Adrian Toomes' Crew

*"Look, times are changing and we're the only ones selling these hi-tech weapons."*
―Herman Schultz to Aaron Davis[src]
**Adrian Toomes' Crew** was an illegal weapons vendor that was once a cleanup crew known as **Bestman Salvage** and held a contract to salvage any incidents occurring in New York City. Following the Battle of New York, the crew were replaced by the Department of Damage Control, causing Toomes, still in possession of Chitauri technology from their initial clean-up, to commission a specialized exo-suit to be created for him. Over the next few years, Toomes used the suit to steal artifacts collected by Damage Control from Avengers battles, which he had the Tinkerer modify. The crew then sold weapons made from Chitauri, Dark Elf, S.H.I.E.L.D., Ultron, and HYDRA technology to buyers on the black market.

## History

### Battle of New York

In the wake of the Battle of New York, Bestman Salvage, who held the contract to clean up any incidents in New York City, began salvaging the Leviathans crash at Grand Central Station. Having shown Phineas Mason a picture that his daughter had drawn, Toomes oversaw his men, telling Herman Schultz to use the Chitauri technology to take apart one of the crashed Chitauri Chariots before he then confronted Jackson Brice for arriving late on the job.

He was then approached by Anne Marie Hoag and a group of agents, telling him that he was to withdraw his men from the area as the Department of Damage Control had secured a contract to clean up after the Chitauri Invasion. As Toomes explained that he held the contract to clean up incidents in the city, he concluded that they were allowed to be there.

Toomes started begging her to let him have the contract, as him and other workers have family to support. When Foster, one of Hoag's men mockingly told him to not overextend in his work, Toomes punched him in the face, causing the guards around Hoag to draw their guns and order Toomes and his men to leave the area. Hoag told Toomes that he could talk to Tony Stark about the contracts if he wished to continue fighting for the job.

### Turning to Crime

*"The world's changing. It's time we change too."*
―Vulture[src]Adrian Toomes watched the NY1 report on how Tony Stark had now created Damage Control in the wake of the Battle of New York to clean up the mess left behind. Toomes furiously disappointed, Herman Schultz commented on the report on how the system was now rigged against them all, with Schultz noting the Avengers were now being paid to clean up their own mess, they were left unemployed.

As they watched the report, Randy Vale discovered that the group still had a large amount of Chitauri technology left over which had not been handed back over to Anne Marie Hoag and her own team to be stored away. With Jackson Brice refusing to haul it, Toomes then decided to keep it, convincing the group to turn to a life of crime by keeping the weapons, modifying them, and selling them in order to make a living.

Toomes worked alongside Schultz, Brice and Mason to create and sell advanced, hybrid technology, using his own exo-suit created by Mason to hijack Damage Control trucks to gain more items. Following the Battle of Greenwich, the Battle at the Triskelion and the Battle of Sokovia, the crew expanded from using solely Chitauri equipment to acquiring Dark Elf, S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA and Ultron technology as well. Over the next few years, Vulture continued to pilfer below the radar, flying into his base one night and proudly announcing to Mason that their business was good.

### Spider-Man's Interference

#### Arms Dealing

A few months later, Adrian Toomes' arms dealing business was still going strong. However, he received a call from Herman Schultz that Spider-Man had come across their arms deal with Aaron Davis and was pursuing him. Toomes quickly donned the Vulture Suit and flew off to Schultz's location. Open arriving at his crew's speeding van, he spotted Spider-Man about to catch the group. Swooping down, he seized Spider-Man in his talons, flying hundreds of feet into the air above New York City, only for the Spider-Man Suit to deploy a parachute, ripping the young hero out of Toomes' grip. Seeing that his men had made a successful getaway, Toomes flew back to his location.

Toomes successfully landed back in his base, removed his Vulture Suit and waited for his men to return. Jackson Brice and Herman Schultz managed to get back to the base, Brice thrilled with the chase. Toomes confronted Brice, asking him how many times he had told Brice not to fire the weapons in public, with Brice defending his actions saying that he had to move the weapons. Toomes became fed up with Brice's recklessness and attitude, telling Brice that he was fired. Brice threatened Toomes, saying that he will inform the authorities about their operation. Brice then asked Toomes what would happen if he told Doris Toomes about his business. Toomes, who promptly picked up a weapon and shot Brice with it, instantly disintegrating him. Confused and shocked about his actions, he asked Tinkerer if he had picked up an Anti-Gravity Gun, only to have picked up a Chitauri Gun instead. Toomes walked over to Brice's ashes and picked up the Shocker's Gauntlet and passed it to Schultz.

#### Hijacking Damage Control Truck

Several days later, the crew received a tip that a truck full of confiscated technology was heading to the Damage Control headquarters by the way of Maryland. With the Shocker and Tinkerer in a van nearby, Vulture stealthily intercepted the truck. Anchoring his Wings to the truck, Vulture used a Matter Phase Shifter to enter the truck's trailer. Taking in the sight, Vulture started filling a duffel bag with the technology. To his surprise, however, Spider-Man showed up, causing Vulture to quickly exit the truck, seeing that Spider-Man was about to jump through the wormhole he created, Vulture shut of the Matter Phase Disrupter, sealing Spider-Man in the truck. Vulture quickly made his escape, angrily leaving his stolen technology behind.

#### Ambush at the Staten Island Ferry

The next day, Adrian Toomes and Herman Schultz made their way on the Staten Island Ferry. Schultz left Toomes to deal with their new buyer Mac Gargan. When Schultz radioed Toomes to inform him that Spider-Man had interrupted the deal, Toomes quickly ran down to his van where his suit was being kept. When the FBI showed up to arrest Gargan and Schultz, Toomes donned his Suit and grabbed a Chitauri Gun. Bursting through the van's doors, Vulture fired upon the agents and Spider-Man. Toomes escaped with Schultz from his webbing restraints, Vulture told him to get off the ferry as they were retreating. Spider-Man fired his Web-Shooters at him, activating a Taser web when one of the strands managed to hit him. Vulture dropped the gun, which was reacting violently with the electricity, causing it to fire multiple lasers that cut the ferry in half.

#### Hijacking of the Stark Cargo Plane

Adrian Toomes' suspicions about Peter Parker's true identity were confirmed, although he kept his observations quiet and inconspicuous. Once Liz Toomes exited the car upon arrival, Toomes told her to give him a few minutes alone with Parker as he wished to give him the "dad talk." Once she left, he pulled a gun from the glove compartment and confronted Parker, asking him whether Liz was aware of his duality and sparing his life as gratitude for saving her life. He warned Parker to stop pursuing him or else he would kill him and everybody he loved. Despite Toomes' warning, Peter Parker refused to back down and, following a fight with the Shocker tracked Toomes back to his hideout with help from Ned Leeds and confronted him.

Later on, Spider-Man confronted Toomes in his lair and tries to justify his actions to Spider-Man, explaining that everything he had done was to support his family and claiming that the wealthy and powerful care nothing for the common people like themselves. When Spider-Man refused to listen again, Toomes summoned his Vulture Exo-Suit to break the support beams around his lair, trapping Spider-Man under a pile of rubble and leaving him to suffocate. With Parker seemingly being crushed to death as his hideout fell apart around him, Toomes stepped outside and donned his Vulture Wings which had been upgraded by the Tinkerer.

Vulture flew after and quickly caught up with and entered the last cargo plane leaving Stark Tower holding the equipment he planned to steal. Speaking to the Tinkerer during his flight, Vulture noted that the new Exo-Suit felt like it was dragging extra weight. Grabbing onto the side of the plane, Vulture cut himself inside using his gadgets and deployed a decoy drone to throw the plane's ground control, which Happy Hogan was monitoring, off his scent during the heist.

Entering the plane, Toomes discovered it was filled with even more than he could have hoped for, boxes of Chitauri weaponry, robotic parts of Ultron and well as various armors from the Iron Legion, all of which would be worth millions on the black market. Toomes began going through the boxes, throwing aside one of Iron Man's old helmets to get to the Chitauri Guns. While attempting to alter the plane's course and marveling at the Avengers' equipment, Vulture discovered that Spider-Man had survived their previous encounter, having broken out of the rubble and quietly followed him and was now attempting to knock his exo-suit off the plane.

#### Duel at Coney Island

Furious, Vulture fought against Spider-Man outside the plane, using his claws on his suit to try and scratch at Spider-Man. During the battle, Vulture destroyed one of the engines in the process causing the plane to lose control. Spider-Man had successfully managed to use his Web-Shooters to redirect the craft away from New York City, crash-landing it on the beach at Coney Island.

As Spider-Man slowly regained consciousness after the crash, he took his mask off and looked around at the rubble. Because the crash made his ears begin to ring loudly, Vulture was able to pounce at Spider-Man, who was caught off-guard. Vulture then picked Spider-Man up with his talons and slammed him into the ground repeatedly. He was ready to kill Spider-Man when he spotted a crate full of Arc Reactors. He dropped Spider-Man and grabbed the crate with his talons, and attempted to escape.

However, the radiation emitting from the Reactors caused the Chitauri Technology in the suit to short-circuit. Spider-Man tried to pull Vulture away from the arc reactors before the suit exploded, but he was too late and ignored his pleas to save him, over-driven by greed. His suit went up in a ball of flames. Just after Vulture crashed, Spider-Man ran into the debris and pulled him out alive. Powerless without his suit and weak from the explosion, Spider-Man was able to tie Vulture to a damaged car, where he was later found and arrested by Happy Hogan and the New York City Police Department.

## Members

### Former Members

#### **Vulture**

* **Name**: Adrian Toomes
* **Activity**: 2008 - 2012 (legally), 2012 - 2016 (illegally selling on the black market)
* **Description**: Adrian Toomes is the boss of the crew based inside New York City, who was forced to turn to a criminal lifestyle after his livelihood was usurped by the Department of Damage Control, a joint venture between the federal government and Tony Stark. Recruiting his co-workers and equipping himself with a flying exo-suit created from Chitauri technology he had stolen, Toomes took on the identity of **Vulture** and spent the next four years stealing advanced weaponry to sell on the black market. Toomes' activities were noticed by Spider-Man, forcing him to hunt down the young hero. During their final clash, Vulture's life was saved by Spider-Man and in turn, Toomes decided not to reveal Spider-Man's true identity to the other prison inmates.

#### **Shocker**

* **Name**: Herman Schultz
* **Activity**: 2008 - 2012 (legally), 2012 - 2016 (illegally selling on the black market)
* **Description**: Herman Schultz is a former salvage worker turned professional criminal and one of the key members of Adrian Toomes' crew who sold alien-human hybrid weaponry created by the Tinkerer. After Toomes killed his former crewmate Jackson Brice, who had used a modified gauntlet occasionally under the alias of **Shocker**, Toomes passed the gauntlet down to Schultz and appointed him as the new Shocker. With his new title and power, Schultz continued to assist Toomes in fighting off Spider-Man's many attempts to stop all their black market arms deals.

#### **Tinkerer**

* **Name**: Phineas Mason
* **Activity**: 2008 - 2012 (legally), 2012 - 2016 (illegally selling on the black market)
* **Description**: Phineas Mason is a former salvage worker turned professional criminal and the one who used Chitauri, Dark Elf and Ultron technology salvaged by Adrian Toomes to create powerful weaponry in order to sell them on the black market. Under the code name of **The Tinkerer**, Mason helped Toomes on stealing several weapons from the Department of Damage Control and Stark Industries until Toomes was defeated and brought to justice by Spider-Man.

#### **Randy Vale**

* **Name**: Randy Vale
* **Activity**: 2008 - 2012 (legally), 2012 - 2016 (illegally selling on the black market)
* **Description**: Randy Vale is a former salvage worker turned professional criminal and one of the key members of Adrian Toomes' crew who sold alien-human hybrid weaponry created by the Tinkerer.

### Deceased Members

#### **Shocker**

* **Name**: Jackson W. Brice
* **Activity**: 2008 - 2012 (legally), 2012 - 2016 (illegally selling on the black market)
* **Description**: Jackson Brice was a member of Adrian Toomes' criminal group who used modified weaponry, including a gauntlet, to showcase and sell alien-human hybrid weaponry under the alias of **Shocker**. After jeopardizing the group by recklessly and repeatedly firing a Ultron Blaster Gun publicly and threatening to expose Toomes' criminal lifestyle, he was killed by Toomes in retaliation.

## Equipment

*"I've got tons of other stuff. Black hole grenades, Chitauri rail gun..."*
―Jackson Brice to Aaron Davis[src]
* **Vulture's Exo-Suit**: A specialized flying mechanical suit used by the Vulture. It was created by Phineas Mason by using salvaged Chitauri technology and later be used by the Vulture for his criminal purposes.
* **Shocker's Gauntlet**: A mechanical gauntlet used by Jackson Brice and Herman Schultz under the alias of Shocker. Originally a discarded gauntlet from Crossbones' battlefield suit, Mason used it to salvage alien technology to modify them.
* **Anti-Gravity Climbers**: A weapon designed by Tinkerer and was attempted to be sold to Prowler.
* **Anti-Gravity Gun**: A weapon designed by Phineas Mason by combining salvaged Chitauri tech and Ultron remains with human mechanical engineering. It's capable of levitating heavy objects, the item was sold to several parties on the black market.
* **Black Hole Grenade**: A weapon mainly used by the Dark Elves that creates a miniature gravitational singularity. The black hole grenades left behind in London were retrieved by the Department of Damage Control and later stolen by Vulture, who had crew member Jackson Brice sell them on the black market.
* **Chitauri Blowtorch**: Powered by a Chitauri Energy Core and capable of slicing through steel and concrete, the item was sold to several parties on the black market.
* **Chitauri Gun**: A standard-issue weapon of the Chitauri troops that invaded Earth during the Battle of New York. The weapon was found by the crew within all the equipment they had salvaged, which consisted of primarily Chitauri metals and technology.
* Chitauri Rail Gun: It is a weapon created from chitauri energy cores and human engineering. It was the same weapon that Adrian Toomes used to destroy the Staten Island ferry.
* **Matter Phase Shifter**: An object of Chitauri origin that, after being modified and improved by Tinkerer, was used by Vulture to steal recovered artifacts from the Department of Damage Control without them being aware of the theft.
* **Ultron Blaster Gun**: A weapon created by Phineas Mason from an Ultron Sentry's arm following the Battle of Sokovia.

## Relationships

### Allies

* Mac Gargan - Potential Customer
* Aaron Davis/Prowler - Potential Customer
* Criminal Avengers - Customers

### Enemies

* Peter Parker/Spider-Man
* Damage Control - Business Opponent
	+ Anne Marie Hoag
* Stark Industries
	+ Tony Stark/Iron Man †
	+ Happy Hogan
* FBI

## Trivia

* In the comics, Adrian Toomes and his partner Gregory Bestman were the co-founders and owners of the tech company **Bestman and Toomes Electronics**, until Bestman betrayed him and took over as the sole owner of the company.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 *Spider-Man: Homecoming*

## External Links

* Bestman and Toomes Electronics on Marvel Database