Scorpion becoming an MCU Spider-Man villain after Morbius. Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) made his big-screen debut in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, which acts as his villain origin story. While Gargan does not become Scorpion in Homecoming, the movie sets him on the path to embody the villain after he is apprehended by Spider-Man in the middle of an arms deal with Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton).
When the two meet in prison, Gargan tries to persuade Toomes to reveal Spider-Man’s identity, but Spider-Man: No Way Home and Morbius completely run roughshod over whatever could have come of that by seemingly sabotaging where the storyline appeared to be heading.
Why Vulture's Morbius Post-Credits Scene Ruins Scorpion
In No Way Home’s ending, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) casts a spell to wipe Peter Parker (Tom Holland) from the world’s memory, in order to stave off villains from other universes crossing into their world. As an unintended side effect, Adrian Toomes finds himself transported to the Sony Marvel Universe at the end of Morbius. As Toomes meets with Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) to form a team of villains, the situation makes it extremely difficult for Mac Gargan to become Scorpion as initially teased.
Doctor Strange’s amnesia spell in No Way Home did not erase the world’s memory of Spider-Man, but there is no one in the world left to relay Spider-Man's identity to Gargan. It is not clear whether Toomes’s memory of Peter is also gone, but even if he still knows Peter’s secret, he can no longer reveal it to Gargan with the two literally separated by the multiverse. However, that does not necessarily mean Spider-Man and Mac Gargan will not have a future meeting.
Can The MCU's Scorpion Tease Still Be Paid Off?
While Mac’s initial arc to becoming Scorpion has been abandoned, he could still become Scorpion under different circumstances, perhaps being hired by the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) to don his Scorpion suit against Spider-Man. The end-credits scene of No Way Home also saw Tom Hardy’s Venom briefly arrive in the MCU after the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, with the symbiote leaving a small droplet of itself behind before Venom is sent back to his universe. With Gargan eventually becoming Venom in the comics, he might be clad in the black alien symbiote rather than his Scorpion garb in his and Spider-Man’s future encounter.
The interruption of Mac Gargan’s transition to Scorpion might not have been fully intentional by Sony or Marvel. The two studio’s brief split over their shared Spider-Man deal could have played a role in it, as well as behind the scenes reworking of Adrian Toomes's appearance in Morbius before its release. Still, unless Scorpion skips across universes like Vulture or some other big left turn is introduced for him, the tease of Mac Gargan's Scorpion future after Spider-Man: Homecoming will remain just that.
