17 Spider-Man Anti-Heroes That Sony Should Consider for Its Next Standalone Film

With Venom's success at the box office (without and with his frenemy Carnage), Sony was justified in its quest to make Spider-Man films without Spidey. Morbius’s critical and financial failure—despite memetic success—seems to have done little to dissuade them. Case in point, Kraven the Hunter.

That trip into the jungle likely won’t quench the company’s thirst for more Spidey-related characters to toss up on the silver screen, and we're sure the studio will be back with even more. Where could it go, is the big question. With years worth of Spider-Man stories to pull from, which anti-hero could headline the next standalone film? Some options sound better than others, like these 17 characters who have the star power to draw a crowd.

1. Agent Anti-Venom

After the success of Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, it's time for Hollywood to make like Marvel Comics in the ’90s and litter the theaters with wall-to-wall symbiotes! Ok, maybe they shouldn’t go that far. No one really needs a Payback film, though we wouldn't complain if Doppelganger stepped into the spotlight.

There is room for Agent Anti-Venom, aka Flash Thompson, and he does have a great storytelling hook. Peter Parker’s old bully-turned-friend comes back disabled after a military tour abroad. The U.S. government offers him the chance to continue fighting for the country and regain significant mobility. All he has to do is merge with a symbiote. It may seem like a big ask, but the suits further sweeten the deal by letting him wear an arachnid symbol like his idol, the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Given Let There Be Carnage’s ending, it's not impossible to bring Agent Anti-Venom to Sony's universe. They could also always dig into the beloved Raimi continuity and bring back Joe Manganiello, an actor who has already demonstrated a willingness to don a costume and pick up a firearm.

2. Black Cat

Though at risk of being labeled a rip-off of The Dark Knight Rises' Catwoman, Felicia Hardy is too much fun to leave on the table. Hardy, trained by her father and her mentor Black Fox as a career criminal, picks up the mantle of New York's slickest cat burglar. However, after meeting Spider-Man, she feels inspired—more by her attraction than altruism—to try for the straight and narrow.

Given the vagaries of Sony and the MCU’s relationship, a Black Cat/Spidey romance might be too big a lift for a movie. Nonetheless, any number of people or plot machinations can inspire Hardy to shift from a career criminal to a thief with a heart of gold. As long as whoever’s wearing the latex catsuit can sell it, the end result matters more than the specific vehicle of epiphany. Black Cat pursues her desire for shiny baubles while using her talents to bring a little balance to the socioeconomic scales of her city. Think of her as a Robin Hood who can’t help but keep a few items for herself now and then.

3. The Bobster

If Morbius kicked off a meme frenzy, imagine what The Bobster would do.

Silly name aside, the Bobster allows Sony to explore what it means to become a hero for the wrong reasons. Sturdevant E. “Bob” Robbins isn’t a bad guy. He doesn’t spend his time plotting world domination or fantasizing about murder machines. On the other hand, he doesn't subscribe to Ben Parker's “with great power comes great responsibility” school of thought.

Robbins’ drive to be a superhero springs from his desire to save his PR firm. Surely, protecting the citizens of New York will make for great publicity. Great publicity makes for free advertising for the business. How come no one tried this racket yet? As Robbins quickly discovers after donning The Bobster identity, when you play a hero, you'll eventually have to act the part. Not a man of courage or much heart, though, it's not a role that comes easy. A The Bobster movie would likely parallel Kick-Ass quite a bit, though the right writer would know how to craft more unique angles. 

4. Cardiac

United States healthcare is a true villain. It's not impossible to think that a disillusioned healthcare provider would want to fight back against unfair and unethical practices.

Elias Wirtham is a surgeon who loses faith in the system when he learns his brother died of a curable disease because a pharmaceutical company chose profit margins over treatment. They stood to make a larger profit if they delayed bringing the cure to market instead of giving it to the likes of Elias’s sibling right away.

So Wirtham ditches the scrubs for subcutaneous Vibranium implants and a beta reactor heart to become Cardiac. He sets out to solve problems the comic book way: indiscriminate vigilante violence against anyone in the medical establishment he perceives as immoral. Given our current healthcare system, he’ll have plenty of targets.

5. Green Goblin

Norman’s son Harry is the first, and frankly, more tantalizing alternate Green Goblin. The more dark horse choice, Phil Urich, lacks the pathos that Harry offers. On the other hand, it means Sony could dodge yet another Spidey-related film with Osborns in the mix. If they want some distance from characters more explicitly connected to the Webhead in the cinemagoers’ mind, Urich will do in a pitch. It would also give Sony to play the first act or so a bit more for laughs.

Regardless of the character, the plot remains essentially the same. Harry inherits his father’s weaponry while Ulrich stumbles on an Osborn lair. Ultimately, both are either accidentally or deliberately exposed to the Goblin gas. 

Harry would take on the mantel and try to wield it heroically in a mix of an apology for his dad’s behavior and an attempt to redeem the family name. Urich’s motivations spring from a desire to matter and an inherently empathetic attitude.

Unfortunately, New York citizens and law enforcement don't ask for the new Goblin’s goals and motivations. They reject and hunt him, often with brutal force. All the while, the Goblin gas erodes the new hero's mental health. Does the new Goblin stay a hero despite the barriers and consequences? Is it easier to just give it up and walk away? Or, perhaps, he should punish these cruel doubters and become what everyone thinks he is anyway: a true supervillain?

6. Kaine

Remember when people became briefly invested inAndrew Garfield getting another solo swing in the webs after Spider-Man: No Way Home? While it has yet to happen, chatter persists. Sony may hesitate to commit to another Spider-Man franchise, what with their hand in the MCU Spidey pictures and their sole ownership of Spider-Verse. However, Kaine gives the studio a way to satisfy fans and create a spin-off with a little space.

Kaine’s comic backstory involves him being the other Spider-clone after star pupil Ben Reilly. He was angrier and scarred, far more likely to solve a supervillain problem by breaking their neck than webbing them up for the police. Sony can streamline this by making Kaine an alternate universe Peter Parker. The movie can embrace the Garfield Parker’s description of what happened to him after Gwen’s death. Let the charismatic Garfield tap that rageful side to give us a webslinger equal measures familiar and unnerving.

7. Molten Man

Mark Raxton, Liz Allen’s step-brother, made a bad choice. In a moment of weakness, he stole the experimental alloy he helped develop. Before he could ever sell it to his employer’s competitors, though, he doused himself in it. The resulting fusion turned his skin gold, but the serum also gave him superhuman strength and the ability to heat his skin to impressive temperatures.

Story-wise, Raxton can't realize the error of his ways and strives to make amends right away. Like any good anti-hero, though, his sins and his temper don’t let him color in the lines like a hero like Spider-Man can. Instead, Molten Man must evade the law while seeking to punish other companies developing technologies that exist to harm and kill others just to bump up their bottom line.

8. Nightwatch

Kevin Trench’s journey toward superherodom began with him coming across a costumed dead body. When he pulled the corpse’s mask off, he discovered the face staring back at him was his own, a few years older. Unsure what to do, he hid the body, took the costume, and became the hero Nightwatch.

Years later, fans would discover Nightwatch had a previous career as Nighteater, a supervillain. Realizing what a bum gig villainy was, he switched sides.  It’s an admittedly unwieldy origin but one easy to bang into shape for the big screen. The tale still begins with Trench finding his future self’s body. At the same time, though, he learns this version of him did not die a hero. Circumstances compel Trench to don the costume and start fighting crime. However, as he does so, he must crack the mystery of his future fall from grace lest he repeat it and become a villain too.

9. Paladin

A purple-clad mercenary with no name (although he often goes by Paul Denning), Paladin tends to be a man with skills available to the highest bidder. Still, his love of money does not stop him from having a code and he'd prefer to stun a target or subdue them than leave them cold. Despite projecting an air of amorality, he finds it difficult to ignore the voice of his conscience. He may be for sale, but he’s not a monster.

He is, however, an unrepentant flirt in the Bond mold. His dalliances are more of an ethical polyamory. He enjoys his brief romances, and the women he’s with know precisely what they’re signing up for and do so gladly. Imagine a latter-day gunslinger who finds himself doing the right thing despite choosing a fundamentally immoral occupation. Paladin could bring the kind of gregarious wanderer type that’s proven popular in series like Poker Face but for the superhero set. 

10. Prowler

Sony and the MCU have already gotten this one on the tee. Through the Spider-Verse films, Sony’s given audiences tastes of two cool Prowler options. By casting Donald Glover as Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming, the MCU introduced an actor of considerable charisma ready to take on the role. Yes, Glover apparently has a Hypno Hustler movie in the works. Still, perhaps a little persuasion will guide him to let someone else embody the disco baddie in front of the camera.

As far as the story goes, both studios set that up well, too. He first dons his Prowler gear to take out rivals. When he helps a family one night, though, he quickly gets a taste of the heroic life. Soon, it’s a genuine struggle for him to figure out what he really wants. Low-level career criminal by day, costumed hero by night. Can he hold that dialectical? If he can’t, what’s the fallout?

11. Puma

Thomas Fireheart owns a lucrative company, Fireheart Enterprises, and has the power to turn into a sort of humanoid cat. At first, he used his ability to do lucrative criminal work. After a run-in with the webslinger, though, he ended up in the hero's debt and he felt obligated to both protect Spidey and improve his public image.

Fireheart feels honor-bound to act in this manner, but he loathes it. He doesn’t like being in anyone’s debt, especially the flashy and disrespectful Spider-Man. He’d much rather work for high-paying criminals on one-off jobs that line his pockets and create no need for further relationships. It’s easy enough to unbraid that idea from the wall-crawler by either making it a more general sense of obligation. For example, what if while Puma was pulling a job for Crime Master, a civilian got hurt? To atone, he uses his skills and wealth to fight crime but, unlike the Prowler, he gains no satisfaction from it and hates every minute.

12. Rocket Racer

Robert Farrell, a prodigy out of Brooklyn, has a rough life. In his teens, his mother died. As the oldest of seven, felt obligated to keep the family together. Unfortunately, even his genius wasn’t enough to get a reliable, well-paying job at his age, so he had no choice but to turn to crime. Using his mind to invent all the tools he needed—including the rocket-powered skateboard that gave him his name—Farrell became a thief to support his brothers and sisters.

In the comics, it doesn't take long for Farrell to end up back on the straight and narrow. In adaptation, though, the idea of Farrell becoming more of a Breaking Bad-style figure, one who takes to crime like a duck to water and enjoys it too much to stop, could be far more compelling. As he grows in power and prestige, his work to “save” his family puts them increasingly in the crosshairs of higher-powered, more dangerous supervillains. Can he quit the work he started for them, or did it stop being about family a long time ago?

13. Screwball

Isn't the world ready for a criminal turned social media influencer? Screwball figured out how to do it as a criminal first, recording her exploits for Reels, TikTok, and YouTube all at once. In an era where the American Dream seems as hollow as ever, and young people are increasingly less likely to outearn older generations, so why not break the law for profit and followers?

Of course, Screwball is more of a prankster than anything else. Her crimes tend toward stealing from “too big to fail” companies and vandalizing monuments to criminal capitalism. She doesn't record herself committing brutal assaults or murders. When she crosses Roxxon, though, Marvel’s evilest company is more than happy to seize her feeds and make the world think she’s exactly that kind of criminal.

14. Silver Sable

Silvija Sablinov, aka Silver Sable, inherited the family Nazi-hunting business. However, by the 21st century, she and her family have caught most World War II-era Nazis. Unfortunately, hatred and genocide didn't vanish with Naziism. 

The world’s governments resent her and her family for decades of extrajudicial actions that ignore treaties, alliances, and national self-interest. Stopping now will not make Silver Sable International popular. Plus, she has outrageous amounts of money and an endless reserve of disgust for bigots. Why wouldn't she take her act on the road, fighting the hateful anywhere at any time with total disregard for anything but her own sense of morality?

Also, there’s something delicious about a scourge of white supremacy being a woman with bright white hair decked out from neck to toe in a white bodysuit. Talk about your subversion of symbols.

15. Solo

While he lives, terror dies, as he loves to tell us over and over again. Think of Solo as, essentially, the Punisher with none of the self-discipline and wholly focused on terrorism. He’s angry, he’s reckless, and he’ll never use just one bullet to get a job done when he can use an entire clip, six grenades, and a mortar shell.

Making Solo both a figure of fun, a scary example of excessive force on an international scale and a deeply broken guy isn’t an easy swing. However, the show The Boys demonstrates that Hollywood can tell those sorts of stories, and an audience will respond. If the movie can navigate it, it could offer a critique of the War on Terror, one that recognizes the real pain of the true believers who believed that if you kill enough people, eventually, terrorism will end.

16. Wraith

NYPD Captain Yuriko Watanabe grew disillusioned with being a cop. One day, she donned a costume, raided the evidence locker for supervillain weaponry, and started to put her thumb on the scale of justice as a violent vigilante. Watanabe must keep several steps ahead of her colleagues to stay in the business of pounding criminals’ skulls in.

Things get further complicated when she realizes a crime boss has been manipulating her through her informants into eliminating the competition. As an antihero from Spider-Man comics, Wraith has the added benefit of being recognizable to lots of gamers, thanks to her role in the blockbuster PlayStation game Spider-Man from 2017.

17. J. Jonah Jameson

Real fans know that the one Spider-Man-related anti-hero who deserves to take a turn—or several—on the big screen doesn’t even bother with a costume. A crew cut, an ill-advised tiny mustache, and a hunger for the truth (and profits) give him the only eye-catching look he’ll need.

Sadly, without Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson probably doesn’t become much of an anti-hero. Without that masked menace, ol’ Triple J would likely still work as a dogged journalist and curmudgeonly Editor-in-Chief. However, he wouldn’t do things like hound one of New York’s greatest heroes or fund villains like the Scorpion or the Spider-Slayer. In other words, without Spidey, Jameson would be, well, a hero. Albeit a grumpy one.