Marvel's SCORPION Just Got The Coolest New Upgrade | Screen Rant
This article contains spoilers for Ravencroft #5.
The Spider-Man villain called Scorpion has just been given the coolest upgrade. Mac Gargan is a classic Spider-Man villain, transformed into the Scorpion by J Jonah Jameson himself in order to hunt down the wall-crawler. He since became a career criminal, and one of Marvel's most prominent bad guys.
The Scorpion has gone through several upgrades over the years, with his suit significantly enhanced. Each time he's gone swinging for Spider-Man he's been more powerful than before, and at one point he even became host for the Venom symbiote. But now Scorpion has had the biggest upgrade to date, one that could well transform him into Spider-Man's deadliest foe to date.
This week's Ravencroft #5 sees Norman Osborn and the Kingpin battle to reclaim the Ravencroft Institute from a horde of monsters. Scorpion had been recruited as staff at Ravencroft by Osborn, and it seems he's developed a sophisticated new suit for Scorpion. It's only shown in the background of a few panels in the comic, but it really is the most formidable upgrade Mac Gargan has ever had.
It seems Scorpion no longer has a mere combat suit; rather, he has a combat unit of his own. This is adapted from the technology of Spencer Smythe, who created a sophisticated hover-chair for his crippled son. Alistair Smythe gradually upgraded the hover-chair to incorporate defensive systems and even lasers, but now it's been turned into a fully-fledged war machine. Scorpion's version is decidedly on-brand, although amusingly it's equipped with only six legs rather than eight. It has a massive, flexible tail that can shoot powerful energy blasts, and there are four more laser weapons installed into it as well. Presumably this was designed by Osborn, a genius who - while no rival to Tony Stark - is nonetheless one of Marvel's smartest villains.
Frank Tieri and Angel Unzueta's Ravencroft series has been a phenomenal miniseries, one of the most creative and inventive comics in years. This is a perfect example; Scorpion has had such a cool upgrade, and yet it's a background part of the issue, and the full potential of the Scorpion tactical unit is never realized. Hopefully it won't be long before readers get to see just what the new Scorpion can do; solicits have suggested Spider-Man himself will soon be consigned to Ravencroft Institute for as yet unknown reasons. It would be great to see this upgraded Scorpion go head-to-head with Spider-Man - forcing Peter Parker to depend upon his brains rather than his brawn.