Als je denkt aan Spider-Man of Superman dan weet je dat dit de goodguys zijn die zelfs hun vijanden niet zouden doden, tenzij het niet anders kan. Maar er zijn een aantal verhalen waarbij een normaal straigh up held door het lint gaat en zijn donkerste kant naar boven laat komen. Daarom heeft de website Topless Robot nu deze lijst met zes verhalen geplaatst die nogal.... donker zijn. Zoals:

6) Spider-Man, "The Death of Jean DeWolff"

Spider-Man's always been a character who's had to endure hardships -- his Uncle Ben's murder is right there in his origin story, after all, and the death of Gwen Stacy remains one of the most memorable Spider-Man stories of all time -- but this four-issue story from 1985 (writer Peter David's first published work for Marvel) is the first in which Spider-Man himself turns dark and gritty. It starts when a serial killer named Sin-Eater kills Police Capt. Jean DeWolff, one of Spider-Man's only friends in the NYPD (as well as a judge, a priest, and almost Betty Brant).

When Spider-Man catches up to the killer, himself an NYPD detective who had befriended Peter, Spidey's in such a rage that he nearly beats the guy to death. Only Daredevil's intervention stops him, and the Sin-Eater ends up crippled. Earlier, Spidey comes pretty close to killing a drug pusher during an interrogation, too. And here's the crazy thing: He's wearing his black costume in the story, but it's not the symbiote that would become Venom. It's just a cloth version of the suit. Mr. Fantastic removed the symbiote almost a year prior. So, unlike the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon, where Spider-Man nearly killing The Shocker is directly the result of the symbiote, this was straight-up him.

A couple years later, Spider-Man would be buried alive in what might be the darkest Spidey story ever, "Kraven's Last Hunt." Oh, and he also made a deal with the devil to scrap his marriage to save Aunt May's life, but that's less "dark" and more "stupid."