Hi. This is Thesecret1070. I am an admin of this site. Edit as much as you wish, but one little thing... If you are going to edit a lot, then make yourself a user and login. Other than that, enjoy Villains Wiki!!!
This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being terminated blocked. You cannot make said Removal Proposal without permission from an admin first. Additional Notice: This template is meant for admin maintenance only. Users who misuse the template will be blocked for a week minimum.
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, strong drug use, extremely traumatic themes, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older.
If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. Note: Content classification services hold no influence over the template's criteria and usage. Only the content itself matters.
“
I wanted what you had for myself, Parker. The things I could do with it... with power like that... But what I got was different. Something better, Parker. Something worse. Something that can live inside, that could liquefy the innards of a man and walk the earth within his hollow shell... Something that could watch. And wait. And fester. See? See now? I AM THE THOUSAND.
„
~ The Thousand introducing his true form to Spider-Man.
Carl King, also known as The Thousand, is the main antagonist of The Coming of the Thousand story arc, comprised from Spider-Man's Tangled Web #1-3, published in 2001.
He started out as a school bully who liked to hassle classmate Peter Parker. But after realizing that Peter was the heroic "Spider-Man" upon being bitten by a radioactive spider, King responded by eating the spider to likewise acquire his powers - only to become a living swarm of spiders that can kill people from inside and use their corpses as vessels. Consequently, he became an extremely despicable supervillain known as "The Thousand" and ended up being one of Spider-Man's nastiest foes.
As a child, Carl King was a bully who frequently targeted Peter Parker. This involved King extorting money from Peter, forcing him to do his homework for him, dunking his head on a toilet, and physically beating him up with no mercy. He continuously tormented Peter from grade school (as early as kindergarten) through high school. During a science exhibit depicting the effects of radiation, King witnesses Peter getting bitten by a radioactive spider and gaining superpowers. He begins stalking Peter, and further witnesses his becoming of the superhero Spider-Man.
This causes him to become jealous of his rival. Wanting to gain superpowers as well, King returns to the science exhibit and eats the dead spider that bit Peter and Cindy Moon. Thereafter he showed no signs of mutation for several days, until one morning when he discovers that his body is now composed entirely of spiders. He also discovers that he can consume the innards of other people and use their skin as a suit, after doing so to his mother accidentally. Curious as to whether or not he could do it again, he does the same to his father (the imagery implies that he raped him first). Seeking to master his new abilities, King consumes and takes over the bodies of his girlfriend, as well as various homeless people and children. King learned that he became stronger with each new host.
Years later, King decides to kill Peter Parker and take his identity out of jealousy of the fame and glory he believed he has received as Spider-Man. He kills and possesses Jess Patton, an employee at the Daily Bugle, during his rampage. At the Daily Bugle, King, as Patton, lies to Peter about being broke, alcoholic, and homeless after breaking up with a boyfriend. Out of pity, Peter takes "Jess" to his apartment to stay. Once there, King reveals his true identity and attacks Peter, defeating him easily after the hero changes into his Spider-Man costume. King bites Peter, paralyzing him, and then puts him in restraints.
Before Carl King can eat Peter, Peter's landlord Mr. Ambrose enters the room. Not wanting a witness to his existence, King takes over Ambrose's body. King, as Ambrose, then tells Spider-Man his full origin story. In the time it takes him to do this, the venom in Spider-Man's body wears off and he attacks King. The two trade insults as they fight, and King gains the upper hand. Preparing to deliver the finishing blow to his childhood rival, King accidentally strikes a transformer instead. This electrocutes him and kills the majority of his spiders.
Believing that his old rival is dead, Spider-Man leaves the scene. Unbeknownst to him. However, one of the spiders survives and vows revenge. Seconds later, however, the spider is stepped on by an oblivious passerby who was searching for a place to smoke. Unless another of his spiders survived, this definitely killed Carl King, bringing his threat to an end once and for all.
Personality[]
Unlike many of the members of Spider-Man's rogues gallery, which were ordinary people until some accident or personal tragedy happened to them, and much like Carnage, Carl was already a bad person before he got his powers. A despicable bully, Carl picked on Peter Parker since kindergarten and continued his physical and verbal abuse on him up to high school. While other students like Flash Thompson and his gang also liked to pick on Parker too, they presumably knew there were certain boundaries they weren't willing to cross, but Carl had no restrictions and loved to beat Parker mercilessly, dunking his head on a toilet and even teasing him that his Aunt May had called him to set him up and did not love him. Carl also believed that all students liked him because no one was willing to stood up for Parker against his rampage.
However, after Peter acquired his powers and became Spider-Man, Carl stalked him and grew up to be jealous of him, believing that he was the one who deserved those powers, even though he only wanted them to gain money and fame instead of helping others. In his mad hopes of acquiring the same powers as Spider-Man, Carl found the deceased spider that bit Peter and Cindy Moon and ate it. This decision cost Carl his body, transforming his consciousness into a living swarm of spiders. Blaming Parker for his condition, Carl became so determined to track him that he started to kill and consume people to grow ever stronger, not caring who he killed. His list of victims included both his parents, his girlfriend, homeless people, children, and finally J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, whose likeness he used to get close to Peter. His ultimate desire was to take over Spider-Man's body to become famous, but his wicked ways and their past history were enough for Spidey to find the resolve and strength to defeat him once and for all and make Carl pay for all of his villainous actions.
Powers and abilities[]
Hive Physiology: Carl King's consciousness is spread across a swarm of a thousand large spiders, granting him a variety of different abilities.
Flesh Puppet: The Thousand is able to infiltrate a human body and devour it from the inside. The swarm can then proceed to "pilot" the hollowed-out body. The Thousand's flesh puppets are indistinguishable from a normal human at first glance, allowing him to usurp the identity of his victims.
Superhuman Attributes: The Thousand's flesh puppets have superhuman strength, speed and reflexes, enough to outmatch Spider-Man himself. Every victim The Thousand devours supposedly increases these attributes, with no known upper limit.
Paralytic Bite: The spiders comprising The Thousand carry a powerful paralytic venom. It can be injected through the bite of either the spiders themselves or the flesh puppet, and was potent enough to incapacitate Spider-Man for several minutes.
Spidey Sense Immunity: Peter's Spidey Sense is incapable of warning him against The Thousand's attacks (presumably because he has the spider inside his body), making it much harder for the hero to keep up with this enemy.
Split Consciousness: Every spider in The Thousand's swarm carries Carl King's consciousness. As long as one remains, the swarm can potentially reform and regain its strength.
Weaknesses[]
Single Use Puppets: The Thousand's emergence from a flesh puppet tends to damage the host body beyond recognition, often causing their teeth to fall out and their eyes to be torn apart as part of the swarm exits through the sockets. This presumably makes the discarded flesh puppet unusable.
Energy: While The Thousand is highly resistant to physical assault due to its swarm physiology, it is highly vulnerable to attacks and effects that can damage the entire swarm at once, such as an electric shock.
Individually Weak Components: While The Thousand as a swarm is formidable, each individual spider is no stronger than a normal arachnid of this size.
The Thousand is similar to Eddie Brock, as they are both supervillains obsessed with Spider-Man who know his secret identity and possess spider-like powers and an immunity to the Spider-Sense. However, while The Thousand had zilch regret for his crimes, Eddie has some morality on his actions.
He is also similar to Flash Thompson, as noted above. He can be said to represent who Flash would be if he got worse rather than better.
His demise was ironic, as Carl wished to become a famous individual like Spider-Man, but instead died by pure accident. Considering that he spent his school years insulting Peter by calling him a pathetic worm, it is also ironic that he met his demise squashed like a bug under the feet of a random passerby, showing that it is Carl who was the insignificant insect all along.
✓
