Sinister Six

The Sinister Six are a team of supervillains formed by Doctor Octopus specifically to defeat Spider-Man.

Biography

After his most recent defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus escaped from prison and organized a meeting with five other of Spider-Man's foes: Mysterio, Electro, the Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, and the Vulture. The belief was that, having each come close to defeating the hero alone, together they would be unstoppable. Octopus devised a plan in which they would kidnap Betty Brant (whom he'd discovered had some connection to Spider-Man in previous encounters) and each villain would stay at a different spot to fight Spider-Man, giving him a card containing the location of his next foe should he succeed. Eventually, this would lead to Doc Ock's castle in the outskirts of the city with Betty. Sandman and Electro were sent to abduct Betty after she got off work at the Daily Bugle. When they arrived, they found her speaking to May Parker, and took her as well—by fortuitous coincidence, May was the aunt of Peter Parker, Spider-Man's secret identity. Betty and May were taken to Octopus's castle, and Vulture flew back to the Bugle offices to tell chief editor J. Jonah Jameson to notify Spider-Man of the Sinister Six's challenge, beginning at one of Tony Stark's electrical plants. With that, the villains took their places to await their foe. One by one, the Sinister Six fell to Spider-Man's cunning and agility, as in each case he tried to fight as little as possible to acquire their respective card so as to not exert too much energy. In order, Electro, Kraven, Mysterio, Sandman, and Vulture failed to stop Spider-Man from finding the next piece of the puzzle. He eventually made his way to Doctor Octopus's castle, and with considerable difficulty was able to defeat his greatest foe and save Betty and May. All members of the Sinister Six were brought into custody, and several of them openly resented Octopus for the team's failure.