VULTURE
Earth-90214
Real Name: Adrian Toomes
Identity/Class: Alternate reality
(Earth-90214) human (World
War I era to World
War II era)
Occupation: Enforcer;
former circus freak
Group Membership: The Goblin's mob (Chameleon/Dmitri Smerdyakov, Goblin/Norman Osborn, Fancy Dan, Kraven/Sergei Kravinoff, Montana, Ox)
Affiliations: Emilio Alcuno, Adolfus Crane, the Goblin's mob, Felicia Hardy, Chief Detective Rian, Mayor Jimmy Stryder, Ben Urich
Enemies: Checkpoint Red, Hu-Ri, Ben
Parker, May Parker, Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Osborn Enterprises,
Manhattan, New York, USA;
formerly Coney Island, New York City, New York, USA
First Appearance: Spider-Man Noir I#1 (February, 2009)
Powers/Abilities: Vulture
had no superhuman powers but he had very sharp teeth and nails.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6'4")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 195 lbs.)
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: Bald (formerly brown)
History:
(Spider-Man Noir I#3 (fb) - BTS) - The true origin of Adrian Toomes was
unrevealed.
(Spider-Man Noir I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Adrian Toomes became
a circus geek who lived in a cage and bit the heads off chickens. While
part of the circus, he used the alias of the Vulture.
(Spider-Man Noir I#3 (fb) - BTS) - The Vulture was part of a Coney Island freakshow circa 1928 when a photo of him biting the head off of a chicken was taken.
(Spider-Man Noir I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Over a period of years with the freakshow, Toomes' humanity began to slip and he soon left the circus to join the mob led by Norman Osborn, better known as the Goblin. Shortly after, the Vulture developed a taste for human meat.
(Spider-Man Noir I#1 (fb) / Amazing Spider-Man V#6
(fb)) - The Vulture and other members of the Goblin mob were known to
hangout at the Black Cat Club speakeasy.
(Spider-Man Noir I#3 (fb) -
BTS) - Daily
Bugle photographer Ben Urich retained the 1928 photo of the Vulture
from the Coney Island freakshow in his files for future use against the
Goblin.
(Spider-Man Noir I#1 (fb)) - After being ordered to lethally silence agitator Ben Parker, the Goblin's Enforcers tied him up and beat him to a pulp before unleashing the Vulture on him. Vulture cannibalistically ate Ben Parker alive, leaving his corpse to be found by Ben's nephew, Peter Parker. Vulture later accompanied Norman Osborn and members of the Goblin's mob to the Black Cat club, where Vulture looked around suspiciously, unaware that Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich was informing youngster Peter Parker about the Goblin and his mobsters' origins. As Vulture looked around, Urich warned Peter against ever crossing the Vulture. When Osborn noticed Ben Urich and Peter Parker, nephew of the now-deceased Ben Parker, he walked over to the table to uncaringly express commiserations to Parker but Parker threw a drink at Osborn, prompting the Vulture to bare his teeth. Osborn ordered the Vulture to stand down, suggesting Vulture not attack Parker in the club.
(Spider-Man Noir I#2) - Vulture
was present by the
Goblin's side in his office when Ben Urich arrived at Osborn
Enterprises to meet with the Goblin. When Urich threatened that he had
enough on Osborn to bury his entire freakshow, the Vulture hissed at
Urich before Osborn agreed to buy Urich's photo of his former Enforcer
Fancy Dan at the scene of a recent tenement fire. Moments later, the
newly-empowered, masked Peter Parker burst into Osborn's office through
a window, taking down Kraven and the Vulture before leaping onto
Osborn's desk to confront the Goblin personally.
(Spider-Man Noir I#3) - Vulture was by the
Goblin's side as the shapeshifting Chameleon (posing as Daily Bugle
editor J. Jonah Jameson) was roughed up for not bringing enough of Ben
Urich's evidence against Norman Osborn. He was later present by
Osborn's side when the Goblin read a Daily Bugle article about the
heroic Spider-Man that had been attacking the Goblin's operations.
While trying to determine how J. Jonah Jameson would sell out his
principles to the Goblin, Spider-Man reviewed Ben Urich's files on
Osborn, viewing the files Urich had created on the Vulture, Kraven and
the Chameleon, whom he realized had been posing as Jameson. Spider-Man
soon confirmed his realization by visiting the morgue where "J. Jonah
Jameson" had been taken and rearranging "Jameson's" facial features,
and
while he was away from home, the Goblin sent the Vulture to capture
Peter Parker. Infiltrating the Parker home, the Vulture instead found
Peter's Aunt May.
(Spider-Man Noir I#4) - The Vulture attacked May
Parker, calling her a bag of bones and remarking on how her husband Ben
was delicious as he pounced onto the elderly woman. Spider-Man arrived
moments later and ordered the Vulture to let May go. The Vulture
taunted that Spider-Man might be fast but not fast enough to stop him
from snapping May's neck but Spider-Man pulled out a gun and, in a
rage, shot the Vulture three times, killing him.
Despite the threat to her life, May Parker then berated Spider-Man for
shooting an unarmed man and Spider-Man struggled with his thoughts on
how the Goblin had sent the Vulture there and how May didn't seem to
understand that the Vulture had killed her husband Ben. Apologizing to
May, Spider-Man departed the scene, leaving the lifeless Vulture on the
floor of the bedroom. Unaware of the Vulture's death, the
Goblin taunted the captured Felicia Hardy by threatening to throw her
in with a large group of spiders once the Vulture returned with Peter
Parker. As if on cue, Spider-Man appeared on the scene and announced
that the Vulture sent his apologies for being unavoidably detained.
(Spider-Man
Unlimited video game - BTS) - When Earth-90214's Spider-Man
encountered the time traveling Earth-41940 Vulture, he recalled his own
past with the Vulture of Earth-90214.
(Amazing Spider-Man V#6 - BTS) - When he was taken to one of the Bar with No Name criminal hangouts, Earth-616's modern era Peter Parker recalled hearing that the Bar had gotten its start during the Great Depression and he imagined Earth-90214's Vulture and other criminals hanging at the Black Cat Club speakeasy during the 1930s (see comments).
(Spider-Man Noir II#4) - While
on a Babylonian trek with Spider-Man and others to find the powerful
M'Kraan Crystal, the power-mad Nazi collaborator Dr. Huma Bergmann used
the power of the Crystal to summon and reanimate several deceased
Spider-Man foes including the Vulture from the underworld.
(Spider-Man Noir II#5) - Unleashed on Spider-Man and
his allies, the zombie-like Vulture argued with the other reanimated
Spider-Man foes over who had the rights to kill their heroic nemesis.
The group of reanimated villains then took turns battling Spider-Man,
with the Vulture getting in a devastating headbutt to Spider-Man's
face. Spider-Man eventually shattered the M'Kraan Crystal, destroying
Dr. Bergmann and seemingly returning Vulture and the other deceased
villains to the underworld.
Comments: Created by David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky and Carmine Di Giandomenico.
Vulture's height and weight approximated based on those of the Earth-42949 noir Vulture from the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions video game.
Despite the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions video game's attempts to set its noir story on Earth-90214 such as referencing events seen in the first Spider-Man Noir mini-series, listing the video game characters' first appearances as being from that first mini-series and even explaining how characters like Vulture and the Goblin survived their supposed deaths in the first Spider-Man Noir mini-series, Spider-Man II#4 confirms that the Vulture and Goblin were indeed killed during their encounters with Spider-Man in the first Spider-Man Noir mini-series, effectively confirming the noir reality seen in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions to be a divergent reality (Earth-42949) in which the villains survived.
Earth-616's Peter Parker glimpsed via his own imagination a flashback from Earth-90214 in Amazing Spider-Man V#6 when he imagined the Earth-616 Bars with No Name originating during the Great Depression, as he visualized the Earth-90214 Black Cat Club with Vulture and other members of the Goblin mob. He likely was told of the Club by Earth-90214's Spider-Man, whom he had previously met during the Multiversal Spider-Verse event...Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-90214's Vulture should be distinguished
from:
Appearances:
Spider-Man Noir I#1 (February, 2009) - David
Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky (writers), Carmine Di Giandomenico (art),
Alejandro Arbona (editor)
Spider-Man Noir I#2 (March, 2009) - David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky
(writers), Carmine Di Giandomenico (art), Alejandro Arbona (editor)
Spider-Man Noir I#3 (April, 2009) - David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky
(writers), Carmine Di Giandomenico (art), Alejandro Arbona (editor)
Spider-Man Noir I#4 (May, 2009) - David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky
(writers), Carmine Di Giandomenico (art), Alejandro Arbona (editor)
Spider-Man Unlimited video
game (September 10, 2014) - Fred Van Lente (story & script
consultant), Ben Berntsen (lead art), Arnie Gehr (dialogue editor)
Amazing
Spider-Man V#6 (November, 2018) - Nick Spencer (writer), Humberto Ramos
(pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Spider-Man Noir II#4 (November, 2020) - Margaret Stohl (writer), Juan
Ferreyra (art), Devin Lewis (editor)
Spider-Man Noir II#5 (December, 2020) - Margaret Stohl (writer), Juan
Ferreyra (art), Devin Lewis (editor)
First posted: 10/21/2025
Last updated: 10/21/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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