The following contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
One of the most fun parts of the highly anticipated Spider-Man: No Way Home is the cameos from characters that were originally featured in the previous Spider-Man movies. No Way Home manages to make what might have felt like cheap fanservice into something that’s exciting and actually drives the plot of the movie. For the most part, these appearances from past characters strike the perfect balance between nostalgia and purpose in the story, which is a much more satisfying outcome than a lot of people predicted it would be before the film was released.
However, as fun as it is to see the villains from past Spider-Man franchises, their presence in the movie also lends itself to a lot of comparisons. Seeing villains like Doc Ock and the Green Goblin next to ones like Electro and The Lizard really just makes it hit home that the Sam Raimi trilogy of Spider-Man movies was the most successful at integrating the villains, and riding that line between comic campiness and seriously intimidating bad guys. The comparison makes the Amazing Spider-Man villains look particularly lackluster, especially when No Way Home seemed to really only care about one of them.
It would be easy to make this argument and sound like one of those fans who are adamant that the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies are the only good ones and that everything that came after is utter trash. However, it’s important to point out that just because the Tobey Maguire movies did the villains well (for the most part), they still failed in other areas. And just because the Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland Spider-Man series had less success with the villains (although the MCU Spider-Man villains are actually quite good as well), they still have other good things going for them. Now with that out of the way - what was it about the Raimi villains that made them stand out so much?
A really good villain is one of two things (and sometimes both): really scary, or really fun. These qualities are what make them interesting to watch on screen, because the actor can lean into the camp and inherent drama of playing a villainous character. This is something that the Raimi trilogy manages to do well, particularly with Green Goblin and Doc Ock. Green Goblin is menacing, but in a way that’s incredibly fun to watch. Doc Ock is just a cool concept for a villain in general with the robotic arms and the dramatic and almost Shakespearean way he talks. This is especially noticeable in No Way Home, where they did a good job of not trying to make the villains fit the MCU and instead have them feel like they stepped right out of their respective movies.
Looking at the Amazing Spider-Man villains, they’re much less compelling. The Lizard is sort of forgettable and feels more strange than fun, and Electro had a lot of potential but like many things in The Amazing Spider-Man movies, the writing didn’t do him justice. This becomes even more clear when they’re put up next to the Raimi villains in No Way Home, because there’s something much less interesting and charismatic about these newer villains. Perhaps there’s a bit of the nostalgia factor working against them, as people fondly remember and love Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man movies and feel less warmly about Andrew Garfield’s, so they’re just more predisposed to dislike the Amazing Spider-Man villains.
Of course, not every Raimi villain was a hit. Sandman, while being another cool concept, felt very one-note (especially in No Way Home), and the Venom inclusion in Spider-Man 3 was messy. Peter Parker’s personality change while wearing the black Venom suit was compelling, but as soon as the plot switched to Eddie Brock taking on the Venom mantle, it became obvious how painfully miscast Topher Grace was in the role. On the other side of things, the one element of the villains that No Way Home managed to improve was that it improved Electro in small ways. His “suit” design is better because it pays homage to the classic comic Electro colors and headpiece, and the character himself feels more like a whole person.
Spider-Man has so many weird and wacky villains to pull from in the comics, and the biggest mistake that a movie adaptation can make is to write these baddies in a boring way. The MCU Spider-Man movies managed to do a good job with their villains, especially because of the ways in which they connect to Peter. The most interesting Spider-Man villains are always going to be the ones that have some sort of personal relationship with Peter Parker, because it ratchets up the tension and makes the stakes higher. When it feels like Peter barely knows the villain he’s fighting, it makes it so much less interesting to watch. In general in any piece of media, not just Spider-Man, it’s important that the villain and the hero have some sort of relationship with each other in order for the audience to get properly invested in their conflict.
The issue is more complex than just “Raimi Spider-Man villains good, Amazing Spider-Man villains bad”, but seeing all of the characters next to each other in No Way Home really just makes some of the disparities more obvious. There’s a reason that Green Goblin, for all intents and purposes, became the “main” big bad of the film, and not The Lizard. The film seemed aware of the fact that most people were there to see beloved characters like Green Goblin and Doc Ock, and it delivered on those fronts. If the MCU wants to succeed with their own Spider-Man stories, they’re going to have to continue to make sure that the villains are some of the best parts of the story, because a lame bad guy can absolutely make or break a superhero movie.
NEXT: Spider-Man: No Way Home Puts A Twist On Peter Parker’s Defining Moment
