9 Years Later, Spider-Man: Brand New Day Wastes Scorpion’s Official MCU Debut
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.Nine years after Mac Gargan's MCU debut and the tease that he could one day become a fully-fledged iteration of the Scorpion, the franchise has wasted his official return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, albeit for understandable reasons given the bigger picture of the franchise's layout right now. The size of the MCU timeline has been a blessing and a curse at different points for the superhero world, since there's infinite possibility and story potential to delve into, but still a need to keep things on some kind of overarching track for the sake of cohesiveness and connectivity.
Perhaps one of the most major ways we've seen this effect the franchise is in terms of how it handles many famous Marvel figures, as the MCU only has so much time to handle its collective cast, and some characters naturally can't get as much screen time as a result. This has been shown throughout the years via means such as most MCU villains only appearing in one lone movie before ending their time in the franchise, usually having been written off entirely by their deaths.
That said, one of the most interesting instances of the MCU sidelining a character has been recently rectified in part thanks to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which brought the Scorpion back into the spotlight and finally gave him his mech suit after a long and fraught wait for fans - though this return also comes with its own share of complexities.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Scorpion Debut Was Exciting, But Overshadowed Completely
The return of Michael Mando's Mac Gargan - this time in full Scorpion garb, after not being able to officially become the Marvel comic villain previously - was a subject of some considerable excitement for Spider-Man: Brand New Day when news of the matter was revealed in the buildup to the film's release. However, this also came with some level of skepticism, since the focus of the movie from its early stages onward looked clearly to be pointed in other directions.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day does give Scorpion a chunk more screentime than Tombstone - who only appears in the movie's opening montage - but even this still sidelines the antagonist. Scorpion's early capture is sabotaged by Sadie Sink's Jean Grey, who then later uses her mind control powers to pilot him in order to fight Spider-Man later on in the film.
This is an effective way to set Jean up as a threat and tie her story to Spider-Man's initial New York crimefighting priorities, but means we see decidedly little of the villain acting on his own or doing much in the way of having his own storyline. While this is on some levels understandable, it is also a shame, given the excitement that had emerged around the character finally being used again after being previously put on the backburner following the ending of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Scorpion's MCU Return Leaves Another Appearance Open, But It Might Be Too Late For A Bigger Role
Of course, it is worth noting that Scorpion's presumable return to incarceration after his final capture in Spider-Man: Brand New Day does leave the door open for the villain to appear again in the MCU once more, as he's already one of very few Spider-Man villains to appear in more than one movie.
That said, even if Scorpion does return, it's hard to see how the character could fit into a more central role in any future MCU Spider-Man stories.
Homecoming and Spider-Man Brand New Day were the MCU's two best opportunities to feature street-level Spider-Man stories, and largely sidelined Scorpion for various reasons. Similarly, any prospective plans for the Sinister Six have been undermined by the Sony Spider-Man Universe and then Spider-Man: No Way Home also featuring a good number of these antagonists, albeit alternate universe versions, meaning Scorpion may have to remain an engaging support antagonist from now onward, though hopefully we haven't seen the last of him.