Tarantula (Anton Rodriguez): who is the poisoned-spur villain in Spider-Man Brand New Day?

When the first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day rolled, one name kept coming back on the forums: Tarantula. A villain with a lean silhouette and the movements of a deadly dancer, able to turn a simple kick into a death sentence. But behind that name lies a trap for the hasty fan. There are in fact two Tarantulas in the Spider-Man universe, and the one arriving in cinemas on 29 July 2026 in France is not the one many people imagine.

The film's Tarantula is Anton Miguel Rodriguez: a South American mercenary with poisoned spurs concealed in his boots, a methodical killer whose first-appearance cover, that of Amazing Spider-Man #134, has now been restaged by Marvel Studios as a nod to long-time readers. Nothing to do with Black Tarantula, the mob heir Carlos LaMuerto, an altogether different creature from the web-slinger's rogues' gallery. In this guide we finally untangle the two, we break down Anton Rodriguez's origins, weapons and psychology, and we explain what part he could play in Peter Parker's big-screen comeback.

Tarantula: a forgotten villain who finally arrives in live action

There are Spider-Man enemies everyone knows. The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom: those names resonate far beyond fan circles. And then there is the second tier, the adversaries who marked the comics pages of the 1970s and 1980s before slipping into semi-obscurity. Anton Rodriguez, alias Tarantula, belongs to that category. Created in 1974, he had never been given the honour of the big screen. Brand New Day puts that right and gives him, for the first time, a flesh-and-blood existence.

That choice is anything but random. By digging into so-called 'minor' villains, Marvel Studios is sending a clear signal to enthusiasts: this film will not simply recycle the headline faces already seen in Tom Holland's trilogy. It casts a wider, deeper net, into a catalogue of urban and criminal threats that fits perfectly with the more down-to-earth tone announced for this new era. Tarantula, with his blend of deadly elegance and brutality, embodies exactly this desire to refresh the bestiary. For a full overview of the gang of villains assembled in the film, our feature on the villains of Brand New Day breaks down every profile.

Don't get confused: Anton Rodriguez is not Black Tarantula

This is the point that confuses the most people, so let's set it out straight away, in black and white. The Spider-Man universe has two characters called Tarantula, and mixing them up means confusing two completely separate criminal worlds.

On one side there is Anton Miguel Rodriguez, the original Tarantula, a mercenary and former revolutionary from the fictional nation of Delvadia, in South America. His weapon: the poisoned spurs hidden in his boots. He, and he alone, is the one who appears in Brand New Day. On the other there is Carlos LaMuerto, known as Black Tarantula: a far more recent character, heir to a mystical criminal dynasty, with superhuman strength and the aura of an underworld boss. If you want to understand this second character and his mob inheritance in detail, we have devoted a full article to him here: Black Tarantula, an underrated mob heir. Just keep this simple rule in mind: poisoned boots and Delvadia = Anton Rodriguez (the film); criminal dynasty and brute strength = Carlos LaMuerto.

This confusion matters for SEO and for fan culture alike: on social media you regularly see Black Tarantula visuals illustrating articles about the film's villain, which is simply wrong. The costume, the powers, the backstory, the tone: everything differs. Remember the first name Anton, and you will never get it wrong again.

Who is Anton Miguel Rodriguez? The origins of a Delvadian revolutionary

To grasp the depth of the character, you have to go back to his roots. Anton Rodriguez was not born a criminal. He is originally presented as a freedom fighter, a revolutionary standing up against the dictatorship of Delvadia, a South American nation invented by Marvel. Where many Spider-Man villains are born of a scientific accident or a thirst for personal revenge, Tarantula has his origins in the slippery ground of politics and armed violence.

From freedom fighter to a killer who enjoys killing too much

This is where the whole tragedy of the character lies. Rodriguez began with a cause you might call noble: overthrowing an oppressive regime. But something broke along the way. He ended up developing a taste for murder, savouring the act of killing for its own sake, regardless of any ideal. His methods became so brutal that his own revolutionary allies disowned him. Rejected by his people and turned into an outcast, he then sold his killing skills to the highest bidder and became a mercenary.

This drift makes him a dark mirror of many themes dear to the web-slinger's world: responsibility, the tipping point, the way a goal that means to be just can rot from within. You find the same mechanism of corruption in other opponents of the hero; anyone who enjoys villain psychology will appreciate our analysis of the most powerful enemies of Spider-Man, where the weight of the past always bears down on the monsters of the present.

The Amazing Spider-Man #134 cover, restaged by Marvel

The nod that set fans buzzing comes down to one visual detail. Tarantula makes his first significant appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #134, a 1974 issue that remains famous for plenty of other reasons. And Marvel Studios appears to have replayed, or restaged, that iconic cover in the promotion for Brand New Day. To the trained eye, this graphic quotation is a statement of intent: the film owns its roots in the comics material of the 1970s, that period when Spider-Man was facing a New York criminal fauna far more grounded in reality than in the cosmic.

That kind of reference is precious, because it builds a bridge between long-standing readers and new viewers. Those who know the original page will see a tribute; the others will discover a new character. It is exactly the logic of continuity Marvel has always cultivated, as during the great narrative shake-up we recount in Brand New Day, the great reset that changed Peter Parker's life in the comics.

The poisoned spurs: Tarantula's signature weapon

You cannot talk about Tarantula without dwelling at length on what makes his trademark, his particular terror: his poisoned spurs. Unlike so many villains who rely on brute strength or energy beams, Anton Rodriguez cultivates a more insidious, more intimate threat.

A top-level fighter who specialises in kicks

Before even talking about poison, you have to understand that Tarantula is an exceptional human fighter. Remarkable agility, blistering speed, mastery of martial arts: Rodriguez has built his entire fighting style around leg techniques, around kicks. That is no accident. Every kick, every strike from the lower limbs becomes an opportunity to deploy his real weapon. Where a boxer looks for the knockout punch, Tarantula looks for the cut of the boot.

That specialisation makes him a remarkably striking opponent to stage on screen. Picture a choreography in which every leg combination threatens to fatally graze the web-slinger, where dodging is no longer a comfort option but a question of survival. Peter Parker's spider-sense will be called on more than ever to anticipate attacks where the slightest brush can be fatal.

Poison, an invisible, delayed threat

The retractable spurs housed in his boots do not just cut. They are coated with chemical compounds and serve a double function: a cutting weapon first, a toxin delivery system second. It is this second layer that makes Tarantula so dangerous. A superficial scratch, a fraction of a second of contact, and the poison begins its work. An opponent may seem to be holding on, then collapse a moment later, struck down by chemistry as much as by the blade.

This delayed dimension creates ideal dramatic tension. A hero can 'win' the physical exchange and lose all the same, poisoned without knowing it. For Spider-Man, whose stamina and healing factor are real but not infinite, such an opponent poses an unprecedented problem: how do you beat an enemy whose merest touch is lethal? This kind of chemical threat recalls other villains with a perverse biology, such as Mister Fear and his chemical terror, another specialist in substances that strike the body before the mind.

Tarantula in Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

Now to the question everyone is asking: what will Tarantula do in the film? Official information and analyses drawn from the first trailers allow us to sketch a likely portrait, even if Marvel is obviously keeping its trump cards hidden until release, set for 29 July 2026 in France and 31 July in the United States.

A likely appearance in the opening montage

According to the most widespread analyses, Tarantula would very probably be part of the film's opening montage. In other words, he would not be the central villain of the whole plot, but one of those adversaries Spider-Man faces during an introductory sequence meant to set the tone, to show a Peter Parker plunged once again into the daily life of the urban vigilante. That kind of appearance, without being a leading role, offers an ideal space for a visually strong character whose fight choreography alone is enough to make an impression.

There is nothing demeaning about that status. Plenty of cult villains have built their legend on a handful of intense scenes. A well-staged Tarantula in the opening minutes can instantly establish the credibility of the film's criminal threat, and remind us that in this new chapter, any New York night can turn into a deadly trap. To get ready for release and miss nothing, our guide how to be ready for the Spider-Man event of the year gathers all the essentials.

One villain among five major types of threat

What makes the villain casting of Brand New Day especially clever is its construction. The film officially brings together five major types of villain, five complementary threat archetypes rather than a simple pile-up of silhouettes. Tarantula embodies the agile, poisoning assassin, the precision killer. Around him orbit other profiles: the exoskeleton brute, the underworld godfather, the boomerang mercenary, organised crime.

This diversity guarantees that every confrontation plays out in a different register. Against Tarantula, Spider-Man does not fight the way he would fight Scorpion and his exoskeleton, played on screen by Michael Mando as Mac Gargan. Where Scorpion relies on mechanical power and a destructive tail, Tarantula plays on finesse, speed and poison. This clash of styles is precisely what makes a superhero film memorable: the variety of dangers forces the hero to reinvent himself from one fight to the next.

The godfather in the table, Tombstone, will be played by Marvin Jones III and embodies the New York underworld of which Tarantula could well be an instrument. To dig deeper into this chilling character, read our portrait of Tombstone, the ruthless godfather of the underworld.

Why Marvel chose to resurrect Tarantula

Choosing a villain as obscure as Anton Rodriguez raises a fair question: why him, rather than a more bankable threat? The answer comes in several layers which, once stacked, reveal a coherent strategy.

First, there is the question of tone. Brand New Day presents itself as a more grounded, more 'street' chapter, after the multiversal excesses of No Way Home. And Tarantula, a human mercenary with no cosmic power, fits perfectly with this wish to return to a neighbourhood Spider-Man, a hero who protects the pavement before saving the universe. A poison killer is a tangible, visceral threat that needs neither a dimensional portal nor a magic stone.

Next, there is the untapped visual potential. A character never adapted before is a blank page: no crushing comparison with a previous version, no fixed expectations. Marvel can reinvent him freely, give him fresh choreography, without the weight of past adaptations. Finally, there is the pleasure of intelligent fan service. By pulling a villain out of the archives and restaging his historic cover, the studio rewards the connoisseurs while presenting something new to the general public. It is a balance few franchises master so well.

Tarantula versus Spider-Man: a history of their clashes

In the comics, Tarantula has never been a permanent front-rank enemy, but his appearances have left their mark. His introduction in the 1970s placed him at the heart of New York stories where the line between vigilante and criminal blurs. Rodriguez crosses Spider-Man's path several times, sometimes as a direct adversary, sometimes as a pawn manipulated by powers greater than himself.

What makes these confrontations interesting is the physical contrast. Spider-Man is an acrobat, a web-slinger who dominates vertical space. Tarantula is a master of the ground, a combat dancer whose legs are weapons. Their duels become pure mobility contests, where whoever controls the tempo wins. The poison adds an invisible clock to every exchange: Peter cannot afford to let up for a second.

Over the decades the character has gone through sometimes tragic developments in Marvel's pages, notably painful transformations that heightened his dimension as a monster rather than a man. That downward trajectory, from revolutionary to monster, belongs to a long tradition of Spider-Man villains broken by their own choices. You find it, in other forms, in many of the figures we have explored, starting with those gathered in the famous collective known as the Sinister Six, where every member carries his share of downfall.

What the film could change for the character

A film adaptation is never a simple photocopy. It reinterprets, condenses, modernises. For Tarantula, several lines of development are plausible. The first concerns his geopolitical origin. With Delvadia being a fictional nation, the film could keep it as it is, replace it with a vaguer context, or on the contrary anchor it in a recognisable geopolitics to reinforce the character's 'realistic mercenary' dimension.

The second line touches on his costume and design. The comics version sports a very bold look, almost theatrical. Marvel Studios is used to reworking outfits to make them credible on screen while keeping a recognisable signature, exactly as the studio did for the hero himself with his new Fresh Start suit revealed for Brand New Day. So we can expect a reinterpreted Tarantula, more restrained, more functional, but whose poisoned spurs will remain the immediately readable signature.

Finally, there is the place poison will occupy in the story. Simply a weapon in a brawl, or a wider dramatic stake? A poisoned Spider-Man, racing against time to find an antidote, would offer tension worthy of the web-slinger's finest pages. Nothing is confirmed, but the potential is there, and it is precisely this kind of uncertainty that feeds the anticipation around the film, as shown by the record advance ticket sales already logged.

Tarantula, a sharp reminder of a rich criminal underworld

In the end, Anton Rodriguez's arrival in cinemas says something bigger than the character himself. It is a reminder that the Spider-Man universe does not come down to a handful of iconic supervillains, but rests on a teeming gallery of urban threats, each with its own mechanics, psychology and nuance. Tarantula, that elegant killer with poisoned spurs, embodies the underground richness that Brand New Day has chosen to bring back into the light.

Remember the essentials: the film's Tarantula is Anton Miguel Rodriguez, a mercenary from Delvadia whose boots hide spurs loaded with toxins, absolutely not to be confused with Black Tarantula, the mob heir Carlos LaMuerto. His original cover, that of Amazing Spider-Man #134, restaged by the studio, marks the return of a villain forgotten for far too long. It remains to be seen, from 29 July 2026, how the big screen will bring this deadly dance to life. While you wait for the verdict, dive into the rest of the villain line-up with our full feature on the villains of Brand New Day, and sharpen your spider-sense: the New York night has never been so dangerous.