User blog:X9 The Android/PE Proposal: The Thousand

Hello guys! Today, here's my ninth PE proposal, and it's about The Thousand, a one-shot Spider-Man villain who appeared as main antagonist in the 2001 The Coming of the Thousand story arc.

WHO IS HE / WHAT HAS HE DONE?
Carl King was a bully who picked on Peter Park from kindergarten through high school. He always got away because no one wanted to come as witness, supposedly because "they liked Carl". The day Peter acquired his powers, Carl stalked him down until realizing that he was Spider-Man. Eating the same spider to get the same powers, Carl instead became a living swarm of hive spiders that must use the skin of a body as a suit (a la Oogie Boogie) to not attract suspicion. As such, Carl starts to kill over people for suits for himself, including his own family, becoming the Thousand.

Years later, the Thousand finds Peter Parker employed at the Daily Bugle and takes over the body of Jess Patton, one of J. Jonah Jameson's employees. Lying to Parker, Carl succeeds in Peter bringing him to his apartment, where he knocks him out, ties him to a chair and explains him his story before trying to devour him and get his skin for himself to have all the powers and fame that should have been "his". However, our friendly neighbor Spider-Man frees himself and fights with the Thousand until he strikes a transformers, causing an explosion which kills all his spiders but one, who sneaks away to plan his vengeance only for a New Yorker to accidentally squish him.

MITIGATING FACTORS?
Much like Carnage, Carl was already a bad person before getting his powers. He is a rare example of a jerkish bully who became Pure Evil. Like most bullies in popular culture, Carl starts as the stereotypical bully who picks on the weakest, in this case Peter Parker: he dunks his head on the toilets, severely beats him with a ball and even tells him that his aunt doesn't like him and has set him up to be beaten by him. Unlike Flash Thompson, another bully of Parker's life who later became his friend, who used to tease Parker verbally, Carl teases Peter physically and is sometimes brutal on how he picks on him. He believes that no one ratted him out because they "respected" him when it's possible they didn't rat him out due fear to him.

However, when Carl realizes all the feats Parker has achieved for being bitten by a radioactive spider, Carl instantly believes that all those powers should have been for him in spite that he would have been a terrible Spider-Man as he would have just cared for the things he liked and not in helping people, demonstrating his extreme selfishness. Once Carl acquires his powers, instead of realizing that it's his own fault, he resolves to kill as many he needs to reach Parker, devour him from inside and take over his body, which, as you must assume, what a horrible way to die. His uncaringess is shown when he doesn't bother on who he has to kill on his way, including his mother and father (and it's suggested that he had to have sex with his father first before killing him and taking his body). He then kills his girlfriend and later innocent people, including homeless persons and even children, dismissing their lives as unnecessary. This shows that Carl has no mercy and doesn't want to recognize that Peter doesn't have the fault of his situation.

When the Thousand finally manages to track down Peter Parker, he lures and kills Jess Patton, taking over her body. He then tricks Peter into bringing "her" to his apartment, where once there he reveals himself, brutally beats Peter and prepares to devour him until Peter's landlord comes, leading him to devour the innocent landlord before sadistically explaining his story to Spidey. Once he makes his intentions clear, they fight, but unlike their previous altercations, Peter succeeds in beating out the Thousand, who ends up dying in the fight.

VERDICT
Taking all of this into account, I would say yes about considering The Thousand to be approved as PE.