As one of the biggest comic book publishers around, Marvel Comics has expanded its roster to have countless characters functioning on varying scales. The global and cosmic-scale adventures that the Avengers tackle has inspired several beloved stories and the thrilling villains that opposed them.
But it's just as exciting to see Marvel scale things back down to more grounded, street-level story arcs. From the likes of Spider-Man and Daredevil, some of the publisher's most well-written villains are the ones that operate on a tighter, and more intimate scope.
Kingpin
Starting as a Spider-Man supervillain, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin grew in popularity to expand into a shared antagonist with Daredevil. Given the more recent surge in mainstream popularity of the latter, Kingpin has arguably become more synonymous with the Man Without Fear. Vincent D'Onofrio's take on the character also had a major hand in this newfound reputation.
But for both heroes, he's functioned as an immense threat at the street level, as Kingpin has flexed his muscles physically and as a master strategist to keep New York in a criminal vice-grip. Fisk more often than not has served as Matt Murdock's shadowy and relentlessly evil architect in some of Daredevil's best comic books.
Bullseye
When it comes to Daredevil specifically, Bullseye is, at least, a close second behind the Kingpin of Crime in the comics. The villain has a relatively tame set of assets when compared to the various supernatural threats Marvel has, but his frightening level of skill in marksmanship makes him effortlessly terrifying.
Another one of his most dangerous aspects is just how unhinged and divorced he is from morality in general. Bullseye doesn't attempt to hide his sadism, rather, his bombastic nature makes it well known to everyone that he gets indescribable catharsis out of being a vicious, psychopathic hitman. The assassin has often been the catalyst to some of the worst things to ever happen to Daredevil.
Doctor Octopus
Doctor Otto Octavius is one of Spider-Man's most famous foes and his endless bouts with the Wall-Crawler cement him as more than a worthy adversary. Like with many great supervillains, one of the biggest threats that Doctor Octopus possesses is his mind. He's a brilliant scientist that's applied it to nefarious endeavors, granting him his superhuman-level mechanical appendages.
Doc Ock's downfall is his constant attempts to prove his intellectual superiority to Spider-Man, allowing the hero to thwart whatever ambitions he has. Though he counts as a street-level villain, Ock has at times shown how far-reaching his threats can be, especially in establishing the Sinister Six.
Green Goblin
As far as the Wall-Crawler's rogues' gallery is concerned, Green Goblin is arguably Spider-Man's best comic book villain. For one comparison, he's essentially what the Joker is to Batman in DC. Norman Osborn is also the most obsessed with causing Peter Parker the most psychological and emotional turmoil.
Since the two are indirectly involved with one another outside of their alter egos via Harry Osborn, the Green Goblin is also a bane to everyone Peter loves outside of the suit. Norman's status as the rich head of Oscorp also allows him to concentrate his immense wealth on his obsession with making the superhero's life as miserable as possible.
Kraven The Hunter
He can occasionally fluctuate from supervillain to anti-hero, but it doesn't make Kraven any less menacing when he's operating on the wrong side of justice. Kraven the Hunter is ultimately a thrill-seeker, wanting desperately to achieve the status of the world's greatest big-game hunter.
Naturally, it eventually made him set his sights on Spider-Man since Kraven saw him as his "most dangerous game." Kraven has certainly acquired a formidable set of lethal tactics from marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, and tracking, but can still be overly boastful. Even with all this, Kraven still stands by a code of honor and has even taken part in one of Spider-Man's best comic book arcs in Kraven's Last Hunt.
Purple Man
In a similar development to Kingpin, the Purple Man started publication as a recurring Daredevil supervillain. However, he ended up becoming a shared and more synonymous arch-enemy of Jessica Jones. Zebediah Killgrave/Purple Man is one of the more supernatural of Marvel's street-level villains, possessing incredible regenerative and mind-control abilities.
However, he has also used his intelligence and superhuman powers to build intricately manipulative criminal enterprises. Actor David Tennant portrayed him in Netflix's Jessica Jones series in what's one of the best, yet underrated live-action Marvel villain performances.
Venom
Eddie Brock as Venom is one of the superhero genre's most popular villains to transition into an anti-hero. Nonetheless, his villainous roots have easily made him another of Spider-Man's most notorious foes.
The Venom symbiote is the first of its kind to debut in the comics, making the hulking alien-inspired black suit among the franchise's iconic imagery. Eddie became vindictive of Spider-Man early on in his journalistic career, giving the Venom symbiote the perfect -- and his most popular -- host to feed its inherently sinister nature.
Carnage
Given Venom's popularity among comic book fans, it's not surprising that Marvel eventually put in a new variant of the symbiote. And though the Venom symbiote is certainly the most popular, Carnage is not far behind. Even worse for Spider-Man, Carnage is a Venom offshoot that is a stronger and somehow darker version of its parent.
This symbiote's most popular host is Cletus Kasady; a deranged, sociopathic serial killer that made the two a disturbingly natural fit. With all the abilities granted by the symbiote from the original Venom host -- Peter Parker -- Carnage was a sociopathic brick wall of a supervillain.
Typhoid Mary
Typhoid Mary is undoubtedly one of Daredevil's most psychologically unstable supervillains. She's essentially a superpowered and more deranged version of DC's Two-Face, as she has disassociative identity disorder to an extreme degree.
Her superhuman abilities range from some moderate levels of pyrokinesis and telekinesis, which amplify her threat level when Mary alternates between her adventurously violent "Typhoid" and sadistically brutal "Bloody Mary" personas. To add even more complexity to her antagonistic role to Daredevil, Typhoid Mary was one of his lovers for a time -- before ultimately marrying Kingpin.
The Jackal
The Jackal is one of the more lesser-known Spider-Man villains outside of comic book circles but still deserves praise for the danger he poses to the superhero. He's written as a classic "mad scientist" supervillain who was a professor at the university that Peter and Gwen Stacy attended in New York.
Even with the likes of Green Goblin incessantly trying to ruin Spider-Man's life, the Jackal has done some heinous things to him. As a professor, he became increasingly obsessed with Gwen to the point where he tried to apply his unethical experiments to resurrect her. The Jackal's hatred of Spider-Man over Gwen's death led to him creating various clones to try and kill him.