Comics Explained: Sinister Six

The Sinister Six by Alex Ross

Very few comic heroes have a large and varied enough Rogue's Gallery to warrant an entire team made of their villains. For DC Batman and the Flash have such a varied and vibrant collection of villains, and today we'll be looking at Marvel's major villain team-up: the Sinister Six. Being one of Marvel's major heroes Spider-Man's villains largely stayed with Spider-Man and didn't become a major villain for other heroes or the wider Marvel universe. For example, many of Iron Man's villains would become opponents for the Avengers instead of just Iron Man. The Sinister Six was a way for Marvel to combine Spider-Man's greatest villains in one story and has remained a recurring feature in his comics and wider media. Sony was planning a Sinister Six movie, which is currently dependent on the new Venom movie's success, and the recent Spider-Man game for the PS4 sort of features the Sinister Six. Today we'll look at this part of the Spider-Man mythos.

Origins

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1

The Sinister Six first originated in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 in October 1964 in a story by two Marvel heavyweights: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. I would imagine though that Ditko did more of the writing as Lee was editor-in-chief at the time so his attention was quite divided. In this story Spider-Man's powers had been fading just as his main opponent, Dr Octopus, led a prison escape. In the early-1960s it was Dr Octopus who was Spider-Man's greatest foes and wouldn't be replaced by the Green Goblin until the early-1970s or Venom in the late-1980s. Octopus got Spider-Man's main villains together with the idea that together they would take down Spider-Man bringing together: Electro, Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, Vulture and Mysterio. However, he knew that their alliance would soon fall apart so formed a plan; each would face Spider-Man alone wearing him down until one finally killed him. Aunt May went to the Daily Bugle to talk to editor-in-chief J Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker's love interest and fellow journalist, Betty Brant. Octopus knew that she had some connection to Spider-Man so had her and May kidnapped to act as bait. Despite lacking any powers Spider-Man went off to fight the new Sinister Six.

First, he faced Electro at a Stark Industries electrical plant and finds that his powers have returned with it being implied that it was a mental block preventing him from using his powers, so he easily defeated Electro. He then faces Kraven in Central Park who uses three tigers to fight Spider-Man but is defeated. His next opponent was Mysterio who used robots designed after the original X-Men to fight Spider-Man but he managed to defeat them and Mysterio; he then went on to fight Sandman in a sealed, air-tight room where his 'superior lung capacity' allowed him to beat Sandman because this was 1960s Marvel and these crazy things helped heroes fight villains. Finally, he fought Vulture high above New York so he could find the location of Dr Octopus who is holding May and Betty. As this was 1960s Marvel Octopus had Spider-Man fight him in his 'natural home' of a giant fishbowl, but Spider-Man used his web shooters to fill the bowl with his web tangling up Dr Octopus defeating the Sinister Six.

Return

Amazing Spider-Man #334

Despite the Sinister Six being a good and interesting idea both in and out of the comics it took until 1990 for Marvel to bring back the Sinister Six with The Amazing Spider-Man #334, and it lasted longer than the first team with it lasting until #339. As Kraven had commit suicide after finally beating Spider-Man by himself, (including burying him alive!), the second Hobgoblin joined the Sinister Six instead. However, at this stage Sandman had been trying to reform himself and had been blackmailed into joining so he secretly worked with Spider-Man to bring down the second Sinister Six. In Spider-Man #18 as Dr Octopus basically planned to betray his team once they had won Vulture, Electro, Hobgoblin, and Mysterio hoped to get revenge so reformed their team and secretly sent a bomb to Sandman's family in order to get him to blame Octopus. Dr Octopus had by now replaced his octo-arms with new ones made of adamantium (the same metal which Wolverine's claws are made of) so this allowed him to easily defeat the other team members - including turning Sandman into glass. We also find out that not only did Doctor Octopus know about the plan to betray him but also had partially encouraged it by paying Electro to reform the Sinister Six. Using his reformed team Dr Octopus led them on a violent and murderous spree breaking into secure facilities to steal advanced technology. This even included defeating several heroes such as Spider-Man and the Hulk who was defeated by Doc Ock with his adamantium arms - albeit at this stage Hulk was in his weaker Professor Hulk form. As they attacked a HYDRA base the final team member was revealed: the giant Gog. In Spider-Man #23 a team of heroes including Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider went against the Sinister Six defeating them when Sandman's glass body shattered over Doc Ock shredding his body and almost killing him. 

Other versions of the Sinister Six 

Spider-Man and Black Cat versus the Sinister Twelve

Since the early-1990s there have been many versions of the Sinister Six so we'll only go through a few of them today. During the very confusing Clone Saga of the 1990s a murderous clone of Spider-Man called Kaine emerged who sought violent justice against villains, including Dr Octopus. As a result, Hobgoblin formed the Sinister Seven alongside Shocker, Scorpia, Beetle, Electro, Vulture and Mysterio to fight Kaine. Spider-Man was forced to fight both Kaine and the Sinister Seven to prevent them from killing each other. As part of The Sensational Spider-Man an unmasked Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) organised all of Spider-Man's active villains who weren't dead, retired, or incarcerated to come together and fight Spider-Man. The Scorpion had kidnapped Aunt May, again!, in order to bribe Spider-Man into breaking Osborn from prison - which happened regardless. Osborn revealed that the Sinister Twelve was planning to kill both Spider-Man and Black Cat who came to help. It was only because Mary-Jane had rang SHIELD were they saved: the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man, Daredevil, and Hank Pym arrived to help them. In the end May was rescued and the Sinister Twelve were disbanded. 

The Ultimate Sinister Six

There have been alternate reality versions of the Sinister Six as well. One included the Ultimate Universe - the Ultimate comics were an attempt to create a new reality for a new bunch of readers in the early-2000s. The Ultimate comics played heavily into genetic engineering and the original Six, (Norman Osborn, Dr Octopus, Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, and Electro), had been incarcerated by SHIELD for playing with genetics. Working together they blackmailed Spider-Man into believing that Aunt May had been kidnapped (notice a theme with his comics) in order to get him to fight the Ultimates, this reality's version of the Avengers. However, Captain America showed him that was not true so Spider-Man turned on the others. The Six would disband until the Death of Spider-Man story. Joined by Vulture the Six once again broke from SHIELD custody in order for revenge. However, Doc Ock wanted to just continue his research so Osborn killed him. When Spider-Man accidentally got shot by the Punisher the Six attacked his home so a mortally wounded Parker fought the Six. Electro was shot by May; Kraven, Vulture and Sandman were defeated; and Green Goblin had a truck thrown on top of him killing him and ending the Ultimate Six. Unfortunately, the strain was too much for Peter who died in Mary-Jane's arms.

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