Introduced in 1974’s Amazing Spider-Man #134, by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, Tarantula is just as unsuccessful as Boomerang, but far more serious. Born Anton Miguel Rodriquez, Tarantula was a freedom fighter who turned against the revolutionaries to join a fascist regime, becoming their version of a Captain America-type nationalist hero. However, Tarantula lacks any powers beyond being a really good fighter, which made his occasional trips to New York City unimpressive, as Spider-Man is also a really good fighter and he has spider-powers.
Of the three seen in the background image, Scorpion is both the most formidable and the most recognizable. In fact, we’ve already met Scorpion way back in Spider-Man: Homecoming, where the still fresh-faced Spidey thwarted an arms sale involving Mac Gargan (Michael Mando). In a post-credit scene, Gargan shared a bad guy moment with Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), but he’s been missing until now. If the leaked pictures are any indication, Gargan will finally be in a variation of the Scorpion armor he’s been wearing since his first appearances in Amazing Spider-Man #19-20 (1964), by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee. In those comics, Gargan was given the armor by J. Jonah Jameson to take down the menace Spider-Man. We’ll have to see if the movies follow suit.
Although he doesn’t appear in the main leaked merchandise image, Tombstone deserves attention here too, if only because he’s rumored to be the major antagonist of Brand New Day. A background character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and a major character in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Tombstone is a gangster with nearly invulnerable skin. Although he usually concerns himself with street-level crimes (and sometimes antagonizing his childhood friend Robbie Robertson, a top editor at the Daily Bugle), Tombstone’s strength, durability, and general nastiness make him a challenge for Spidey. In Brand New Day, Tombstone will be played by Marvin Jones III, who recently did supervillain duty as Tobias “White” Whale on the CW series Black Lightning.
At this point, one might raise a concern about Brand New Day. We’ve got four villains listed here, and we already know that the film will also feature Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, and Sadie Sink as another super-character, likely Jean Grey of the X-Men. On top of that, Sink’s character will be pursued by the Department of Damage Control, potentially led by the character played by Severance breakout Tramell Tillman. Won’t these baddies get overshadowed by the bigger names?
They probably will be overshadowed, and that’s okay. Minor baddies are all part of the Spider-Man universe. They serve as opportunities to show that Spidey cares about street-level stuff, and as opportunities for Spidey to show his compassion toward losers who decide to put on a suit and make trouble for people.
With all of these guys running around, Peter’s life won’t be easy in Brand New Day. But it will fully and finally cement him as a properly friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
