The 20 greatest (and 10 worst) Spider-Man villains of all time
By Mike McNulty
7th Worst Villain: Typeface
Heroes and villains in comics find inspiration from the oddest things. A bat flying through a study window. A face scarred by acid, chemicals, or an explosion. Or perhaps even being bitten on the hand by a radioactive spider. But Typeface? He found his source of inspiration in the alphabet. Thus was born the one Spider-Man villain where everyone wondered, “Was Marvel on something when they came up this weirdo?”
The thing is, Typeface, in terms of his origin, initially sounds like the set-up for a modern-day Dog Day Afternoon or Falling Down. He’s a former soldier named Gordon Thomas, who lost his brother, also a solider, during combat. Then when he came home, his wife and son left him. The only job he could get was as a signsmith, but the sign company fired him.
Except then, his creator, Paul Jenkins, took his character down a very, very, very silly and weird path. Thomas decides the best way to take out his frustrations on the world is to draw a bunch of letters all over his face and body. Then, he waged his one-man war against societies ills armed with over-sized letters. In other words, he’s just like the Punisher without the guns and the skull t-shirt. And if the Punisher religiously watched Sesame Street.
As if this wasn’t hilariously bad enough, Typeface later recruited himself a sidekick named Spellcheck. He also tried leading counter-revolution against Iron Man’s pro registration forces during the first Marvel Civil War. That, however, lead to his apparent demise at the hands of Mac Gargan/Venom. Other than a possible appearance in Deadpool, he hasn’t appeared since, with no one has clamoring for his return.
Typeface: brought to you by the letter “D” for “dumb.”