CAPTAIN AMERICA
Gargan was hired to follow Agent Sharon Carter of S.H.I.E.L.D., but this lead to a confrontation with Captain America and was easily defeated. Teaming up with Mister Hyde they launched a campaign of attacks against S.H.I.E.L.D., including kidnapping Sharon Carter, but Falcon and Cap tracked them down and took them out.
JEWEL & JACKAL
When robbing a laundromat a young wannabe superhero named Jewel crash-landed on his head. This was enough to stun him so he could be apprehended.
Gargan was freed again and asked for help from the Jackal who sent him to Midtown Hospital in which Spider-Man's Aunt May was being cared for. Gargan went to the room but only found Peter and May, not realizing he was Spider-Man. He threatened them to tell him the location of Spider-Man. This angered Peter putting on his costume and ending the Scorpion rampage through the hospital. After his beat-down, Spider-Man forced him to apologize to Aunt May.
MS. MARVEL
A.I.M. had upgraded his suit enhancing his tail to expel acid. Gargan attempted to get revenge on the man who had caused the most misery in his life, J Jonah Jameson, but this lead to a confrontation with Ms. Marvel who was working at the Daily Bugle. After being treated by A.I.M. he escaped and sought revenge on Ms. Marvel but even though she was weakened, she was able to defeat the Scorpion.
Hiring out to Roxxon Oil, Gargan was given a new tail with heavily upgraded weaponry. Once again, he kidnapped J. Jonah Jameson but was eventually stopped by Spider-Man with the help of Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
For some reason, Scorpion went back to using his older costume. He tried to kill Jameson again when JJJ was on trial for defamation against Spider-Man.
SECRET WAR
Gargan was later among the technologically-based super-villains that were recruited by Lucia von Bardas to attack Nick Fury and a group of heroes who were involved in a Secret War in Latveria a year earlier. The hired mercenaries were each a component of a bomb designed to destroy the city. Fury and his team, however, were able to stop them and arrested them all including the Scorpion.
VENOM
Later on, Scorpion was recruited by Norman Osborn, informed of Spider-Man's secret identity, and ordered to kidnap Peter's Aunt May if anything should happen to Osborn. In the middle of his task Scorpion was approached by the recently freed Venom Symbiote. Seeking a new host that shared both its hatred of Spider-Man as well as the will and experience of a seasoned criminal, the symbiote bonded with the Scorpion, who initially rejected the offer, but was somehow convinced to accept and become the monstrous new Venom.
After an elaborate plan paid off and the Green Goblin was out of prison, the Goblin led Spider-Man and the Black Cat into a direct confrontation with the newly formed Sinister Twelve, which included the new, more powerful Venom among its ranks. Venom and the Twelve very nearly defeated Spider-Man before the Fantastic Four and a small faction of the Avengers headed by Captain America joined in, leading to the eventual defeat of the Twelve.
In the midst of the battle Osborn escaped, with the full intention to murder Peter's wife, Mary Jane. Spider-Man soon followed only to be stopped by Venom. The two foes continued to battle high above on New York's rooftops. After catching Gargan off balance Spider-Man dropped a condemned building on the new Venom, ending the battle. Venom was arrested and sent to Ryker's Island. He promised Spider-Man he would never reveal his identity, as that was his only leverage against him.
Gargan escaped Ryker's Island. He journeyed to Battleworld along with a ragtag group including the likes of Henry Pym, Gravity, the Hood, and others, in order to enter a contest of champions.
THUNDERBOLTS
Mac Gargan became a member of a subgroup of the Thunderbolts, which had been drafted by the Avengers to hunt down the members of the fugitive Secret Avengers and was run by the Commission on Superhuman Activities. He was outfitted with electrical implants by the government to keep the increasingly bloodthirsty symbiote in check. As a Thunderbolt, he was seen as a hero by the general public and had his own action figures. Gargan displayed his new raw power as Venom in a battle with Jack Flag. After pummeling Flag for a bit, the hero managed to stab Gargan with a piece of Swordsman's blade, but he was protected by his symbiote. Gargan became enraged and succumbed to the symbiote's bloodlust, ferociously attacking Flag, but before he could eat him his electrical implants kicked in and temporarily subdued him, allowing Flag to live.
After the battle, Gargan was visited by Osborn and expressed fear of the control the symbiote possessed over him, yet he had become addicted to the raw unearthly power it brought to him, and could not imagine life without it, similar to a drug addict. Later, during an attack from Steel Spider and Sepulchre, Gargan lost control again, but Moonstone was incapacitated and thus could not coordinatecontrol of his electrical implants. Gargan returned to a normal form with no ill effects, but lost control a second time and bit off and devoured Steel Spider's arm during a fight.
When Moonstone began threatening to sic him on unregistered heroes in order to get them to surrender, Gargan complained that the incident with the Steel Spider hadn't been him and that he wasn't a monster. However, Mindwave, Bluestreak and their crew of psychic heroes allowed themselves to be captured and caused Gargan to have a hallucination of the symbiote berating and threatening to eat him from the inside-out unless he fed it. Gargan snapped, and when Swordsman - manipulated by the psychics into taking up his father's legacy - bombed Thunderbolts mountain, Venom devoured a security team, declaring that "the only way out of Thunderbolts Mountain is when I decide to let you die". Venom went up against the Swordsman, who stabbed Gargan through the chest, using his powers to force the symbiote away from his sword. Gargan was wounded, but still alive due to the symbiote healing him. After healing, Gargan embraced the symbiote's bloodlust and retained his monstrous form, rarely returning to his usual size.
Gargan was later ordered by Norman Osborn to hunt down Namor. After shooting him with a Thunderbolts-supplied weapon, Gargan disabled Namor by ripping off his feet-wings. However, the Sub-Mariner managed to render Gargan unconscious and then ripped out the symbiote's tongue, although the symbiote easily made a new one.
NEW WAYS TO DIE
After the events of Brand New Day, Mac Gargan no longer possessed knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity. Gargan and the Thunderbolts were called back to New York to capture Spider-Man, and while on a search for the wall-crawler, Gargan's symbiote sensed a former host at the F.E.A.S.T. center. Gargan suspected that it was Spider-Man and attacked the place only to find Eddie Brock, the original Venom. The Venom symbiote attempted to leave Gargan to re-bond with Brock, much to Gargan's (and Brock's) dismay. However, upon making contact with Brock, its former host's skin was shown to be caustic to his former symbiote, and a white substance seeped out of his pores covering his body, transforming Brock into Anti-Venom.
VENOMIZED SCORPION
With some help from Spider-Man, Anti-Venom subdued Gargan and nearly destroyed the symbiote using his cleansing touch. Norman Osborn used a sample of the Anti-Venom's symbiote from Mac Gargan and created a poisonous counter to its healing powers by combining the sample with the immune system of Freak. Mac Gargan was injected with the "cure" and was given a new Scorpion battlesuit, which contained the poison, until the symbiote could recover. Anti-Venom tracked down Gargan at Oscorp. After a grueling battle, "Ven-orpion" injected the poison into Anti-Venom and seemingly killed the altered symbiote. He then attempted to kill Brock but the Venom symbiote stopped him, still caring for its former host. The symbiote regained its strength and destroyed the Scorpion suit. Gargan gave up but promised that he would get past this problem and would someday finish Brock.
SECRET INVASION
Gargan was seen being thrown from Thunderbolts Mountain by "Captain Marvel". Gargan was later seen with the other Thunderbolts in Washington. The Skrulls attempted to trick him into killing normal humans to find out which of them are Skrulls. Osborn attempted to prevent the symbiote from killing anyone by threatening to kill Mac Gargan and promising to help satisfy his "urges" later, only for Gargan to reveal that the threat he appeared to pose to civilians was a ruse in order to draw out a disguised Skrull. Venom played a huge part in fighting the Skrulls, using the symbiote to slash and eat them. He soon joined the Thunderbolts and the remaining heroes for the final battle against the Skrulls. During the battle, he was a force to be reckoned with.
Venom, along with most of the Thunderbolts team, attempted to kill his partner Songbird on the orders of Osborn. Facing Venom, Songbird was defeated and almost eaten by Venom, but escaped with help from the Swordsman.
DARK AVENGERS
Norman Osborn gave Venom a medication that reset the symbiote to the size it was when it originally possessed Spider-Man. However, the symbiote resumed its feral traits whenever Venom attacked an enemy. Osborn formed his Avengers, providing new identities to some of his former Thunderbolts. Norman introduced him as the Amazing Spider-Man in his new Avengers.
During the Dark Avengers first mission against Morgan le Fay, Morgan's magic affected Venom, causing him to lose and gain control of himself randomly. Venom bit Ares and fought Hawkeye (Bullseye). After Morgan was defeated, Hawkeye promised to kill Mac one day for trying to eat him while he was under Morgan's control.
Later, attempting to find out Norman Osborn's plans for his son, the real Spider-Man, with the aid of the Invisible Woman, managed to capture Gargan by using a sonic generator and took his place to infiltrate the Dark Avengers.
Mac defeated a bank robber called General Wolfram who he took to an abandoned rooftop and consumed his arm. He then took the money Wolfram stole and spent it on a stripper. After getting reprimanded by Norman Osborn for eating Wolfram's arm, Gargan killed the stripper and placed her dead body in J. Jonah Jameson's bed in order to frame him.
Venom and the Dark Avengers attacked Asgard on Norman Osborn's authority. He battled the Asgardians and the heroes who came to their aid. He soon realized that defeat and bitter retribution was inevitable and chose to enjoy himself by devouring Asgardians. He was soon confronted by Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel who ripped Gargan from his symbiote. Gargan and the Dark Avengers were arrested.
RETURNING AS THE SCORPION
Mac Gargan was sent to the Raft, where the Venom Symbiote was removed by the military. Gargan began to develop health problems without his Scorpion suit or the symbiote to keep the harmful effects of his genetic tampering from endangering his life. A disguised Alistaire Smythe was able to break him out and provide him with a new Scorpion suit that saved his life and explained his plans for them to work together with the other Spider-Slayers he had to get revenge on Mayor Jameson and his friends and family due to the fact they both suffered because of Jameson's past actions. In the following attacks the Slayers were defeated thanks to the intervention of Spider-Man and the New Avengers and both him and Alistaire were arrested, but not before Smythe was able to kill Jameson's wife Marla.
DYING WISH
In his last act of revenge, Otto Octavius used a mind-swapping Octobot to change bodies with Spider-Man, leaving Peter Parker in his dying body. As Doctor Octopus, Peter used an Octobot to send a message to Ock's allies to help him escape from the Raft. Scorpion, Hydro-Man and the Trapster heeded the call. Peter broke into the Stark Tower along Scorpion in order to find help in Tony Stark. Spider-Man settled a trap, waiting for them alone in the Tower and started fighting Octopus and his allies, when the Scorpion was about to kill Jameson, who was in a safe room along other friends and relatives of Peter, Otto had a flashback of how much Peter loved his Aunt May, and almost unconsciously, attacked Scorpion in order to protect her. Angered, Otto apparently killed Scorpion by breaking his jaw, the only unprotected part of his body.
Mac was revealed to have survived and was outfitted in a newer armor while an apparatus was made to replace his lower jaw. Along with the Boomerang and Vulture, Mac was incarcerated and treated in the Raft's infirmary. Alistair Smythe's mini Spider-Slayers healed and enhanced them, and the villain later gave them the offer to kill Spider-Man.
CONFRONTING SPIDER-MAN 2099
When the temporally-relocated Miguel O'Hara is roped into accompanying Tiberius Stone to sell Spider-Slayers to a foreign country, while investigating the Spider-Slayers after Stone is captured by local rebels, Miguel encounters the Scorpion, having been hired by Alchemax to further test the Spider-Slayers. Thinking that Miguel is the present Spider-Man in a new costume, the Scorpion attacks him with the aid of the Spider-Slayers, but Miguel manages to defeat him by using his holographic assistant to project the image of the present Spider-Man's costume over the Scorpion, causing the Spider-Slayers to attack him until he manages to turn them off.
A VENOMOUS REUNION
Becoming a part-time enforcer for Black Cat's criminal organization, Mac Gargan arranged a meeting with Lee Price, a discharged Army Ranger looking for work. Despite being disturbed by Price's callousness, Gargan hired him as muscle for an arms deal between Black Cat's gang and Tombstone's gang. The deal went badly, but Gargan's suspicions were aroused when Price was the only survivor and reports from spies Black Cat planted in the police force stated that some of the people were killed by something other than gunshots. When Price returned the merchandise the following day Gargan confronted him, and was made even more suspicious after sensing something familiar about Price, and Price referring to him as the Scorpion when Gargan hadn't disclosed his super villain identity. Black Cat dismissed Gargan's suspicions regarding Price; but after Adams, another member of Black Cat's Gang, informed him that Price's apartment had been blown up, Gargan decided to take matters into his own hands. Informed by Adams and Agent Coyle Bagman that Price was Venom, Gargan equipped his Scorpion armour with anti-symbiote weaponry when sent to accompany Price in intimidating a Daily Bugle reporter into dropping his exposé on Black Cat's organization. Gargan intended to kill both Price and the reporter and make it look like they killed each other, but the Venom symbiote emerged to protect its host and the ensuing battle between Venom and the Scorpion was live-streamed and posted online.
Spider-Man saw the fight online and came to stop it just in time to save Gargan from being cannibalized by Venom, who threw Gargan in Spider-Man's direction. Spider-Man was able to catch and save Gargan, who in turn shielded him from a car Venom threw at them. Coating his tail in flames and lunging at Venom, Gargan expressed the intent of taking the symbiote for himself. Due to Spider-Man's interference, Venom managed to escape while Gargan and Spider-Man argued, Gargan blaming Spider-Man for Venom's escape, saying he could have chased Venom if Spider-Man hadn't been "screwing around" saving civilians. Some time later, Gargan learned that the symbiote was in possession of Eddie Brock and attacked him intending to kill the symbiote for everything it made him do when he was bonded to it. Eddie was able to exploit Gargan's fear of it by sending it into his armor. After the symbiote destroyed his Scorpion armor from within, Gargan was knocked out by Eddie.
VENOM INC.
When Lee Price, in possession of the Mania symbiote and calling himself Maniac, invaded Black Cat's Club to overthrow her, Gargan and her other minions were infected by his symbiote, becoming part of his Inklings. The piece of the Maniac symbiote reactivated traces of the Venom symbiote within Gargan, transforming him into a monstrous form identical to his appearance as "Ven-orpion". Gargan was eventually freed from Maniac's control by the new Anti-Venom, Flash Thompson, who cleansed him despite his pleas to keep the symbiote.
SYMBIOTE TASK FORCE
Gargan later made a deal with the U.S. Government to be pulled out of prison and join their Symbiote Task Force as the host of the Venom symbiote's new spawn. After Agent Claire Dixon captured Venom to secure the spawn, Gargan attempted to knock Eddie out but was stopped by Spider-Woman, who rescued Eddie due to the symbiote having earlier convinced her that its spawn would only grow to be good if Brock helped raise it. An unhinged Scorpion then followed Venom to Alchemax Tower, where the symbiote was giving birth with Dr. Steve's assistance, and tried to claim the spawn; however, Claire Dixon intervened and knocked him out with an electrical shock before he could cause any more damage. He was subsequently sent back to jail. Breaking out of prison and reclaiming his old armor, Gargan was present at the Bar with No Name and disparaged the new Jack O'Lantern, Black Cat, and other supervillains' tales of having fought Venom during his supervillain and Lethal Protector days.
KRAVEN'S GREAT HUNT
Gargan teamed up with the son of Frederick Foswell to get revenge on J. Jonah Jameson and Spider-Man once more. While Foswell Jr. was arrested, Gargan managed to escape, but was then captured by Taskmaster and Black Ant, who were hired by Kraven the Hunter to capture animal-themed superhumans for a "Great Hunt". He was paired up with Vulture, Tarantula, Stegron, King Cobra, and Rhino as the Savage Six. When all the animal-themed superhumans were brought to Central Park, including Spider-Man, Gargan assumed Spider-Man had something to do with it and attacked him before they were all attacked by Kraven's Hunterbots. After the Great Hunt ended, Gargan was imprisoned with the rest of the Savage Six. Gargan, along with the Savage Six, later went after "Cage McKnight", who was making a movie featuring them.
ABSOLUTE CARNAGE
While attempting to rob an armored bank car, Gargan was attacked by another Spider-Man - Miles Morales. Their battle was interrupted by a horde of symbiote-doppelgängers sent by Cletus Kasady - who had been reanimated and bonded to a deific symbiote - to rip out his spine, which still contained traces of his symbiotes. Agreeing to a temporary truce, Gargan recognized the monsters as former Ravencroft inmates and fought to kill despite Spider-Man's admonitions. As Scorpion tried to flee, Venom arrived and threw him back into the fray - telling him to help save the young Spider-Man. Gargan was grabbed by the symbiote-infected Norman Osborn, who attempted to rip out his spine before being stopped by Spider-Man. Gargan asked Venom to save Miles, but they were too late as he was taken over by an offshoot of the new Carnage symbiote. Left a paraplegic, Gargan was later granted a job by the cured Norman Osborn at the Ravencroft Institute and outfitted with a high-tech wheelchair similar to the one formerly used by Alistaire Smythe.
VIRUS AND THE SYMBIOTE SCORPION
Blaming Venom for having ruined his life, Gargan spent all of his money on buying an old suit of War Machine Armor, vibro-shock gauntlets, an old Goblin Glider and Pumpkin Bombs, sonic emitters, and other weaponry from Tinkerer. Jury-rigging the suit for the sole purpose of killing Venom, Gargan painted it in mockery of his nemesis and dubbed his new persona "Virus".
As Virus, Gargan ambushed Eddie and managed to separate him from the Venom symbiote, all the while berating him for having ruined his life and vowing to make him suffer for it. Gargan nearly succeeded in killing Eddie by crushing his ribcage, but the Venom symbiote rescued its host and damaged Gargan's armor. Forced to retreat using his Goblin Glider, Gargan repaired his armor and followed Venom and Eddie's half-symbiote son Dylan Brock to a heavily-fortified warehouse owned by the Maker - an amoral incarnation of Reed Richards from Earth-1610.
Gargan fought his way through the Maker's defences and attacked Venom once more, almost revealing his identity when Venom demanded to know who he was and why he was attacking him. Gargan's wanton lobbing of Pumpkin Bombs destabilized the Maker's interdimensional portal machine, and when Venom and Dylan were sucked through Gargan willingly followed - vowing to hunt Venom down no matter where he went.
Gargan's armor allowed him to withstand the rigors of interdimensional travel, and by happenstance he arrived in the same universe that Venom and Dylan had - a version of Earth that had been conquered by symbiotes. Gargan immediately attacked Venom, whose symbiote connected to the symbiote hive-mind - unlocking new powers like the ability to manifest an arm-cannon capable of firing powerful energy beams. Despite his armor being damaged, Gargan continued to pursue Venom; earning the ire of the Avengers, who were in the process of trying to arrest Venom for his part in the fight.
While Venom took advantage of the distraction to escape with Dylan, Gargan unsuccessfully attempted to talk his way out of a fight. Overwhelmed by the Avengers, Gargan offered to surrender and be turned over to the police, but Captain America prepared to execute him instead. Angered by the loss of his quarry, Gargan attacked Captain America with his sonic emitters, revealing him to be a symbiote in humanoid form. Before Gargan could process what was occurring, he was brutally beaten by the Avengers and taken before their master, Codex. Stripped of his armor and interrogated by Codex, Gargan told him everything and was bonded to a new symbiote, returning to his former identity of the Scorpion. Gargan was able to track down the rebel group opposing Codex and attacked them. Fortunately, Venom was to stun Gargan long enough for Dylan to destroy his new symbiote. At first, Venom wanted to kill him, but Gargan explained to Eddie how he had ruined his life and Eddie decided to spare him in exchange for Gargan leading them to Codex.
