It's now fully confirmed that actor Michael Mando will reprise his role as the Scorpion for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth film in Marvel Studios and Sony's joint Spidey franchise. What we don't quite know yet is exactly how he'll embody the role, and how closely it'll resemble the comic book history of Mac Gargan, the Scorpion.
What's interesting is that Mando has been teasing that he may be playing not just Scorpion, but Venom as well. No, that doesn't mean he'll be playing two separate characters. On the contrary, it seems Brand New Day may in fact depict Mac Gargan's turn from being the original Scorpion to becoming the new host of the Venom symbiote.
That change also led to Gargan joining the Thunderbolts as Venom, and later the Dark Avengers as its faux-Spider-Man. That history could have big implications for Mac Gargan's place in the MCU - and it could finally deliver the big screen Spider-Man/Venom showdown we've always deserved.
So what's the deal with the Scorpion, and how did he turn into Venom? We'll explain it all right now.
The comic history of the Scorpion
Mac Gargan first debuted all the way back in 1964's Amazing Spider-Man #19 by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee before being transformed into the Scorpion in #20. When Gargan was first introduced, he was a private investigator hired by J. Jonah Jameson to figure out Peter Parker's connection to Spider-Man.
But the scheme fails, leading Jameson to enlist Gargan as the subject of an experiment to create an enforcer capable of defeating Spider-Man. Gargan is transformed into the Scorpion by scientist Dr. Farley Stillwell, who imbues him with scorpion-like powers similar to Spidey's famous spider-powers while also equipping him with a special suit that includes an acid-dripping stinger.
While Scorpion essentially becomes the first anti-Spider-Man, even coming close to defeating the Wall-Crawler once and for all, Gargan soon discovers his new powers are a curse, having transformed him into something inhuman.
Gargan is driven to rage-filled madness by his metamorphosis, going on to menace both Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson over the years, while also taking on other heroes, notably Captain America and Carol Danvers, and later joining the Masters of Evil and a more recent iteration of the venerable villain team the Sinister Six.
But that's just scratching the surface of Mac Gargan's role in the Marvel Universe. After a long career as the Scorpion, he bonded with the Venom symbiote, turning it back into a villainous monster after years of operating as a "Lethal Protector" with the original Venom Eddie Brock.
How the Scorpion became Venom
Gargan's transformation into Venom happened early in his employ as a henchman of Norman Osborne, also known as the Green Goblin, who employed Scorpion to spy on Peter Parker. But during the course of his mission, he came into contact with the Venom symbiote, which was recently separated from Eddie Brock.
Though he first attempted to reject the symbiote, Gargan eventually ascents to bonding with it, becoming a new Venom that took the character back its villainous roots rather than Eddie Brock's evolution into an anti-hero.
As Venom, Gargan went on to join Osborn's merciless incarnation of the Thunderbolts, which was essentially transformed into a black-ops hit squad run by Osborn on behalf of the government. Through his time on the Thunderbolts, Gargan found himself driven more and more by the symbiote's inherent blood lust, fearing that he'd lose control entirely.
However, after a brutal battle with his former Thunderbolts ally the Swordsman which left him gravely wounded, Gargan fully embraced the symbiote's monstrous nature as it saved his life by healing his injuries.
Gargan's connection to Norman Osborne led him to be recruited to Osborne's Dark Avengers, with the symbiote taking on a much less monstrous form resembling Peter Parker when he first bonded with the symbiote. As part of the team, Gargan impersonated Spider-Man much like the other members impersonated other Avengers, including Moonstone posing as Carol Danvers (in her Ms. Marvel guise) and Bullseye taking on the role of Osborne's ersatz Hawkeye.
Eventually, Gargan was separated from the symbiote in a battle with the real Spider-Man, going on to be incarcerated in the supervillain prison known as the Raft. Gargan was later broken out by mad scientist Alistar Smythe, who upgraded him with a new high-tech Scorpion suit.
Gargan used his newfound powers to assassinate J. Jonah Jameson's wife - a tragedy that eventually led Peter Parker's Aunt May to get temporarily engaged to Jameson. Gargan's been the Scorpion since, though he's had a few encounters with the Venom symbiote over the years.
Scorpion in the MCU
All of that history could have some very interesting implications for Michael Mando's MCU Scorpion, who was only seen briefly in Spider-Man: Homecoming as a very human gangster. Mando has been posting some images teasing his role on Instagram story (via ComicBook), including posting the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #573 (seen below), an issue which revolves around Gargan becoming a kind of Scorpion/Venom hybrid.
Venom hasn't technically fully appeared in the MCU just yet, though Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock, himself the star of his own trilogy of Venom movies in a separate continuity, did have a brief cameo in the stinger scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home in which he traveled to the MCU, leaving a small glob of symbiote goo behind when he returned to his own reality.
From there, it's really just a hop, skip, and a jump for that little bit of the Venom symbiote to make its way to New York to bond with Gargan.
The biggest lingering question is, will Scorpion get his initial powers and battlesuit, or will they skip straight to Mac Gargan being the MCU's Venom? The latter wouldn't be out of the question, especially as it provides a layer of separation between Sony's ultimately heroic portrayal of Venom and one who fits more into the mold of one of Spider-Man's arch-enemies.
A version of the Scorpion appeared in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse with a cybernetic body loaded with weapons and eight creepy robot-legs. Meanwhile, Venom appeared somewhat notoriously in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, played by Topher Grace.
If Mac Gargan does indeed become the MCU's Venom, that could finally give us the truly monstrous Venom vs. Spider-Man showdown we've always deserved to see on the big screen. And of course, that's not even getting into his potential connections to the Thunderbolts/New Avengers.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, will swing into theaters on July 31, 2026. For more, here is our complete guide to upcoming Marvel movies and Marvel Phase 6.
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