According to legend, he was created because Stan Lee was afraid of what people would think of the young Spider-man beating up an old man like the Vulture. He eventually changed his mind. Introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #48 (1967), Raniero Drago, more commonly known as Blackie Drago, was the cellmate of Adrian Toomes. Blackie tricked Toomes to tell him where the Vulture suit was by having Toomes believe he was dying. Blackie eventually escaped prison and collected the suit and became the new Vulture. He eventually battled Spider-man and Kraven and was sent back to prison. He later worked together with Toomes and escaped prison but this was a trick by Toomes to prove he was a better Vulture. The two battled and Toomes won. Blackie gave up the suit and vowed never to wear it again and was shunted off to prison. There he would remain to this day, only making a cameo in the same prison as Norman Osborn during the Sinister Twelve arc.

And that’s pretty much it. While he is a short lived character, his time as Vulture is fondly remember and has influenced many other works. He was the main Vulture in the 60’s cartoon (from where that infamous “The Boys” meme came from) as well as influencing the Ultimate and M2C universes. But as important as he is, it was nearly impossible to think that any company would make him until Hasbro revealed that their Vulture figure will come with his head.

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