Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Is Doing Justice To A Villain The MCU Forgot

Spoilers for "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" follow.

"Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" episode 7, "Scorpion Rising," sees Peter Parker (Hudson Thames) facing his greatest challenge yet — and nearly losing his life to it. That challenge's name is Mac Gargan (Jonathan Medina), leader of a criminal gang called the Scorpions. The season had been building up a gang war between the Scorpions and their rivals, the 1 & 10th Street gang, represented by Peter's friend (and future enemy) Lonnie Lincoln (Eugene Byrd).

Episode 6, "Duel with the Devil," ended with the Scorpions discovering their rivals' hideout, and Mac getting fitted with green scorpion themed armor, complete with a stinger tail, by Otto Octavius (Hugh Dancy). The Scorpion springs his trap in the following episode. Spider-Man intervenes, but nothing he throws at Gargan keeps him down. Proving the tail isn't just for show, Scorpion stabs Spider-Man through his shoulder. Spider-Man is left bleeding out as the Scorpion approaches, forcing Norman Osborn (Colman Domingo) to save Peter by sending an automated glider. (The kind that a certain Goblin-themed villain might ride around on in the near future.)

Of course, Gargan/Scorpion has a long Marvel Comics history, debuting way back during the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run of "Amazing Spider-Man."

Marvel Comics

In some ways Scorpion is a pretty typical Spider-Man villain. He wears a green costume, contrasting Spidey's own red-and-blue suit, and is themed after an animal. The choice of creature is especially pertinent with him, though: scorpions prey on spiders. 

Scorpion's creation is also tied to Spider-Man's greatest nemesis — J. Jonah Jameson! In "Amazing Spider-Man" #20, Gargan is a private investigator hired by Jameson to find dirt on Spider-Man. When he fails, Jameson instead offers him the chance to personally destroy Spider-Man with the strength-enhancing Scorpion suit, designed by one Dr. Farley Stillwell. Scorpion is ultimately defeated when Spider-Man rips off his tail — we'll see if their rematch ends the same way in "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man."

Scorpion is one of the most prolific Spider-Man villains who still hasn't been the main villain of a live-action movie. The closest was Mac Gargan (played by Michael Mando) making a cameo in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" that seemed to tease a larger role in a sequel. As of yet, though, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Scorpion still hasn't sprouted his stinger tail.

In "Spider-Man: Homecoming," Gargan is a small-time criminal (but with a notably violent record) who is looking to buy some enhanced weapons from Adrian Toomes' (Michael Keaton) crew. They meet on a Staten Island ferry, beginning the set-piece where the boat gets blasted apart and Spider-Man has to think fast and web it together. In the post-credits scene, Gargan and Toomes meet in prison. Gargan asks if he wants payback against Spider-Man too, but Toomes brushes him off and denies knowing Spider-Man's true identity. (Spoiler: he does.)

That's some transparent sequel bait right there, but "Spider-Man: Far From Home" instead chose to use Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) as its big bad. Then "No Way Home" took the notion of a villain team-up in a different direction, reuniting past "Spider-Man" movie villains — notably Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Alfred Molina's Doc Ock — from across the multiverse. With Sony's Spider-Man Cinematic Universe looking dead, if Mando does return as Gargan, it'll probably be in a future "Spider-Man" movie, not Sony's white whale project of a "Sinister Six" movie.

"Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" uses the MCU timeline as a basis (the events of "Captain America: Civil War" have been unfolding in the background of this season) but explicitly diverges from it. This Peter Parker is being mentored by Norman Osborn, not Tony Stark. So, while Mando does not reprise the role of Gargan, the character design resembles him, with a shaved head and scarred eye. 

That look, too, has its roots in the comics. "Ultimate Spider-Man" reimagined Scorpion as Maximus Gargan, a Mexican crime lord. This Scorpion didn't have the green costume, merely a scorpion tattoo, and fought with a chain with a hook on the end.

Marvel Comics

"Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" combined classic and "Ultimate" Scorpion, turning Maximus into a scorpion-themed cyborg. 

Sony Pictures Animation

Mando's appearance as Gargan also took after Maximus, and now so does "Your Friendly Neighborhood" Scorpion. The green tailed costume, though, is classic Steve Ditko. This Gargan is also a gang leader like Maximus, but he brags to the 1 & 10th-ers that, in a past life, his job was finding people — so, a PI, like classic Gargan. 

It remains to be seen if/when the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself will return to Scorpion, and whether Mando will reprise the part, or how the costume will look in live-action, or if he'll be as deadly a threat to Spider-Man as he is in this series.

"Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" is streaming on Disney+ — the last two episodes of season 1 premiere on February 19, 2025.