The 20 greatest (and 10 worst) Spider-Man villains of all time
By Mike McNulty
10th Best Villain: Adrian Toomes/The Vulture
You may have noticed that many of Spider-Man’s villains are older than him. Given Peter Parker started out as a teenager during the 1960’s, it isn’t difficult seeing his battles with his various colorful rogues as symbolic of adolescent rebellion. It’s especially clear with regards to the Vulture, quite possibly the oldest villain on this list.
Although he’s been flying around since Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #2, readers didn’t learn about the Vulture’s back story until issues #240 and #241. That’s when we learned not only the Vulture’s real name as Adrian Toomes, but that he was also an engineer who was cheated out of a company he helped create. So using an electromagnetic flight suit of his own design, Toomes began robbing his former company. And like Walter White from Breaking Bad, Toomes found he actually enjoyed being a criminal.
In fact, the only time the Vulture ever showed genuine remorse was when he murdered of Aunt May’s fiancée, Nathan Lumbansky. Other than that, this is someone who stoops low enough to using kids to do his dirty work. Even his former co-founder of the Sinister Six, Doctor Octopus, found this so appalled that, as the Superior Spider-Man, he almost blinded him for life.
Also, his electromagnetic harness doesn’t just allow him to fly. It also gives him enhanced strength, as well, so he’s not as frail as he looks, either. So no, the Vulture more than just an elderly man with wings: he’s the perfect description of a “mean old buzzard,” and looks the part, too. If anything, his being the main antagonist in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming shows how this a villain ripe, so to speak, with untapped potential.