The 20 greatest (and 10 worst) Spider-Man villains of all time
By Mike McNulty
3rd Worst Villain: F.A.C.A.D.E.
Spider-Man has faced many great villains whose identity was a mystery. Like the best of detective stories, part of the fun came from figuring out who the bad guy really is, especially if a well-known supporting character was also a suspect. Sometimes, even if the resolution ends up being a let down, you can still wind up with a great bad guy. Or you can wind up with F.A.C.A.D.E.
Who is F.A.C.A.D.E.? Even today, no one knows. And no one cares.
What do we know about F.A.C.A.D.E.? We know it stands for Full Acclimation Combat and Defense Explo-Skeleton. We also know that it was created by a pharmaceutical company. Why would a pharmaceutical company spend billions of dollars making a wannabe Iron Man suit instead making real medicine? Another mystery that is F.A.C.A.D.E.!
We also know that someone murdered the inventor of F.A.C.A.D.E. suit while stealing it. However, a photographer named Lance Bannon, who also’s Peter Parker’s rival, managed to take a picture of the thief. Unfortunately, the room was too dark to see the thief’s face. Not that F.A.C.A.D.E. could take that chance because he later murdered Bannon lest he expose (no pun intended) his identity.
As to F.A.C.A.D.E.’s true identity? Various clues pointed towards another rival photographer named Cole Cooper, a mild-mannered industrialist named Arthur Bryce, and even J. Jonah Jameson. But unlike the original Hobgoblin mystery, this just involved some generic bad armored bad guy. Even when Spidey destroyed the suit, the culprit somehow managed to slip away unseen, and no one bothered going after him. Because if even the characters have no interest in figuring out who is F.A.C.A.D.E., then why should the readers?