Mac Gargan

Mac Gargan
Mac Gargan as Scorpion. Art by Sal Buscema.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	As Mac Gargan: The Amazing Spider-Man #19 (December 1964) As Scorpion: Amazing Spider-Man #20 (January 1965) As Venom: Marvel Knights Spider-Man #10 (March 2005) As Spider-Man: Dark Avengers #1 (March 2009)
Created by	Stan Lee Steve Ditko
In-story information
Alter ego	MacDonald "Mac" Gargan
Team affiliations	Dark Avengers Thunderbolts Sinister Six Sinister Twelve Masters of Evil Alchemax
Notable aliases	Scorpion, Venom, Spider-Man, "Kilgore Trout"
Abilities	As Scorpion: Superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, durability and reflexes Precognitive Scorpion Sense Wears scorpion-like armor with a cybernetic tail that has projectile weapons Ability to cling to most surfaces As Venom and Spider-Man: Symbiote grants: All of Spider-Man's powers Limited shapeshifting Immunity to Spider-Sense

MacDonald "Mac" Gargan is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. During his career as a villain of Spider-Man's, the character originally appeared as the most well-known incarnation of Scorpion, bonded with the symbiote to become the third incarnation of Venom, and takes a serum to control the symbiote to pose as the third incarnation of Spider-Man.

The character was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Gargan first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #19 (December 1964) and first appeared as the "Scorpion" in Amazing Spider-Man #20 (January 1965). Years later, he became the third "Venom" in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #10 (2005) and the third "Spider-Man" in Dark Avengers #1 (2009).

He appeared as a regular character in the Dark Avengers series from issue #1 (March 2009) through issue #16 (June 2010). Mac Gargan appeared in the character's first own 4-issue limited series, Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man. The comic was released in June 2009 and was written by Brian Reed, with art by Chris Bachalo.

Writer Dan Slott revealed that Mac Gargan would return as the original Scorpion, in an upcoming arc of The Amazing Spider-Man.

Mac Gargan was a private investigator initially hired by J. Jonah Jameson to find out how Peter Parker is able to obtain incredible pictures of Spider-Man. Gargan's efforts set off Peter's spider-sense and the teen was able to easily evade the detective. Jameson then decided to hire Gargan as the subject of a barely tested process that would endow him with the useful characteristics of a particular animal with the help of Dr. Farley Stillwell. Dr. Stillwell also outfitted him with a club-like mechanical tail. In this case, a scorpion was the base for the purposes of creating a powerful agent capable of defeating Spider-Man. The Scorpion proved to be more than a match for the wall-crawler, defeating him twice, but the mutagenic treatment seriously affected Gargan's mind, driving him insane. He promptly turned on his benefactor but Spider-Man intervened, and managed to finally defeat the Scorpion in their third battle. Jameson was struck with the irony that he was saved by the man he tried to destroy from the thing he created to destroy him. Since then, the Scorpion became a professional criminal and would return to indulge in his deadly vendetta against Spider-Man and Jameson, only to be defeated again.