The Worst Character in Every Spider-Man Movie

The Spider-Man film franchise has had a pretty good batting average of quality over the years. While the fan base is certainly very divided, with everyone having their opinion on what makes a good superhero film, most usually agree that the characters can make or break a Spider-Man movie. Fortunately, it’s safe to say that the Spider-Man films have always had some incredibly compelling characters.

But no matter how many great characters a film can have, there will always be one that is objectively the worst. Whether it’s because they have a major role in the film but don’t add anything to the plot, actively drive audiences away from the main story, provide nothing but annoyance, or are just poorly written overall, these are the worst characters in every Spider-Man movie.

10 Harry Osborn (James Franco)

‘Spider-Man’ (2002)

Played by James Franco, Harry Osborn is the long-time best friend of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and his rival in his pursuit of a romantic relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). Together, they move in together after high school in a penthouse paid for by Harry’s father, Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe).

For being the best friend of the main character, Harry doesn’t add much to the plot of Spider-Man. He dates Mary Jane and provides a connection between Peter and Norman, but outside of that, he has no real impact on the plot. He is there merely to set up future conflicts, and at least he succeeds at that. To make matters worse, Franco, while trying his best, doesn’t give the most believable performance in his first outing as the character.

Spider-Man (2002)

Release Date

May 3, 2002

Runtime

121 minutes

Writers

Stan Lee , Steve Ditko , David Koepp

9 Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst)

‘Spider-Man 2’ (2004)

Spider-Man 2 is known as one of the best superhero movies of all time, largely because of the stellar writing. One thing that isn’t written very well, though, is the character of Mary Jane Watson, which is unfortunate, given that Mary Jane is a huge emotional crux for Peter.

Mary Jane really struggles throughout the trilogy; at times, it feels like the writers maybe didn’t know how to write her outside of her usual damsel-in-distress role. In Spider-Man 2 specifically, Mary Jane makes a lot of decisions that make her unlikable. To be fair, her choices are mainly written to supply Peter’s plot and not to advance her own. At the end of the day, Mary Jane was totally and fully prepared to cheat on her fiancé and ended up leaving the poor guy at the altar. Y’know, MJ, you could’ve just communicated with him instead of screwing him over.

8 Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire)

‘Spider-Man 3’ (2007)

Many would consider the infamous Eddie Brock/Venom (Topher Grace) as the worst character in the even more infamous Spider-Man 3. However, Peter Parker goes through sin after sin in the film, to the point that it’s hard to deny that his character might just be the worst in the film.

While Peter is intentionally written to be self-centered and egotistical in Spider-Man 3, it’s done a bit too much. Peter becomes quite unbearable when the black suit fully takes him over, even though his actions are in character based on the type of guy Peter is. However, he is pretty awful before the symbiote corrupts him, going as far as to cheat on Mary Jane in front of all of New York and Mary Jane herself. Not only did he cheat on her in front of all those people, but he did so in the unique fashion in which they shared their first kiss.

Spider-Man 3

Release Date

May 1, 2007

Runtime

139

Writers

Sam Raimi , Ivan Raimi , Alvin Sargent , Stan Lee , Steve Ditko

7 Richard Parker (Campbell Scott)

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ (2012)

One of the major marketing pushes for The Amazing Spider-Man franchise before release was the promise to delve deeper into the truth behind Peter Parker’s (Andrew Garfield) parents, who had never been mentioned in the Sam Raimi trilogy or any major Spider-Man television shows. To the dismay of many, the writing of Richard (Campbell Scott) and the sub-plot in general left fans wondering why the plot was included in the first place.

Unfortunately for fans looking forward to the truth, it was incredibly half-baked in both films. In The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter’s father, Richard, makes an appearance at the start of the film, then the plot line with him loses a lot of steam. While a figure that looms over the film, Richard Parker is not written very well as a character and comes across as more of a narrative device. More insight into his past and potentially seeing more of him and Dr. Connors’ (Rhys Ifans) time together would have added to the audience’s investment in the missing parents sub-plot.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Release Date

June 23, 2012

Runtime

136 minutes

Writers

James Vanderbilt , Alvin Sargent , Steve Kloves , Stan Lee , Steve Ditko

6 Harry Osborn/Green Goblin (Dane Dehaan)

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ (2014)

Harry Osborn (Dane Dehaan), Mary Jane, and the rest of the typical Spider-Man supporting cast’s absence from the first The Amazing Spider-Man disappointed and confused many fans. When Harry made his appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the writers tried to convince audiences that Peter and Harry actually knew each other a long time ago. The bond felt forced, as if it was ever there, leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths regarding Harry in this universe.

Harry’s plot in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was not only rushed but also felt lazy. Trying to convince audiences of a friendship that didn’t feel legitimate and then jumping straight into him becoming the Green Goblin and killing Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) made his plot feel incredibly weak and not compelling at all. The only meaningful thing he did in this film was killing Gwen, which provided one of the most emotional scenes in superhero cinema and allowed Andrew Garfield to give one of his best performances ever.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Release Date

April 16, 2014

Runtime

142

Writers

Alex Kurtzman , Roberto Orci , Jeff Pinkner , James Vanderbilt , Stan Lee , Steve Ditko

5 Herman Schultz/The Shocker (Bokeem Woodbine)

‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (2017)

While being a bit more of a B-list villain in the comics, Shocker is actually one of the most popular Spider-Man villains among the fan base. When fans take to the internet to make “fan films,” Shocker is usually there, skyrocketing his popularity in the Spider-Man community. So, when it was confirmed that Shocker would be one of the supporting villains in Spider-Man: Homecoming, fans were pretty excited.

To their dismay, Shocker’s (Bokeem Woodbine) involvement in Spider-Man: Homecoming didn’t have much impact or effect. Woodbine’s performance felt really wooden and not believable, and Shocker was among the worst Spider-Man villains, lacking personality and flair. In fact, the Shocker that came before Woodbine’s Herman Schultz, Jackson Brice (Logan Marshall-Green), had far more personality. In fact, Brice’s personality is almost a one-to-one adaption of Shocker’s personality in the comic books. Sounds like Brice should not have been killed off!

4 Tombstone/Alonzo Thompson Lincoln (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III)

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)

As one of the best superhero and animated films of all time, it’s hard to believe that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse could have a badly written character. To be fair, it’s more of a case of a poorly represented character. Tombstone (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III) is one of the greatest and toughest crime bosses in Marvel’s NYC but was turned into more of a lackey that ultimately meant nothing in this film.

While having Tombstone be part of Kingpin’s (Liev Schreiber) crew is a fun reference to the comics, it also pretty much downplays his abilities and influence. The best representation of the character came from The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, in which his power and respect as a crime boss were accurately adapted. His inclusion in Into the Spider-Verse feels like a waste, especially because a lesser character could have easily taken his place, and nothing would’ve changed.

3 Brad Davis (Remy Hii)

‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ (2019)

For many fans, Spider-Man: Far From Home is one of the rougher and least enjoyable Spider-Man films. One of the primary reasons for that is the inclusion of Brad Davis (Remy Hii) as a supporting conflict for Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in his pursuit of MJ (Zendaya).

The Brad Davis sub-plot in Spider-Man: Far From Home is absolutely useless; if one were to remove his scenes from the film, it would truly make no difference. It’s assumed that he was included to make it more of a challenge for Peter to win MJ over, but MJ didn’t even like Brad, anyway, so what was the point? There are plenty of other ways to provide conflict to Peter’s crush on MJ, including his trustworthiness and unreliability, rather than forcing a useless character into the plot and wasting screen time. Brad’s inclusion also allowed the horrendous drone bus scene, so removing him would have been a huge win for the film.

Spider-Man: Far from Home

Release Date

June 28, 2019

Runtime

130

Writers

Chris McKenna , Erik Sommers , Stan Lee , Steve Ditko

2 Eddie Brock/Venom (Tom Hardy)

‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (2021)

The post-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home could have been a great tease for the future of Tom Holland in the MCU and another potential team-up for the MCU’s Spider-Man. Instead, Marvel and Sony decided to include a short comedic scene of Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) spending some time in the MCU universe before returning to his own.

It’s somewhat of a tease for the future, as some of the symbiote gets left behind in the MCU (which doesn’t make a ton of sense due to the rules of Dr. Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) spell), but it falls flat. With countless other ways that the symbiote could be included in the MCU, this cameo feels useless at best and insulting at worst. The post-credits scene could have been utilized as so much more, but it was ultimately wasted in misguided fan service.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Release Date

December 17, 2021

Cast

Tom Holland , Zendaya , Benedict Cumberbatch , Jacob Batalon , Jon Favreau , Jamie Foxx , Willem Dafoe , Alfred Molina , Benedict Wong , Marisa Tomei , Andrew Garfield , Tobey Maguire

Runtime

148 minutes

1 Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ (2023)

Much like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is another case of a character being wasted and inaccurately represented rather than being poorly written. In the film, Scarlet Spider (Andy Samberg) is actually a hilarious representation of ’90s extremism. But for Scarlet Spider fans, who have been hoping for the character to appear in the film for a while now, he was a disappointment, even if he was even getting a cool team-up with Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac).

In the source material, Scarlet Spider is much more serious, tragic, and not that funny. For many fans, the character felt hugely misrepresented, and some called it borderline character assassination. Whether the general audiences agree with that or not, the majority of Scarlet Spider fans feeling so disappointed makes Scarlet Spider the worst character in Across the Spider-Verse compared to the rest.

NEXT: 10 Spider-Man Villains Who Are Better in Animation