Many years later, the villains all escaped prison and went to get revenge on the wall-crawler. However, times had changed as Kraven had committed suicide, so the Hobgoblin took his place. The group was organized once again by Dr. Octopus, who claimed they would try to defeat Spider-Man. However, this was a trick, part of a larger plan by which Octavius alone would be the master of the world. The Sandman, at this point in his career reformed, aided Spider-Man in defeating the Sinister Six, ultimately stopping Octavius's plans to conquer the world.
A few months later, the group reunited once more in a bid to take over the world using alien weaponry. Sandman's foster family was hit with a bomb, and Sandman, believing Octopus had attacked them as punishment for betraying him, joined the other members of the Sinister Six in a plan to take revenge upon Octopus. Despite his grief, however, Sandman contacted Spider-Man and asked him to shadow the group as insurance against him being double-crossed or unexpected surprises. By this point, Octopus had already obtained his lost Adamantium arms (by killing a wealthy, unethical individual who offered to sell the arms to him) and stealing the old man's robot soldiers and weapons. Octopus easily defeated the other members of the Six with them, then zapped Sandman with a weapon that transformed his living sand body into solid glass (Octopus, however, was apparently not responsible for the bombing of Sandman's foster family, which was apparently done by the other members of the Six in order to coerce Sandman into joining their revenge scheme; in addition, Octopus had not only anticipated the Six's plan to reassemble and take revenge upon him, but had deliberately facilitated it, even secretly paying Electro to help ensure the Six reassembled so that he could coerce the other members into aiding his scheme).
The assembled Sinister Six went off on a rampage, stealing advanced weapons and technology from several sources, including raiding an alien dimension for advanced weaponry and attacking a facility specializing in cybernetics, in the process having several successful encounters beating Spider-Man, the Hulk(in his Professor identity), Deathlok, Solo, and others (before acquiring more advanced alien weapons, the Hulk trounced the other members of the Six, then got stomped upon by Octopus because Octavius had the adamnantium arms). Merely defeated in his initial encounter with the Six, Spider-Man was left with hairline fractures on one arm and leg, but was able to pursue them with medical attention including cybernetic casts. Eventually, Spider-Man and several other heroes confronted the villains as they were seizing a HYDRA base to gain access to deadly, world-devastating weapons (during the Six's raiding assaults on various locations, the group engaged in wanton mass murder, simply exterminating anyone who got in their way, shocking Spider-Man, as, despite their lack of scruples, these particular villains didn't generally kill wantonly). The last member of Octavius's Sinister Six was revealed to be Gog, and a combat between members of the super hero community summoned by Spidey (including the Fantastic Four, Nova, the Hulk, and Solo) broke out, ending when the broken-glass body of the Sandman shredded Doctor Octopus, nearly killing him.
Members:
Doctor Octopus
Electro
The Vulture
Mysterio
The Hobgoblin
Gog
Former Members:
The Sandman
