Spider-Man 3 Must Not Copy Avengers: Age Of Ultron’s Worst Mistake

Marvel shouldn’t commit their villain mistake in Avengers: Age of Ultron in Spider-Man 3. Tom Holland is set to reprise the web-slinging hero for the sixth time in the MCU in his upcoming third solo film. Plot details are still scarce at the moment, but fans have their own theories on who the project’s big bad will be. Probably the most compelling choice among Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery is Kraven the Hunter considering where Spider-Man: Far From Home left the character, but while a new adversary is expected to be debuted, it’s worth noting that there are already other adversaries previously introduced in the franchise that are just waiting for their time under the spotlight.

One of them is Mac Gargan/Scorpion (Michael Mando) who made his MCU debut in Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. Gargan wasn’t the film’s primary villain but Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton), but his interest in buying some alien technology and other Avengers battle scene scraps from the black market hinted that he’s up to no good. Peter hijacking the transaction landed Gargan in jail in the film’s post-credits scene where he confronted the Vulture regarding the real identity of Spider-Man insinuating that he has intentions to seek revenge against the young hero.

Gargan has not factored in any MCU film since then, sitting out Spider-Man: Far From Home, which makes sense since it’s largely set in Europe as Peter battled the Elementals and then Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). As the web-slinging hero’s story comes back to the United States in the still-untitled Spider-Man 3 film, there’s an opportunity to bring him back at the forefront of the story. However, if Marvel Studios decides to do this, they shouldn’t make a repeat of their big Age of Ultron blunder regarding Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschman).

Introduced in Captain America: The Winter Soldier mid-credits scene, von Strucker had been operating off-screen as a HYDRA operative. It was his cell that stole the Scepter/Mind Stone on the heels of the Battle of New York in The Avengers and experimented on it with the intention of creating super-powered humans that would serve HYDRA — this included Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who eventually became Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. On the heels of HYDRA’s fall, he became one of the few surviving members of the group and it looked like he was being set-up as a major post-Winter Soldier player.

Given his extensive involvement in the secret operation, not to mention the creation of the powerful Maximoff twins, one would assume that there would be more to his story moving forward. After all, he was able to operate undetected for a significant amount of time, evading the Avengers. But then, unfortunately, any potential that von Strucker had to be a worthy villain in MCU disappeared when he was quickly killed at the beginning of Age of Ultron. It’s uncertain why Marvel Studios had to build up such an elaborate back story for von Strucker when he was apparently not going to be a major part of the franchise moving forward and it was a shame to see a comic book character disrespected in adaptation. Regardless of their reasoning, it’s a wasted opportunity and something that shouldn’t be repeated in Spider-Man 3.

If anything, Marvel Studios has more options to move Scorpion’s story compared to von Strucker considering that the latter was introduced on the heels of HYDRA’s fall leading to a dead-end in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Gargan, on the other hand, can factor in what could be a witch hunt for Spider-Man now that his real identity as Peter Parker has already been revealed to the public. The question now is whether or not they can find a way to incorporate him into Spider-Man 3 narrative if they’re already planning on introducing other more prominent villains in the movie. Needless to say, copying Age Of Ultron and dispensing with a loose end in the opening act would be a disservice to the character and the actor behind him.

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