Regarding light versus dark, Batman and Spider-Man might seem on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, these two heroes have more in common than audiences might think. Batman lives in the shadows, but Spider-Man’s life is equally dark and full of tragedy, especially in the movies.

Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns featured some disturbing moments. Even Christopher Nolan’s TheDark Knight trilogy occasionally displayed startling visuals whenever the Scarecrow’s fear gas was in play, but the darkness in Spider-Man movies is different. Juxtaposed against the light of Spidey’s more comedic moments, these dark moments feel even more dangerous and shocking.

Emma Stone reveals that she never knew The Amazing Spider-Man’s Gwen Stacy was once part of an early Spider-Man: No Way Home script.

10Peter Parker Was Threatened By His Date’s Father

The Movie:
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) directed by Jon Watts

The Moment:
Spider-Man gets the “dad talk”

In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Adrian Toomes, the Vulture, might not be as dark and brooding as his Caped Crusader, but he still brings a lot of menace to the role. The Vulture vaporized the first Shocker with a ray gun. Later, he confronted Tom Holland’s Peter Parker during a tension-filled car ride to the Homecoming dance.

When Toomes pieced together Peter’s secret identity, he delivered an unconventional “dad talk” and threatened Peter with a gun to the face. He even forced his daughter’s date to thank him for sparing his life. Teenagers are certainly no strangers to psychological torture, but no adolescent should have to go through something as terrifying as this. While Bruce Wayne suffered tragedy in his youth, he was met with kindness by strangers like Commissioner Gordon in the Dark Knight trilogy instead of facing threats.

9Spider-Man Ignored And Disrespected Mary Jane Watson

The Movie:
Spider-Man 3 (2007) directed by Sam Raimi

The Moment:
Spider-Man kisses Gwen Stacy in public

Throughout the first two entries of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, Peter Parker stopped at nothing to win over Mary Jane Watson, the love of his life. So why does he begin treating her so poorly when he finally finds himself in a committed relationship with her?

Before the symbiote takes over and Peter becomes a self-obsessed egotist in Spider-Man 3, he already showed signs of ignoring Mary Jane. This is illustrated by Spider-Man’s kiss with Gwen Stacy during a pro-Spider-Man press conference. This thoughtless act not only mimicked his legendary kiss from the original Spider-Man, but he did so in full view of MJ. Say what you will about Bruce Wayne’s philandering ways, but Batman never treated any romantic partner in the films as callously as this.

8Dr. Strange Made The World Forget Spider-Man’s Secret Identity

The Movie:
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2022) directed by Jon Watts

The Moment:
The entire MCU forgets Peter Parker exists

Spider-Man and Mary Jane have been established as Marvel’s definitive star-crossed lovers, destined for each other yet forever torn apart.

The whole point of having a secret identity is to protect the people superheroes love the most. Unfortunately, Peter has very few loved ones left by the time Spider-Man: No Way Home ends, and he must make a gigantic sacrifice to protect the ones still alive.

Recognizing that the only way to protect the MCU multiverse was to erase himself from everyone’s memory, Spider-Man had Doctor Strange cast a spell that ensured no one would remember who he was. With his family gone and his friends no longer recognizing him, Peter is left alone without any support system. Even Batman has always had Alfred to stand by his side in the movies.

7Peter Parker Nearly Crossed The Line And Became A Killer

The Movie:
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), directed by Marc Webb

The Moment:
Spider-Man’s search for Uncle Ben’s killer nearly ends in death

One of the biggest criticisms of the Spider-Man movies is how familiar audiences are with his origin story. Audiences can only watch Uncle Ben’s death unfold on screen so many times before the moment loses its impact. That being said, The Amazing Spider-Man tried doing things a little differently.

Following Ben’s death, Spider-Man was driven to bring his uncle’s killer to justice. So much so that he picked a fight with any two-bit thug that he ran across on the New York City streets. While saving a woman from one such criminal, Peter took things too far and nearly threw the crook off the side of a building before coming to his senses. Batman has employed similar tactics to instill fear in the past, but with Spider-Man, this moment was far more personal and almost left the character in a very dark place.

6Maxwell Dillon’s Transformation Into Electro Was Shocking

The Movie:
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) directed by Marc Webb

The Moment:
Electro undergoes a violent change

Of all the Spider-Man movies, no villain’s transformation sequence is as physically or psychologically painful as Max Dillon’s into Electro. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 goes to great lengths to establish Dillon as a loner. A character trait perfectly encapsulated when Max sings “Happy Birthday” to himself moments before his transformation.

And what a transformation it was. Max fell into a vat of genetically altered eels that devoured him. Afterward, his body is transported to a morgue where he wakes up encased in a layer of his own melted skin, a beat that honestly feels more at home in a David Cronenberg film than in the middle of a mainstream superhero movie.

5Norman Osborn Descended Into Madness To Become Green Goblin

The Movie:
Spider-Man (2002) directed by Sam Raimi

The Moment:
Norman Osborn confronts his alter-ego

The Green Goblin was always a menace to Spider-Man and his friends. But the serum may not have given him his darkest and deadliest quality.

The original Spider-Man doesn’t just track Spidey’s ascent toward becoming a superhero. It also deftly depicts Norman Osborn’s descent into madness following his exposure to the Goblin formula that resulted in his transformation into the Green Goblin. Most people can relate to the fear of not being in control of their actions.

For Norman Osborn, that fear isn’t hypothetical; it’s genuine and brought to life in one of the franchise’s most memorable scenes. While hearing voices, Norman confronted his reflection in a mirror, only to learn that the Goblin was now in complete control. This unsettling moment is capped off with a menacing, crazed look that only an actor as talented as Willem Dafoe could create without the help of any special effects or prosthetics. Even The Joker never faced a dark personality crisis quite like Osborn’s turn into the Goblin.

4Spider-Man Confronted Mysterio’s Dark Illusions

The Movie:
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) directed by Jon Watts

The Moment:
Spider-Man must survive a hall of horrors

One standout moment in Spider-Man: Far From Home involved Mysterio crafting a series of illusions that physically and emotionally challenged Spider-Man, fashioning one of the franchise’s most stunning and psychologically intense scenes.

Mysterio warped reality around Peter in the Far From Home climax, forcing him to confront his most profound and darkest fears. The most memorable of these moments is when a zombified Iron Man climbed out of his grave, seemingly looking to chomp down on Peter’s brains, providing a moment few MCU fans will ever forget.

3Spider-Man Failed to Save Gwen Stacy

The Movie:
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) directed by Marc Webb

The Moment:
Gwen Stacy dies in Spider-Man’s arms

To this day, Gwen Stacy’s death is the darkest moment in any Spider-Man comic. So it was only a matter of time until one of the web-slinger’s silver-screen outings attempted to capture the magnitude of this event, and that moment finally arrived in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

What made this sequence so devastating was how it happened. As Gwen tumbled down the clocktower in free fall, Spidey cast a single web line in a desperate attempt to catch her. When it finally did, it was already too late. Gwen’s head collided with the ground, and Peter failed to save the love of his life.

2Green Goblin Brutally Murdered Spider-Man’s Aunt May

The Movie:
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2022) directed by Jon Watts

The Moment:
The Green Goblin kills Aunt May

As tragic as it is to watch Spider-Man lose loved ones like Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy, it’s more or less tradition. Those two characters are bound to a tragic fate in the comics and the movies. Aunt May, on the other hand, is different. Or, at least, she was supposed to be until Spider-Man: No Way Home flipped that expectation on its head.

Much of No Way Home deals with Peter trying to help his enemies find redemption. Unfortunately, this comes at the personal cost of the person who loved him most. After Norman Osborn’s darker side was unleashed, the Goblin tossed a pumpkin bomb at Peter and May that mortally wounded Peter’s Aunt. It’s a death made all the darker and more tragic due to Peter’s unintentional complicity in what happened.

1Doctor Octopus Became a Horror Movie Monster

The Movie:
Spider-Man 2 (2004) directed by Sam Raimi

The Moment:
Doctor Octopus murders a room full of doctors

In Spider-Man 2, Otto Octavius is transformed from a lovable mentor into a deranged killer. As surgeons desperately attempted to remove Otto’s mechanical arms from his body following an experiment gone wrong, the AI inside the arms went rogue and systematically tore the doctors apart.

Any fan who’s seen director Sam Raimi’s work in The Evil Dead series will feel right at home during this sequence where doctors are brutally stabbed, electrocuted, and strangled. These atrocities are made all the more memorable thanks to Raimi’s creative camera angles. There’s only one time a Spider-Man movie turned so dark it became a straight-up horror film, and this was it. The closest Batman films came to horror was through Scarecrow’s fear toxin, though Raimi’s Evil Dead-like camera cuts made Doc Ock’s dark turn even more effective.

Spider-Man

Since his first appearance in 1962, Spider-Man has almost always been Marvel Comics’ most popular character. Known for his sense of humor and bad luck as well as his selflessness and super-strength, Spider-Man has helmed countless titles over the years, Spider-Man’s most prominent comics include The Amazing Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Peter Parker was the original Spider-Man but the Spider-Verse has become an important part of the character’s lore in recent years. Multiversal and future Spider-Men include Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Miguel O’Hara and Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. This provided then they created Spider-Man.

 premise for the popular Spider-Verse film trilogy, which makes Miles its primary hero.

Spider-Man is also the basis of several live-action film franchises and numerous animated television series. He is one of the most recognizable characters in the world. While he’s changed a lot over the decades, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee gave the world an unforgettable hero whe