The Vulture’s aerial abilities are directly responsible for a key part of Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s biography. In the Vulture’s first appearance, the Daily Bugle newspaper calls on anyone who can get a photo of New York’s newest supervillain. To earn some extra cash, Peter decides to leverage his web-slinging abilities to snap some pics of the Vulture mid-flight, leading to his long-standing arrangement as a Bugle freelance photographer.

While a number of creators have tackled the Vulture across all media over the years, nobody made him as compelling as Roger Stern, who wrote a number of Amazing and Spectacular Spider-Man issues in the early ’80s. Stern has long maintained that the Vulture is the perfect antagonist for Spider-Man: “It’s old age and sneakiness versus youth and determination.” As a result, Stern provided Toomes with an origin story more than 20 years after the character was first introduced, while also adding a more personal touch to the Spider-Man/Vulture feud by having the villain interact with Peter’s Aunt May and her geriatric boyfriend, Nathan Lubensky.

Beyond Toomes, a number of others have taken on the mantel of the Vulture at various points in Spider-Man history. Blackie Drago, a cellmate of Toomes’ in prison, enjoyed a short stint as the Vulture in the mid-'60s when he stole the original’s costume and harness. A third Vulture briefly appeared in a 1973 issue of Amazing when Empire State University professor Clifton Shallot went mad and experimented on himself, turning him into a supervillain. During the “Brand New Day” era of Amazing Spider-Manin the late 2000s, a totally different kind of Vulture was created by Mark Waid and Mike McKone: Jimmy Natale was a lowly Maggia crime family goon who underwent a horrible experiment and was transformed into a grotesque half-vulture creature that could barely speak and who vomited acid into people’s faces. Talk about heartburn.

Years before the villain would make his big-screen debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming, the Vulture was the rumored big bad in the unmade Spider-Man 4. John Malkovich, who was also in the mix to play Norman Osborn/Green Goblin for the first Spider-Man film a decade earlier, would eventually confirm that he had signed on to play the Vulture, expressing disappointment that it never came to fruition.

This excerpt from 100 Things Spider-Man Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Mark Ginocchio is printed with the permission of Triumph Books. For more information and to order a copy, please visit www.triumphbooks.com/100spiderman. In addition to penning this book, Ginocchio is a co-host of the recently relaunched podcast All-New Amazing Spider-Talk.