50 Greatest Super Villains In Comic Book History

46. Morlun

(Write-up by Daniel Wood, Whatever a Spider Can Editor)

The recent Spider-Verse storyline has been full of hilarious and brilliant cameos, tons and tons of different Spider-Men and Spider-Women, and jam-packed with tension, danger and drama as “Every Spider Ever” battles to survive. But it’s also transformed a relatively unused villain into one of Spider-Man’s most dangerous and perhaps iconic foes.

Naturally, when every single version of Spider-Man and Spider-Woman that has ever existed in the entire multiverse are joining together in a battle for survival in an ongoing story-arc, you’d expect the villain behind it to be a pretty dangerous, incredibly powerful adversary, and that’s exactly what Morlun is.

Sure, Spider-Man has already killed Morlun twice, but don’t let that take away from just how formidable he is. Let’s not forget that we’re dealing with a supernatural entity whose sole purpose is to kill and consume totems like Spider-Man. And to make matters worse, he has a whole family of Inheritors doing the same thing.

When Morlun and Spider-Man first came face-to-face, Morlun hit Spider-Man with what Peter described as the hardest punch he’d ever felt. This is insane when you consider that Spidey has battled Hulk, Thor and several of the Marvel Universe’s strongest characters.

Then, in “The Other,” Morlun savagely beats Spider-Man, leaving him on death’s door. It’s only thanks to the timely intervention of another other-worldly being that Peter survives. This makes Morlun one of a handful of people to actually kill the original standard universe Peter Parker.

Still doubtful of Morlun’s villain pedigree? Then you need to consider the sheer amount of other Spider-Men and Spider-Women from different universes that this badass vampire has slaughtered, some of them childhood favourites like the ones from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and Spider-Man Unlimited. Morlun has killed Spider-Men at such a scale that Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus would weep at his success.

That’s right, Morlun has done things that would make the biggest super villains in the Marvel universe jealous, and we’re still really in the early stages of the character’s inception. That’s why he isn’t any higher on the list, but don’t be surprised if he starts climbing up in the future.

Next: No. 45: With this magic word ...