Sometimes it takes a long, long time for me to get around to writing an article. In this case, it took me seven years. Ok, maybe that is not a fair assessment. After all, this blog has only been in existence for seven months. But, it was seven years ago when I picked up Vol 3 in the Essential Spiderman series and read the classic two-part storyline from 1968 where the two Vultures – the original, Adrian Toomes, and the upstart, Blackie Drago - had their clash to determine who the real Vulture was.

I am not sure what the reason was, but apparently Stan Lee opted to "kill off" the original Vulture and replace him with Blackie Drago a couple years earlier. There really was no difference between the two other than Drago was younger and wore that goofy helmet. (Then again, Drago looked kind of cool on the old 1967 Spiderman animated TV series) The original Vulture was darn creepy looking with his aged visage and freaky bald head.

Therein lay the uniqueness of the character of the Vulture. On the surface, the Vulture is a dopey villain. He is a guy in a bird suit who can fly. Shouldn't Spiderman be able to knock this joker out with one punch? Yet, the Vulture jumped to the "A list" of Spiderman villains appearing repeatedly over the years. Why was this? The character was creepy. He had a demented evil streak that made him far more sinister than silly. Perhaps this is why Stan Lee opted to bring Toomes back and retire Drago after only a few appearances. 

To be fair to Drago, the story arc where he teamed with Kraven the Hunter to face Spiderman was quite well done. So, it is no surprise they brought him back. What was a surprise was the fact that he and the original Vulture had a duel to the finish. It is this classic story line that will be examined in the next installment…

To be continued.