Characters / MCU: Criminals & Terrorists – Vulture's Gang

aka: MCU Adrian Toomes

Main Character Index > Villainous Organizations > Criminals & Terrorists | Criminal & Terrorist Organizations (The Power Broker | Ulysses Klaue's Gang | Disciples of Ammit) > New York-Based Criminals (Fisk Crime Ring | Stokes–Dillard Crime Ring | Vulture's Gang)

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Spoilers for all works set prior to Spider-Man: No Way Home are unmarked.

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Vulture's Gang

In General

Vulture's Gang

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

A former salvage company turned criminal gang that illegally sells high-tech weapons on the black market.

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• Armed Blag: They regularly hijack Damage Control's armored trucks to steal leftover weaponry from the Avengers' battles, using "matter phase shifter" to get inside without anyone noticing.
• Arms Dealer: After being driven out of business by Damage Control, Adrian Toomes' salvage company became a gang of arms dealers. They specialize in manufacturing powerful weapons by combining modern and alien technology they managed to recover from the Avengers' various battles, starting with New York City following the Chitauri invasion.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Justified; as impressive as Phineas Manson's Chitauri-derived technology is, Toomes's gang can't sell them legally, since the basis for said technology was acquired illegally.
• Disintegrator Ray: One of the weapons put together with alien tech by the Tinkerer is a disintegrator rifle, which Toomes first uses on Brice, turning him into ashes (although he thought that was an anti-gravity gun). The Vulture is later armed with it on the ferry, which results in an accidental discharge during the fight against Spider-Man, cleaving the boat cleanly in half through the middle.
• Energy Weapon: Several of the weapons they sell fire energy blasts, such as the Chitauri guns and the Ultron rifles.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: They are a fairly racially diverse criminal gang, with several members being black, notably Herman Schultz.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: The base of operations for the gang is their old warehouse back when they were legit, without most of the lights on. Also, most of the gang's operations take place under the cover of night.
• Failed a Spot Check: When Mason, Schultz and Vale are on a stakeout waiting for the Damage Control trucks, none of them notice Spider-Man struggling with his new web-shooter combinations a few feet away. Granted, Schults does hear something and tries to check it out, but he quickly forgets about it as Mason explains to him how to use his Shocker Gauntlet.
• Five-Man Band: Despite being villains, the five named members of the gang fits the roles quite well:
  • Adrian Toomes/The Vulture is the Big Bad, being the leader of the gang and the main antagonist of the film.
  • Herman Schultz/The Shocker is The Dragon, being Toomes' second-in-command and the most dangerous beside his boss.
  • Phineas Mason/The Tinkerer is the Evil Genius, being a technology expert who creates their weapons.
  • Jackson Brice is The Brute, being pretty skilled when it comes to punching people, but not the sharpest tool in the shed.
  • Randy Vale is the only one who seems to get along well with everyone and never gets into arguments with any of his partners.
• Gravity Master: One of the weapons they designed is the anti-gravity gun, which allows its user to levitate things or even people.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Most of their weapons incorporate leftover Chitauri tech from the Battle of New York. They also sell some Black Hole Grenades that belonged by the Dark Elves.
• Portable Hole: They have access to an alien device that temporarily "phases" matter within an adjustable rectangular shape and allows passing through it, creating this effect. It is quite handy when stealing from heavily secured containers and also when grabbing a beer from the fridge without getting up.
• Supervillain Lair: They operate out of an old warehouse in Brooklyn. The trope is even Discussed by Peter and Ned.
  Ned: They have a lair?
  Peter: Dude, a gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings? Yeah, they have a lair.
  Ned: Badass.
• Trash the Set: After having being an important location throughout the movie, the gang's warehouse collapses at the end when Toomes uses his wingsuit to break the support beams in an attempt to kill Spider-Man.
• Villainous Friendship: With the exception of Jackson Brice, most of the named members are on pretty amicable terms with each other despite being criminals.

Leadership

Adrian Toomes / Vulture

Adrian Toomes / Vulture

"The world's changing. It's time we change too."

^{Click here to see him as the Vulture}
"Business is good."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): Bestman Salvage (formerly), Vulture's Gang (formerly)

Portrayed By: Michael Keaton

Voiced By: Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese), René García (Latin-American Spanish), Bernard Lanneau (French), Paweł Wawrzecki (Polish), Garcia Júnior (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming | Morbius ^note In The Stinger

"Eight years without any trouble from those bozos over at Stark Tower, and then this little bastard in red tights shows up, and he thinks he can tear down everything I've built! We're gonna put 'em outta business! We're gonna take everything they got!"

The blue-collar head of a salvaging company who turns to crime after the Department of Damage Control (a government organization co-founded by Tony Stark) threatens to run him out of business. Toomes's modus operandi is to steal tech scavenged from the Avengers' various fights (starting with the Battle of New York) and sell it on the black market, doing so with a winged flying suit built for him by his employee Phineas Mason.

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• Accidental Murder: After Brice is unrepentant of his screw-ups drawing Spider-Man to him, Toomes kicks him out. Brice starts making threats about snitching, so Toomes grabs what he thinks is a newly-completed anti-gravity gun, intending to discipline him by Wreaking Havok — only it turns out to be some kind of Disintegrator Ray which reduces the idiot to ashes. Everyone present is a little freaked out for a moment, but they quickly shrug it off; Toomes then passes Brice's gear to Schultz, dubbing him the new Shocker.
• Action Dad: He is a supervillain and the father of Liz Toomes.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the comics, Tony Stark played no part in creating the Vulture and he did not hold such a personal hatred towards him. He also never gets involved with Damage Control.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The comic book version of Vulture is a lot more wrinkled and bald, whereas this version looks like he's passed middle-age not too long ago. Albeit the constant wearing of the helmet mask does actually wrinkle his face to make him look like that.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • The comic Vulture's traditional costume boils down to a green bodysuit, a feather boa, and feather-styled wings strapped to his arms, forcing him to flap them like a bird to fly anywhere, which fans have mocked for quite a few years. This Vulture sports a fur-necked bomber's jacket, a creepy glowing-eyed mechanical battle mask, intimidating hydraulic-lifter "talons" on his feet, and an enormous mechanical set of "wings" mounted on his back, complete with turbines, blades and taloned feet. And then at the film's climax he upgrades to an even bigger and scarier-looking set of wings.
  • It even applies when one looks at Adrian Toomes without the suit. In the comics, Adrian for most of his appearances is just an old decrepit man without it, whereas this version is younger to begin with and pretty spry for his age too, almost flooring a government official in the movie's opening scene, and generally being a cunning ringleader rather than a one-note villain. While it never really gets commented on in the movie, he is a competent marksman too, cutting Spider-Man's webbing thread from a large distance with one shot. The suit can fly around briefly without him in it.
  • Additionally, thanks to Mason, this Toomes has access to a few extraterrestrial perks — e.g., his Anti-Gravity Gun and his Matter Phase Shifter.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Zigzagged. His comic counterpart had the engineering skills to build his own wingsuit. The MCU's Toomes has to rely on Mason to design and upgrade his tech, but displays impressive personal ingenuity (he quickly figures out how to best disassemble Chitauri tech with their own gear), the cunning necessary to operate for years without drawing attention from both the authorities and the Avengers, and has some degree of engineering ability when he's seen doing metal work on his tech. In other words, Toomes is (like most of his team) a street-level blue-collar type, highly knowledgeable in hands-on stuff. To put it another way, he and his crew (with the exception of Mason) are far more Street Smart and Book Dumb. Whereas the comic book version of Vulture, while intelligent in terms of mechanical engineering, has no street smarts whatsoever and makes his heists far more visible than street-level crime has any need to be. Even daring superheroes to stop him by publicly announcing his plans in advance.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: In the comics, he has hazel eyes; here he has blue eyes instead as a result of being played by Michael Keaton.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While he's still a villain, he's far nobler than his comics counterpart. In the comics, he's an unapologetic crook who happens to care for his family. This incarnation plays up his redeeming traits; he's a dedicated family man, he cares for his employees/goons, and he has a lot more reasons to do what he does. However, this does not make him any less vicious than his original counterpart.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: In the comics, Vulture used an anti-gravity pack while he flapped with his wings to get from place to place. MCU Vulture's wings are mechanical and utilize jet propulsion turbine engines. He can also use the wings themselves offensively to slash or stab at enemies.
• Adaptational Sympathy: His original version in the comics was a genius inventor screwed over by his business partner, who had been embezzling funds and stole a flight harness that Toomes recently invented. His MCU counterpart was the head of a salvage company whose government contract was screwed over by the Department of Damage Control and Stark Industries, also leaving him without compensation. Deep in debt and unable to find further work, Toomes and his crew worked to invent super weapons by reverse engineering the leftovers from the battle of New York and sell them on the black market, so as to provide for their families.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Comics Vulture has no personal interest in Spider-Man or Peter Parker. Here, Peter dates his daughter and he outright admits he is impressed by what Peter does going as far as hiding Peter's identity before Mac Gargan.
• Affably Evil: He might be a crook and an occasionally ruthless one at that, but he does what he does to protect his family and co-workers' livelihoods. He's even willing to offer Peter the option to just walk away — and even continue dating his daughter — despite Peter more or less ruining his operation, and keeps Peter's identity a secret at the end of the film out of respect for saving his daughter's life, and later his own.
• Age Lift: Downplayed. He's somewhere in his 60s^note Michael Keaton himself was 64 when Homecoming was released in the film, whereas the comic Toomes is a bit older.
• Ambiguously Evil: While he is a supervillain in his home universe and he offers Morbius the chance to form the Sinister Six, he doesn't seem to hold much ill-will towards Spider-Man, whom he briefly mentions, and states that he's forming his new team with the intention of "[doing] some good". Whether that "good" is more in line with Avengers-style heroism or an extension of his vendetta against Tony Stark remains to be seen.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • It's unknown why he was transported to the SSU. How he arrived in the SSU was very similar to how the villains and Spider-Men in Spider-Man: No Way Home disappeared because of Dr Strange's spell, and the purple cracks in the sky from the film also appeared in Morbius. However, Strange's spell was only meant to cancel out the original spell that brought all the multiversal visitors to Earth-199999, so it makes no sense why Toomes would end up in the wrong universe. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is part of the same multiverse as the MCU and SSU, later reveals that because of the experiments with the multiverse in the previous film, people are being randomly transported to other universes against their will which might be what happened with Toomes. How Across portrayed characters travelling the multiverse is very different from what was shown in Morbius however.
  • It's unclear how he has a functioning Vulture suit again, considering the Chitauri never invaded and may not even exist in this reality and he doesn't have contact with Phineas Mason (who again, may not even exist).
• Animal Motifs: His suit is modeled after a vulture, with large wings and a beak-like mask. He even resembles the bird outside of the suit, with his feather collared bomber jacket and receding hairline creating an appearance reminiscent of a vulture. Just like the bird of prey, Toomes is a scavenger, taking bits and pieces of technology left over from the Avengers' battles to repurpose into powerful weapons for criminals.
• Anti-Villain: This applies if his own word is to be believed and he really was just selling weapons the whole time so his family could live comfortably. Considering the fact that he makes the argument even when Spider-Man isn't present and him losing the contract to salvage after the Battle of New York is shown in its entirety, it's very likely he's being truthful.
• Arch-Enemy: He sees Tony Stark as this for being the indirect cause of his financial situation. He doesn't actually look for a fight with him though, knowing it could bring down the wrath of the Avengers, who he can’t fight back against.
• Arms Dealer: He and his gang make their money by selling Mason's advanced weaponry to other street criminals, which is what puts them on Spider-Man's radar in the first place.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He's able to put together that Peter is Spider-Man after having encountered his secret identity in person, and realizing they have the same voice and personality, along with some hints from Liz about Peter disappearing whenever Spider-Man is active and Peter's inconsistencies with his responses.
• Ax-Crazy: He has a moment of this when the Avenger's plane crashes into Coney Island, he swoops down on the already injured Spider-Man and repeatedly slams him into the ground until he can't stand. Despite this, he still won't go through with killing him.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Adrian Toomes detests Tony Stark for being a weapons manufacturer that suddenly has a change of heart and gets rewarded while his own livelihood is destroyed by Stark's company... so Toomes becomes a weapons manufacturer himself to make a living.
• Believing Their Own Lies: He's convinced that he's in the right for taking what he thinks he's owed and believes he's standing up for the little guy. Except, the scales were balanced ages ago. His home is opulent, his family is thriving, and he killed a man (albeit accidentally) for threatening to tell his wife about the operation. This shows that, deep down, he's simply a greedy man who wants to keep the money rolling in no matter who dies or gets in his way.
• Benevolent Boss: He looks after his goons, who used to be fellow employees at his salvaging company. Just don't threaten his family. It won't end well.
• Big Bad: He's the one leading the criminal ring Peter battles throughout Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• Big Fancy House: Years of success as a criminal means he can afford a big expensive house for his family.
• Book Ends: The start and conclusion of his supervillain career involve him getting screwed over by Tony Stark. At the beginning, when Damage Control (recently created by Tony) took over his lucrative contract to clean up after the Battle of New York, and at the end where his reckless attempt to steal a crate full of arc reactors with his damaged wingsuit almost gets him killed.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Invokes this trope to have a private conversation with Peter once he's realized the latter is Spider-Man by telling his daughter that he needs to have "the Dad talk" with Peter.
• Break Them by Talking: Played with when he and Peter are alone in the car after Liz goes into the Homecoming dance. He casually pulls a gun from the glove compartment, shuts down a nervous Peter's attempts to deny being Spider-Man, then calmly and coldly threatens to kill Peter and his family if Peter interferes in his work again. Peter is clearly shaken, so in that regard, it works, but it also reinforces his decision to put the welfare of others ahead of himself (stopping Toomes instead of spending a pleasant night with Liz).
• Building Is Welding: He is shown welding something in his warehouse when Mason comes to tell him about Schultz's call regarding Spider-Man's intervention during one of their arms deals.
• Car Fu: During the battle on the Staten Island Ferry, Vulture grabs a parked car with his talons and tries to smash Spider-Man with it, but he manages to get out of the way, causing it to hit Mac Gargan instead.
• Casting Gag: This is not the first time Michael Keaton plays a character in a bird costume.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • Eternals makes a reference to Batman, which implies that the Batman Film Series exists, where Vulture's actor Michael Keaton plays Batman himself in the first two films.
  • Luke Cage (2016) makes a reference to RoboCop in an episode of Season 2. Michael Keaton played the Big Bad of the 2014 reboot.
• Civvie Spandex: Unlike his comic version's bright green bodysuit, Toomes now just wears a leather jacket and blue jeans whenever he has the vulture suit on.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Is given his powers by a flight-enabling wingsuit similar to The Falcon's. The helmet itself is based on an RAF Prototype Helmet◊.
• Cold Ham: In contrast to the usual Evil Is Hammy, he's never over-the-top when near the hero, aside from some smirks while talking to Peter in the car. In fact, Adrian mostly employs a threatening but calm tone. That being said, when dealing with his gang, he lets it loose at times, whether happy ("business is good") or angry, like his outburst after throwing Spider-Man in the river.
• Collapsible Helmet: Downplayed. The eyes of his helmet retract upward into the rest of the helmet, but the remaining parts of the helmet still need to be removed manually.
• Color Motif: Closely associated with green, his bomber jacket is a dark shade of green and his visor has two glowing green "eyes". Camera shots inside his visor also provide an eerie green glow.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Toomes, as the Consummate Professional he is, sees codenames as way too 'pro wrestling' for his tastes. Despite this, Tony and Spidey do call him "the flying vulture guy" even if he never calls himself this. By Spider-Man: No Way Home, Vulture officially becomes his alias as Ned mentions him by this name.
• Composite Character:
  • Has the namesake and older age of Adrian Toomes, the Mainstream Universe Vulture, but is a professional criminal and receives his wingsuit from Phineas Mason as opposed to inventing it himself like Blackie Drago, the Ultimate Universe Vulture. Related to the Ultimate universe, he takes the Blob's role as the father of Liz Allan.
  • He's also a flying supervillain in a demonic outfit who, to Peter's astonishment, turns out to be the father of one of his close friends. All of this invokes Norman Osborn minus the insanity and lack of any rational schemes and planning.
  • He's a "working-class" villain who isn't interested in villainy itself outside of making a living and taking care of himself and his family. This brings to mind the Shocker, surprisingly enough.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • He's a far-cry from most of MCU's past Big Bads but in line with Phase 3 (such as Zemo, Killmonger, Ghost). He has principles and a degree of honor he abides by. He was a law-abiding citizen without a criminal record (as confirmed by Karen when she first scans Toomes at the Ferry) who turned to villainy out of real grievances. He truly loves his family and cares for them.
  • He's a particularly notable contrast to Ego from the preceding MCU film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Ego was, beneath his gregarious façade, an omnicidal monster who murdered his own children and had no issue with wiping out all life in the universe. Toomes is a genuinely benevolent family man who loves his wife and daughter and is generally just a normal guy who happens to be a supervillain. The two couldn't be more different.
  • He has plenty of similarities and differences to the previous Spider-Man villain Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Both consider themselves the little guy who is stepped on by a large company and struggled to have the little they have, but unlike him Max Dillon was an electrical engineer who worked for Oscorp and gained actual superpowers due to an accident. Also while Toomes was a family man and was a respected owner of his own business, Max had no family except for an cruel mother and was disrespected at everyone where he worked to the point he sought after any form of validation. Their goals differ drastically as Toomes simply wanted to make enough money to support himself and his family before deciding to steal from Stark directly, while Dillon wanted the electrical grid he designed which Oscorp used without giving him the credit.
• Cool Old Guy: He may be evil but he's still a benevolent family man with a code of honor. Also, he's played by Michael Keaton, making him this by default. In his scene with Peter, before learning who he is, he comes across as an affable Dad who is pleased at Peter's general responsibility (i.e. refusing to drink because he's underage).
• Costume Evolution: While his new Vulture wingsuit is nearly identical to its Spider-Man Homecoming variant, his helmet in Morbius is noticeably more angular, giving it a closer resemblance to the beak of a bird.
• Cowboys and Indians:
  • Discussed, with Toomes commenting that that's what they always used to play when he was a kid, before all this superhero stuff took over; Mason hesitantly tries to correct him that "Native Americans" is the accepted term now, but he isn't listening.
  • Ironically inverted when Toomes becomes the Vulture, the epitome of a No-Nonsense Nemesis and tells Peter upfront that he doesn't want to fight him, but will kill him if need be.
• Create Your Own Villain: Stark does, inadvertently. His company took co-control of a government agency to help with disasters left in the wake of superhero battles. The joint organization, Damage Control, voided Toomes' legal contract without compensating him, when he had invested (gone "all-in" as he tells them) heavily into what he saw as his big ticket. This radicalized Toomes into villainy, becoming an Arms Dealer who repurposes and sells the alien tech for a series of heists and then selling them to other criminals.
• Dark Is Evil: The Vulture suit is very dark in color.
• Dimensional Traveler: A native of Earth-199999, pulled over into the SSU as a side effect of Doctor Strange's second spell.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • It's Michael Keaton in an MCU film. Of course he's going to make wisecracks. As noted elsewhere, he is a Cold Ham so all of his wisecracks are delivered dryly.
  • Upon being pulled over from the MCU and into the SSU, his only reaction is a subdued, "I hope the food's better in this joint." He is an MCU native, after all.
• Determinator: During the final battle he's so fixated on not going home empty-handed that he abandons all reason over Mason's objections that he should abort.
• Dimensional Traveler: The events of Spider-Man: No Way Home cause him to be transported to Sony's Spider-Man Universe.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: He thinks Peter is a good kid and would rather not harm him, but he warns Peter that if he gets in the way of his goals, he will not hesitate to kill him.
• Doting Parent: He clearly adores Liz.
• Driven to Villainy: The film shows us a working-class man who clearly knows his business and is happy and competent in his work... only to be completely undercut by a new government order that ends his contract just as it starts. When he complains that he took on a whole lot of debt to get the equipment he needed for this contract, that his men have families, that he has a family, a Jerkass government douche snarks that maybe he shouldn't have overextended himself. A few hours later, it's easy to understand how he'd be willing to start stealing and selling alien tech.
• Drone Deployer: His Vulture suit has a drone stored in its back compartment. He deploys it to act as a decoy during his heist of the Stark Cargo Plane at the end of the film.
• Dynamic Entry: His first encounter with Spider-Man has him suddenly swoop in from behind while Peter is distracted chasing Jackson and Herman, fly him high into the air, and unintentionally activate his parachute, sending him into a lake where he almost drowns.
• Easily Forgiven: Even though he severely injured Mac Gargan by throwing a car at him during the fight on the Ferry, Gargan tells him that he doesn't have any hard feelings towards him when they meet in prison, as he considers Spider-Man to be the one and only responsible.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Has one after meeting Peter and hearing his daughter's complaints about his mysterious absences (which happen to coincide with Spider-Man showing up) and quickly matching Peter's voice to Spider-Man. The exact moment that this happens is symbolized by the stoplight turning from red to green.
• Energy Weapon: Uses a gun-like one made from Chitauri technology during the battle on the Staten Island Ferry that accidentally ends up slicing it in half when it overloads.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He has a family he cares about, and uses this to pull a "Not So Different" Remark on Peter before threatening to kill his family because he knows how much it would hurt. This is because he's Liz Allan's dad.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Plenty, given his status as one of the MCU's most principled and sympathetic villains.
  • It's made clear that Toomes became a criminal mainly to support his own family, a motivation that is implied to be shared by most of his fellow gang members, though later in the film he seems to care more about making money through his weapons trade than supporting his family. When confronting Brice, his tone makes it clear that he does not approve of Brice screwing around just for the hell of it when everyone else has justified motivation for their actions.
  • While he wouldn't hesitate to kill Peter if he felt he had no choice, he openly respects the boy and is reluctant to kill him. At the entrance to the homecoming dance, Toomes offers Peter one last chance to walk away from interfering, a promise that, given his character's portrayal, he most certainly would have kept. This is shown again in the climax of the fight, where at one point he had Peter in his grasp and could easily have killed him, but chose to pursue his primary objective of the cargo instead, dropping him to the ground alive in the process (though this might have been his Fatal Flaw coming into play as well).
  • He most certainly understands the concept of gratitude and thoroughly averts being an Ungrateful Bastard. Part of the reason why he offered Peter a chance to walk away was because Spider-Man saved his daughter's life in Washington. And when Mac Gargan approaches him in prison to ask about Spider-Man's secret identity so that he can have his outside contacts kill him, Toomes lies and pretends not to know because Pete saved his own life as well.
• Evil Costume Switch: When he worked in clearing up devastated areas, he wore a blue-grey jumpsuit. He switched to a black bomber jacket after turning to crime, and then donned the monstrously large and dangerous Vulture wingsuit.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Homecoming co-producer Eric Hauserman Carroll likens him to a "dark Tony Stark." In fact, this ends up taking an interesting twist - he's not just Stark but eviler, but a pre-redemption Tony Stark without the wealth and background that made him a celebrity rather than a simple criminal, and while he's worse in some ways (theft, on-screen manslaughter), he's better in others (in that he actually has a proper reason for selling hideously lethal supertech to whoever will pay). To highlight the "Dark Tony Stark" element of the character, the film occasionally has in-helmet close-ups of Toomes, similar to how Tony's face is shown when he's wearing the Iron Man armor. But while Tony's face is fully shown and well-lit, the audience can only see Toomes's eyes lit by an ominous green glow. Tony is also widely seen as Marvel's own Bruce Wayne, and guess who is playing Vulture, the OG Bruce himself.
  • This version also comes off as being an evil version of MCU's Falcon, as both are bird-themed and utilize mechanical wings that enable flight, only Vulture uses his for evil. It's unknown which of their harnesses was created first. More amusingly, he has his own drone which looks dark and sinister, compared to Peter's friendly looking Droney.
  • He can also be seen as one to Scott Lang. Both are family men who love their daughters, and originally had honest jobs before being forced to turn to a life of crime as thieves. Both got their hands on very powerful technology allowing them to be Impossible Thieves, however Scott reforms and uses his powers to become a hero, while Toomes stayed on as a super villain where his thieving finally led to his downfall.
• Evil Is Bigger: In terms of equipment, compared to the Falcon's wingsuit, the Vulture's is massive◊. Justified, as the Falcon's suit was originally designed for quick rescue missions whereas Vulture's suit was designed to carry extremely heavy advanced tech.
• Evil Is Hammy: Toomes is very careful to avert this trope within his organization to keep them beneath the notice of the Avengers, even mocking Jackson for calling himself the Shocker.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: The base of operations for his gang is their old warehouse back when they were legit, without most of the lights on. He also has most of his gang's operations take place under the cover of night.
• Evil Old Folks: He's a professional criminal in his sixties who is able to fight Peter at an even level.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: He has absolutely no intention of letting Liz know about his criminal career and wants her to have a life far removed from it.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His voice is usually even when he's living his normal life and speaking with his family and friends, but once he realizes Peter is Spider-Man, he begins to speak in a menacing and deep yet quiet voice.
• Evil Virtues: He's both highly loyal to his friends and a devoted family man. He is also far from devoid of a code of honor, repaying both times Peter saves him or a member of his family.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: When he attacks Peter with his flying rig, he evades the rig easily, but he isn't aiming for Peter, he is aiming for the load-bearing pillars in the warehouse, causing the warehouse to collapse and bury Peter in the rubble.
• Expy: Of Walter White. He was a family man who felt cornered and did what he initially felt was necessary, but VERY quickly becomes a self-righteous, ruthless, and unapologetic criminal, perhaps only having used the fact that he was financially ruined as an excuse and continuing long after he left from that risky situation , kills people without any hesitation , doesn't care a bit about the damage caused by his actions as long as it doesn't affect him , obviously enjoys being an unrepentant criminal and ( even more obviously than Walt ) uses the excuse of giving a good life for your family as a weak justification for continuing to commit crimes!
• Family-Values Villain: While he's an unapologetic criminal, he's also a hardcore family man who is more than willing to put his wife and daughter's happiness above even his own.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Greed. He could have gotten away in the end if he wasn't insistent on stealing at least one case from the damaged airplane, causing himself to be trapped and crash along with it. Had Peter not saved his life, this trope would have been literal.
  • He also has a dark version of a virtue; Kindness. When he loses the Chitauri salvage job, he asks Miss Hoag how he's gonna support his employees and family. They remain a concern for the entire film, and he even lets Peter walk away when he has the kid dead to rights. He doesn't even want to steal from Tony's plane because it would, presumably, draw too much heat on his operation. Right up until he's backed into a corner and has no other options.
• A Father to His Men: Again, he tried to take care of all the employees of Bestman Salvage, even Jackson until he tried to take it a bit too far with Toomes and got his punishment.
  Toomes: I know you don't care about anything, but I do. I built this place because I have people I gotta take care of.
• Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: After he loses his job to Damage Control, he seems more dismayed than angry, but then Agent Foster decides to make a remark about "overextending" himself. He almost immediately puts him on the ground with a punch.
• Foil: Following a similar pattern as the comics. He's a cynic, bitter old man who contrasts with Peter's youthful energy and idealism. However, they are not that different in this case (both being concerned with their families and both coming from humble backgrounds). It's also worth noting that his villain arc starts to him turning to crime out of responsibility for the well-being of his employees, whereas Peter's responsibilities as a hero stem from failing to use his powers in a responsible way, leading to the death of Uncle Ben.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He goes from a legit blue-collar relief worker to a super-villain gang leader overnight, all fueled by a desire to get even with the people who snubbed him from his livelihood.
• Future Copter: In addition to wings, the Vulture suit has VTOL rotors.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His flight helmet features a high-tech pair of goggles, which have disturbing, glowing green pinpricks where Toomes's eyes are.
• Green and Mean: His wingsuit helmet has prominent bright green eyes and he can be a very brutal criminal when he is not being Affably Evil.
• Good Parents: Part of his motivation for criminal behavior is providing a comfortable life for his daughter, Liz. When Peter arrives for the Homecoming dance, he's a jovial guy doing the overprotective dad bit as if for fun. Though Peter does point out that his criminal activity is actually endangering his family, and the Vulture's insistence on taking risks is pretty irresponsible.
• Graceful Loser: When the cops capture him, he merely grins in amusement and keeps Spidey's identity to himself out of gratitude for saving both his daughter and him.
• Happily Married: We don't see a lot of it, but what we do see of his married life would imply this.
• Heads-Up Display: Toomes's helmet features a HUD, not unlike a certain superhero he hates (albeit colored green).
• Hell-Bent for Leather: His flight suit for the Vulture includes a leather bomber jacket. It's suitably old-fashioned flying gear for an old-fashioned sort of guy, and the fur-lined collar also resembles a vulture's distinctive plumage.
• Honor Among Thieves: Toomes is fiercely dedicated to helping his goons in the criminal gang. If you are one of them but you threaten to cause trouble for the rest, then he won't stand for that. You might get (accidentally) vaporized.
• Hypocrite:
  • He loves his wife and daughter, claiming his criminal acts are a way to keep income for them since family is the most important thing in the world. But he has no problem threatening someone else's family and friends. When Toomes pieces together that Peter is Spider-Man, he warns him to stay out of his way or he'll kill him and everyone he loves, including Spidey's family.
  • He constantly characterizes himself as a working-class stiff picked on by the rich and powerful. But it's revealed near the end of the film that Toomes owns a three-story, six+ bedroom, beautiful house in the New York suburbs - which would easily go for $10 million in reality, considering the real estate prices of that area. He hasn't been "working-class" for a long time, and he became a millionaire by exploiting actual working-class stiffs and endangering them with his arms dealing, such as Mr. Delmar the Deli owner who gets hospitalized and has his property incinerated by Toomes' weapons. He's also been racketeering for eight years, which means that he had plenty of time to at least try and go legit and consolidate some of his ill-gotten gains, but instead has gotten used to criminal life.
  • He chastises Brice and other members of his gang for their dangerous activity attracting heat from the Feds and Tony Stark. Yet he himself doesn't hesitate personally targeting and attacking a superhero, threatening said hero after learning his secret identity and his personal connection to the same Tony Stark, and then despite barely dodging an FBI sting, he still decides to take a big risk and personally rob the Avengers transport plane mid-flight.
• Hypocritical Humor: He derides Brice for using the name "Shocker"... And then foists the name on Schultz after killing Brice.
• Icy Blue Eyes: He has blue eyes and has no problem killing anyone who threatens his criminal activities.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: When Mac Gargan asks for Spider-Man's secret identity, he convinces the other criminal that he doesn't know it with this line of logic. I.E. "If I knew Spider-Man's secret identity, he would already be dead". So the fact that Mac Gargan is even asking him this question is proof that he doesn't know the answer. Presumably, he figures this is the line of logic that someone like The Scorpion would believe.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: He intends to shoot Brice with an anti-gravity gun when Brice threatens to snitch on the crew, but he ends up picking up something a touch more lethal.
• Immune to Bullets: The Vulture wingsuit is strong enough to withstand bullets. During the fight on the ferry, some FBI agents try to shoot at Toomes, but he uses his wings to protect himself.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: The suit incorporates technology left over from the Chitauri invasion of New York.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: It never really gets commented on, but he was able to use an alien gun to cut Spider-Man's web thread from several hundreds of meters away, while flying.
• I'll Kill You!: After deducing that Peter is Spider-Man, he tells him that if he ever interferes with his business again, he will kill him and everybody he cares about.
• Just a Gangster: By the mid-point of Homecoming, he has a lot of money, some control of his crew, and a potential way out of the original situation that led him to crime, but after spending so much time as a criminal who has successfully evaded notice and capture by the government and the Avengers, he finds it easier to simply threaten and kill a kid who is otherwise not in any position to move against him, and decides to outright rob an Avengers transport flight mid-delivery.
• Just Between You and Me: Once he discovers that Peter is Spider-Man, he threatens him in this fashion, casually letting him know that he knows the truth and that he will go after Peter's loved ones if he interferes with his plans.
• Justified Criminal: Toomes was a law-abiding citizen without a criminal record (as confirmed by Karen the Suit Lady when she scans him). He won the contract to clean up New York fair and square, then invested his life savings purchasing the equipment to do it, only for Stark's "Department of Damage Control" to steal the contract out from under him. He couldn't even re-sell the equipment, as the DDC snapped up every construction/clean-up job within a hundred miles. He thus justifies using the one truckload of scrap he was able to sneak off with to start a business as an arms dealer as the only path he believes is left to him - not just by Tony Stark, but by society in general. He genuinely wanted to make a living for his family and had been robbed of an honest way with which to do it. That doesn't mean he's not a criminal, but damn if he wasn't pushed far beyond the breaking point. This ultimately makes Peter turn down the offer of becoming an Avenger, preferring to help the little guy instead.
  Adrian Toomes: Look. I bought trucks for this job. I brought in a whole new crew. These guys have a family. I have a family. I'm all in on this. I could lose my house.
• Just Like Robin Hood: Toomes only wanted to get revenge on Stark Industries for stealing a high paying job from him and his workers. Toomes did this to help his employees and provide for his family, by converting the technology into weapons and selling it to other criminals.
• Karmic Death: Just barely subverted. His battle with Spider-Man ends with his own damaged flight suit (which he was warned about) exploding after trying to make off with a crate full of Stark tech in the burning skeleton of the plane he stole and crashed. He survives that to wind up pinned under the remains of the winged exoskeleton where he would have been crushed and suffocated to death (like he had tried to do with Peter earlier) if his enemy hadn't rescued him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Almost every time he and Peter run into each other, things turn serious, uncomfortable, or dangerous. Or all of the above.
• Knight Templar Parent: Considering the length he's willing to go for his family (i.e. stealing alien technology and then selling it as weapons to criminals), he firmly falls into this territory.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • He bails out on a job immediately when the FBI shows up. He's also generally careful never to let any authorities get wind of his or his gang's dealings.
  • Conversely, he gets so pissed during the final battle that he becomes fixated on not leaving empty-handed, which proves to be his downfall.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Presumably, he forgets Peter Parker is Spider-Man due to the effects of Dr. Strange's spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Though Morbius reveals this wouldn't be the only effect the spell had on him...
• Last Chance to Quit: When he figures out Peter is Spider-Man while driving him and his daughter to the homecoming dance, he decides to give him a final opportunity to walk away. When he doesn't accept, he drops an entire warehouse on him and continues with his operation.
  Toomes: Peter, nothing is more important than family. You saved my daughter’s life. I could never forget something like that. So I’m gonna give you one chance. Are you ready? You walk through those doors, you forget any of this happened. And don’t you ever, ever interfere with my business again. Because if you do, I’ll kill you and everybody you love. I’ll kill you dead. That’s what I’ll do to protect my family. Do you understand? Hey, I just saved your life. Now what do you say?
  Peter: (Beat) ...Thank you.
  Toomes: (Completely sincerely) You're welcome!
• Leitmotif: He has his own rather impressive one that wouldn't sound entirely out of place in the '60s cartoon.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: One of the most sympathetic MCU villains you're likely to meet. A guy whose only hope to keep from being driven into bankruptcy by uncaring bureaucrats was to turn to the black market. Plus, he seriously, loves his family and keeps them entirely in the dark about his criminal activities. And the cherry on the Sundae... he's not even really a killer. His murder of Brice is completely accidental (granted he's not particularly broken up about it, but Brice was an Asshole Victim who tried to blackmail him), and the only time he actively tries to kill someone (Peter) he first gives him a chance to walk away.
• Marquee Alter Ego: As the Vulture, he wears a military-style bomber jacket under his wingsuit, rather than a body suit like he does in the comics.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Unlike his comics counterpart, whose name is more or less arbitrary, this Vulture, like the bird, is a scavenger. He is introduced literally taking apart the corpse of a giant Chitauri monster.
  • Additionally, his last name "Toomes" is similar to the word "tombs", like how he tried to bury Peter.
• Moral Myopia: He claims that all of his actions are for the sake of his family and friends, and he has no problem threatening the lives of Peter's loved ones and also doesn't really seem to care who buys his weapons as long as they don't leave a trail back to his people.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: Zig-zagged. His costume is definitely darker than what the Vulture wears in the comics, but there's still green in it.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Vulture and The Tinkerer were introduced in the same issue of The Amazing Spider-Man way back in 1963, albeit in separate stories. They're also two of the earliest villains Spider-Man ever fought (pre-dating the likes of Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin), which works well with the younger version of Peter Parker portrayed in the film.
  • The collar on his flight jacket is meant to mimic the white ruff of feathers the Vulture has on his costume in the comics. During the climax, he ditches his helmet, making him look even more like the comic Vulture.
  • The taloned feet on the Vulture suit were taken from The Spectacular Spider-Man.
• Never My Fault: To his mind, Tony Stark forced him to become a criminal just to make ends meet, so anything bad he does is on Tony's shoulders.
• Noble Demon: Overall, he's a rather principled man. His main goal is stealing, and just that, so he doesn't hurt anyone he doesn't have to (tellingly, he only kills one person in the entire movie and by complete accident). Also shows to have his own personal code of honor, particularly when it comes to gratitude, such as initially letting Peter go when he learned he's Spider-Man for saving Liz's life, and later refusing to divulge his secret identity for saving his own.
• Noisy Robots: Toomes's suit makes a robotic noise when he turns around.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: After the years he's spent maintaining his anonymity, he has no interest in any "cops and robbers" routine with a superhero. He's originally willing to let Spider-Man go without holding a grudge if the web-slinger leaves him alone. When it's clear that Spider-Man won't give up, he's quite willing to kill Spidey if he absolutely has to.
• "Not So Different" Remark: As he tells Peter, both of them do what they do out of a desire to protect their families and loved ones. He also points out Tony Stark gained his fortune through arms dealing, just like what he's been doing.
• One Last Job: Mason repeatedly tries to convince him to rob a plane containing enough Avengers gear for complete financial security but he consistently rejects it, insisting it's too risky. When he finally decides to take the risk, it gets him and Schultz arrested, and his organization completely taken down.
• Papa Wolf: His daughter Liz comes first, second, and third to him. He will do anything to protect her and keep her safe, and is very grateful to Peter for protecting her.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He's a family man through and through, and a good business leader to his "employees", even though he's a criminal. Overall, he's one of the most sympathetic antagonists in the setting.
  • He has the opportunity to reveal who Spider-Man is to Mac Gargan, but he opts not to take it since Peter saved his daughter's life and his own.
• Playing the Victim Card: He justifies his actions by believing he's just taking what he's owed. This is something his actor, Michael Keaton, commented on in an interview.
  Michael Keaton: Some people see themselves as victims. He sees himself like that. He has a probably strong argument that he never got a fair shot. A lot of "Why not me?", "Where's mine?".
• Powered Armor: A downplayed example with his suit - it doesn't cover all that much of its wearer, mostly leaving him with a helmet, heavy leathers, and his wings to defend himself, but it does include a powered exoskeleton over his legs that lets him carry enormous weights with the claws on his feet while still having his hands free to defend himself.
• Pragmatic Villainy: What kept him in business as an arms dealer for nearly a decade/half a decade ^NoteThe movie itself states he's been at it for eight years, but in the wider MCU only four-five years have passed since ''The Avengers''; Infinity War — itself set two years after Homecoming — if anything seems to go by the assumption it's been six years since The Battle of New York. is keeping below the radar and not drawing the attention of the FBI or the Avengers, stealing only what will not be missed and selling only to discrete clients. Brice acting like a supervillain and firing alien weapons in public really pisses him off. He's originally even willing to let Spider-Man go and not hold a grudge if the web-slinger agrees to leave him alone.
• Preemptive Apology: While his wings attack Peter in the warehouse, he gives an apology right before the final support beam is destroyed and he leaves Peter to die buried in the rubble.
• Properly Paranoid: He wants to keep as little attention drawn to himself as possible, and is especially concerned that the Avengers may look into his operations. He's proven correct when Tony Stark takes Peter's tip seriously and involves the FBI, which Tony sees as the first point of escalation before getting involved personally.
• Punch-Clock Villain: His reason for turning to crime was because he needed the money after Tony accidentally destroyed his job. Subverted in that he becomes a true supervillain for Revenge over said job.
• Punny Name: "Toomes" sounds like "tombs", a Meaningful Name, given that he's not too averse to killing and is styled after a certain scavenging bird.
• Put on a Prison Bus: Unlike most MCU main villains, Toomes is arrested and sent to prison instead of dying. To further demonstrate the Anti-Villain cred that earned him his survival, there is a quick scene near the end in prison where he meets Mac Gargan, a minor villain from earlier who also got arrested, and refuses to disclose Spider-Man's Secret Identity.
• Razor Wings: The suit's wings double as bladed weapons.
• Related in the Adaptation: In this universe, he is the father of Liz Allan (here named Liz Toomes), who is completely unrelated to him in the comics.
• Remember the New Guy?: He's supposedly been active as a criminal for 8 years in the MCU, but has never been seen or mentioned until Spider-Man shows up. Justified in that Vulture and his gang have gone to great lengths to keep a low profile. In the MCU, the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. was taken out from its former role as series overseer, the Sokovia Accords dividing and leashing the Avengers' jurisdiction, and Tony's focus on cosmic threats, created a big fog for him to go low similar to how the Mob and other criminal organizations benefited from the post-9/11 shift in focus to global terrorism.
• Remote Body: Toomes can control his Vulture wingsuit remotely, as seen when he sends it to attack Peter while they were having a discussion in his warehouse towards the end.
• The Resenter: Adrian has a clear distaste for the rich (like Tony Stark) and the powerful (also like Tony Stark), and their privileges, and this desire to stick it to them motivates his villainy, in part. Tellingly, he uses his ill-gotten gains to buy a Big Fancy House.
• The Reveal: Late into Spider-Man: Homecoming, both Peter and the audience discover that he is the father of Peter's Love Interest Liz.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Toomes is right that his presence in the new universe can be traced back to Spider-Man asking Dr. Strange to remove everyone's memory of his identity only to botch it and later his attempt to fix it. However, Toomes somehow ending up there is unintentional, as the second spell is supposed to make sure other universe villains do not enter theirs.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: He is still the main villain of Spidey's movie and still faces him, but his vendetta is (initially) against Iron Man, while Spidey is (initially) just in his way.
• Save the Villain: Peter Parker saves him when he becomes trapped under flaming rubble. He is grateful for this and returns the favor by refusing to reveal Spider-Man's identity to Mac Gargan a.k.a. Scorpion.
• Seen It All: Doesn't appear at all surprised when he finds himself transported to another universe, only making a wisecrack about the change in prison food. Of course, considering he's being transported to this universe after the Blip, it will be hard for him to find anything weirder than half the universe vanishing just to return five years later.
• Secret-Keeper: He figures out Peter is Spider-Man but when Gargan approaches him in prison and requests the information to have him killed by people outside, he keeps quiet.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Not even Spider-Man knows that the Vulture figured out his civilian identity of Peter Parker. It's heavily implied that he keeps quiet about this even in prison out of gratitude for Spider-Man saving both his and his daughter's lives.
• Starter Villain: Since Spider-Man's first outing has him aid Iron Man in apprehending former members of the Avengers, Vulture is the first proper supervillain that the MCU incarnation of Spidey faces off with.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: His ultimate undoing. If he had just cut his losses and left instead of trying to leave with the Arc reactors, he most likely would have escaped successfully, but no, he needed to have something to show from his bungled final job.
• Superhero Movie Villains Die: Just barely averted. He was going to be killed by a combination of his malfunctioning wingsuit and the contents of the crate he was carrying, but Spider-Man pulls him out in time.
• Surrounded by Idiots: After discovering that Brice and Schultz have been selling weapons in the open and got noticed by Spider-Man, he returns furious to his warehouse, calling them idiots.
  Toomes: Idiots! Idiots! Idiots!
• Tantrum Throwing: He tosses his helmet in anger upon realizing that Brice's lack of discretion has drawn Spider-Man's attention.
• Technically a Smile: He cracks a couple of awkward, teeth-baring smiles when driving Peter and Liz to school, having realized that his daughter's date is Spider-Man.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Toomes' Start of Darkness is set to "Can't You Hear Me Rocking?" by The Rolling Stones. A song about the underclass crying against the privileged hedonists about their suffering and resentment, and how they are knocking, "all around your town".
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: When not running his gang, he's a typical suburban dad who loves his family and spends his spare time doing things around the house. Peter is absolutely stunned when he meets him at Liz's house and witnesses him acting like a normal parent.
• Trapped in Another World: Currently stuck in the SSU as a side effect of Dr. Strange's spell.
• Turbine Blender: During the Vulture's final fight with Spider-Man on the Stark Cargo Plane, one of his wings gets badly damaged by one of the propellers.
• Unexplained Recovery: In a sense; despite the SSU's apparent lack of Chitauri tech, Toomes is somehow able to reconstruct the Vulture suit quickly enough to arrange a meeting with Morbius soon after he arrives. During an interview, director Daniel Espinoza simply says that Toomes is "simply a resourceful guy."
• Underestimating Badassery: Tony Stark dismisses the Vulture as "below the pay grade" of the Avengers and delegates the task to bring him in to the FBI. But the Vulture has for 8 years evaded the Avengers at the height of its power (i.e. the period in which they took out HYDRA and before Ultron), successfully laid Beneath Suspicion of most criminal justice organizations, repurposed alien tech to create flight armor with similar capabilities to Tony (i.e. wings that can be remote controlled and operate by itself, which evaded Stane and Vanko, to cite the villains of Iron Man's solo adventures), and had it not been for Peter would have succeeded in robbing the vein of the Avengers big weapon cache mid-flight. His criminal organization is also multi-state, stretching from New York to Maryland.
• Unknown Rival: For a long time, Tony had no idea he existed, and even when he does, he does little but snark about how dealing with him is below his pay grade. To an extent, this is necessary for Toomes, as catching the attention of even a single Avenger would be the quick end of his entire operation.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: His response to being teleported into a different universe is to nonchalantly hope that the food is better in this prison.
• Vile Vulture: Kind of obvious, but he does have a genuine love for his wife and daughter.
• Villain Has a Point: He was completely right about Peter having no idea how far in over his head he was and also about his very black-and-white understanding of life. Yeah, Peter was right to try and keep those alien weapons from getting out onto the street and into the hands of truly bad people who could do some major damage with them, but at the same time, Toomes was, at the core, a man whose entire life had been upended who was just trying to provide his family with a comfortable life. His gripe with Tony Stark for putting him out of business and his anger over the fact that he was brushed aside by the authorities who didn't care that he invested all his savings into a business they were destroying are also well-founded.
• Villain Respect: He comes to respect Peter for his tenacity, for saving his life in the end rather than letting him die, and for saving his daughter's life. Because of this, Toomes decides not to sell him out to Gargan in the end.
• Villainous Underdog: He's an old working-class guy with repurposed gadgets (that he doesn't entirely understand and control) going against the security of Tony Stark, the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the young super-powered Spider-Man. The fact that his Vulture suit doesn't even appear to be designed for combat, but rather for theft and salvaging materials, makes him come off as even more of an underdog.
• Weak, but Skilled: In contrast to Spider-Man being Unskilled, but Strong. Vulture isn't superhuman and relies on a suit of Powered Armor that is designed for lifting/salvaging rather than direct combat, and overall is less agile and likely weaker compared to Spider-Man going all-out (who is established to have a 25-ton casual lifting strength and can exceed 50 or even 130 tons with effort). However, Vulture is a hardened criminal, knows how to fight, doesn't hold back, and can make the very most of what his suit is capable of. Compare this to Spider-Man, who for all of his strength, speed, agility, and reflexes, has as much experience as a 15-year-old kid who's never actually fought and barely knows what he's doing. This makes him the overdog to the inexperienced Spider-Man, despite his inherent disadvantages.
• What You Are in the Dark: When he's in prison at the end of the film, he has the chance to spill Spider-Man's true identity to Mac Gargan without anyone knowing about it. He chooses not to.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: From a bunch of scavenged technology put together by Phineas Mason, who is Vulture's gadget man. Fitting, considering the Trope-Naming quote was directed at another Michael Keaton character.
• Why Won't You Die?: He screams in anger when he sees that Spider-Man managed to survive a whole warehouse collapsing on top of him.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: A villainous variant; Toomes is ultimately responsible for his employees, and his turn to crime is mostly motivated by keeping them employed and financially secure (with the other part being getting even with Tony Stark).
• Working-Class Hero: He sees himself as a guy making ends meet and providing for his family, despite not doing anything "heroic" (beyond this at least). He manages this worldview by casting Tony Stark as the villain in his life, and on meeting Spider-Man notes, that the latter has more in common with him than Tony Stark.
  Adrian Toomes: Those people, Pete, those people up there — the rich and the powerful — they do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don't care about us. We build their roads, and we fight all their wars and everything, but they don't care about us. We have to pick up after them. We have to eat their table scraps. That's how it is. I know you know what I'm talking about, Peter.
• Worthy Opponent: Toomes grows rather fond of Spider-Man's grit, as he describes it, and Peter develops a certain kind of respect for Toomes himself, which is part of why he saves Toomes's life at considerable personal risk. Even after he ends up in prison, he's still happy to keep his enemy's Secret Identity under wraps.
• Would Hurt a Child: After finding out that Peter, a young man who's asked his daughter to homecoming, is Spider-Man, he tells him that he'll kill him if he ever tries to interfere with his business again and true to his word, he crushes him under a pile of rubble and leaves him for dead when he decides to try and stop him. When Peter survives and makes it to the plane he's trying to steal from, he pulls no punches and does everything he can to try and kill the boy.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: In the third act of Homecoming, he has a lot of contingency plans in place for his big heist. After figuring out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, he first tells Peter that he'll let the boy go off if he stays away from his plan to hijack an Avengers jet. When that doesn't work, it's revealed that he had a backup plan — have the Shocker stick around and keep Spider-Man busy long enough for him to pull off the heist. When Shocker is defeated, he lures Peter into an empty area of his building and uses his wingsuit to cause the building to collapse on Spider-Man. And when Spider-Man manages to get out of that anyway, that's when he resorts to a one-on-one fight. He very nearly would have succeeded had it not been for his own greed.
• You Are What You Hate: Despite being a loving father and husband who provides for his family, Toomes has become just like the rich he looks upon with disdain; he lives in a luxurious home, manufactures and sells dangerous weapons, has more money than he knows what to do with, and isn't as noble as he makes himself out to be. Whereas Stark risks his life to protect the world, Toomes uses his inventions for his own benefit, and that of his small crew, and while Tony had his hangups, he at least didn't try to murder a child.

Operatives

Phineas Mason / Tinkerer

Phineas Mason / The Tinkerer

"We could have made some pretty cool stuff with all that alien junk."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): Bestman Salvage (formerly), Vulture Gang

Portayed By: Michael Chernus

Voiced By: Mauricio Pérez (Latin-American Spanish Dub)

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

A mechanic who works closely with Toomes. He's able to make gadgets of all sorts out of common household objects.

---

• Adaptation Origin Connection: While Tinkerer and Vulture were originally introduced in the same issue, neither of their stories had anything to do with one another. Here, he's an employee of Toomes who built him the flight suit.
• Affably Evil: Perhaps even moreso than his boss. Unlike Toomes, Schultz and Brice, he never acts aggressive or unpleasant, and is generally pretty mild-mannered and polite for a criminal mastermind.
• Age Lift: Unlike his elderly counterpart in the comics, this Tinkerer is much younger.
• Alternate Self: He has a female counterpart on Earth-1048.
• Arms Dealer: He helps create advanced supervillain weaponry for the Vulture, which is then sold to criminals.
• Beard of Evil: He has a small goatee and serves as the Evil Genius of the Vulture's gang.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Mason frequently bugs a reluctant Toomes about working on a high altitude vacuum seal for his wingsuit, getting rebuffed the first two times before Spider-Man's repeated interference makes him relent. The vacuum seal is deployed during the gang's climactic heist - the mid-air hijacking of a Stark Industries plane loaded with Avengers tech.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: He's never called "the Tinkerer" at any point during the film. Only the credits refer to him as The Tinkerer.
• Composite Character: He's Phineas Mason like the classic Tinkerer, but like Elijah Stern, the Ultimate Marvel Tinkerer, a decade or two younger.
• Constantly Curious: Apparently, he can't help but take a look at his boss's phone every time it rings, despite being warned against it more than once. He justifies himself by claiming that he's "a curious person by nature".
• Evil Counterpart:
  • He is this to Tony Stark. Just as Iron Man provides technology and advice to Peter, Mason allies himself with the Vulture and contributes to his schemes with gadgets.
  • The film also props up a parallel between him and Ned Leeds, both being the overweight nerdy friends and loyal companions who encourage their friends to go on superpowered deeds. Notably, both he and Ned act as "the chair guy".
• Evil Genius: A villainous technowizard, and the guy with the most know-how in Toomes's gang.
• Fat Bastard: He's a heavyset guy who does the gadget work for a gang of criminals. On the other hand, he's not much of a Jerkass.
• Gadgeteer Genius: His main claim is that he can make gadgets. However, he — a MacGyvering working-class engineer, not an MIT graduate like Stark or a prodigy like Parker — has successfully turned the Imported Alien Phlebotinum they've stolen into revolutionary devices such as Toomes's flight suit.
• Insistent Terminology: In the opening scene, Toomes mentions drawing "Cowboys and Indians" as a child, but Mason corrects him by saying that the proper term is "Native American".
• It's Probably Nothing: When Spider-Man manages to stick his webs to the Vulture wingsuit and clings to him during the heist of the Stark Cargo Plane, Toomes realizes there's something wrong but Mason dismisses it as nothing important.
  Toomes: Got a visual on the plane, feeling a little resistance.
  Mason: It’s probably just a drag on the new turbines.
• Justified Criminal: Like his boss, he believes himself to be one, as the company he worked for went out of business due to Stark's "Department of Damage Control" stealing the contract to clean up New York after the Chitauri invasion out from under them and snapping up every construction/clean-up job within a hundred miles. Like Toomes, he thus justifies using the one truckload of scrap they were able to sneak off with to start a business as an arms dealer as the only path left to them — not just by Tony Stark, but by society in general.
• Karma Houdini: He presumably escaped the final battle unscathed, as Spider-Man likely never knew about him.
• Mission Control: Mason operates as Adrian's computer man, keeping him updated on the mission from afar.
• Mundane Utility: At the beginning of the scene where Brice gets fired, Mason is seen using the vacuum seal to put a hole in the refrigerator to get a can of soda.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Vulture and The Tinkerer were introduced in the same issue of The Amazing Spider Man way back in 1963, albeit in separate stories. They're also two of the earliest villains Spider-Man ever fought (pre-dating the likes of Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin), which works well with the younger version of Peter Parker portrayed in the film.
  • His gadgets being reverse-engineered from Chitauri tech is likely a reference to the fact that in his first appearance, the Tinkerer was an alien disguised as an old man. For some reason.
• Never Bareheaded: He wears a beanie in all his scenes, including the Distant Prologue taking place in 2012.
• Non-Action Guy: A crucial part of Toomes's operations, but strictly a non-combatant.
• Politically Correct Villain: A minor example, but he thinks it's more appropriate to use the term "Native American" rather than "Indian".
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's very calm and collected, never has any Jerkass or Kick the Dog moments in Homecoming. Of course, since he's also a Justified Criminal.
• Sticky Fingers: When Damage Control comes to take over their job of cleaning up the Battle of New York and orders them to hand over all the alien items they collected, Mason can't resist slipping a Chitauri energy core into his pocket, which he later uses to power a turbine.
• Two First Names: "Mason" is also usable as a first name.
• Undying Loyalty: He seems to be Adrian Toomes' most loyal henchman, being the only one who doesn't even consider leaving him after the FBI and Iron Man start going after them. He also shows great concern for his boss's safety and pleads him to abandon the heist when he risks his life trying to retrieve a crate from the cargo plane while it's about to crash.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: There seems to be no sign of a familiar relationship between him and Rick Mason from Black Widow (2021) and while Michael Chernus is older than O.T. Fagbenle, it's only by four years, so it's not even remotely possible for this Tinkerer to have fathered Rick.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He is the one who keeps insisting in doing the "High Altitude Job" — which is the one that ends up getting Toomes captured.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He's last seen closing his computer screen after Vulture's plan goes off the rails. As Spider-Man never met him and probably doesn't even know of his existence, he likely escaped justice. Additional material created for the Homecoming Blu-Ray suggests that his role may serve as a Sequel Hook for future tech-based Spider-Man villains.

Herman Schultz / Shocker II

Herman Schultz / Shocker II

"I wasn't sure about this thing at first, but...damn!"

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): Bestman Salvage (formerly), Vulture Gang

Portayed By: Bokeem Woodbine

Voiced By: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Dan Osorio (Latin-American Spanish Dub)

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

"I love it. They keep making messes, we keep getting rich."

A former employee of Toomes's business. After Damage Control ran them out of business, he stuck with Toomes' gang, eventually coming to use a modified gauntlet stolen from Lagos.

---

• Adaptational Dumbass:
  • While not portrayed as outright dumb, this Shocker lacks the genius inventor status he had in the comics, where he invented his own gauntlets. He was also an expertly pragmatic tactician who's evaded capture many different times. Here, the gauntlet was given to him, and he was actually the second to use it after Jackson. That, and he gets foiled by Ned borrowing Peter's webshooter.
  • On the other hand, by the time Toomes sends him to watch the school in case Peter rejects Toomes's offer of a truce, he's clearly spent time practicing with the Shocker gauntlets and is able to use them quite effectively in his fight against Peter. Rather than trying to punch Peter directly, he punches school buses, weaponizing his environment. He may be Book Dumb, but he's clearly Street Smart.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • Shocker was originally introduced years after the Vulture was in the original comics, and the two characters were completely unrelated. Here, Schultz worked for Toomes before becoming one of his goons, and he gets some of the spare gear that the Vulture's used before.
  • His gauntlet is one of the ones originally used by Crossbones during the Lagos incident, salvaged and upgraded by Toomes's gang. In the comics, Shocker invented his own gauntlets and he and Crossbones have absolutely no connection to one another.
• Adaptational Seriousness: Many appearances of the Shocker in comics and western animation play him as a Butt-Monkey and an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain (althought he also is portrayed as a Not-So-Harmless Villain at times). In the MCU, he still may be a minor threat, but he is portrayed as a straight criminal who's taken serious by Peter the whole time.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Contrary to what his name suggests, Shocker in the comics weaponized shockwaves and vibrations, not electricity.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the original comics, while he's not a threat on the level of, say, Doc Ock or any of the Goblins, the Shocker knew how to use his gauntlets very well, and consistently gave Spidey a hard time, with a solid track record against the wall crawler to the point where it was actually pretty rare to see him just go down after a short fight. In the film however, he's a much worse fighter than his comic book counterpart, being dispatched fairly easily each time he fights Spider-Man, and the only time he does well is when he knocks his web shooters off and is beaten almost instantly when Ned shoots him with one of them and Peter gets them back.
  • There's also the fact that in the comic, Shocker had TWO gauntlets and could fire projectile blasts from them. Here, he's only got one and he's a melee fighter.
  • Justified in that the movie version lacks a secondary gauntlet as well as the ranged firepower they deliver, as well as a suit that protects him from his own gauntlets and can deflect some of Spider-Man's attacks. Along with that, he only recently got the gauntlet and is inexperienced with it in comparison to Brice, who Peter flat out says was better with the gauntlet than Schultz.
• All Webbed Up: Once Spider-Man gets his web-shooters back thanks to Ned's help, he promptly uses them to pin Shocker to the side of a bus, leaving him covered in webs.
• Arms Dealer: He goes out with the Tinkerer's inventions and tries to sell them off to whoever wants them. He seems to focus on explaining what his products actually do.
• Badass Driver: When Spider-Man webs onto the gang's van to follow them, Schultz drives in a way that pushes him towards obstacles on the road, and he eventually manages to get rid of him by sending him crashing into a brick post.
• Bald of Evil: He's bald and a criminal arms dealer.
• Blood Knight: He seems to take some perverse joy in using the shock gauntlet to hammer Spider-Man's face, letting out an impressed "Damn!" when it punches him all the way through a school bus.
• Car Fu: During his final fight against Spider-Man, he uses his gauntlet to blasts multiple buses at the young superhero.
• Civvie Spandex: He has a military jacket and pants over a yellow suit instead of having a standard brown and yellow suit.
• Co-Dragons: Alongside Jackson Brice, he acts as one of Toomes's enforcers. After Jackson is killed off, he graduates to being Toomes's sole Dragon.
• Combat Pragmatist: During their final fight, he attacks Peter by surprise before he has time to put his web-shooters, and then spends the whole fight continuously beating him around to prevent him from getting them back.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • After becoming the Shocker, Schultz gets defeated very easily during his fight against Spider-Man in the ferry due to his poor handling of the Gauntlet.
  • However, Schultz has gotten better at it when they have a rematch towards the end, so this time he's the one who manages to curbstomp his opponent... at least until Spidey gets his Web Shooters back, at which point he beats him within seconds.
• Decomposite Character: His status as the first Shocker is given to Jackson Brice, and his role in creating the original shock gauntlets is retroactively given to Crossbones. Also, his status as a punch-clock, working-class villain is given to the Vulture.
• Distract and Disarm: When the Shocker is overpowering Spider-Man during their final fight, Ned distracts him for a brief moment by firing webbing at his Gauntlet, and Spidey takes advantage of the opportunity to swiftly disarm him.
• Electric Black Guy: Due to Race Lift, Herman Schultz is now a black criminal who utilizes an electricity-powered gauntlet in combat.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He's quite shocked when his boss vaporizes Jackson Brice right in front of him.
    Schultz: Damn…
  • While he's far from a saint himself, even he doesn't like Mac Gargan.
    Schultz: I hate this guy.
• Evil Feels Good: After getting better at using the Shocker Gauntlet, he admits during his beating of Peter that he does take pleasure in using its destructive power.
  Schultz: I wasn’t sure about this thing at first, but… Damn!
• Help, I'm Stuck!: He gets his Gauntlet stuck in a railing while trying to hit Spider-Man during the fight on the ferry, and Spidey shoots some webbing at it to prevent his escape. He spends the rest of the battle unable to move, until Toomes helps him get free by shooting at the railings.
• How Do I Shot Web?: He initially doesn't know how to use the Gauntlet properly, needing Mason to run him through or risk blowing off his arm from the recoil. In a rather hilarious — and ironic — scene in the film, both Schultz and Peter are simultaneously trying to figure out each other's respective weapons at the exact same time, no more than 20 feet from each other, without either of them realizing the other is there.
• Kingpin in His Gym: He can be seen practicing with his new Shocker Gauntlet in the warehouse, using it to punch a van at one point.
• Legacy Character: While Schultz was the original Shocker in the comics, in the film he's the second person to use the Shocker identity... in the same movie, nonetheless.
• Marquee Alter Ego: He always has his face exposed, and never wears anything resembling his mask from the comics.
• Mobstacle Course: When he tries to escape from the collapsing ferry, Schultz races across the top deck to get picked up by his boss but he has to run through a bunch of people and pushes some of them out of his way.
• Mook Promotion: While not exactly a Mook, Herman Schultz still started off as a relatively unremarkable henchman with no supervillain name and no specific weapon or powers. But after killing the first Shocker Jackson Brice, the Vulture gives Schultz his electrical gauntlet to make him the new Shocker, and tasks him with the important mission of finding the weapon taken by Spider-Man.
• Mouth of Sauron: Whenever the gang sells tech to other criminals, Schultz does the talking.
• Not Wearing Tights: While his jacket and pants match the aesthetic of his comics counterpart, he actually doesn't wear a costume, even though some of the merchandise for the film does depict him wearing one.
• Off Bridge, onto Vehicle: After Spider-Man and the FBI show up during the deal on the ferry, Schultz runs to the top deck and jumps off the railing to lands on the Vulture's back while he's flying away.
• Power Fist: The Shocker Gauntlet he wears on his right arm greatly enhances the strength of his punches, allowing him to send the likes of Spider-Man flying away.
• Put on a Prison Bus: In a deleted scene, the Midtown High news show confirms that he was found by the police after being webbed up onto a bus by Spider-Man, and subsequently taken into custody.
• Race Lift: Though traditionally depicted as Caucasian, this Shocker is played by black actor Bokeem Woodbine.
• Scary Black Man: He's a tough-looking black man who also happens to be a dangerous supervillain.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: He's about to leave after the ferry incident, since they're now on the FBI and Iron Man's radar, and urges Toomes to do the same. He stops once Toomes finally commits to the high altitude heist.
• Shock and Awe: He uses a weapon that gives him certain electricity-based abilities, which actually would have defeated Peter were it not for the quick thinking of Ned.
• Superior Successor: Averted at first, as he loses badly to Spider-Man during their fight on the Ferry, with Spidey even noting that the previous Shocker was much better. However, he eventually gets better with his Gauntlet and manages to beat up Spidey much more brutally than his predecessor during their final fight, although it was helped by the fact that he didn't have his web-shooters at the time.
• Superweapon Average Joe: Herman Schultz is nothing more than an ordinary human being, but with the Shocker Gauntlet he becomes a serious threat even for a superhero like Spider-Man.
• Thwarted Coup de Grâce: After brutally roughing up Peter in their final fight, the Shocker raises his arm in preparation to deliver the final blow. Fortunately, Ned arrives and picks up the web-shooters to fire webbing at his Gauntlet, restraining him long enough for Peter to get up and defeat him.
• Token Minority: He is the only named member of Vulture's gang to be African-American.
• Took a Level in Badass: At first, he's just a salesman for his gang's weapons. He becomes more dangerous after getting the Shocker gauntlet, but remains inexperienced and manages to trap himself on the ferry by punching through steel mesh. After undergoing a bit of self-training, he manages to ambush Peter, knock off his web shooters, and effortlessly knock him around a parking lot before Ned steps in. His Shocker gauntlet is also an upgraded version of one of Crossbones' power-gauntlets.
• Trigger-Happy: Downplayed, but he seems to like threatening people with his gun a little too much. He wastes no time in pulling his gun on Aaron Davis when he hears a suspicious noise during their deal and assumes (wrongly) that he has set him up, and he's more than happy to oblige when Spider-Man shows up and challenges him to take a shot at him instead. Later, he promptly reaches for his gun when he sees a chair wobbling while searching the school and thinks (rightly this time) that someone was spying on him.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He disappears from the film after getting webbed up against a school bus. It's revealed in a deleted scene that he was arrested after being found by the students. His gauntlet was stolen by a student named Tiny McKeever.
• Would Hurt a Child: Even after finding out that Spider-Man is only a 15-year-old high school student, he is more than happy to pummel him with his Shocker Gauntlet and try to kill him.

Jackson Brice / Shocker I

Jackson Brice / Shocker I

"I got what you need, all right? I got tons of great stuff here. One sec. Okay, I got Black Hole Grenades, Chitauri railguns..."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): Bestman Salvage (formerly), Vulture Gang

Portayed By: Logan Marshall-Green

Voiced By: Daniel del Roble (Latin-American Spanish Dub)

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

"You're out there, wearing that goofy thing, lighting up cars, calling yourself the Shocker. "I'm the Shocker. I shock people." What is this, Pro Wrestling?"

— Adrian Toomes

A member of Adrian Toomes' gang who first uses the alias and Shocker tech.

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• Adaptational Weapon Swap: In the comics, Jackson Brice is a supervillain specialized in the use of lassos and lariats. His MCU version never uses anything of the sort and fights with an electric gauntlet instead.
• Asshole Victim: He's (accidentally) killed by Toomes when Toomes kicks him off the crew. He got himself kicked off by not caring about being discreet, using their weaponry out in the open and risking someone like the Avengers finding out about their operation, and then was disrespectful and flippant when Toomes reprimanded him for it. While Toomes just kicked him off the crew for that, Brice then threatened to tell his family about Toomes's criminal dealings. Even if Toomes wasn't intending to kill him, Brice deserved whatever was coming his way and Toomes isn't broken up over accidentally causing his death.
• Arms Dealer: He is one right along with Herman, but Jackson focuses more on showing off and handing out the merchandise to potential buyers.
• Atrocious Alias: Toomes finds his self-given moniker "the Shocker" ridiculous. He does suggest that Schultz use it after Brice gets reduced to ashes, though.
  Toomes: What is this, Pro Wrestling?!
• Bald of Evil: He's bald and a criminal arms dealer. It's worth noting that the only other bald guy in the crew is the similarly bad Herman.
• Beard of Evil: Between him, Toomes, Mason, Schultz and Vale, Brice is the one with the bushiest beard and clearly the most evil among them.
• Big "SHUT UP!": He angrily says this when Schultz chides him for using one of their high-tech weapons against Spider-Man in public when he's already been told it wasn't a good idea.
  Schultz: Did you just do it again?
  Brice: Shut up!
• Big "WHAT?!": His reaction when Toomes gets tired of his screw-ups and tells him he's fired.
  Toomes: You know what? I can’t afford your bullshit. Get out of here.
  Brice: WHAT?!
• Blackmail Backfire: When he gets kicked out, he threatens to tell Toomes's family what he really does to get his money if he isn't let back on. Toomes decides to get him back into compliance with his Anti-Gravity gun, but accidentally uses a gun that turns Jackson to dust instead. Nobody is very bothered about it.
• Bullying a Dragon: After Toomes fires him for his arrogance and incompetence, he attempts to blackmail Toomes by threatening to release all the information about Toomes's operations to the public, and even makes a threat to his family. He does it in Toomes's warehouse when all the other crew members are present and when Toomes has several weapons within easy reach. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
• Character Death: He dies from being vaporized by Toomes.
• Co-Dragons: Alongside Herman Schultz, he acts as one of Toomes's enforcers. It doesn't last long, since he dies early in the movie, leaving Schultz as the sole Dragon.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Played with. He refers to himself as Shocker, but never uses his comic alias "Montana".
• Decomposite Character: Both Jackson Brice (who went by Montana in the comics) and Herman Schultz are the Shocker in this adaptation.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: While Jackson Brice did die as well in the comics, he actually fell to his death when the building he was in collapsed due to the Hobgoblin's sonic scream, rather than being disintegrated by the Vulture.
• Dumb Crook: If he hadn't been a dumbass and fired off powerful and highly-visible weaponry in a residential area, Spider-Man probably would have never learned about the gang's weapon dealings in time to stop it.
• Dumb Muscle: He's pretty good in a fight thanks to his proficiency with the Shocker Gauntlet, being able to get the better of Spider-Man by punching him away. Too bad he's a complete idiot who brings his gang more trouble than he's worth.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: He is always laughing and jubilating when he uses high-tech weapons to destroy stuff or beat people up.
• Establishing Character Moment: He nonchalantly shows up late to work in the opening scene and blows off Toomes' berating of him for it, showing off an indifferent attitude toward Toomes and his job that gets more pronounced as the film goes on and ultimately leads to his (accidental) death at the hands of the latter.
• Evil Is Hammy: He really doesn't understand anything about subtlety, much to his boss's chagrin. For starters, he insists on being called "the Shocker", and he enjoys causing destruction while laughing like a maniac.
• Evil Laugh: After sending Spidey flying several meters away by punching him with his Shocker Gauntlet, Brice laughs triumphantly.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: None of his colleagues seem to really like him due to his Jerkass behavior, with Toomes and Shultz in particular constantly complaining about his stupid blunders. When he gets accidentally killed, they all quickly get over it.
• Hate Sink: Pretty much exists for the sole purpose of giving Toomes more audience sympathy by being a selfish jerkass in comparison.
• He Knows Too Much: As Brice himself points out when he gets fired, Toomes can't just let him go with everything he knows about their weapons business as he might tell people, like his wife. Toomes agrees and picks up a Chitauri weapon to shoot him with it, disintegrating him.
  Brice: Yeah, all right. All right. Wonder if you can afford me out there, though, right? With everything I know.
  Toomes: Excuse me?
  Brice:Um, I’m just saying... maybe your wife would like to know where you really get your money from.
  Toomes:You know what?
  Brice:What?
  Toomes: You're right. I can't afford that.
  [Toomes shoots him with a Chitauri Gun]
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: When Spider-Man clings to his van with his web to chase him, Brice uses some high-tech weapons to shoot at him, but misses all his shots. In his defense, it's probably not easy to aim well when you're in a van moving at high speed.
• In Name Only: In the comics, Jackson Brice was a cowboy nicknamed Montana who specialized in using a lasso and was prominently a member of the Enforcers, a trio of elite mob mooks. In the MCU, Jackson Brice has none of these traits.
• Jerkass: As Toomes points out, he doesn't care about anything. In the film's opening, he can't be bothered to show up to work on time, he promptly states he's not going to be the one to cart another load of alien junk to Damage Control, and he deliberately ignores Toomes's warnings about being discreet.
• The Load: Brings nothing but trouble to the gang by showing off with the alien weapons out in the open – and if the opening is any indication, he was this before they turned to crime.
• Mythology Gag:
  • As in The Spectacular Spider-Man, where Shocker and Brice were one and the same, he uses the tech alongside Herman Schultz and is the one who came up with the name.
  • His jacket harkens to the Shocker's classic costume.
• Not a Morning Person: On the day that Toomes' salvaging company cleaned up the aftermath of the battle of New York, Brice didn't show up until the afternoon, pretending that his alarm clock didn't go off. Toomes' reaction implies that this is not the first time something like this has happened.
• Power Fist: The Shocker Gauntlet he wears on his right arm greatly enhances the strength of his punches, allowing him to send the likes of Spider-Man flying away.
• Practice Target Overkill: During the deal with Aaron Davis, he demonstrates his weapons by shooting at some derelict cars and blowing them up in a spectacular fashion, even though Aaron was looking for something simple to mug people with. The resulting explosions are so huge that they attract Peter's attention from Liz's house.
• Psycho Electro: Downplayed, but he has an electric gauntlet and he's shown to be very enthusiastic about using it to shock people.
• Psychopathic Manchild: His behaviour and lack of respect for Toomes resembles more that of an malignant teenager than a grown adult. Tellingly, he's quite a bit more immature than the actual teenagers in the movie.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Does this when Schultz suggests calling their boss while they're being chased by Spider-Man.
  Schultz: We gotta call him!
  Brice: No, no, no, no...
• Reduced to Dust: This happens to his body when it is hit by Toomes's gun, leaving behind nothing of him but the Shocker gauntlet he was wearing.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He's not in the movie for long, but his bumbling is what alerts Peter to Toomes's racket.
• Stupid Crooks: Guy's a moron with a big mouth. And it gets him killed.
• Superweapon Average Joe: Jackson Brice is nothing more than an ordinary human being, but with the Shocker Gauntlet he becomes a serious threat even for a superhero like Spider-Man. He also uses some particularly destructive firearms during the deal with Aaron Davis.
• Take Up My Sword: Involuntarily. When he accidentally gets turned to dust, Toomes picks up the Shocker gauntlet that is the only thing that was left intact and passes it to Schultz, sarcastically declaring him the new Shocker. Schultz proceeds to use it for the rest of the movie.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: As shown during his deal with Aaron Davis, he has a propensity for upselling his customers. When the small-time crook wanted something simple and straightforward - like an ordinary gun — he instead tries to peddle black hole grenades and railguns. Befitting his manchild personality, he loves over-the-top destruction, and for some reason thinks everyone else does too.
  Aaron: Man, I wanted something low-key. Why are you trying to upsell me, man? (...) I need something to stick up somebody. I’m not trying to... shoot them back in time!
• Token Evil Teammate: Not that anyone in the gang is a saint, but between him, Schultz, Mason, Vale and Toomes, he's by far the most unpleasant and trigger-happy.
• Too Dumb to Live: He tries to sell overly advanced weaponry to a common thief who was in the market for a regular gun, and his demonstrations draw the attention of Spider-Man, who nearly catches them. Then he scoffs at Toomes being angry for being so indiscreet and then, when fired on the spot, threatens to reveal everything to Toomes's wife and the police. Double-subverted, as Toomes only wanted to hurt him with an anti-gravity gun but accidentally used a disintegrator instead that turns Brice into dust, but Toomes gets over the mistake remarkably quickly.
• Two First Names: Brice can also be used as a first name.
• Underling with an F in PR: Toomes ordered him to move around some of the alien weapons under the radar. Emphasis: under the radar. Selling it to some bodega-stealing Stupid Crooks and then demonstrating weapons that create massive explosions right next to a residential area and a freeway was against the definition of "under the radar". What really places him in this trope is his utter lack of regret for having performed these snafus and the decision to try to threaten Toomes's family when he's kicked out of the outfit.
• Wasn't That Fun?: After being chased by Spider-Man across the city and causing a lot of visible destruction, he returns to the warehouse all excited and happy, much to Toomes' frustration.
  Brice: Ha-ha-ha! Whoo!! I mean, that was badass!
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Compared to his colleagues, he doesn't appear in many scenes, and he ends up getting killed relatively early in the film.
• Would Hurt a Child: He punches the 15-year-old Peter Parker using his Shocker Gauntlet, and then tries to shoot him with some high-tech gun. To be fair, it's possible that he didn't realize his young age due to him wearing the Spider-Man suit.
• You Have Failed Me: After having enough of his repeated disregard for his instructions and lack of respect, Toomes kicks him off the crew and vaporizes him with a ray gun. Partly Subverted, as it's revealed immediately afterwards that Toomes mistook the gun for a harmless anti-gravity device and didn't intend to kill him.

Randy Vale

Randy Vale

"Hey, chief! We still have this load from yesterday. We're supposed to turn this in, right?"

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): Bestman Salvage (formerly), Vulture Gang

Portrayed By: Christopher Berry

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

Another member of Adrian Toomes' crew.

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• 555: The phone number given for his business in the Daily Bugle job advertisement is 513-555-6011.
• Adaptational Origin Connection: In the comics, Vale was a henchman for Carrion, one of Miles Warren's clones, and had no connection with Vulture. Here, he is in league with Toomes.
• Adaptational Wimp: His comic book counterpart is minor supervillain Darter, who actually gets to use technology and weapons to fight Spider-Man. MCU Vale never gets the chance and ends up presumably arrested.
• All Webbed Up: He is last seen being webbed up to a wall after getting hit by Spidey's Web Grenade during the battle on the Staten Island Ferry.
• Never Bareheaded: He is always seen with a cap on his head, and has been since the Distant Prologue set in 2012.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's part of the band but never seen committing or attempting to carry out a heinous crime, unlike Toomes, Schultz or Brice.
• Put on a Prison Bus: Like Schultz and Toomes, he is arrested before the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, though he is arrested significantly earlier at the Ferry and never seen again.
• Reformed Criminal: A promotional Daily Bugle newspaper reveals that he was eventually released from prison and started his own legitimate salvaging business. Although his ad is suspiciously insistent that he wants nothing to do with Chitauri tech.
• Satellite Character: His scenes in the present day revolve around being an extra set of hands, such as searching the school with Schultz.
• Screaming Warrior: When Spider-Man shows up during the deal with Gargan on the Staten Island Ferry, Vale charges at him yelling loudly, though he gets hit by a Web Grenade before getting too close.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Vale is responsible for finding a truck of Chitauri scrap that the crew neglected to drop off, leading to the formation of Toomes's mercenary operation.
• Stink Snub: A variant. While accompanying Schultz to search for their Chitauri Gun in Midtown School, he mentions that he hates high schools because they smell funny.

Others

Species: Humans

Citizenship: American

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

The other members of Vulture's gang.

---

• Building Is Welding: Some of them can be seen welding when they're building weapons.
• Evil Minions: They are Adrian Toomes' henchmen whose job is to build the weapons for his business, but they're never involved in any fight.
• Karma Houdini: Even though they have helped Adrian Toomes with his weapons business for years, they never get arrested during the movie.
• Practice Target Overkill: At the beginning of the film, one of them tests a weapon by shooting at a fridge. The fridge is blown to pieces, showing the destructive power of the weapons they build.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: They stop appearing in Vulture's warehouse halfway through the film with no explanation. Presumably, they chose to quit after the Staten Island Ferry incident out of fear of being caught by Iron Man.

Associates

Criminal Avengers

"Criminal Avengers"

Species: Humans

Citizenship: American

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

"This high-tech stuff makes it too easy!"

Four robbers in cheap Avengers masks who encounter Spider-Man as they try to rob a bank's ATM.

---

• Bank Robbery: Spider-Man catches them while they're in the middle of robbing the Queens Community Bank.
• Bit-Part Bad Guys: Apart from purchasing their weapons from them, they have nothing to do with the main villains of the film and are just a random gang of bank robbers who show up for one scene and get beat up by the hero. They're even the page image.
• Ceiling Smash: One of them suspends Spider-Man with an anti-gravity gun and slams him between the ceiling and floor a few times during the bank fight.
• Faceless Mooks: They are just standard robbers in masks, and none of them inconvenience Peter at all until one of their Chitauri weapons gets out of control and blows up a nearby building.
• Failed a Spot Check: Despite having one of them standing guard, none of them notice Peter when he enters the bank and takes poses until he starts talking to them.
• Gang of Hats: As the name suggests, all four members of the gang wear plastic masks of the Avengers.
• Gravity Master: One of the weapons they purchased from Toomes' gang is an anti-gravity gun, which they use to rip ATMs off the wall and later to manhandle Spider-Man.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: When the Thor-masked robber tries to elbow Spidey, the young superhero effortlessly catches his arm and redirects the blow to the Hulk-masked robber's face. Shortly after, he also catches a punch from the Iron Man-masked robber and throws him to the Hulk-masked robber as well.
• Karma Houdini: They manage to get away as Spider-Man saves Delmar from the explosion in his store they caused with their malfunctioning Chitauri technology.
• Laser Cutter: They use a Chitauri weapon that emits laser beams to cut open some ATMs.
• Malevolent Masked Men: They are four violent bank robbers each wearing a mask based on an Avenger (Hulk, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, specifically).
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Thor mask robber has the face of the god's original comic appearance with his famous winged helmet, which the MCU Thor almost never wears.
  • A group of "Criminal Avengers" appeared in the Ultimate comics, also robbing banks in cheap masks before being apprehended by Spider-Man.
• Oh, Crap!: Before any of them attack, they all panic when Spider-Man makes his presence known to them.
• Punch Catch: The criminal disguised as Iron Man tries several times to punch Peter, but he easily dodges every time and eventually catches his fist before throwing him on the one disguised as Hulk.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The core of the gun they bought is taken by Peter, and almost kills the decathlon team in the Washington Monument. It also makes Toomes grateful to Peter when he learns he saved his daughter from the explosion.
• Starter Villain: Not counting the bike thief, they are the first real villains to be faced by the titular hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• Super Weapon, Average Joe: They are your typical gang of bank robbers, but they're in possession of powerful alien weapons that cause Spider-Man to have a little more trouble against them than he would otherwise.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: They are never seen again after escaping from Spider-Man during the bank fight scene.
• Worth It: One of them says this regarding the Chitauri weapons they bought.
  Robber 1: Yo, this high tech stuff makes it too easy.
  Robber 2: Told you it was worth it!
• Would Hurt a Child: Even though Spider-Man has a distinctly youthful voice and mentions having school, they don't refrain from trying to kill him.

Aaron Davis / "Prowler"

Aaron Davis / "Prowler"

"You gotta get better at this part of the job."

^{Click here to see him in Across the Spider-Verse} "Hey...It's rude to stare."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Donald Glover

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

A low-level crook who approached Vulture's gang to buy a gun only to find out that they offer weaponry of an entirely different nature.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: While still a criminal, he's clearly a decent guy who cares about his nephew. In the Ultimate Marvel comics, Davis was a real piece of work (trying to exploit and eventually murder said nephew, to start with), and served as a case of Adaptational Villainy for the traditionally heroic Prowler of the mainstream Marvel Universe, Hobie Brown.
• Adaptational Wimp: While he has the alias of "Prowler", it's just a street name — he's by no means a super-criminal and very much doesn't want to be, since it draws way more attention and causes all kinds of mayhem that he doesn't want in his neighborhood. His cameo in Across the Spider-Verse implies that he eventually developed into the super-criminal Prowler in the time between Homecoming and that film.
• Affably Evil: He's ultimately a decent man who happens to make a living through crime, and develops an Odd Friendship with Peter.
  • In ''Across the Spider-Verse Aaron has a very laid-back disposition despite getting captured and held in an alternate dimension. When Miles meets up with him, Aaron doesn't seem to bear any hostility to this version of Spider-Man, likely sensing that he's a newcomer and even more likely recognizing this kid as a variant of his own nephew. The worst he does is tell Miles not to gawk at him and even then he's charmingly coy about it.
• Alternate Self: Has a variant on Earth-1610B whose nephew he meets. He also has one on Earth-42.
• Beard of Evil: He sports a thin beard but overall he's a downplayed example as he's just a lowly criminal and is actually a pretty nice guy all things considered.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Spider-Man saving his life from Schultz and Brice is partially the reason why Aaron told the superhero where he could find Toomes.
  Aaron Davis: The other night, you told that dude, "If you're gonna shoot somebody, shoot me." It's pretty ballsy.
• The Cameo: Makes one in Across the Spider-Verse, in the hall of captured villains, briefly meeting Miles and later booing the Spider-Society as they chase Miles.
• Celebrity Paradox: Star Wars has been referenced in several MCU movies and television shows, including Homecoming. Donald Glover portrayed a younger Lando Calrissian in Solo. His appearance in Spider-Man: Spider-Verse also creates this, as the first film, the Aaron Davis of Earth-1610B is seen watching Community, specifically the opening to the season two premiere Anthropology 101, where the character Troy is wearing his Spider-Man pyjamas, who Glover portrayed.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Helps out Spider-Man in the third act after his brief earlier appearance, but on a grander scale, he seems to exist to slowly plant the seeds that may or may not someday lead to Peter's successor appearing in the MCU.
• Composite Character: While he has the namesake and appearance of Aaron Davis from the Ultimate Marvel line, his character traits are much more in-line with Hobie Brown.
• Dimension Traveller: Becomes an unwilling one in Across where he, along with many other villains, are displaced to other universes due to damage done to the multiverse.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He's a long way from becoming the Prowler, yet he has a supporting role in the first standalone Spider-Man movie in this continuity and the alias has already been mentioned.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He may be a crook, but he has family in Queens and doesn't want Toomes' alien weapons loose in the neighborhood.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • While he's a criminal, he doesn't want any of the destructive weapons sold by the Vulture's gang and he's worried about the havoc they could cause in his neighborhood.
  • He also considers Adrian Toomes to be a psychopath and Mac Gargan to be crazy.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: In his last scene, Spider-Man webs his hand to his car's boot and leaves him like that, much to his dismay. He tries to ask for help from bystanders in a deleted scene, without success.
• I Owe You My Life: Although Peter has completely failed to intimidate him, Davis decides to tell him everything he knows about the Vulture anyway as a way of thanking him for stopping Herman Schultz from shooting him.
• Karma Houdini: He's a criminal who tried to buy weapons to mug people, yet Spider-Man doesn't bother to arrest him and the worst thing that happens to him is that he gets his hand webbed to the trunk of his car for a few hours and his ice cream melts.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While he's got a criminal record and was looking to buy a gun so he could rob people, he's also concerned for his family's safety and doesn't want Toomes's superweapons on the streets of New York any more than Spidey does.
• Mythology Gag:
  • He's played by the man who inspired the creation (and later provided the voice) of his nephew, Miles Morales, with his campaign to play Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man.
  • He briefly mentions that he wants the Vulture's gang to keep their weapons away from Queens because he's worried about his nephew's safety. His nephew, of course, is heavily implied to be Miles Morales, who has been confirmed to exist in this setting. A deleted scene shows him calling Miles to explain his absence.
  • One of his aliases is Brian Pichelli, which are the first and last names of his creators Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli.
  • His birthday is on April 15, which is Sara Pichelli's birthday too.
  • The only one of the gadgets he shows interest in is one that would let him climb up walls. This was his main gimmick in comics.
  • Davis mentions having worked with Mac Gargan before, a nod to their Ultimate comics counterpart's brief partnership.
• Noodle Incident: According to them, Hobie and Gwen are the ones who captured him at some point before Miles's arrival. According to him, he slipped.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He might seem like a lazy slacker criminal with a small-time mentality and interests, and to a degree that's true. However, he provides pragmatic reasons for not wanting a fancy weapon or to be particularly ambitious - it attracts all the wrong kind of attention and risks escalating trouble in his neighbourhood. He also figures out very quickly that Peter's just a kid under the mask, startles him by slamming the boot of his car down to make that point, before nonchalantly remarking that he needs to "get better at this part of the job." He then starts a Seinfeldian Conversation that is, in fact, a Secret Test of Character to judge whether Peter really is the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man that he seems to be. Yeah, it's safe to say that Aaron is much, much smarter than he looks or acts.
• Odd Friendship: Who would think that Spider-Man and a down-on-his-luck criminal would turn out to have a degree of respect for one another?
• Opponent Instruction: When Spider-Man tries to intimidate him into revealing what he knows about Vulture's gang, Davis sees that he's struggling and gives him some tips on how to improve.
  Davis: Can I give you some advice?
  Peter: Hmm?
  Davis: You got to get better at this part of the job.
• Papa Wolf: Besides gratitude for saving his life, Davis snitches on Toomes and his gang to Spider-Man once he realized the danger they and their alien weapons presented to his nephew.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Demonstrates this when dealing with the Vulture's gang. As a small-time crook, Aaron was only looking for easily concealable small arms, and the Imported Alien Phlebotinum portable artillery Brice is hawking frightens and disturbs him. Seeing square acres of forest getting vaporized is what compels him to tell Spider-Man everything he knows about the operation — he may be a crook, but he saw city blocks getting turned into blue mist back when the Chitauri invaded, and it is not something he wants to see on a regular basis in the city that he and his family call home.
  Aaron Davis: I just need something to stick up somebody. I'm not trying to... shoot them back in time.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He is only a small-time crook trying to make a living for his family.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: His cameo in Spider-Verse has him retain his live-action look despite the fact that everyone around him is animated.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: He briefly derails Spidey's interrogation to talk about his favorite sandwich shop in Queens. Mainly though, it's further testing by Davis to see if Spidey's really on the up and up, and the two end up bonding a little more with this random discussion.
• Something Only They Would Say: He says "Hey" in the same tone of voice as E-1610B and E-42B Aaron.
• The Stool Pigeon: He ends up becoming this for Spider-Man, giving him information on where to find Adrian Toomes and Mac Gargan.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the events between Homecoming and Across the Spider-Verse, he goes from a low-level crook to a legitimate supervillain that needed the combined effort of at least two Spider-Society members to be taken down and captured.
• Two First Names: "Davis" can also be a first name.
• Villains Out Shopping: Peter finds him while he's loading groceries into his car. When Peter leaves him tied to the car by webbing, he even complains that he has ice cream melting in his trunk.
• You Got Guts: Admits that Spider-Man is "pretty ballsy" for having said to Herman Schultz, "If you're gonna shoot at somebody, shoot at me".

Mac Gargan's Gang

"Mac" Gargan

MacDonald "Mac" Gargan

"Take a picture. Slice his throat. Put his head in the dryer."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Michael Mando

Voiced By: Gerardo García (Latin-American Spanish Dub)

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

"Mac Gargan. Extensive criminal record, including homicide."

— Karen

A paranoid crook who has it in for Spider-Man.

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• Aborted Arc: The Stinger of Spider-Man: Homecoming set up Mac Gargan going for revenge by learning his secret identity. However, he's completly absent from the sequels, plus all memory of Peter getting erased at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Toomes getting transported to Sony's Spider-Man Universe means his plans for revenge have hit a major roadbump.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: In Homecoming, he initially lacks the scars that his Ultimate Marvel counterpart had. It doesn't last.
• Adaptational Badass: In the comics, Gargan has gone through different variations of threatening, from 'not-very' to 'enormously-so'. For the most part, however, he's characterized as being a none-too-bright Super Loser who rarely makes his own plans and winds up being The Brute to whoever he's working for. Here, he's an established criminal and remorseless killer who's feared by many and has a talent for survival. In short, he's treated a lot more seriously and is very scary despite not having his infamous suit yet.
• Adaptational Villainy: The classic version of the Mac Gargan character was originally a private detective that J. Jonah Jameson hired to investigate how Peter Parker got his Spider-Man photos before he was turned into a Tragic Villain by means of being placed in a suit he couldn't take off, completely ruining his ordinary life and leaving him a vengeful shell of a man. Here, he's a murderer and an established criminal long before he puts on a suit. Part of this treatment likely owes itself to having this version of the character take a few cues from Ultimate Marvel's Maximus Gargan, who was a straight criminal.
• Ax-Crazy: Has homicide on his record. His description of what he wants to do to Spider-Man is rather disquieting.
• Bald of Evil: Has a shaved head, and is without a doubt the most evil character in the film.
• Composite Character: He has the name of the original Scorpion, but is a Latino Tattooed Crook like the second Ultimate Scorpion (Maximus Gargan).
• Conveniently Cellmates: Not necessarily cellmates, but he finds himself in the same prison as Adrian Toomes at the end of the film and the two run into each other during The Stinger, with Gargan even Lampshading the coincidence.
  Gargan: Look who it is! What are the odds you and I'd end up in the same summer camp?
• Disney Death: Seems to be the only casualty of the Ferry incident, but we meet with him much later in a post-credits scene, scarred by his injuries.
• The Dreaded: Or more accurately, 'The Hated'. Nobody likes dealing with him, even other criminals. Aaron refers to him as 'crazy', and even Shocker somewhat nervously states that he hates him.
• Early-Bird Cameo: While he's present throughout Homecoming, he's not the Scorpion just yet, though The Stinger suggests that he will have a larger role at a later point in time.
• Eviler than Thou: His gruesome description of what he's planning to do to Spider-Man at the end of the film makes it clear that he is far, far worse than Adrian Toomes and his men will ever be, to the point that Toomes prefers to lie by claiming that he doesn't know Spider-Man's true identity to spare him such a fate.
• Eye Scream: When he resurfaces after the Ferry incident, it looks like he popped a blood vessel in his left eye.
• Face, Nod, Action: A minor example during the arms deal on the Staten Island Ferry. When Herman Schultz comes to tell him in which truck the weapons are stored, Gargan nods to one of his henchmen to signal him to go take a look.
• Facial Horror: In The Stinger, the left side of his face is badly disfigured due to the injuries he received during the fight on the Ferry.
• Faux Affably Evil: Presents himself as very polite to Adrian Toomes while making it abundantly clear that he wants to violently dismember Spider-Man.
• Foreshadowing: He mentions that he's got some friends on the outside that really want to be rid of Spider-Man, potentially teasing the possibility of the eventual formation of the Sinister Six.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He got some nasty scars on his face as a result of being hit in the face with a car and surviving during the Ferry incident.
• Hated by All: Even the other criminals loathe this guy, with Aaron Davis and Herman Schultz expressing their contempt for him at different points.
• It's Personal: Since the battle on the Ferry, Gargan intensely despises Spider-Man for causing him to receive some injuries and to be sent to prison, so now he's plotting to get his revenge by brutally killing him.
• Made of Iron: He has to be, considering he took a car in the face and somehow managed to survive with only a few wounds.
• Misplaced Retribution: Despite the fact that Adrian Toomes was the one who slammed a car into him, Gargan doesn't blame him and plans to get revenge on Spider-Man instead.
• Offstage Villainy: While Gargan doesn't do much on screen during the film, Karen informs Peter that he has a substantial criminal record, which includes murders.
• Put on a Prison Bus: It's revealed at the end that he got arrested and is now in the same prison as Adrian Toomes.
• Race Lift: Like his Ultimate Marvel counterpart, this version of Gargan is Latino rather than white.
• Rebel Relaxation: He is first introduced leaning this way against a pillar of the Ferry during the weapons deal with the Vulture's gang.
• Sadist: He smiles cruelly while describing the vicious way he intends to kill Spider-Man in The Stinger.
• Smug Smiler: Gargan is almost always seen with a cruel and arrogant smile on his face, whether it's during the weapons deal on the Ferry (at least before Spider-Man shows up) or when he talks with Toomes about what he plans to do to Spider-Man in The Stinger.
• Stalker without a Crush: As we find out in the mid-credits scene, he's been stalking Spider-Man for a while.
• Tattooed Crook: He's got a scorpion tattoo in the neck. It is fitting.
• Token Evil Teammate: He's a complete murderous psychopath, compared to the more level-headed members of the gang he runs with.
• Unexplained Recovery: So he got hit by a car into New York's Upper Bay and was presumed dead... then we see him alive, though horribly scarred and with some kind of metal harness attached to his right arm. Who pulled him out of the bay and who did the surgical work on him is left unexplained.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Spider-Man: Homecoming is easily the most lighthearted of the MCU films, with most of the villains (like Vulture and his gang or Aaron Davis) being Justified Criminals who are simply trying to get money but don't really want to harm anyone. Mac Gargan, on the other hand, is a sadistic psychopath played completely straight who is already guilty of murders and plans to kill a teenager in a particularly disturbing way.
• Would Hurt a Child: Not only does he point his gun at the 15-year-old Spider-Man on the Ferry, but he also mentions in The Stinger that he intends to have people murder him. However, he's not necessarily aware of the hero's young age.

Gargan's henchmen

Species: Humans

Citizenship: American

Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming

The henchmen of Mac Gargan.

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• Curb-Stomp Battle: They all get beaten with ease by Spider-Man during the battle on the Ferry, to the point that he even apologizes for being so hard on them.
• Mooks: They serve as another gang of evil henchmen for Spider-Man to beat up.
• Tap on the Head: One of Gargan's henchmen gets his head repeatedly slammed against the weapons truck by Adrian Toomes until he is knocked out, as Toomes was coming to get his Vulture wingsuit to fight Spider-Man.
• The Voiceless: None of them utter a single intelligible word during the ferry scene.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Averted. Spider-Man actually shows concern for them when they get hit with a motorcycle, and tries to make sure that they're not too badly hurt.
  Spider-Man: Are you guys okay? My bad, that was a little hard.
• Would Hurt a Child: They repeatedly attempt to shoot the 15-year-old Spider-Man, although they were not necessarily aware of his young age.

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