The 20 greatest (and 10 worst) Spider-Man villains of all time

14th Best Villain: The Rhino

For years, Aleksei Sytsevich was good for one thing, and one thing only: charging through stuff. That’s what a Rhinoceros does, right? When they get angry, they bend their head down and charge, and you pray you’re not on the receiving end of their horns. It’s the natural, expected order of things.

This certainly was what Aleksei’s Russian superiors expected of him. It’s what the scientists who outfitted Aleksei in a second layer of hardened skin, which also gave him enormous strength, also expected. It’s certainly all Aleksei expected of himself as the Rhino. And the Rhino lived up to those expectations. From attempting to kidnap Colonel John Jameson, the astronaut son of J. Jonah Jameson, to joining the Sinister Syndicate, fans saw the Rhino as just a tough, but dumb bruiser.

But then something unexpected happened. One day, when Aleksei was on parole, he met a waitress named Oksana. It was love at first sight for both, and it wasn’t long before the two became husband and wife. Aleksei even gave up a life of crime and got himself a job as a security guard. And they would’ve live happily ever after, if an attack by a new Rhino hadn’t cost Oksana her life.

Feeling he had no more purpose without Oksana, the Rhino returned to his criminal ways more ruthless than ever. Recently, during The Clone Conspiracy, the Rhino’s wife returned as a clone only for her to die again. But this time, instead of wallowing in pain, Spider-Man may have set him on the path to redemption. It just goes to show how a character who once started off as mere muscle can be so much more than what we expect.