The Sinister Six
PURPOSE: Elimination and Humiliation of Spider-Man and World Domination.
AFFILIATIONS: Red Skull, A.I.M., HYDRA and various Criminal Organizations.
ENEMIES: Spider-Man, The Avengers, Misc Super-Heroes
FORMER MEMBERS: Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius), Electro (Maxwell Dillon),
Gog, Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale), Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff),
Kraven the Hunter (Alyosha Kravinoff), Mysterio (Daniel Berkhart),
Mysterio (Quentin Beck), Pity, Sandman (William Baker), Shocker (Herman Schultz),
Venom (Edward Brock), Vulture (Adrian Toomes)
SINISTER SEVEN:
Beetle (Abner Jenkins), Scorpia (Elaine Coll)
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Various Locations, New Jersy, New York
FIRST APPEARENCE: Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964)
HISTORY :
Escaping prison and wanting revenge against Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus organized
former wall-crawler foes Electro, Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff), Mysterio
(Quentin Beck), Sandman, and the Vulture into the Sinister Six. Though he promised
a "foolproof plan", Octavius merely arranged the kidnapping of Betty Brant and,
incidentally, May Parker, which enraged the wall-crawler into top fighting form.
The contentious Six could only agree to attack Spider-Man individually, insuring
their defeat.
Years later, Octopus reunited the group, coercing the reformed Sandman to join by
threatening to kill the family with whom he boarded and replacing the deceased
Kraven with Hobgoblin. His plan to steal a soon-to-be-launched satellite in order
to spray poison into the atmosphere was actually a blind to spray a substance that
caused convulsions in cocaine users. Octopus alone held the antidote, burundite,
which he planned to sell to addicts, turning on his partners and keeping all proceeds
for himself. The substance was successfully released but negated when Thor released
the burundite in the upper atmosphere as well. The betrayed five teamed up to gain
revenge on Ock but ended up joining him in a scheme to steal weapons and retrieve
the immense Tsiln race's Gog from another dimension in order to take over Hydra's
satellite setup. When Sandman rebelled, he was turned to glass and shattered by
Ock; Gog took his place in the group. As Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Hulk
(Bruce Banner), Sleepwalker, Nova (Richard Rider), Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch),
Deathlok (Michael Collins) and Solo (James Bourne) fought the others, a reconstituted
Sandman attacked Octopus, nearly killing him.
Ock was later murdered by the Peter Parker clone Kaine, his tentacles and notes
seized by the government. His cousin Elias Hargrove, an unwitting dupe of Mysterio
who manipulated the others for his own ends, reunited the surviving members, minus
Sandman, to retrieve these possessions, but Spider-Man, the Scarlet Spider
(Ben Reilly) and Kaine ruined the scheme. Frightened by Kaine's murders of other
Spider-Man foes, Electro, Hobgoblin, Mysterio and Vulture joined with Beetle,
Shocker and Scorpia to form the Sinister Seven. They hoped to stop Kaine by
attacking him first but were nearly killed in the encounter. The Six, including a
resurrected Dr. Octopus, were later regathered for an elaborate, yet ultimately
futile, plot to destroy Spider-Man and gain immeasurable wealth by destroying the
world's monetary system.
Still angered over his treatment by Dr. Octopus, the Sandman, reverted to evil by
the Wizard's id machine, reorganized the group, with Daniel Berkhart replacing the
deceased Quentin Beck as Mysterio, Alyosha Kravinoff appearing as the new Kraven,
and Venom (Edward Brock) horning in as the sixth member. They attacked Ock and
Senator Stewart Ward, only to be repelled by Ward's alien-implanted powers.
SINISTER SIX TRILOGY:
During Adam Troy-Castro's Sinister Six trilogy, a new Sinister Six- consister of
Doctor Octopus, the Vulture, Electro, Mysterio, the Chameleon, and original member
Pity- are formed by Gustav Fiers, a notorious criminal known as the Gentleman,
who wishes to kill Peter Parker in revenge for the actions of his parents in
thwarting some of the Gentleman's schemes in the sixties. To this end, Fiers
planned to trigger a massive electromagnetic pulse that would blank out all
databanks in Manhattan- the only reason he ever risked working with loose cannons
like the Six in the first place was because Electro's powers were the only way he
would have the energy to trigger the pulse-, subsequently releasing a stolen military
catalyst that would destroy all ink in New York, triggering a complete financial
collapse due to all the documents and information lost, while the Gentleman's own
recently-purchased material wealth would siginficantly increase in value. However,
Electro, the Vulture and Mysterio were all taken out before Electro could trigger
the pulse, Doctor Octopus and the Chameleon both attempted to betray the Gentleman
and take control of his plan, and Pity was convinced to help Spider-Man defeat her
two former teammates. Fiers subsequently died of gunshot wounds caused when the
Chameleon attempted to take his palce (Only to be caught by Octavius), the Chameleon
ended up in the hospital due to hypothermia after the Gentleman's plane crashed into
cold water, Octavius vanished for a time, and Pity disappeared, with her final fate
remaining unclear.
SINISTER TWELVE:
In Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, had been unmasked
to the public and imprisoned after losing a battle to Spider-Man. Defeated but
unbowed, Osborn concocted a fiendish contingency plan. He contacted a group of
supervillains who also bore grudges against Spider-Man, and all of them had been
financed by Osborn's fortunes for years. (It was revealed that most supervillains
have corporate funding in the Marvel Universe) Eager for revenge, the villains
agreed to band together, and the Sinister Twelve was formed.
The Sinister Twelve was the largest gathering to date of Spider-Man's enemies.
The major villains not part of the Twelve were either deceased (Mysterio, Kraven
the Hunter), retired (Molten Man, Hobgoblin), or incarcerated (Rhino and Doctor
Octopus.)
Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, was the de facto leader of the Twelve while Osborn was
in prison, and it was he who kidnapped Peter Parker's Aunt May and threatened to
kill her if Spider-Man did not help Osborn escape from jail. A desperate Spider-Man,
with help from the Black Cat, broke Osborn out, only to be confronted with the
Vulture, Sandman, Electro, Chameleon, Lizard, Hydro-Man, Shocker, Hammerhead,
Boomerang, and Tombstone. Osborn, now in the guise of the Green Goblin, introduced
them as the Sinister Twelve. The final member of the group, Scorpion, shocked
everybody present when he arrived, revealing that he had bonded with Eddie Brock's
alien symbiote, becoming the new Venom. Although Osborn was displeased with Gargan's
new power, he nevertheless watched with glee as the assembled villains converged
on the hopelessly outnumbered Spider-Man and Black Cat.
Despite the odds, Spider-Man and the Black Cat fought back in a heroic last stand.
Before the two could be killed, salvation arrived in the form of Captain America,
Iron Man, Daredevil, Yellowjacket and the Fantastic Four, who struck back at the
villains. Spider-Man's wife, Mary Jane Watson, had called S.H.I.E.L.D. to aid him,
as she feared he was heading into a trap. A furious Green Goblin rocketed away and
kidnapped her, and Spider-Man pursued him, fighting off Venom, who was trying to
stop him. Spider-Man and the Goblin clashed once again upon a bridge (not the one
where Gwen Stacy was killed), this time with Mary Jane's life at stake.
Finally Osborn gave a vital clue as to Aunt May's whereabouts, and was defeated
by a combination of being shot by Mary Jane, struck by lightning, and attacked by
Doctor Octopus, who was brainwashed by the police into trying to kill him. The
Goblin fell into the river below, and Aunt May was found and saved.
In the aftermath, Peter received a pre-sent letter from Osborn, thanking him for
all the "excitement" their rivalry has provided over the years and telling him to
rest easy until they meet again. The rest of the Sinister Twelve were subdued by
the heroes and arrested; Gargan ended up, ironically, in Osborn's old cell.
CIVIL WARS SINISTER SIX:
A new version of the Sinister Six apparently banded together during the Civil War
but were stopped by Captain America and his Secret Avengers.
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