Heme proteins utilize the heme cofactor, an iron porphyrin, to perform a diverse range of reactions including dioxygen binding and transport, electron transfer, and oxidation/oxygenations. These reactions share several, key metalloporphyrin intermediates, typically derived from dioxygen and its congeners such as hydrogen peroxide, and which are comprised of metal-dioxygen, metal-superoxo, metal-peroxo, and metal-oxo adducts. A wide variety of synthetic metalloporphyrinoid complexes have been synthesized to generate and stabilize these intermediates, and then employed to determine the spectroscopic features, structures, and reactivities of such species in controlled and well-defined environments. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the reactivity of these species with common porphyrinoid scaffolds employed for biomimetic studies. The proposed mechanisms of action are emphasized. The review is organized by structural type of metal-oxygen intermediate, and broken into subsections based on the metal (manganese, iron) and porphyrinoid ligand (porphyrin, corrole, corrolazine).