Villain Profile: The Scorpion

Okay, so one more, slight detour before I return to the topic of Danny Rand’s adventures in New York. So, a number of years ago now, I did a theme week of characters that had been bonded to the Venom Symbiote. One of those characters was MacDonald “Mac” Gargan. While Mac is one of the better known, and long running, Venom hosts, he actually got his start much, much earlier in the Spider-Man Mythos, as the monstrous Scorpion. Let’s get to it.

I wonder how much property damage he
causes just scaling buildings.

Way back in the day, Mac Gargan was a sleazy private investigator. One of those guys that had few moral qualms, would do anything for a quick buck. Which made him perfect for a job that everyone’s favorite Spider-Man hater, J. Jonah Jameson, had in mind. See, JJ hates Spider-Man, but prints stories about him in the Daily Bugle because they sell copies. He knows that one of his freelance photographers, Peter Parker, somehow takes really amazing pictures of Spider-Man to use in these stories. And he also knows that Parker is pro-Spider-Man and would never tell someone like Jameson about the details of how he gets said pictures. So, Jameson hired Gargan to follow Parker in the hopes of learning how he takes the pictures in the hopes they could use this information to finally ruin Spider-Man. This of course doesn’t work out the way that they’d hoped, because, you know, Spidey Sense, and Gargan returns to Jameson empty handed. Obviously infuriated by this, Jameson decides to try plan B. He hires Gargan to undergo a highly dangerous and virtually untested genetic procedure. Now, a smarted man would have walked away after the words ‘highly,’ ‘dangerous,’ and ‘untested’ came up in the contract, but Jameson offered him like a $10,000 to do it, so Gargan might not have heard all the details. A geneticist named Dr. Farley Stillwell combined Gargan with the DNA of a Scorpion, as scorpions are one of the spider’s natural predators. He also outfitted Gargan with a costume that came equipped with a large club-like mechanical tail, similar to that which an actual scorpion uses.

The newly dubbed Scorpion sought out Spider-Man and easily dispatched the wall-crawler. Spider-Man slips away, but is quickly tracked down and beaten some more. Spider-Man escaped a second time, which proved most fortuitous for everyone involved. It’s at this point where the side effects of combining human DNA with an arthropods’ DNA proved to be insanely dangerous and stupid. The combination of the scorpion’s natural predatory instincts and, I’m assuming, degeneration from the DNA tinkering, quickly drove Gargan into a homicidal rage. He tried to murder Jameson and Stillwell, but Spider-Man intervened. This time he was able to disarm, or in this case de-tail, Scorpion of his mechanical appendage, and saw that Gargan was put away for his crimes.

Now, despite being one of Peter Parker’s older enemies, and being his original ‘broken mirror’ villain (similar powers to hero but few to no moral restrictions), Gargan hasn’t really done all that much of note. He’s largely a merc villain, working for anyone and everyone that’s willing to pay him for his services. Huh, the more things change… Though, he harbors a special hatred for Jameson and Spider-Man. He’s actually let more than one largely foolproof plan fall apart simply because he wanted to humiliated one or both of the men he hates so intensely. Like the time he started working as a merc for evil billionaire Justin Hammer, who even gave him some suit upgrades for his trouble, which he flushed away when he turned a kidnapping into a hostage situation. All to humiliate JJ. He lost the job and his tech upgrades right after. He also tried to kidnap JJ’s bride-to-be, but was thwarted by Spider-Man, and also tried to attack Spider-Man at a hospital. Spidey’s location had been given to him by another villain, the Jackal. Rather than finding Spider-Man, he just found Peter Parker and Aunt May. He threatens the poor old gal to force Peter to get Spider-Man. After she passes out from the shock of this ordeal, Peter slips away, gets into costume and beats the heck out of Gargan. He then forces the Scorpion to personally apologize to Aunt May.

He really hates being called names.

The Scorpion didn’t really switch into High gear until more recent years, like during the Acts of Vengeance story. A superhero reality TV show lead to an insane exploding villain named Nitro to going off in a suburb, killing hundreds. People were up in arms after this, demanding harsher punishments for super criminals, and for all super-beings to register their powers with the government. Gargan had tried to escape to Canada, but was quickly ‘deported’ by Canada’s… Avengers? X-Men? Their superhuman team Alpha Flight, and the lesser known Gamma Flight. He eventually traveled to Latervia and took up a position as an enforcer for the current Latervian dictator, Lucia von Bardas. He’s taken down by Nick Fury and the Avengers, in an unsanctioned mission into Latervia, and sent to prison. He’s eventually freed by Norman Osborn, whom turns the Scorpion into one of his enforcers. His first job is to essentially ensure that Norman stays out of prison. Namely, after Norman’s most recent arrest, Gargan was tasked with kidnapping Aunt May and forcing Peter to break Norman out of prison. Gobby told Scorpy who’s beneath Spidey’s mask, fyi. And after that snafu, it was then that the Symbiote, having recently ditched its newest host, approached Gargan with an offer.

As mentioned in his Venom post, Gargan spent a few years as Venom, but quickly grew to hate some of the more ghoulish things the suit forced him to do… like eating people. He’s finally freed after Norman, who’d been going nuts once again and used his position as head of the SHIELD replacement HAMMER to waged an all-out war with Asgard, and the rest of their compatriots were arrested. In prison, he’s eventually freed by another Spider-Man baddy, Alistair Smythe, and given a new and improved Scorpion suit. Sometimes it’s best to stick with the part you know, ya know?

Mac Gargan was given similar arachnid-like powers as Spider-Man, thanks to highly dangerous and experimental chemical and radiological treatments. This was included, but not limited to, splicing his DNA with a Scorpion, having him ingest various steroids and more exotic substances, and hitting him with near lethal doses of Radiation. The end result turned him into a hulking brute, with enhanced strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and stamina. He can climb walls, but unlike Spider-Man who adheres to the surface, he uses his claw-like fingers to punch holes into the sides of walls. He wears a cybernetically enhanced battle suit that further enhances his durability and strength, and also gives him a robotic tail. Said tail he uses like a club, but it usually comes equipped with something extra as well, like the ability to shoot acid, poison gas, or darts.

The Scorpion’s biggest weaknesses are his severe anger management issues, and his rather low intelligence. If you can get him mad, which isn’t hard, he starts making a metric ton of mistakes and is actually surprisingly easy to manipulate. His hatred of Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson often get him into trouble, as he’ll abandon any plan or turn on pretty much anyone if they try to stop him from getting his revenge. He’s a dumb, dumb, dumb man.

Scorpion is a regularly recurring villain from Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery. Not quite on the same level as the big three, Venom, Doc Oct, or Green Goblin, but he does appear in most shows. One of the few Spider-Man shows that he didn’t appear in directly was The Spectacular Spider-Man. He was alluded to in the second season finale, and show runners have confirmed that he would have appeared in season 3, had they been renewed.

His latest comic book form.
He's like a green Rhino.

Mac’s origin story was pretty much shown note for note in Spider-Man: The Animated Series from the 90s. In it, Mac began as a fat, neurotic PI that had been hired by JJ to find Spider-Man’s secret identity. After a few failed attempts at getting the dirt, Jonah convinces Gargan to undergo a genetic experiment using a device called the Neogenic Recombinator. The portly little Gargan turns into a giant Spider-Man killing machine, and goes to bring Spider-Man in. He’s stronger, and faster then Parker, being able to catch up to Spider-Man and cut his web-lines mid-swing. He’s able to capture Spider-Man, but then undergoes a much more severe and painful mutation, growing claws, fangs, and scalier green skin. He erroneously believes another dose of radiation could reverse the process, going so far as to make a reactor begin to go nuclear to meet that end. He’s distracted long enough by JJ insulting him for Peter to get the upper hand, knocking Scorpion out and bringing him into custody. After this, he’s mostly seen as part of the Insidious Six, the Fox Kids approved version of the Sinister Six. He appears in the episodes “The Sting of the Scorpion,” “The Insidious Six” parts one and two, “The Final Nightmare” part 2, “Partners” and “The Wedding.”

His most recent appearance was in Spider-Man: Homecoming. In it, rather than a PI, he’s some sort of crime boss. Because subtlety is stupid, he has a sizeable Scorpion shaped tattoo on his neck. He has a deal with the Vulture for several of his exotic weaponry. They meet on the Staten Island Ferry, but their deal is interrupted by Spider-Man, and the FBI. Gargan gets messed up pretty bad in the fight, being hit by a car as the Ferry nearly goes under. In a mid-credit’s scene, we see that Gargan is put into the same prison that Toomes is in. He has heard through the grape vine that Toomes might know who Spider-Man really is, and that he has people on the outside that could use that information to get payback. Adrian denies it though, and their ushered apart. Just got to say, much better way to set up the sequels then the Amazing Spider-Man series. This way, the villain for the sequel really could be anyone, from the Scorpion himself, to any number of lesser mercs, like Kraven the Hunter, or Mysterio.

Hm... wonder if/when he'll done his scorpion
tail?

A version of the Scorpion appears in Ultimate Spider-Man. This version is not Mac Gargan, but a young man trained at K’un-Lun and is a rival of Iron Fist. He betray's Danny and tries to force him from K'un-Lun as he feels Danny is unworthy of the title of Iron Fist, but is thwarted and excommunicated from K'un-Lun after that. That’s about all I have to say on that, as he’s largely a background character from that point onward. This is probably due to the fact that he was played by the rather popular voice actor Dante Basco, whom I'm pretty sure doesn't have all that much free time to be doing largely one off characters. Dante Basco was Prince Zuko in Avatar, Jake Long in American Dragon: Jake Long, as well as Rufio in Hook, if his name doesn't ring a bell. 

A version of the Scorpion is set to appear in Marvel’s Spider-Man, the latest incarnation of Spider-Man to appear on Disney XD. From the trailer I saw, he’s going to be one of the first villains that Spider-Man comes across, as the teen hero is in a much more makeshift costume in the trailer. And that’s all I really know about that particular appearance.

He makes an appearance in one form or another in pretty much all of the Spider-Man games. Just saying.

Huh, I didn’t really realize until I started writing this post just how little Scorpion actually has appeared outside of the comics. He has the two mentioned above, the one promised appearance that never came to fruition, and then two other appearances in older shows that I never saw. Despite this, I know this character reasonably well. He’s your pretty standard ‘wanted powers, but regrets them’ type bad guy. The powers he’s received, while making him one of Spider-Man’s more iconic villains, have left him a monstrous shell of a human that only seems to delight in causing pain and misery. It’s kind of sad when you think about it. Like a lot of more burly villains, he’s on the dumber end of the intelligence spectrum, and because of that hates being talked down to or insulted. One of the lines I remember best from him was in his initial episode when he kept screaming “Stop callin’ me names!” after JJ started laying into him about his insane plan to get a cure. I’m unsure if I’d want to see him appear in the next Spider-Man sequel, or if they should save him for a third movie, but I’m sure he’ll grace the big screen sometime soon. Have a good one everybody.

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