an invisible nobody that no one even cares about. As an effect, he easily latches onto people when they show some amount of decent human interaction towards him. Even the simple act of acknowledging his first name makes him latch onto people such as with Spider-Man, and Gwen for a brief moment. After becoming Electro, this desire takes on a more dangerous level. Also as shown when he teams up with Harry, his desire is so desperate that he is willing to unknowingly allow himself to be used just because he was needed and acknowledged as a friend.
• The Informant: He would like to act like this for Spider-Man, at least. Spidey suggests that he is this, but only meant it as a pep-talk; he didn't realize Max would take it so seriously.
• In the Hood: In his first appearance as Electro, he wears one in an attempt to conceal himself.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: He goes from unwittingly being a danger magnet to going out of his way to be a threat after he's convinced that Spider-Man set him up to be shot.
• Large Ham: Despite the more grounded tone of The Amazing Spider-Man films, his scenes are played up to be extremely hammy.
• Laughably Evil: Electro can be pretty goofy at times with how he acts.
• Leitmotif: The electronic dubstep piece My Enemy, and its longer variation The Electro Suite. Both of these are implied to be representations of Electro's obsession, paranoia, and growing mental instability.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: It can even level Times friggin' Square!
• Logical Weakness:
  • Water, as usual. However, he eventually gets to overcome it by vaporizing the water before it can touch him.
  • In the analogy of "living beings being made up of 70% water, but can still drown", the "water" for Electro in this case, is electricity.
• Loners Are Freaks: Why it later drives him into villainy after becoming Electro.
• Loony Fan: He develops an obsessive fixation on the wall-crawler.
• Mickey Mousing: Electro's Theme contains a lot of Dubstep, which usually cannot be heard by the characters in the movie themselves - however, during the final standoff between Spidey and Electro, the latter converts himself into his energy form and starts jumping between the coils of the power plant and punching Spidey in between. Every time he switches from one coil to another, he makes them emit one tone at a time, creating a tesla-coil rendition of "Itsy-Bitsy Spider". Spidey himself isn't particularly thrilled.
  Spider-Man: I hate this song!
• My Suit Is Also Super: Despite constantly shifting between solid form and streams of electricity, whenever he reforms in his physical body his shorts, and later his Oscorp equipment, reform with him.
• Near-Villain Victory: He manages to trap Spider-Man in a lightning tether created from his powers and could've slowly fried him to death if it wasn't for Gwen ramming him with a stolen police car.
• Never Found the Body: Though it seems like he died in his last fight with Spider-Man, his ability to manipulate electricity leaves his fate ambiguous - especially considering that he phases in and out via particles a handful of time through the movie. Jamie Foxx himself even lampshades this by saying that "electricity cannot truly die", implying he might have made a return. Subverted in Spider-Man: No Way Home in which Max laments he was minutes away from death, though Foxx's claim could still leave it up in the air to wether or not he actually was.
• No Body Left Behind: He explodes after being overloaded with electricity with no trace of his physical body.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He designed the plans for the city's power grid. How does karma repay him? By having those designs stolen by Alistair Smythe who then forces him to work an extended shift which would lead to the fateful accident that turns him into Electro.
• No Social Skills: Due to being an Extreme Doormat, he has no friends and doesn't know how to interact with people, with most of his interactions with others being awkward.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He straps Dr. Kafka into the same harness that had been used to contain him.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He causes considerable collateral damage to Times Square alone in his first confrontation with Spider-Man and that was before he learned to control his powers. When he gets a better handle on his abilities, he causes a city-wide blackout that endangers several people at a hospital and nearly causes two planes to crash in midair.
• Psycho Electro: What's unique about this case is that it's shown that he was always kind of off. Having super-powers only made it worse.
• Psychopathic Manchild: While more or less harmless before the accident, once he gets powers he is no longer the Extreme Doormat he's been his whole life and finally acts on the fantasies he has when people anger him. His obsession with Spider-Man, born from one interaction after the hero saved him, means that when he believes the wall-crawler has betrayed him, he becomes determined to kill him.
• Race Lift: Electro is traditionally white in the comics and other adaptations. Here, he's played by African-American Jamie Foxx.
• Sanity Slippage: Again, he was a Loony Fan to Spider-Man with a Room Full of Crazy, but not outwardly malicious. Getting superpowers just made it worse.
• Scary Black Man: Though his skin isn't actually black by the time he gets scary.
• Shadow Archetype: He's a lot like Peter and possibly represents what he could have become without Uncle Ben and Aunt May.
• Shock and Awe: Aside from being able to zap things at will, he can make quick transit between objects that use electricity.
• Sidekick: Except not really. He deludes himself into thinking that he's Spider-Man's sidekick.
• Stalker Shrine: He has a room filled with pictures and reports of Spider-Man, as well as cut-out messages he probably wrote himself. There is also a photo of Spidey placed next to a mirror so that Max can pretend he is Spider-Mans' best buddy.
• Stalker without a Crush: His defining trait. Due to his extreme loneliness, Max is desperate for any type of companionship. Thus, being treated without the contempt or indifference he's used to will cause him to instantly latch on to that person such as Spider-Man or Gwen.
• Stereotypical Nerd: Before his transformation, the movie does its best to make Jamie Foxx look like an unattractive nerd by giving him a combover, glasses, fake bad teeth. He's also a nervous, Extreme Doormat with No Social Skills, and no friends.
• Tempting Fate: He remarks to Spider-Man of Didn't See That Coming after trapping him in a lightning tether with his powers while slowly frying to death, and didn't expect Gwen Stacy driving a stolen police car straight into him.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: He was just a Butt-Monkey that nobody gave a damn about, then he got his powers and was taunted and jeered as a freak of nature, next to a series of tragic misunderstandings involving Spider-Man plus being tortured by Dr. Kafka, making him finally decide that if the world wanted a monster, he'd give them one.
  Electro's thoughts: They lied to me, they shot at me, they hate on me, they're using me, afraid of me, they're dead to me! They lied to me, they shot at me, they hate on me, they're dead to me, and now they're all my enemy!
• Took a Level in Badass: His freak lab accident turns him from a meek nerd to a powerful electric being.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He goes from being a sympathetic nobody to a deranged murderer after he loses faith in Spider-Man, deciding to establish himself as a force to be reckoned with.
• Tragic Villain: Being a Butt-Monkey, he wanted to have friends and be accepted in society. When he turned into Electro, everyone starts calling him a freak, and it pushed him over the edge.
• Troll: During their final battle, Electro rams Spidey through tesla coils, creating a rendition of the Itsy-Bitsy Spider song just to taunt the guy.
• Un-person: Oscorp deletes his personnel file after his accident because they feared their stock would crash if an employee died on their watch; this was even before they found out they've created yet another supervillain.
• Unwitting Pawn: Again, to Harry during the later parts of the movie. Harry only needed Max because he was desperate to get back into Oscorp to obtain the cure for his disease. After serving his role, however, Harry still keeps his end of the bargain by giving him access to the power grid.
• Villainous Friendship: Starts one with the Green Goblin.
• Volcanic Veins: Develops glowing blue veins as Electro.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The only villain in the Duology to actually die at Peter's hands, he's also a being of electricity, so no moral implications are talked about despite being The Mentally Disturbed.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Being a victim of bullying for most of his life meant that once he got his powers, things didn't go so well for everyone else.
  Electro: Soon everyone is this city is gonna know how it feels to live in my world. A world without power. A world without mercy.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Again, it's not hard to feel sorry for Maxwell Dillon after he becomes Electro.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Electro's lightning is primarily blue in color.

Variants

No Way Home's Max Dillon / Electro

Max Dillon / Electro

"You're not gonna take this away from me."

^{Click here to see him in his blue bioluminescent form} Peter-1: Uh, you wouldn't happen to be from another universe, would you?

Species: Enhanced human (formerly), Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): Oscorp (formerly)

Portrayed By: Jamie Foxx

Voiced By: Salvador Delgado (Latin-American Spanish dub), Jean-Baptiste Anoumon (European French dub), Pierre Auger (Canadian French dub), Duda Ribeiro (Brazilian Portuguese dub)

Appearances: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | Spider-Man: No Way Home

"Look at this place... and all the possibilities."

An Oscorp electrical engineer who fell into a tank of mutated electric eels in a freak accident, giving him electric-based powers.

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• Abled in the Adaptation: A strange case, as Max was actually made The Mentally Disturbed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but both his mental illness and god complex are toned down in Spider-Man: No Way Home. He also needed glasses. Here his vision seems to be perfect (presumably already a result of the accident).
• Adaptation Dye-Job: His lightning now takes on a more yellow color, putting him in line with his comic book counterpart. He also ditches the Amazing Technicolor Population trope, as he has a normal skin color instead of being blue and bioluminescent. He actually starts the movie looking like his blue self, only to very quickly absorb the energy and turn back to normal, which is chalked up to a difference in energy between his home universe and the one of the MCU.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: He goes from having either a bald head or a widow's peak to a fade. He was bald when he was in his bioluminiscent form though.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, he was a mentally-ill nerd who developed a God complex upon gaining superpowers. In this movie, he's much more well-adjusted and confident, easily interacting with his surroundings and coming across as the most normal of the displaced villains after Sandman.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: As lampshaded by the Lizard, Max in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had "bad teeth, glasses and a combover" before becoming a bioluminescent mutant. After absorbing the energies of the MCU and regaining his human form, this Max sports a sidecut and goatee, a healthier bronzed complexion, Timberland shoes, and actual muscle tone.
• Adaptational Badass: Exploited. Since the MCU's energy is significantly more powerful than the one from his home universe, Electro wants to absorb as much of it as possible so he can have more than even his home universe could offer.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Downplayed, as originally, Max was the only villain in The Amazing Spider-Man duology (not including Rhino) to not know Peter and Spider-Man were the same. Here, he does know, though doesn't comment on it until he's cured.
  • While their original film series made them both employees of Oscorp which was also the source of their respective powers, No Way Home establishes that Connors was on friendly terms with Max before his transformation into the Lizard while in the comics they met after they got their powers and never had a close relationship.
• Adaptational Skimpiness: A pretty notable example. In his original film, Electro was wearing a black skintight suit after gaining control of his powers, including at the moment of his death during the finale. But when he first appears in the MCU as a blue energy being, he doesn't wear anything at all, and is left stark naked when Peter manages to make him regain his human body.
• Adrenaline Makeover: If one treats his entire arc from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to Spider-Man: No Way Home as one long story, Electro's appearance in the MCU is a much more stocky, well-dressed, and handsome version of himself, compared to how he was previously a balding, gap-toothed nerd with a comb-over. The Lizard lampshades this when he notices Max's new appearance.
• Affably Evil: Max is more personable here than in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, engaging in a friendly chat with both his fellow villains and the heroes. He also makes a point that he won’t hurt anyone if they don’t try to stop him. After being subdued, he even makes peace with the Webb-Verse Spider-Man.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: He first appears with his blue sparkly look from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for a few seconds before absorbing the MCU's electricity gives him an Adrenaline Makeover.
• Beard of Evil: Though he only had a moustache in his previous appearance, Max now sports a goatee.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: He quickly saw Doctor Octopus/Otto Octavius as a friend because he waved to Max when the latter was transported to the Underforge, even though he didn't know him. Also, despite Max trying to destroy Otto's inhibitor chip to revert him to his villainous alter-ego, and Otto later tricking Max into letting his guard down so he could strip him of his powers, he had no hard feelings towards Otto, even being grateful to him for saving his life during the Statute of Liberty's collapse when Green Goblin unleashed Strange's unstable spell.
• Bishōnen Line: Introduced as an Energy Being version of his original blue form from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 before absorbing the superior energy from the MCU universe to become, well, Jamie Foxx.
• The Brute: Thanks to both Taking a Level in Badass twice but becoming somewhat predictable because of his lust for power, Electro ends up being arguably the most powerful of the returning villains, but is easily manipulated by the Goblin, used to soften up the three Spider-Men, and in the end is easily outsmarted by the now heroic Doc Ock, whose Heel–Face Turn he witnessed but ignored.
• Climax Boss: Among the multiversal villains he ends up being the most dangerous one during the battle with the three Spider-Men to his destructive electricity powers, with Dock Ock already having pulled a Heel–Face Turn and Green Goblin being saved for last, given that MCU Spider Man now has a personal grudge against him.
• Commonality Connection: He briefly bonds with Sandman when they both realize their supervillain origins involved falling into something.
• Costume Evolution: He regains a more handsome human-like form from absorbing energy from the MCU, and later on builds a harness to better absorb the energies of the Arc Reactor he stole.
• Crossover Power Acquisition: When he arrives on Earth-199999 in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the difference in his world's energy and the MCU's energy has a physiological effect on him. First he regains his human form (albeit more conventionally handsome than before), becomes less mentally unstable (though still power hungry) and changes his electricity's color from blue to yellow. When he grabs the Arc-Reactor used to power Peter's 3D printer, it gives him a massive power boost.
• Deadpan Snarker: He Took a Level in Smartass in this movie.
  Max: [when Peter offers to De-power him and the others and save them from their eventual fates] Well, I myself don't wanna be killed, especially by a guy dressed like Dungeons & Dragons.
• Ditzy Genius: He's such a power-hungry brute that it's easy to forget he was an electrical engineer prior to gaining his powers. This bites him in the ass when Doc Ock appears to help him and Max arrogantly assumes he succeeded in frying Otto's chip rather than consider that he might be putting on a show to get close enough to De-power him.
• Does Not Like Magic: When MJ informs him that he's imprisoned in a wizard's dungeon, Max declares that he wants nothing to do with magic, as he's much more interested in the energy of this new universe.
  Max: Look, you can keep your magic. I want a taste of that new energy I just felt.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: When he shows up at the Statue of Liberty to try to steal the magic box, he asks MCU Peter not to force him to kill him. Borders on Why Did You Make Me Hit You?, as Peter-1 is explicitly trying to help him.
  Electro: Don't make me a murderer, Peter.
• Electric Black Guy: Even moreso than his original film, as he retains his human form while conducting electricity. Interestingly, he admits he always assumed that Peter-3 was black, calling to mind Miles Morales, another Electric Black Guy.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Played for laughs. When describing the Lizard's actions from The Amazing Spider-Man, Electro makes his disdain for the former's goal of turning everyone into lizards very clear. He's also not amused when Connors offers to turn him into a lizard as part of a "makeover".
• Evil Laugh: He lets out a sinister chuckle when he demands Peter to hand over the cube.
• Expecting Someone Taller: When he sees Peter-3's face, he muses that he always thought Spider-Man would be black (a la Miles Morales) on account of him helping the poor and being a Queens native.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When the villains are recalling their final moments before they were plucked from their universes, Max confidently recounts how he was kicking Spider-Man's ass until he overloaded the grid and made him absorb all of the power... only to realize that was the moment he died.
• Flash Step: When he becomes a powerful Energy Being thanks to the arc reactor, he gains the ability to do this, as seen in the climactic battle.
• Flying Firepower: His powers allow him to fly and to fire lightning bolts from his hands.
• Foil:
  • To Flint Marko / Sandman. Both of them are villains from other dimensions who gained their Elemental Powers after falling into somewhere dangerous, who never actually meant to become who they were in the first place. Where they contrast is in their objectives: Max wants to stay in the MCU to absorb its energy and make himself more powerful than he ever was before, whereas Flint wants to return to his homeworld as soon as possible to see his daughter and generally doesn't give a damn about being superempowered.
  • To Norman Osborn / Green Goblin. They both end up enjoying the MCU and all it has to offer them, mainly since it gives them both a chance to be more than what they were in their home dimensions. Max was what he saw as a nobody back home and wants to stay where he could have even more power, while the Goblin sees the MCU as a new playground to cause mindless chaos and death.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He goes from a self-professed nobody to one of the most powerful villains in the MCU. When he's forcibly stripped of his powers by Otto Octavius, he sadly laments that he's back into being a nobody, but his universe's Peter reassures him that he was never a nobody.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Electro initially appears as a naked blue/yellow electrical being and quickly devotes himself to blasting Peter-1 and later the Sandman with his abilities. Once he's subdued and Brought Down to Badass, Peter gets him some construction worker clothes to avert this trope.
• Genius Bruiser: Downplayed. His scientific expertise isn't brought up much here, but he is able to upgrade his costume on his own after fleeing Happy's apartment.
• Graceful Loser: Once he's finally depowered, he lets go of his hostility towards Peter 3, acknowledging that he's Just a Kid (with a "nice face") and that he's helped a lot of people. (Amusingly, because a lot of those people were poor, Dillon assumed Spider-Man was black. Not in this universe, Max...)
• Handwave: His completely different character design compared to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is stated to be the result of the energy in the MCU being "different" to that of his home universe.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed. He trusts Doc Ock, who he saw make a Heel–Face Turn, to kill Peters 2 and 3, which gives Ock the chance to depower him. In fairness, Max did attempt to fry Otto's inhibitor chip beforehand, so it's likely he just assumed that he had broke it again.
• Hunk: He goes from an unattractive loser to a muscular, handsome man when he arrives in the different universe. Part of the reason he doesn't want to go back home is because he is a loser there, while his new look is something he really appreciates.
• I Hate Past Me: He looks thoroughly ashamed when the Lizard outs him as having once had "bad teeth, glasses, and a comb-over."
• I Just Want to Be Special: He laments that all he wanted was to be noticed, having to dig his way from the bottom to have a sustainable job, but he then quips that there could be "a black Spider-Man" somewhere in the Multiverse.
• I'll Kill You!: While he initially agrees to go along with Peter's plan to cure the supervillains, he still threatens to electrocute him to death if anything goes wrong.
  Electro: Well, I'm in. But, if this goes sideways... I'm gonna fry you from the inside out!
• Just a Kid: When he sees the Amazing Spider-Man without his mask, he realizes how young he is and calls him "just a kid".
• Kubrick Stare: Max does this quite often, particularly when confronted with the temptation of power and the notion of someone trying to take it from him. It serves to remind the audience that, despite his confident Affably Evil attitude that came with his new restoration, he is really not well upstairs still.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Upon removing the electricity inhibitor that ultimately would've cured him, Max chooses to blast Doctor Octopus out the window, sneering that he preferred his old personality before he does so. In the climax of the film, Otto seemingly does a Villain Team-Up with Max to help defeat Peters 2 and 3...only to immediately rip out the Arc Reactor and slap the inhibitor back on, causing Max to lose his powers for good.
• Leitmotif: A few notes from "My Enemy" can briefly be heard during his introduction, and an orchestral version of the lyrics can be heard when he's fighting the three Spider-Men.
• Mistaken Ethnicity: Admits to Webb-verse Spider-Man that he thought he was black underneath the mask.
• Motive Decay: Subverted. For all that he's no longer the meek, awkward, bullied man he was before he got his powers, his primary motivation is still to ensure that he'll never be "a nobody" again.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: Like in his previous film, Max wears a black suit as Electro, although it is detailed with yellow straps and wires to give him a more comic-accurate appearance.
• Mr. Exposition: He's the one who explains the origin of the Lizard, who until he saw Max seemed content to let everyone think he was an unintelligent monster.
• Mundane Utility: At Happy Hogan's apartment, Max uses his electricity powers to turn on the television without having to move.
• Musical Nod: When Electro first notices and attacks Spider-Man, a few notes from "My Enemy" from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 play.
• Mysterious Past: Unlike his fellow Webb-Verse native the Lizard who's origin Max explains, he says very little about his own background outside of how he got his powers and the circumstances of his last fight with the Amazing Spider-Man. He leaves out the part where he was tortured for having powers and his obsession with Spider-Man, though the latter is hinted at when he refers to Webb-verse Peter as "my old friend Spider-Man."
• Mythology Gag:
  • Him being Naked on Arrival brings to mind the fact that he is a being of pure energy – without pants.
  • When he charges up his electricity, it focuses around his face in a way that resembles the comic book version's star-shaped mask.
  • Near the end of the film, he mentions that he assumed Spider-Man was black, and muses that there probably is a black one somewhere in the multiverse.
• Naked First Impression: After being subdued by Peter-1 and the Sandman, Electro ends up returning to his natural human form, albeit without anything on. He's quick to lampshade this.
  Electro: So, what, you're just gonna stand here and act like I ain't butt-ass naked?
  Sandman: I am.
• Nature Lover: Inverted. He really hates trees ^note probably because wood is a bad electricity conductor, and even chides MCU Peter Parker for causing him to appear in the woods.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: During the final battle, Max shoots a lightning bolt at a crane while trying to hit Peter-3, which causes it to fall on Sandman's arm, freeing Peter-1 whom he was holding, and also to trap the Lizard as he was fighting Peter-2. This allows the three Peters to regroup and form a plan to take down the three supervillains.
• No-Sell: In his electric form, he is unaffected by the magical teleporting webs. When Peter tries to shoot at him with it, the blast passes through his body and hits a tree behind him instead.
• Not Wearing Tights: Much like in Spider-Man (PS4), Electro wears a harness over casual clothing instead of a garish bodysuit, and his mask is reimagined as lightning forming a star in front of his face.
• Old Friend: He calls the Amazing Spider-Man his "old friend" when they encounter each other during the finale at the Statue of Liberty.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He briefly defends Peter when Doctor Octopus is snarking him for his unpreparedness. Later in the final battle, he also offers to spare Spider-Man's life if he gives Max the Macchina di Kadavus.
  • He showed sympathy for Sandman when he found out that Sandman also got his powers from falling into an experiment in his home universe, and agrees to be careful where they fall.
  • He looked genuinely worried about Doctor Octopus when he blacked out after Spider-Man gave him a new inhibitor chip, and was relived that Otto was okay when he woke up.
• Power Loss Depression: After Otto de-powers him with the cure, he laments to Webb-verse Peter that he's back to being a nobody. Peter reassures him that he was never a nobody.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: After getting superpowers, he loses his unflattering combover and gains a nice-looking fade. His pencil mustache also grows into a goatee.
• Power Nullifier: MCU Peter's solution to Electro's condition is to build an energy siphon based on Tony Stark's Arc Reactor technology, which will absorb Max's electrical powers and keep him in his normal, physical human state instead of turning back into electricity. Electro decides he doesn't want to lose his powers and escapes, only to later have the siphon forced on him by the reformed Dr. Octavius in the finale.
• Psycho Electro: Downplayed. He is more well-adjusted than in his debut movie, but he's still power-hungry and sadistic, laughing maniacally when he uses his electric powers to shock the Spider-Men.
• Running Gag: Any time his rather ridiculous origin story (falling into a vat of electric eels) is brought up. Even his last line in the film is him thinking about those "goddamn eels".
• Sanity Strengthening: Strangely enough, Max seems to have become much more mentally sound after arriving in the MCU than he was in his own universe (both before and after getting his powers).
• Scary Black Man: Max keeps his African-American complexion instead of being blue and bioluminescent, and he's a very frightening man to go up against.
• Screw Destiny: A variation. As he stated during the final battle, Electro seems to be referring to how he is content living on in the MCU reality and seems angry at the Spider-Men for trying to defeat him and bring him back to his dimension where he is doomed to die.
• Self-Serving Memory: He warns Peter not to make him a murderer despite having killed several people onscreen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
• Shock and Awe: His electrical powers, which change from blue to yellow in color after being transported into the MCU.
• Shout-Out: His armor bears a striking resemblance to Whiplash's suit as shown in the trailer where he shoots chains of lightning which are similar to the suit.
• Technopath: Uses his powers to switch a TV on in Happy's apartment at one point.
• Throwback Threads: A somewhat more subtle version. After getting a power-upgrade in form of the Arc Reactor, a phantom image in the shape of the classical Electro mask from the original comics shapes around his head every time he unleashes his lighting powers.
• Token Minority: The only African-American of the supervillains with the other four being Caucasians, though two (Sandman and Lizard) of the other four are stuck in their mutated forms.
• Took a Level in Badass: Electro is already a badass in his own universe but is somehow stronger in the MCU upon arriving, claiming it is due to the MCU having different energy than his. He later steals an Arc Reactor that makes him even stronger, allowing him to overpower all three Spider-Men at the same time.
• Transplant: The same Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
• Two First Names: Both "Maxwell" and "Dillon" are applicable as first names.
• Villainous Friendship: With Curt Connors, his Oscorp co-worker.
• Vocal Evolution: Electro in his original film had a distorted, bass-boosted voice to go with his blue look. Here, his voice returns to normal once he gets his normal body back and only gets bass-boosted when he uses his powers after obtaining the Arc Reactor.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: After he is manipulated by the Green Goblin, he doesn't appreciate the newly reformed Doc Ock questioning his actions, saying he preferred him as a Mad Scientist.
• With Great Power Comes Great Hotness: Absorbing the energy of the MCU not only made him much more powerful, but it also turned him from an unappealing Nerd into a handsome Hunk.
• Why Are You Looking at Me Like That?: Asks this verbatim when Peter's Spider-Sense goes crazy at Happy's apartment and he gives him a weird look to check if he's responsible.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: The color of Electro's lightning transforms from blue to yellow due to the MCU's higher level of energy.
• You're Insane!: He doesn't hesitate to let Connors know that he thinks his plan to turn the whole city into lizards is completely crazy. Connors tries to convince him that it's not, with little success.
• You Will Be Spared: At the beginning of the final battle, Electro promises the MCU Spider-Man to spare his life if he agrees to give him the magic box without any resistance. It doesn't work.