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"And to show the world just how powerful I am, the first thing I am going to do is defeat the one person who Norman Osborn, the Jackal, and Otto Octavius couldn't...you, Spider-Man!"

-Adrian Toomes, Goblin War: Part Four

Adrian Toomes is a former scientist at Horizon High, and also a former scientist/teacher at Osborn Academy. He is also the supervillain The Vulture, the first villain of many that Spider-Man has faced and defeated many times. It is revealed that in "Goblin War: Part Two" that Toomes is the Goblin King.

Appearance

Physical appearance

Adrian Toomes is a middle-aged Caucasian man.

As Vulture

As Vulture Adrian wears a suit of armor with fiber carbon wings allowing him flight and a device on his neck that allows him to produce sound waves by screaming. He also has claws for his hands and feet.

In Rise Above It All, Barkley Blitz and the Wake RIders gifted Toomes with an upgraded Vulture suit. However, this Vulture suit was only used to combat Spider-Man once, briefly at that.

As The Goblin King

Goblin King has the same appearance as the Hobgoblin, except for his armor being entirely green and having a much larger build.

Personality

Adrian only cares about looking after himself. He may have formed brief partnerships in the past, but most were for personal gain and only to better himself. Adrian also hates it when those steal his ideas and creations, such as Max Modell claiming everything he's built under his employ is property of Horizon and when the Wake Riders were building winged suits based on his Vulture gear.

Toomes also appears to be good at strategics and planning, for he and his Goblin Nation have been waiting for months before picking the perfect opportunity to rise up and seize control of New York. Mentioning that it helped with Spider-Man taking out all of the local gangs.

History

Horizon High Part One

At some point Adrian worked for Horizon High and Max Modell. At some point before Horizon High Part One, Adrian hated that Max Modell claimed his inventions as Horizon property and built a Vulture suit to exact his revenge on Max. However, his henchmen were thwarted by Spider-Man when they were stealing a truck of stolen tech. During their first battle, Spider-Man lost and Vulture escaped. Later on he kidnapped Modell and battled Spider-Man once again, facing his first defeat by the wall-crawler.

Relationships

Max Modell

Adrian resents Max for keeping all of his inventions during his time at Horizon as the schools property.

Spider-Man

Adrian's grudge against Spider-Man comes from him interfering with his planned kidnapping of Max Modell. Twice Adrian has tried to convince Spider-Man he had gone straight (once when he allied with Klaue to still Vibranium from Horizon and the other when the Wake Riders were stealing tech in flight suits similar to his). Only once did Spider-Man trust him only for Toomes to turn back to villainy.

Norman Osborn

Despite Norman claiming that anything built under Oscorp is Oscorp property, similar to Max Modell and Horizon, Adrian never spoke out about it toward Norman for unknown reasons.

In Goblin War: Part One, Toomes confirms that he does hold resentment towards Norman. Having worked under his employ had tarnished Toomes name, and that the perfect revenge is using Norman's inventions as the Goblin King to achieve what Norman never could.

Otto Octavius

It's possible that Otto and Adrian were colleagues during their time at Horizon High and Osborn Academy. However, after being mind-controlled by the Doctor, Adrian wanted to make him pay for using him as a minion.

During Goblin War: Part Four, Toomes assumed that Octavius arrived to aid in defeating Spider-Man, only for Otto to use the neuro-cortex to disable Toomes' Goblin Mech and save Spider-Man from sacrificing himself. In the aftermath Toomes was surprised at Otto's death just as everyone else who witnessed it.

Ulysses Klaue

Black Panther

Abilities

Genius-level intellect

Equipment

Vulture suit

Goblin King suit

Gallery

Adrian Toomes/Gallery

Trivia

  • This is Vulture's sixth animated appearance.
    • This is also the second animated appearance of Goblin King, but the first time in which it isn't Norman Osborn.
  • Toomes is the second villain from Marvel's Spider-Man to be featured in Avengers: Black Panther's Quest!, following Kraven the Hunter.
  • In the comics, Vulture was the first costumed super-villain that Spider-Man faced, with the Chameleon being the first super-villain he faced in general.
  • In early promotional art and merchandise, Toomes' Vulture gear was based on the design seen in the 2017 film, Spider-Man: Homecoming.
    • The costume in both the promotional art and the show also featured some influences from the Blackie Drago version of the Vulture from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics.
  • During season one, Hasbro used Vulture's early promotional art design as a basis for his titan series figure but later changed to match the design featured in the show.
  • Vulture being the first villain Spider-Man faces is both a reference to The Spectacular Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
    • Further more, Vulture going after Max Modell is similar to how he was after Norman Osborn in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
  • This is the first time Adrian Toomes has taken up another identity besides that of The Vulture.
    • Many fans have speculated that Toomes becoming Goblin King was brought on by Kevin Burke and Chris Doc Wyatt, for season 1, which was supervised by Kevin Shinick, featured promotional artwork of Norman Osborn's Green Goblin/Goblin King and hints of Norman becoming Green Goblin throughout it's entire run.
    • His Goblin King suit is similar to the Green Goblin's suit from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man film trilogy. Mostly due to it being the single color of green.
    • His goal to seize New York through a gang of Goblins comes from the final story arc of Dan Slott's Superior Spider-Man.
    • Due to there only being a minor vocal effect on Alistair Duncan's voice, fans who have kept up with the show already knew Toomes was the Goblin King from preview clips.
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