Some of the Marvel Universe's most iconic villains -- along with some minor fan favorites -- have already made their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man: No Way Home is taking it even further, bringing multiple villains from past film iterations of Spider-Man to the big screen to fight the current MCU wall-crawler.
But this isn't the first time a classic Spider-Man enemy was slipped into the MCU. The Beetle -- a minor Marvel Universe villain who eventually went from a Masters of Evil recruit to a hero in his own right actually made his MCU debut years ago in a tie-in comic and could become a perfect MCU player.
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In the core Marvel Universe of Earth-616, Abner Jenkins was a minor villain who created a suit of armor and became the criminal known as Beetle. Debuting in Strange Tales #123 by Stan Lee and Carl Burgos, he served with the Masters of Evil and was a part of the original roster of Thunderbolts. Posing as the heroic MACH-1 after decades of being a minor villain, Jenkins and some of his teammates began to enjoy their newfound roles in the world and redeemed themselves. Since then, Jenkins has been a heroic figure, working alongside the hero community despite earning the frustrations of the other villains as a result. His most recent appearance in the build-up to Secret Empire seemed to feature his death. But he's had variants across other realities -- as well as a successor in Janice Lincoln, the current Beetle.
It turns out that one of these variants is his MCU incarnation, who has already come up against a major hero albeit not in live-action. Spider-Man Homecoming: Fight or Flight #1 by Marc Sumerak and Craig Rousseau is a light-hearted tie-in to the MCU incarnation of Spider-Man. The comics-exclusive story was an official tie-in with Toys R' Us, a popular chain of toy stores. The story largely focuses on Spider-Man finding Beetle mid-robbing a bank, quickly engaging in a chase with the villain, and working to bring him down. Despite his best attempts to escape the wall-crawler, Spider-Man quickly brought him down and got him arrested for theft. A minor character in the grand scheme of things, this seems to suggest that Beetle does in fact exist within the MCU.
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Beetle is actually a fairly perfect foe for Spider-Man to fight, especially in his MCU incarnation. Abner's reliance on his armor makes him a villainous counterpoint to someone like Tony Stark, who was reimagined as a close mentor to Spider-Man in the MCU. Coming up against someone using that technology for selfish reasons would be a perfect villain for Spider-Man to have to face off, especially considering his own reliance on the Spider-Suit developed by Stark for Spider-Man's role in Captain America: Civil War. His down-to-earth motivations also make him a more fitting foe than some of the more global threats posed to other heroes, making him ideal for the "friendly neighborhood" hero to run into.
This also means that Beetle and his armor already exist in the MCU. This could easily allow him to come onto the scene in live-action at some point, potentially even as a recruit to a villainous union of characters or into an incarnation of the Thunderbolts that utilized former villains as soldiers for the United States government. Beetle could also prove to be a worthwhile addition to something like the upcoming Armor Wars miniseries focusing on War Machine. The series could explore how Abner constructed his armor and make him one of the threats that Rhodey has to confront while cleaning up the mess left behind in the wake of Tony's demise. Beetle's brief introduction to the MCU could easily set him up for a brighter future in the universe.
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