10 Thankfully Obscure Spider-Man Villains

1. Skinhead

First Appearance: Web Of Spider-Man #56 (1989) Despite their noble intentions, "very special episodes" tend to make terrible stories. Their attempts to teach children about issues such as drugs are racism are often hamfisted and un-nuanced. One example is the 1989 Spider-Man two-parter "Skin Deep". Not only is it an unrealistic and awkward treatise on racism, it created one of the worst villain ever. Edward Cross is an actual skinhead who assaults the black Robert Farrell on his first day of college. Since campus police are non-existent, Cross reverts to Rocket Racer €“ ugh €“ and the two have a scuffle. During the fight, Cross picks up a beaker of Spidey's web fluid, which turns out to be violently corrosive because of a "minor" error by Peter. That's right, a master chemist can't differentiate between an adhesive and burning acid. When the beaker breaks over him, Cross does a great RoboCop homage and melts into human goo. Now if this ended there, we'd have a sufficient commentary on the dangers of racism. So of course it didn't end there. Cross, ironically having no skin left, turns into a flesh blob that can absorb other people's flesh. Just like cultural assimilation, right? And since Cross was obsessed with furthering the Aryan nation, the first people he consumes are his skinhead gang. Because he's an idiot. We later find out that Cross is actually a self-hating Jew, making him a Jewish Skinhead Flesh Blob. Beat that, turtles! JSFB is defeated when Peter realises that underneath his "skin", Cross is still a human being. He then beats that human being into unconsciousness. The moral of the story: no matter what you look like, Spidey can kick your ass.