10 Times Spider-Man Has Been Outwitted

5. Green Goblin Hacks Spider-Man's City - Superior Spider-Man Vol.1 #27

Spider Man Tombstone
Marvel Comics

This story, written in 2014 by Dan Slott and pencilled by Giuseppe Camuncoli, only sort of counts as Spider-Man getting outwitted - because, while Superior Spider-Man is indeed a Spider-Man story, Superior Spider-Man is not Peter Parker.

During Otto's body swap with Peter Parker - a story that nearly made it onto this list - Otto took up the mantle of Spider-Man, determined to prove he was the superior vigilante.

Looking to streamline the whole "swing around the city looking for crime" process, Otto invented hundreds of Spider-Bots to trawl the city scanning for criminal activity, which he could act on only if he was needed. For a while, the new system worked like a charm, but Otto's celebration was short-lived - for soon after, the Green Goblin made his move.

In his arrogance, Otto had never installed a failsafe for if his Spider-Bots were hacked - and that's exactly what happened. Overnight, the Green Goblin rendered Otto's early warning system useless, and when he and his Goblin Army stormed New York, the Superior Spider-Man was completely caught off-guard. Otto Octavius has always prided himself on his intelligence, but against the Green Goblin, that very pride was his undoing.

Contributor

Movie nut, comic fan, and seeker of forbidden lore. (By which I mean whatever Marvel was doing in the 90s.)