The anti-mutant group Orchis has swiftly grown into a major power in the world of Marvel Comics. Favoring ideological purity over experience, the group recruits only those who share their vision of a world without Mutants. This made their employment of the Spider-Man villain Vulture a curious anomaly. It also raises the question of just what the Orchis had to offer the aging engineer, who was no bigot, for all his sins.
The answer came in Uncanny Spider-Man #5 by Si Spurrier, Lee Garbett, and Simone Buonfantino. A team led by Nightcrawler infiltrated the Orchis lab managed by Adrian “Vulture” Toomes and freed the techno-organic being called Warlock. This pushed the villain to make use of the upgrade that was Vulture’s price for working with Orchis.
Vulture got techno-organic wings
In exchange for his support of Orchis, Vulture requested a blank strand of the techno-organic virus that Warlock’s species uses to convert organic creatures. This enabled him to rewrite his own genetics without fear of becoming a member of the Technarchy. Naturally, Toomes used the virus to give himself wings and an armored form.
Unfortunately, Vulture’s new powers didn’t help him any more than his old wings did against Spider-Man. Nightcrawler was easily able to bring down the bird-man and clipped his wings with his sword. This allowed Warlock to remove the techno-organic virus from Toomes before the heroes made their escape.
This may not be the most humiliating defeat of a supervillain in Marvel history, but it was easily one of the most short-lived power upgrades in the company’s history. It seems that Vulture would have been better off sticking with the Sinister Six and fighting Spider-Man rather than taking on the X-Men.
Uncanny Spider-Man #5 is now available in comic shops everywhere.
