Spider-Man villains can be a pretty diverse bunch. During his superhero career, Peter Parker’s fought everything from a man dressed as a hippopotamus to a guy whose power is ‘making glue,’ seriously give ‘Paste-Pot Pete’ a Google if you don’t believe us. Still, for the most part, the bad guys Spider-Man introduces to his fist are a pretty terrifying bunch.
Most of the scariest Spider-Man villains have appeared in a Marvel movie by now (Some even appeared twice, we’re looking at you, Doctor Octopus and Green Goblin), but the scariest bad guy Peter’s ever faced in the comics is unlikely to ever grace the silver screen and with good reason. So who’s the villain in question, and why will we never see them in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Well, it’s none other than Carl King, aka The Thousand.
Now we’re guessing you’ve never heard of King, so let us tell you his twisted tale. Created by Garth Ennis of The Boys fame (speaking of which, when is The Boys season 4 going to be released?), King appeared in exactly three issues of Tangled Web back in 2001. He was a teenage bully who delighted in tormenting a younger Peter Parker.
While he wasn’t exactly clever, King had a malicious cunning about him, and he was particularly observant. So much so that when Spider-Man appeared on the scene soon after a radioactive spider bit Peter Parker, King managed to put two and two together and work out Spidey’s secret identity.
Jealous of his former victim’s newfound confidence and superpowers, King decided to replicate the accident that gave Peter his powers. There was just one problem: the spider that bit Peter was dead, so it couldn’t bite King. So the brute did the next best thing, he bit the spider, devouring the radioactive remains in the hopes it would give him the astonishing powers it gave Peter.
Unfortunately for King, while eating the spider did give him superpowers, they weren’t ones anyone would ever want. King was transformed into a living hive of hungry spiders. These spiders can consume the ‘innards’ of a human body, allowing King to wear the skin of his victims, effectively becoming the person he devours.
Knowing he was too weak to defeat Peter, King spent years eating people across New York (starting with his mom and dad), slowly building up the hive of spiders within him to the point where he could take on Spider-Man. Eventually, taking on the name The Thousand, King attacked Peter and managed to get the upper hand. King planned on taking Peter’s skin for himself, allowing him to take the life of fame and fortune he believed was stolen from him.
Unfortunately for King, he ended up getting electrocuted while attacking Peter, which destroyed the hive within him. Peter believed that the threat was over and swung away, missing that one spider that had survived the encounter. As King plotted his revenge, the single spider that still contained his consciousness crawled onto the sidewalk, where an unknowing bystander promptly squished it.
After reading that, it should be obvious why the Thousand will never appear in the MCU. Marvel’s not in the business of making body horror movies (although Ant-Man 3 came close, we’ll never forget seeing MODOK’s butt). Beyond that, though, King’s probably a little too malicious even for a Marvel villain. Honestly, he seems like the type of person you could, unfortunately, meet in your day-to-day life (Although, hopefully, they’re not a walking web of spiders).
If you love Spider-Man more than even Flash Thompson, then you’re in the right place. We’ve got tonnes of Spidey content for you to enjoy. We’ve got explained where the Spider-Man cast is now, ranked all the Spider-Man actors, and explained how to watch all the Spider-Man movies in order.