The first Madame Web trailer left fans with a lot of questions, with perhaps the biggest one being: Who is Marvel’s Ezekiel Sims, the main villain in Madame Web? Here’s the cliff-notes answer to the question, taking into account what little we know from the movie so far.
Marvel’s Ezekiel Sims Is the Main Villain in Madame Web
Despite his appearance in the trailer, Ezekiel Sims is no hero – and despite the familiar color pattern, he’s not related to Peter Parker or Miles Morales. Superheroes truly need to start considering trademarking if everyone can just go around copying your look. Instead, Sims is just your regular, or well, not so regular if we take into account his abilities – the trailer makes it seems like he has seen the future – but regular when it comes to Marvel, villain.
In the comics, Sims is a rich businessman who received spider-like abilities, much like Spider-Man, because original the comics are not. Except his powers are tied to something called the Spider-Totem and a multiversal vampire called Morlun. They consist of basically the same as we’ve seen from Peter and Miles – wall-crawling, enhanced power and speed, and his own spider-sense.
Instead of using his powers for good, much like rich businessmen do, Sims chose to use his powers to build himself an empire. That part at least tracks. The Madame Web version seems to be a straight-up villain, going after Julia Carpenter, Anya Corazon, and Mattie Franklin, though the comic version has, at some points, had good intentions.
Ezekiel Sims Makes a Cameo Appearance in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Ironically, Madame Web isn’t the first time we’ve seen – or heard – Ezekiel Sims. The character, in fact, makes a very small appearance in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, though it’s easy to miss it considering how many Spider-Man variants appear in that movie.
Going by the name Spider-Therapist, Sims is a member of the Spider Society who offers his help to Spider-Men as they deal with the heavy emotional baggage that comes with the job. The scene sees him in his office, in full mask, and though he never gives his name, his diploma from Ditko University with his name on it is seen on the wall.
His entire office is destroyed by Miles and several other Spider-Society members chasing after Miles during the film’s pivotal chase scene, which, if you think about it, is par for the course for a Spider-Man.
