5 Marvel Villains Sony Ruined With Awful Storylines in Spider-Man Universe
- Sony's Spider-Man Universe failed to do justice to Marvel villains like Shriek, Rhino, and The Chameleon by stripping them of their comic book depth.
- Characters like Riot and Ezekiel Sims suffered from poor adaptation choices and confusing CGI battles.
- The mishandling of these villains reflects Sony’s hasty approach to building a universe.
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) has finally ended with Kraven the Hunter, and it was quite well-known from the start that the plan to create a Spider-Man spin-off universe without the title hero was not going to work.
Starting with Venom in 2018 to Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter in 2024, SSU has seen more failures than any other superhero universe. Although the universe showed some potential with Tom Hardy’s Venom, it significantly ruined many of Marvel’s iconic villains with its storylines, and here are some examples of them.
Shriek
Naomie Harris brought in considerable talent for the role of Frances Barrison, aka Shriek, in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Shriek had all the ingredients to be a compelling villain- a traumatic life at Ravencroft Institute and her twisted love story with Cletus Kasady, along with her sonic powers that made her quite dangerous.
In Marvel comics, Shriek is a mutant, but since Sony couldn’t address it, and it ignored her whole past life. In the movie, Barrison and Kasady were shown living together in St. Estes Home and she was shown to have powers already without explanation.
Shriek’s rich comic book history was ignored and was treated as just another side character who was in love with Woody Harrelson‘s Cletus Kasady. Moreover, her abrupt killing at the final battle undermined her character even more.
The Chameleon
Fred Hechinger portrayed The Chameleon in the latest SSU installment, Kraven the Hunter. In the movie, Kraven’s half-brother Dmitri Smerdyakov, who is a talented mimic, goes through some experiments and gains the power to shapeshift.
Although he showed glimpses of a promising villain, his screen time was way too short to establish any depth in his character. Moreover, his on-screen portrayal significantly shifted from his comic book origins. In the comics, Dmitri relied on practical disguises and technology before getting a mutagenic serum, and he uses his abilities mostly being a villain of Spider-Man.
Riot
Being the first villain of SSU, Riot has the opportunity to set a standard for the villains of this universe. However, Riz Ahmed’s Carlton Drake is shown as just an evil businessman who gets obsessed with human experiments after he learns about symbiotes, with no further explanation whatsoever.
The film diminished Riot’s unique abilities and origins from the comics and also barely touched his relationship with other Klyntar despite being mentioned, which disconnected audiences from the villain. Also, the CGI battle between Venom and Riot seemed confusing at times as it was tough to differentiate between the two symbiotes.
Rhino
Rhino has been one of the oldest villains of Spider-Man and has appeared in many comic book series over the years. But its first glimpse in the movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was way different from the comics.
Kraven the Hunter tried to fix it by showing Aleksei Sytsevich, played by Alessandro Nivola, getting his powers through Professor Miles Warren’s experiments. However, Rhino didn’t get enough screen time, and the movie failed to capitalize on the interesting premise of a mob boss who turned into a super-powered monster.
Moreover, the character’s continuity was questionable, as in one scene, he was shown stopping and breaking a heavy truck with just one attack, and in another scene, he was shown getting rag-dolled by a single buffalo. His death also felt anticlimactic and contradicted his supposed invulnerability of his enhanced skin.
Ezekiel Sims
Madame Web‘s Ezekiel Sims is perhaps the best example of how Sony mishandled some of Marvel’s iconic villains. Almost all his important aspects were removed from the film, like the references to the Great Web of Life and Destiny, his complex relationship with Spider-Man, and eventually his redemption arc.
Moreover, Tahar Rahim’s portrayal was post-synched with terrible dubbing, and the editing made it look very disconnected. The character was stripped down to a cliched businessman who was hunting young heroes, and the movie failed to bring out the complex base of lore that made the comic book version of the character interesting.
The failure of these iconic villains should be a lesson about how comic book characters should be adapted from the source material. Because the studio was so hasty to establish its universe, it has created a line of antagonists that don’t resonate and do not do justice to their comic book counterparts.
Kraven the Hunter is expected to get on streaming platforms by early 2025.
Madame Web and Venom movies are available to stream on Netflix and Prime Video.
