Spoiler alert: This article discusses comic-book developments from Spider-Man’s Brand New Day era, including New Ways to Die, Origin of the Species, Shadowland: Spider-Man, and Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot.

Spider-Man has one of the best rogues’ galleries in comics, and the villains tied to Brand New Day make for an unusually varied lineup. That’s become even more true lately, now that several of these characters have jumped from the page to the screen in Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

This guide skips past treating every entry as a core Brand New Day comic villain and instead looks at what each one actually brings to Spider-Man’s world: their comic history, where they fit into that particular era, and how they’ve been adapted for the new film.

Scorpion

Long before he had a mechanical tail, Mac Gargan had a much less glamorous job: private investigator. J. Jonah Jameson hired him to figure out how Peter Parker kept getting such close-up photos of Spider-Man, and when snooping wasn’t enough, Jameson’s obsession took a darker turn. He funded an experiment by Dr. Farley Stillwell that gave Gargan enhanced strength, agility, and the armoured suit built around his signature stinger.

That’s the origin most fans know. During Brand New Day, though, Gargan’s story gets stranger, because Scorpion isn’t the only identity he holds. He’s also worn the Venom symbiote. In New Ways to Die, Gargan serves on Norman Osborn’s Thunderbolts when the team hunts Spider-Man through New York, and his fight with Eddie Brock helps trigger Brock’s transformation into Anti-Venom. Once Anti-Venom wrecks Gargan’s symbiote, Osborn pushes him back toward the armoured Scorpion look instead.

It’s this dual history — part science experiment, part symbiote host — that makes Gargan one of Spider-Man’s more layered villains on paper. It’s also why he’s the most anticipated name in the new film. Michael Mando reprises Mac Gargan in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, finally paying off a tease from Spider-Man: Homecoming nearly a decade earlier, with the film showing him fully suited up in Scorpion’s armour on screen for the first time.

Tombstone

Not every Spider-Man villain needs a gimmick. Lonnie Lincoln, better known as Tombstone, gets by on fear, muscle, and organized crime instead — no gadgets, no lab accident origin story, just a brutal street-level enforcer who feels more grounded than most of Spidey’s rogues.

There’s a personal history here, too. Long before Robbie Robertson became one of the Daily Bugle’s most respected voices, he knew Lonnie Lincoln. Tombstone built his reputation through fear and intimidation, eventually becoming one of the most feared criminals in New York, and after exposure to the experimental gas Diox-3, he gained superhuman strength and near-total durability on top of it.

He’s not the character most fans think of first when Brand New Day comes up, but he does appear near the tail end of that era in Origin of the Species, in which Doctor Octopus assembles a small army of Spider-Man villains to track down the newborn child of Harry Osborn and Lily Hollister. Tombstone also makes his live-action debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, played by Marvin Jones III. It’s a good match for a film that’s leaning into a more street-level, crime-focused version of Peter Parker’s world.

The Hand

Unlike the rest of this list, the Hand isn’t a person at all. It’s a clan of mystical ninja assassins, usually associated more with Daredevil, Elektra, and Wolverine than with Spider-Man, known for secrecy, martial arts, and a habit of resurrecting its own dead. When the Hand shows up, a story tends to shift away from colourful super-villain chaos and into something considerably darker.

Spider-Man’s Brand New Day–era run-in with the Hand comes through the one-shot Shadowland: Spider-Man #1, where Mister Negative’s Inner Demons clash with the Hand across Hell’s Kitchen, dragging in both Spider-Man and Shang-Chi. It’s a story that puts Peter Parker slightly out of his depth — he can talk his way through crime bosses and joke through most fights, but an organized, silent ninja clan is a different kind of problem.

The Hand’s connection to Spider-Man: Brand New Day keeps that pattern going, pulling Peter into a darker corner of the Marvel Universe that sits outside his usual rogues’ gallery.

Boomerang

Fred Myers had a pitching arm before he had a gimmick. A promising baseball career fell apart once he got caught taking bribes, and from there, his throwing arm became the foundation of an entirely new criminal identity — boomerangs instead of baseballs, plus boot jets and a costume built entirely around the bit.

His main tie to the wider Brand New Day period runs through Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot, where he’s hired to hunt down Sarah Ehret, the new Jackpot, as part of a scheme run by the Rose. Spider-Man shows up in the story, but Jackpot is really the lead, which puts Boomerang slightly outside the core Peter Parker books of that era.

Tarantula

Tarantula’s Spider-Man history goes back decades further than Brand New Day itself. The original Tarantula, Anton Miguel Rodriguez, hailed from the fictional South American nation of Delvadia, starting out as a revolutionary before becoming a government-backed enforcer and assassin armed with poisoned spikes hidden in his gloves and boots.

He made his first major mark on Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man #134, attacking Spidey aboard a ship in a story that leaned into everything that made classic Spider-Man villains work: a bold costume, an animal-inspired name, a dangerous gimmick, and just enough theatrical flair to stick in readers’ memories.

One clarification worth making: Tarantula and Black Tarantula aren’t the same character. The original is Anton Rodriguez; Black Tarantula is Carlos LaMuerto, an entirely separate figure. It’s an easy mix-up given how many spider-themed villains Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery has accumulated over the decades.

Somewhat surprisingly, Tarantula also turns up in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in a scene reportedly recreating the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #134. Longtime readers should spot that one instantly.

Ramrod

Ramrod’s origin has nothing to do with radiation or ancient artifacts. He started out running a construction crew — earlier appearances place him on an offshore oil rig — before a bad accident on the job left him gravely injured. The villains Kerwin Broderick and Moondragon secretly rebuilt him as a cyborg, reinforcing his bones with steel and giving him superhuman strength, speed, and durability, then blackmailed him into working for them by planting a hidden poison in his own body. He’s less a costumed trickster than a piece of walking heavy machinery, coerced into villainy as much as he chose it.

His best-known Spider-Man clash predates Brand New Day by decades: The Amazing Spider-Man #221, where he attacks Peter Parker’s university and gets tangled up in a plot involving chemically altered beer designed to send an entire bar into a violent frenzy.

Spider-Man Collectibles and Comics for Sale on VeVe

For fans who want to dig further into that history, VeVe offers officially licensed Marvel digital comics and Spider-Man digital collectibles, including limited-edition releases, comics you can read directly in the app, and collectibles you can display in augmented reality or trade in VeVe’s marketplace.

If you just walked out of Spider-Man: Brand New Day wanting to know more about Tombstone or Ramrod, or you’re a longtime reader curious how these characters fit together, VeVe is a good place to keep exploring Peter Parker’s world.