Sony Had A Better Marvel Character Than Vulture To Set Up Sinister Six

Michael Keaton’s Vulture was recently used to prop up Sony’s ongoing bid to bring the Sinister Six to the big screen, yet there’s another Marvel villain that would have made far more sense to pull this group together. The promotional material for Morbius made a big deal out of Michael Keaton’s Vulture appearing in the film but turned out to be a misdirect as what moviegoers ultimately got was an underwhelming post-credits scene that was more confusing than exciting. A large part of that confusion arose from the questions these post-credits raised, such as why Vulture was transported to the Sony-verse after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and what reason he had to try and arrange the team-up he was suggesting. Without much motivation for Vulture to do this or reason for anyone to follow him, it only made it more galling that Sony didn’t use another far better-suited candidate to assemble the Six.

Lonnie Thompson Lincoln, better known as Tombstone, is a Marvel villain and a recurring enemy of Spider-Man over the years – generally depicted as an abnormally tall man with chalk-white skin and a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. The character nearly always has some connection to organized crime. In some cases, he’s just a bodyguard for higher-profile characters, like the Kingpin. In others, such as the unjustly canceled Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, he’s a major crime boss, known as one of many characters to bear the title “The Big Man of Crime.”

As a result, Tombstone would have been a far better choice for Sony than Vulture to orchestrate the assembly of the Sinister Six. While the decision to use Vulture almost certainly came down to recognizability and taking advantage of the MCU hype machine, Tombstone would have made far more in-universe sense. He can offer more to the Sinister Six than Vulture would be able to as, narratively, his motivation makes more sense. Even in a more meta, tongue-in-cheek context, he’d bring something new to both the Spider-Man cinematic franchise and the Sony-verse.

Any iteration of Tombstone would have resources that Vulture simply doesn’t. The Big Man of Crime has an entire criminal empire. His criminal connections and influence give him access to scientists that could help various members of the Six create or maintain their equipment and abilities. It would even have helped explain Vulture’s wings being in the film – and potentially still could. The wings weren’t in the finest condition at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, leaving Vulture with a problem. He didn’t create or maintain his wings himself; the Tinkerer did, and without Tinkerer also being in the Sony-verse, the best way for him to fix up his wings would be by relying on a benefactor that took interest in his unique tech.

There’s also the fact that Tombstone wouldn’t need to be motivated by enacting revenge against Spider-Man or even have a connection to him. Vulture derives most of his motivation from MCU sources – Spider-Man and Iron Man, in particular. Now that Vulture is in a different universe, all of his connections were left behind, along with his criminal record and his motivations, leaving him with questionable reasons to try and form the Sinister Six. On the other hand, Tombstone doesn’t need a connection with this universe’s Spider-Man as he has a criminal empire to grow and maintain. After the events of Morbius and Venom, recruiting powerful enforcers with advanced technology and special abilities could simply be a result of Tombstone’s need to compete in an increasingly superhuman underworld.

Tombstone likewise would have introduced a premise that no cinematic incarnation of Spider-Man has ever had to contend with in any meaningful way – organized crime. Marvel comics’ Spider-Man has dealt with organized crime for decades, most famously battling against the Kingpin. However, with Kingpin covered by Daredevil and later Hawkeye in the MCU, as well as in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, which didn’t really delve into the organized crime aspect of Kingpin, it’d be unwise to tread that territory yet again. Tombstone, however, could have brought that aspect with him while being distinct enough from Wilson Fisk that it wouldn’t be a repetitive angle. Tombstone would have made far more sense as the tip of the spear for the Sinister Six in the SSU than the Vulture, and perhaps he could still become a reality in the Sony-verse down the line.