Sinister Six Members Ranked By Intelligence

Despite their name, Spider-Man's supervillain team, the Sinister Six, has had far more than six members. Originally created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in "The Amazing Spider-Man Annual" #1 to destroy Spider-Man, this group of supervillains has been formed again and again over the years, each time with a new lineup drawn from Spidey's massive rogues' gallery. Occasionally, the team includes far more than six members, although the group usually chooses to keep the name for branding reasons. (Alliteration and numbers are important for comic book teams, after all. Just ask the Fantastic Four.)

While the Sinister Six generally seeks to overwhelm Spider-Man with sheer brute force, their efforts still need to be coordinated by a leader, and the team has had several masterminds over the years, each with their own nefarious plan. With 2021's "Spider-Man: No Way Home" introducing the MCU to a new Sinister Six (well, five, if we're being technical), let's take a look at some of the most notable masterminds from the comics and rank them not simply by their brainpower.

When Mac Gargan first became the Scorpion way back in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #20, he was a truly frightening villain with scorpion-like powers that made him more than a match for Spider-Man. Peter nearly died in his first encounter with the villain and only managed to beat him through quick thinking and judicious use of his webbing. Over the years, however, Gargan has become less of a threat and more of a random super-powered thug for Spidey to toss back in jail every now and then. The experiment that granted him his powers also drove him insane, and his questionable mental state has allowed Spider-Man to outwit him again and again.

Even so, Gargan was made the leader of a version of the Sinister Six when Norman Osborn formed his Sinister Twelve in "Marvel Knights Spider-Man" #10. Kidnapping Aunt May so Spider-Man could be blackmailed into breaking Osborn out of jail, Gargan later showed up not as the Scorpion but as a new Venom. After acquiring Eddie Brock's symbiote to gain more power in an attempt to ease his feelings of inadequacy, he's still a major physical threat. Nevertheless, his insecurity and psychosis often get in the way of his intelligence.

Swarm is a particularly creepy Spider-Man villain. An ex-Nazi scientist who was hiding out in South America by working as a beekeeper, Fritz von Meyer was devoured by a swarm of mutated bees that absorbed his consciousness and resurrected him as the composite being Swarm.

Having his mind housed in thousands of bees might suggest Swarm is hyper-intelligent, but that's definitely not the case in "Spider-Man and the X-Men" #4. Barely an issue after Spidey's team of young mutants defeats Chameleon's Sinister Sixty-Six, they make mincemeat out of Swarm's C-List version of the Sinister Six in a fight that lasts a record six pages. By the end, powerful mutant Hellion blasts Swarm into oblivion, and his teammates immediately surrender after seeing their leader get literally squished to death. When one of Spidey's students complains that the fight was "disappointingly easy," you know the opposition is led by a guy with questionable leadership abilities.

Mysterio is often an underestimated Spider-Man foe. Although he doesn't possess any innate superpowers, Mysterio is a master manipulator and illusionist who learned how to block out Spider-Man's spider-sense with his psychedelic chemical mists early on. As such, he's skilled at getting people to do what he wants them to — although this ability seemed to fail him in "Peter Parker: Spider-Man" #12 when he usurped Sandman's leadership role and made the dubious choice of bringing Venom onto the Sinister Six. Venom ended up coming in conflict with his new teammates, and the in-fighting destroyed the team from within.

About the only saving grace here is that it wasn't the original Mysterio — Quentin Beck — behind the fishbowl mask. This Mysterio was actually Daniel Berkhart, a stuntman who had once worked with Beck. Hired by J. Jonah Jameson to harass Spider-Man, this new Mysterio was arrested and later popped up in comics haphazardly.

Vulture (Adrian Toomes) has always been one of Spider-Man's more intelligent foes. The inventor of a special antigravity device that grants him superhuman strength, Vulture has had successful stints as both a solo supervillain (usually a thief) and a team player. In fact, while on Doctor Octopus' version of the Sinister Six, Octavius himself consulted Toomes on the viability of their plans.

Later on, Vulture assembled his own team of animal-themed villains that included King Cobra, Rhino, Scorpion, Tarantula, and Stegron the Dinosaur Man to create the Savage Six. Their reasons for joining have more to do with ego than power, however — they wanted to get revenge on Mysterio (another former Sinister Six villain) for creating a movie using their likenesses without their permission.

Mysterio manages to trick the Savage Six with his illusions, but the team returns — only to get the stuffing beaten out of them by Mary Jane and a bunch of D-List ex-supervillains. Given that these are some of Spider-Man's most powerful villains, the ease with which they get (repeatedly) beaten doesn't speak well of the Vulture's leadership skills.

Sometimes it's not the field leader you need to worry about but the evil mastermind in the background pulling all the strings. During the Sinister War, Spider-Man learned the villainous Kindred had helped assemble not one, not two, but six different versions of the Sinister Six for a grand total of 36 villains. Created as part of a contest to see which team could take out Spider-Man first, the multiple Sinister Sixes nearly overwhelmed Spidey with their sheer manpower, although the web-slinger did come out on top.

Actually, what made Kindred such a devious mastermind is that you never knew who or what he was. Initially, it looked like he was a demonic version of Peter Parker's friend Harry Osborn that came back from the dead. Then it turned out the Harry Osborn that Peter was friends with was actually a clone. Then we learned "Kindred" was actually an identity shared by Sarah and Gabriel Stacy — the alleged illegitimate children of Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy. And the pair were actually clones created by an AI version of Harry Osborn and later turned into demonic soldiers by Marvel's version of Satan, Mephisto.

And yes, before you ask, writing out that convoluted explanation left us just as confused as you are. He/she/it/they might be the most bizarre character on this list, but hey — nobody can say Kindred isn't a master of misdirection.

Was there any doubt over which supervillain would take the top spot? Doctor Otto Octavius isn't just the Sinister Six's most intelligent member — he's the team's founder. Way back in "The Amazing Spider-Man Annual" #1, Doctor Octopus brought together the Vulture, Sandman, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, and Electro to take down Spider-Man. While their efforts failed, Doc Ock made Spider-Man run a grueling gauntlet and even laid the seeds for his later relationship with Aunt May.

Octavius would rebuild his Sinister Six, again and again, each time with a different lineup. What made Doctor Octopus a particularly devious leader was that he would keep manipulating his team to achieve his own ends. He blackmailed a reformed Sandman into becoming a villain again and fooled his teammates into stealing a drug that would let him extort the world's wealthy and powerful ... on his own. Considering how many times Doc Ock double-crossed his partners, the fact that they keep wanting to be part of his Sinister Sixes says a lot about his ability to control others.

This manipulation would reach even greater heights when Octavius took over Peter Parker's body to become the "Superior" Spider-Man. In "The Superior Spider-Man Team-Up" #5, Ock used mind-controlling technology on his old partners to force the now Superior Six into performing heroic deeds, then locked them up in between missions. Naturally, the mind-control failed, and the villains ran amok. But for a while, Octavius really did prove he was the ultimate evil genius.