Marvel just announced that the demonic Mephisto has assembled his own Sinister Six roster, unleashing them against the Avengers in upcoming issues of the newly launched Avengers Volume 10.
The Sinister Six debuted in 1964, when Doctor Octopus united Electro, Mysterio, Sandman, Vulture and Kraven the Hunter into a team to take down their mutual enemy, Spider-Man. Since then, there have been countless versions of the team, with a variety of members and rosters.
Now, a new Sinister Six will rise, making the team name more literal than ever before. Each member is a dead hero who made a deal with Mephisto in the past, summoned from the afterlife to do his bidding.
Mephisto, Former King of Hell
Mephisto is an ancient embodiment of evil who rules over Marvel’s most traditional form of ‘Hell,’ reveling in corrupting the innocent and collecting souls. Recent issues of Captain America have seen Mephisto overthrown by Doctor Doom, who has taken his place as Hell’s leader, winning the loyalty of his demonic legions.
In Captain America #16 – from Chip Zdarsky, Valerio Schiti, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Joe Caramagna – Doom made the reckless move of canceling all Mephisto’s past contracts. While this allowed Doom to solidify his rule of Hell, it also seemingly triggered a cosmic process where ‘angels’ arrived to reverse the effects of all Mephisto’s deals – including Spider-Man’s Aunt May still being alive.
Meanwhile, Mephisto has also been searching out those who made deals in the past and claiming their hearts for unknown reasons. With Avengers Armageddon predicting that a victorious Mephisto would kill Spider-Man, it seems like he’s making a play for infernal power, with his new Sinister Six as his enforcers.
Notably, the 2025 Bring on the Bad Guys series revealed that across Marvel history, villains including Abomination and the Green Goblin have made deals with Mephisto, explaining why he’s able to summon them as his Sinister Six. Given these villains are all dead in canon, it’s possible that Avengers plans to use this storyline to permanently return at least a few of them to life.
Sabretooth, aka Victor Creed
Wolverine’s nemesis, Sabretooth was killed in 2024’s Wolverine Volume 7 #50 (Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Geoff Shaw, Cory Smith et al.) The villain was beheaded by Wolverine (wielding the Muramasa Blade) at the conclusion of the ‘Sabretooth War’ arc, having killed Logan’s son Akihiro and protégé Quentin Quire.
Sabretooth’s ghost has been seen before now, with Marvel going to surprising lengths to confirm that he is truly, officially dead. He possesses immense strength, vicious claws and a healing factor that – at times – has been shown to overpower Wolverine’s own.
Front and center in Marco Checchetto’s cover for The Avengers #4, it seems like Sabretooth may be the field leader for this new Sinister Six. He’s the most likely member to be permanently resurrected as a result of this story.
Abomination, aka Emil Blonksy
The Abomination died way back in 2008’s Hulk Volume 2 #1 (Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness et al.), murdered by General Ross’ Red Hulk in an act of vengeance for his daughter Betty. Over the last two decades, Abomination has returned multiple times, but always in temporary or unstable forms, repeatedly forced back into death by everyone from Marlo Chandler to the short-lived Gamma Flight team.
Abomination’s debt to Mephisto seemingly goes back to 1985’s Secret Wars II, though fans believed that debt had been paid by Blonsky killing Akeyo Mokinyo in Bring on the Villains. Perhaps he made another deal, or perhaps Mephisto isn’t so easy to escape. After Sabretooth, he’s the next most likely to get a permanent resurrection in this story.
The only being on Earth whose base strength is higher than that of the Hulk, Abomination is the team’s powerhouse, and even by himself is a reason to consider this the strongest Sinister Six roster yet.
Kraven the Hunter, aka Sergei Kravinoff
The only returning member of the original Sinister Six, Kraven died in 2019’s Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #22 (Nick Spencer, Humberto Ramos et al.) and was replaced by his near-identical clone son of the same name. The original Kraven died willingly, passing on his legacy, and is likely to be incredibly angry to be forced back to life.
Having treated his body with various potions and drugs, Kraven is superhumanly strong and agile, possessing a total mastery of most forms of weaponry.
Carnage, Identity Unknown
The serial-killer son of Venom is one of Marvel’s deadliest villains, able to shapeshift into nearly any form (but preferring vicious, bladed weaponry.) However, unlike the other entries on this list, Carnage is technically alive in current canon.
The newly relaunched Spider-Woman Volume 9 (from Dan Watters, Andrea Broccardo, Mattia Iacono and Joe Sabino) has revealed that Jessica Drew is the current host of Carnage, though the symbiote’s mind was mostly fried by events in recent issues of Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity. Meanwhile, Cletus Cassady is stalking Jessica as a ghost-like ‘codex’ being.
It’s likely Cletus who will be resurrected by Mephisto and granted the powers he possessed as Carnage, probably without the symbiote actually in tow.
The Green Goblin, Identity Unknown
Spider-Man’s nemesis rounds out this team while acting as its biggest question mark. That’s because the original Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, is still alive and well. Indeed, better than ‘well’ – his sins were purged back in 2020, removing the Green Goblin persona and leaving him consumed by guilt for his former villainy.
Norman has been a hero ever since, operating as both the Gold Goblin and the Resolute Spider-Man, while also supporting Peter Parker’s heroism with gadgets and upgraded equipment. Of course, there have been many other Green Goblins, including Norman’s son Harry Osborn, Phil Urich and Bart Hamilton, but none seem fit to stand alongside such big-name teammates.
There’s another possibility: this could be the Goblin persona itself, given physical form. Modern Marvel comics treat the Green Goblin as a distinct persona within Norman Osborn. After passing between various hosts (including the Goblin Queen and Peter Parker himself), this entity was exorcised, and so would be a candidate to be ‘resurrected’ even without Norman.
The Heroes: Marvel’s New Avenger Roster
Avengers Volume 10 is slowly but steadily bringing a new team together, following the traditional team disbanding in Avengers Armageddon. The new roster includes Spider-Man, Wolverine, Luke Cage, a weakened Captain Marvel and new hero Miracleman. In a surprise addition, the team is also being aided by junior mystic Paige Howley.
Spider-Man and Wolverine have the most obvious connections to Mephisto’s Sinister Six, but Daredevil and Luke Cage have faced most of them at one time or another. While these villains would traditionally be minor threats to Carol Danvers, Avengers Armageddon saw her reduced to just 10% of her former power, making several of them potent threats.
Notably, this makes Miracleman the only hero who could hope to contend with the Abomination. With strength and durability comparable to the Sentry, Miracleman is nevertheless mostly untested with his new powers, and couldn’t stop Red Hulk’s recent rampage in which thousands died. It’s also worth noting that in World War Hulk, Hulk narrowly beat Sentry in a physical fight, and Abomination is traditionally even stronger.
As Mephisto’s plans near their conclusion, the Avengers will be forced to contend with a brand new Sinister Six made up of classic villains, presenting the team with the first real test of their teamwork and abilities.
